Your great-great-grandparents probably have other descendants besides you. They may easily have several hundred descendants. Any of those individuals could have the family bible, pictures, or other items of genealogical interest. Don’t just look to your immediate family for this information. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
My webinar “Researching Female Ancestors” was recorded today. In giving the presentation live, a few ideas for my own research crossed my mind as well. This presentation discusses approaches and techniques for determining an ancestor’s maiden name and locating “missing” females. Geared towards the advanced beginner or intermediate researcher, it focuses on American records and sources. The content is not specific to any one time period and many of the approaches can be refined for different locations or types of records. If you are stymied on your female ancestors–and half your ancestors are female–consider purchasing the webinar (and handout) at the introductory price of $6. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
The appraisers of an estate cannot have a direct interest in the estate they are appraising. This eliminates heirs and creditors of the deceased. What this means is that children cannot be appraisers, but other relatives can be–as long as the deceased did not owe them money. It is possible that relatives of the widow were appraisers. Or they just could be neighbors. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If you think your ancestor was dropped off by a UFO, look closely at those people with whom he associated in the first records you have found him in. Who did he first buy land from, if that’s the earliest thing you have? Who witnessed his marriage, if that’s the first record? Often (but not always), others on these “first records” knew the ancestor in the previous area of residence. There may be clues in those other names–research them as well. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
When interpreting information on a document, think about who created it and why it was created. Those reasons impact how accurate the information is. Taking every document at face value may eventually leave you with genealogy egg on your face. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
March 2012 Fundamental WebinarsRescheduled due to illness–see new dates below Our fundamental webinars are each approximately 20 minutes in length. These short session are geared for beginner or somewhat experienced beginners who would like to learn more about the following topics. Each presentation includes the 20 minute or so presentation and the handouts. Downloads of previous fundamental webinars can be ordered here. Quick Google Ideas—this is geared towards the advanced beginner to intermediate genealogist as all the fundamental webinars. Our focus will be on searching, what to search for and how to search for it. Runs on 13 April 2012 at 2:30 PM Central. Register for $2. · Organizing Census Searches—querying census databases to locate hard-to-find ancestors is necessary. Organizing the search is necessary as well. Through three quick examples, get ideas […]
In the early 1860s, Elizabeth Freund was appointed adminstratrix of her husband’s estate. There was no will. Yet in every other reference to Elizabeth throughout the estate papers, she is called the executor. Repeatedly. Numerous times. Yet she was not the executor of his estate as there was no will. It is likely that the attorney for the estate or the clerk incorrectly referred to her as the executor in one of the earlier documents and the mistake simply got repeated over and over. Sometimes mistakes are mistakes. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Before the time when death certificates list cause of death, it can be difficult if not impossible to determine how an ancestor died. Is it possible that there are clues in your ancestor’s estate settlement to his or her final illness? The probate of Paul Freund in Davenport, Iowa, in the early 1860s indicates that several prescriptions were purchased from a local druggist in the month before he died. These are all listed by prescription numbers, except for one–juniper berries, which were purchased the day before he died. How much of a clue it is his case is not known, but it’s made me go back and look at a few other estate settlements to see if types of drugs are listed in the final set of bills […]
If there was a court case after a relative died, make certain you have looked up every name of every heir in the court indexes. The estate being settled might be the estate of John Smith, but it could easily be that son-in-law Gideon Johnson is the lead plaintiff in the court case and grandson Barton Hanson is the lead defendant. Because of this Smith’s estate fight will probably be in the plaintiffs’ index under Gideon Johnson and in the defendants’ index under Barton Hanson. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Do not assume something that looks incorrect is. It may be right. The image that is a part of this post comes from a marriage record in Union County, Iowa, that indicates the bride Emma Pollard was getting married for the fifth time. The temptation might be that somehow this is incorrect–it does seem high. Turns out it was correct and this marriage from 1883 was her fifth. Don’t assume what looks wrong is. Sometimes it is correct. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Did your ancestor have a spouse to whom they were married for only a short time (perhaps because the spouse died young) and had no children? Have you completely researched the family of this spouse? Often the temptation is to perform little research on this “short-term” spouses, particularly when there was no issue of the marriage. There could still be clues in the choice of this marriage partner. They could have known each other overseas, “back East,” or had mutual acquaintances–all of which could be clues to tracing your actual ancestor. Just because no one descends from the “short-lived” spouse does not mean they should not be researched just as thoroughly as the spouse from which you descend. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day […]
We’ve just uploaded our 25th webinar to our site with recorded copies for download. Today use coupon code twenty5 and save 25% on your order. Code expires at midnight central time (10 PM Pacific) The list is here: http://www.casefileclues.com/webinars.htm ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Deeds in states that used metes and bounds description of property (generally the US colonies and those states that bordered them) often include the names of neighbors in the property lines. These descriptions describe the property lines using angles and measurements and frequently indicate whose property shares that line. While researchers may not necessarily want to plat out the properties, those names of neighbors can be helpful. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
While preparing for an upcoming conference, I fired off a response to an email–answering the question the way it “usually” was answered for most conferences. The problem was that this conference was difference and my mistake was in reliance upon my memory. Is there a piece of information an ancestor provided on a document that might have been solely from his memory, given “off the cuff?” And perhaps his or her error was a very honest one, not given to deceive or confuse, but merely done so quickly “off the top of his head.” And 100 years later, his descendant analyzes it do death when it was originally a very simple error. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
We’ve added one new webinar to our March 2012 series–and we’re really excited about it. Our new session is “Searching on Fold3.com.” This website (fee-based) offers a variety of military records from the United States. Fold3 has a large amount of material from the Revolutionary War and also includes digital images of National Archives microfilmed material from later United States conflicts as well. You can check out the information on Fold3 by browsing their website. Our Fold3 webinar is on 6 March 2012 at 1:30 PM central time. Visit our webinar registration page for more details and registration links. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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