When you locate that obituary or death notice for your ancestor, consider reading the entire thing–the newspaper that is. Reading an entire issue (or two) of a newspaper may give you some insight into the time in which your ancestor lived. At the very least you might learn about the weather and who knows what real details are waiting for you in those other pages. You might even get a historical clue that explains something else in your research. Don’t just copy the obituary and head back to your searching. See what other news is waiting for you in the paper. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Are you tracking your online searches as you perform them? Genealogists are not going to track every search they conduct online. People conduct simply too many to chart every search they perform. However, if you spend more than 5 minutes searching a census index for someone, it may be time to make a chart of the search terms and track the ways in which they are used. Otherwise you may be going in circles looking for someone and never even realize it. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
We have completed an updated listing of all back issues of my newsletter, Casefile Clues. Those lists can be viewed using the links below–they’re too long to post here: Year 1 and 2 Year 3 ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Sometimes “seeing” a clue is not about seeing at all. Do you ever read a document or record “out loud?” There are times when just saying something or hearing yourself say something makes a clue or piece of information “click.” Talking to yourself a little bit never hurts and it may cause you to realize things that were not so clear when you simply read them silently. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Vital records are usually recorded where the event took place. A child might not have been born where the couple “lived,” they might have been born somewhere a slight distance away, perhaps while the mother was staying with relatives in a neighboring town. A couple might have traveled fifty miles to elope and marry in a different state. A person may die in a hospital in a neighboring town or while a thousand miles away on a trip. That death will be recorded where the death took place, not the person’s residence. Where were they when it happened? ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
When transcribing handwritten documents, make certain that any comments, interpretations, etc. that you make are clearly indicated in brackets. It is preferable that these comments be placed after the actual transcription itself. You don’t want to compound any potential errors by creating the chance that someone thinks your comment was a part of the original document. Words that you cannot read, or are partially readable can be indicated as such by [—] or [Gra—]. And always go back and re-read things you transcribed twenty years ago. Any chance you made a mistake? ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Have you thought about how you will handle those family skeletons that you will eventually uncover? Give some thought to it before simply posting the entire story as a blog post or putting it in a public tree. Of course how you handle something from 1960 is different from something that took place in 1760. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If you ordered genealogy webinars from me and your download link expired: email me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com forward me the receipt for the product you were unable to download in time. Links to download do expire in 24 hours–that’s to balance traffic on the server and to prevent fraudulent downloads. It’s no problem to reactivate your download links–at no charge, you just have to let me know. And if you’d like to purchase webinars, there’s a complete list here: http://rootdig.blogspot.com/2012/08/updated-list-of-genealogy-webinars.html ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If you locate a record or a relative sends you a copy of a record, do you: know what the record actually is? know why it was created? know whether you have the “whole thing?” have a citation for it? Determining those things may create new opportunities and reduce “brick walls.” ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
I have a relative, born in Canada in the 1820s who for some reason moved to southern Missouri in the 1850s. It seems a little unusual to me and, at this point, I do not know the reason why he moved. What I do have a reason for is why I know it is the same man (his name, year and place of birth and the names of his children all match). If you don’t have the reason for why your ancestor did something a little unusual, try and make certain you have good reason for believing it is the same person. Maybe the reason it seems like you have the “wrong person” is because you do. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If you need a list of churches, try a city directory. They often have lists of churches grouped by type of denomination. Addresses and names of ministers may also be listed which may help in determining which church your ancestor attended. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
For years, Ellen Sargent was one of my “brick wall” ancestors. Her 1880 census enumeration indicated she was born in Missouri with parents who were born in Michigan. After a while, I simply concluded that her 1880 enumeration was wrong and that instead of Michigan the place of birth had to have been somewhere else. I decided to completely ignore her 1880 enumeration and work from scratch. Funny thing is–her 1880 enumeration was just about right. Her parents were probably not born in Michigan, but spent at least ten or fifteen years there, shortly before Ellen was born in Missouri. Those enumerations may be wrong or they may be closer to correct than you think. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Is there a relative who never had any children of their own, had no siblings and died owning enough property to require a probate or an estate settlement? If so, the records of that settlement may be particularly interesting. The deceased person’s heirs-at-law typically would have been their first cousins or their first cousin’s descendants. Even if there was a will, these heirs-at-law typically would have had to have been notified of the probate. Those records could help determine relationships and indicate where people were living at the time the relative died. These estate or probate records would typically be filed at the local court level. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
When a person has never heard a last name said aloud, it can be difficult to get that “first way of saying it” out of your head, even if it is not right. This can be problematic if the way you “hear it” is not really close to how people with the last name actually said it. I’ve been working on the Liddell family lately–which often gets said and written as “Little.” Of course the “L” gets read as an “S” sometimes as well, but that’s a discussion for another tip. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Are you trying too hard to make things fit when they actually don’t? Are people that you think are the same really two different people? Is one entry in a record a mistake which is the reason why it is inconsistent with other records? Are you insisting that every document you discover be completely accurate agree with everything else? And are you willing to admit when you are incorrect? It may rarely happen, but occasionally…. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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