While there are aspects of genealogical research that are the same across time periods, certain things are different. Different time periods and locations require different approaches despite what some “experts” may think. Researching a European immigrant ancestor to an urban area in the late 1800s is different from researching an immigrant to upstate New York in the early 1700s. If you are approaching both problems the same way, that might be adding to the confusion. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Discuss your genealogical problem with someone else with an interest in genealogy. They might have a different idea, see a hole in your research, or know of someone else who might be able to help. And sometimes just discussing something makes new ideas and errors easier to see than they were before. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If you don’t know when someone died, have you gone through every document on them in order to determine the last date they were listed as alive? It might be when they witnessed a document, appeared in a biography, wrote their will, signed a bond, etc. Any one of a number of records might tell you “how late you can go?” ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
When someone gives you advice, make certain it is applicable to where you are actually researching and the time period in which you need. Recently a poster to a mailing list made generalizations about a certain type of record. What he said is true about New England, but it’s not true about points west of the Northwest Territory. Consequently if I were researching in Kansas and used his approach, I would be confused. The problem is that some people don’t know their knowledge only applies in certain places or are unwilling to admit that they don’t know everything. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Widows of the War of 1812 were allowed to apply for bounty land in the 1850s, but not a pension until much later. If your veteran survived until the 1870s, he might have applied for a pension. Two bounty land acts in the 1850s gave most veterans a total of 160 acres and their widows during that era, if they were married long enough. I’ve been working on a bounty land application for a Kentucky widow in the 1850s whose husband served. The actual property was patented in Iowa and Illinois by men who purchased the warrant from the widow after it had been issued. Casefile Clues subscribers will see the bounty application in issue 51. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Remember when entering your place names to spell the names of standard locations correctly. Names of towns may change and may have occasionally an alternate spelling, but for counties, try and get them correct as there often are not multiple versions. There are plenty of online atlases and maps that can help you out with this…remember: It is Culpeper, not Culpepper; Fauquier, not Fauquire; and Harford (MD), not Hartford. If your spellings of standard locations are incorrect, some may wonder about other details you have in your records. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
The majority of times (especially when transportation was limited), marriage partners came from church neighbors others in same social class same ethnic/cultural group While there are always exceptions, the majority of times husbands and wives shared some of these characteristics. Keep this in mind when trying to locate spouses and marriage records of family members. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Never correct a document when transcribing it. If you must, make an annotation separately, clearly indicating it is your annotation and not a part of the original. Don’t add to the confusion. What you think is wrong may be right. If you have the urge to correct errors there are better places to do it. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Remember that state statutes dictate how inheritances work, particularly when a person dies without descendants of their own. What happened in 1920 might not be what happened in 1820 even if your family lived in the exact same location. Reading up on state statute, or asking someone with more experience with the records may be in order. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Research in the early days of settlement of any area is difficult. Mainly this is because fewer records were kept people were more mobile people were concerned with SURVIVING, not leaving a record behind of their existence As a result, frontier research requires more analysis than later research, more patience, and that the researcher locate just about everything they can get their hands on. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Just remember, no series of documents is perfect. People die without death certificates, individuals are omitted from the census, records get filed incorrectly. And some records have more problems with accuracy than others. Keep this in mind when using any series of records. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Before hiring anyone to do any research for you, make certain you have thoroughly reviewed and organized what information you have. You may find you already have the answer or realize where you need to go without hiring someone. And if you do hire someone, they’ll want your material organized anyway. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Is there a family or a problem you “solved” a while ago? Have you looked at it since? Is it possible that you were wrong, your research was incomplete, or you were just in “la-la-land” when you reached your conclusion? Keep in mind that everyone is wrong once in a while. A distant relative made me go back and re-visit some research I did years ago and while I’m not 100% certain what’s “right” yet, there are some holes in what I did. It doesn’t hurt to occasionally go back and review what you thought was “done.” My review of my problem will appear in an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues. Bits and pieces of the research may appear as a tip, but the whole thing is far […]
There’s still time to attend the Cleveland County (OK) Genealogical Seminar that I will be presenting in Norman this weekend on Saturday the 24th. I’ll be talking on: Court Records Using Probate Manuals and Guides to enhance your research Organizing Your Research and more There is more information on the society’s website.http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~okccogs/workshops-seminars/summerseminar.htm Feel free to forward information to other lists and those in the area who may be interested. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Records will not be entirely 100% consistent. This is particularly true for records that provide “extremely secondary information” (eg. places of birth for parents on their child’s death certificate when the child dies at the age of 80). One must aim for relative consistency and when there are discrepancies, try and find an explanation for them. In the case of birthplaces, it often is because the family lived there for a time, the boundaries were changing, etc. Or the informant was clueless and just made it up. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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