When analyzing a record or set of materials that does not make sense, get away from what you “want to prove” and try to think “what do these documents really say?” You may find that they do not say what you think they do. And not every record says what we want or expect it to say. Sometimes our preconceived notions are what is getting in the way.
I still have room in both of my group research trips this summer. Our trip does not include a bunch of non-genealogy activities and our registration fees are low. Time away devoted just to research can be a great way to get your genealogy research started. Additional details are on our announcement pages: Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana Family History Library in Salt Lake City
Sometimes it can be difficult to get an interviewee to remember when an event precisely took place. And it does not always matter. Instead of focusing on dates, ask what was going on at the time. If the event was a marriage or funeral, ask if they attended the event and who do they remember being there. What time of the year was it? Did snow at the cemetery make getting there difficult? See if they can put the event in the chronology of other events in the family (moves, graduations, marriages, divorces, etc.). Ask if the event took place before or after a well-known historical event. Don’t focus on the date of the event when talking to someone. Focus instead on what went on at the event, […]
Genealogists love to make charts and lists. If you have family members who were members of a religious denomination that practiced the rite of confirmation, have you thought about where your various ancestors were confirmed? This rite often takes place in the early teenage years. It can be a way to think about where your ancestor was living when they became a young adult. Not all denominations practiced confirmation, but if your ancestor’s church did, determining where this rite took place could help you fill in some blanks in your ancestors’ lives.
No matter what they tell you, no website lasts forever. Don’t expect a genealogy website to host your information until the end of time. Never put all your genealogy eggs in one basket.
From a while back… The key word here is “may.” Widows in pension cases sometimes had difficulty proving their marriage to the veteran. Sometimes the only witnesses to the wedding would be relatives who had lived near them for their entire lives. Sometimes the witnesses would be children of the marriage who could testify to their age and use that as an approximation of when the veteran and the widow married. Look at how long the witness has known the widow in a pension application. Does it suggest that there might be a relationship?
The grandson pointed to the toy and said he wanted me to draw something. I could not figure out what he wanted and decided to draw a cartoon character he likes instead. What I drew does not look like the character and it certainly does not look like a tractor. Did your ancestor not understand what the census taker was asking? Did the census taker do their best to write what your ancestor said, but their attempt to spell and interpret the name was highly inadequate? Good intentions or not, it is easy to see how it happens. The grandson wanted a picture of a tractor. That’s how a tractor came to look like a very rudimentary dog. It’s also how Ulfert Behrens got his name spelled Woolpert […]
Upon occasion death certificates are corrected or amended. Typically these are filed directly after the original certificate. When viewing entire sets of death certificates online if you have the ability to browse, make certain to look at the certificate before and after the one of interest in case an amended one was filed.
Your terminology reminder is: A Grantor is the person who is transferring their ownership interest in a piece of real property to someone else. The grantee is the person to whom the ownership in a piece of real property is being transferred.
Always review a marriage record completely to determine if the precise location of the marriage is given. Records may just list the county or the township, but sometimes the precise location of the marriage–a specific parsonage or residence–is listed. That residence is a big clue. People typically do not go to a complete stranger’s home to get married. If they do, make certain that the stranger is not the same person who married them.
There are a few newspapers relevant to one of my ancestral struggles that have not been digitized. They are on microfilm, but there are too many for me to go through the entire set, issue by issue, for eighty years–which is how long the people of interest lived there. I will not just run to the library that has them and start searching. I will make a list of the possible events that might have warranted mention of my relatives in the newspaper. Included on that list are: Vital events in their lives (birth, marriage, and death). Dates of other events that might have been mentioned in the newspaper, such as: arrests, land transactions, court actions, anniversaries, etc. Events mentioned in other digitally indexed newspapers that might have […]
For some of us, it can be difficult to stay focused on one aspect of a genealogy research problem. Rabbit holes may be fun diversions, but many times they don’t garner us any more information that we already had and far-afield research does not often pan out with helpful clues. If I find myself getting distracted, I stop and do a non-genealogy task. Most genealogists have plenty of those that are left undone. Another approach is to focus on small things when possible and to keep a list of what you have done and whether it was successful or not (a research log). What do you do to help you stay focused on one specific person or family instead of getting diverted with other individuals whose names you […]
There is a Henry Smith Sr. and a Henry Smith Jr. in the same location and place. Do not assume they are father and son–one may simply have been older than the other and the “Sr.” and “Jr.” designations had more to do with relative age than with being relatives. They could have been related more distantly than father and son or not even related at all. Do not assume that if a man named James Rampley had a son named James that the son James is the oldest son of James the father. It does not have to be. I have two ancestors named James Rampley who both had sons named James and neither of the sons were the oldest ones.
From a while back… The last record I have for an ancestor is their enumeration in the 1830 census. Years ago I entered “died after 1830” as their date of death. The more I got to thinking about it, the more I realized that the ancestor died after the 1830 census enumeration was taken in the area where they were believed to have been living. And they could have died in 1830–just after the enumeration was taken and before the year ended. Probably the better approach for me to take is to indicate that the last record I have for that ancestor is their 1830 census enumeration. It’s possible that they were overlooked in 1840 or hidden in one of those unnamed tick marks in that enumeration. One […]
From a while back–a good reminder about “probably.” My relative’s tombstone in a Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois, cemetery indicated that she died in 1877. The place of death is not given and I’m not certain where she died–at least not exactly. I do have a fairly good hunch as to where she died–at least as far as the name of the township. I probably know where she died. Based on the tombstone (and the death record at the church), I have the date of death. But I need to exercise some care when I comment somewhere about her place of death. Died in 1877 probably in Walker Township, Hancock County, Illinois. Probably died in 1877 in Walker Township, Hancock County, Illinois. I use the first suggestion and put […]
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