A relative was married for ten days when he died in 1918. His widow never remarried and lived until the 1950s. She’s enumerated in the 1920-1950 census with her married name–except for one time when she was listed with her maiden name. I’m not exactly certain why. It’s likely because in that enumeration she is living with relatives whose last name is her maiden name. It’s easy to see how the error could be made. It’s also important to remember that sometimes a mistake is simply a mistake.
Just because the spot for the months on his age is blank does not mean that Henry Dorges was 18 years and 0 months old when this declaration was signed. He could have not provided his age with more precision than 18. He might have simply guessed at his age. It’s hard to say, but saying that this declaration was made on his birthday is a bit of a stretch. What is safe to say is that Henry indicated he was 18 when he signed the declaration. Whether that age was correct, accidentally wrong, or an outright lie is another matter. The year of the declaration is not included in the portion of it used to illustrate this post. There’s the second tip–screenshots and clipped versions of record […]
The reality is that there is no trick or instant solution to genealogical research problems. However, generally speaking the following approaches are helpful: Not one trick and not a guarantee, but these general suggestions will go a long way.
For years, I’ve worked on documenting those aunts and uncles who had no children of their own. These ancestral siblings are sometimes ignored in favor of the ones who married, had children, and have descendants living today. That’s usually because at least one descendant is actively researching them. But those who never grew to adulthood or who didn’t reproduce should be remembered just as much as the ones who did. I’ve decided to expand that project a little bit to include more work on those who had children, but who have no living descendants. I have one uncle who died in Illinois in 1906 and was the father of seven children. Five of those children died in a ten-year time span in the 1800s. The two children who […]
If your ancestors immigrated to a new country or even just moved to a new state, did they have children they left behind in the old country or the state in which they used to live? If your migrant ancestor had grown children, it’s possible that those children decided to stay behind when your ancestor moved to a new location. That’s more likely to be true if the child is married and had children of their own at the time. Your ancestor may have just taken their younger children with them when they moved. Older ones may have elected to stay behind.
Sometimes people just get confused. The obituary for a relative listed her mother’s maiden name. The name in parenthesis was not the name the mother was born with. It was the name of the mother’s second husband-after the relative’s parents were divorced. Wrong names are still wrong. They just may be relevant in ways that we don’t expect. When you discover that a name is “wrong,” keep it in your notes. It may turn out to mean something later.
There’s several ways to organize your research process. Different ones work for different people. Some of us use a modified version of Polya’s 4-step problem-solving process: Problems need to be stated clearly and succinctly (usually involving one person and one key event in their life). Understanding involves knowing all relevant terms, how to access all records in all jurisdictions, etc. That’s not always an easy task, but it’s key to the entire process. Planning what to do comes next, Executing the plan (and tracking it) follows before the evaluation. And then you go back to understanding–because either you solved the problem or you have more problems to solve. Those with an interest in Polya (he was a mathematician) can read his book “How to Solve It” which focuses […]
Wm. Smith, Jas. Rampley, Saml. Neill, Geo. Trautvetter, and Edw. Tinsley attended the annual meeting of the “They Abbreviated My Name Society.” Meeting in a nearby venue were B. Dirks, T. Rampley, H. Sartorius, and F. Goldenstein attending the annual meeting of “Initials are Better.” Your ancestor may never have used an abbreviation for his name or just his initial, but a newspaper reference to him may have. When searching digital newspapers for your ancestor, think of how their name may have been abbreviated and search for that as well. Typesetters, editors, or writers, in an attempt to squeeze the most information in the least amount of space, may have abbreviated your ancestor’s name or just used an initial figuring that most people reading the newspaper would know […]
Funeral home records can be hit and miss in terms of availability. Also, as private business records, they do not have to be shared with the public. However, it does not hurt to ask. One thing to inquire about if asking about what information the funeral home has is if they can tell you who paid the funeral bill for that ancestor. You certainly want to ask if they have information that was used to compile the obituary and death certificate, but who paid can be a big clue as well.
If you have a relative who is not buried in the same cemetery as their spouse, have you made some note about it in your genealogy files? Having the cemetery location in your database correctly is a great first step, but in your notes acknowledge the difference. Do you know why they are buried in separate cemeteries? Was it because the spouses died in significantly different locations and burial in the same cemetery was simply impractical at the time or beyond the family’s financial means? Was it because after the first spouse died, the surviving spouse married again and is married with that spouse? Was the couple still married and simply chose to be buried in separate locations due to marital discord? Was the couple actually divorced and […]
When you have unusual names in your background (Rampley is unusual and it’s my great-grandma’s maiden name), it can be tempting to think that when someone with that last name is a DNA match to you that the connection has to be through that family. That may not necessarily be true. It probably is, but it’s not a 100% guarantee. I haven’t figured out the connection with this person (they don’t have a tree). We have approximately 50 shared matches and the 6 that I have figured out are connected to me through my Rampley line or the DeMoss family (the wife of one of my Rampley ancestors). Based on those DNA connections, this DNA match and I likely share ancestry in Harford County, Maryland (where my 3rd […]
In reviewing research on my Irish immigrants, I realized that somewhere along the line, I made an incorrect conclusion. I “got it in my head” that the bondsman on the 1865 marriage of my ancestors appeared as the bondsman on numerous bonds and probably was not a relative for that reason. When I went back and reviewed the records, the bondsman was a bondsman on only one bond: the one for my ancestors. All of which means that I need to research the bondsman more fully to determine if he had any relationship to my ancestors. Lessons:
We’ve released the recording of my DeedMapper 2025 webinar. Details are on our announcement page. If you pre-ordered and did not get your download link, email me at the address listed on your receipt to have a replacement link sent.
One of the reasons newspapers are valuable resources for genealogists is because they are hard to “close” once they have been published. Court cases may be sealed, but a newspaper reference to that court case is “out” forever. A birth certificate may be sealed if there is an adoption, but if the baby’s birth was in the local newspaper–it is still there. If there’s a record you cannot access, ask yourself what you are trying to find out or discover and are there other records that may provide that same information?
A relative died in rural Kansas in 1945. The obituary mentioned the funeral home. I didn’t think the home would still be in existence today under the same name and it wasn’t. However a web search for the name indicated the 1945-era home was mentioned in the history of a home currently in operation today. I reached out to them to see what records they have. Funeral home records are private records, so I may not get a reply and the home today is under no obligation to give me any information from the records. However, it is worth a try. Politely asking about the records is the way to approach this–that and keeping my genealogy fingers crossed.
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