On a land record, a grantor is the person who sells the property. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
On a land record, a grantee is the person who purchases, acquires, or is otherwise receiving the property. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
On an old mortgage, the mortgagee is the person who is loaning the money. It might not always be a bank, it might be a family member, neighbor, etc. And could always be a clue as to a potential associate of your ancestor. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
When using a term in an old record–ask yourself if you are using the term and understanding the term in the legal context in which it was used and at the time in which it was used. Not everything is written from a 21st century perspective. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Are you using Civil War pension papers that cousin Ken got fifteen or twenty years ago? Did he get the complete set or just the “genealogically relevant” ones? The complete set may contain information not shown in the “relevant” pages. And if you’ve never heard of the “complete” set and didn’t know it existed, it’s time to do a little searching. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Think about all the different documents that list an age for your relative. Can you use those to reach any consensus about when the person was born? It is not easy, but can be done. Here is a link to several ages for an ancestor of mine and a chart I made to analyze his ages. Not the most professionally done chart, but it serves the purpose. http://www.rootdig.com/pensions/rileyrampley/rileysage.html We’ll be devoting a whole issue of Casefile Clues in the future to working with ages, but this should be enough to get “Tip of the Day” readers started. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Just remember a secondary source isn’t necessarily wrong. In 1907 a widow testified as to who the siblings of her husband were. Did she know they were her husband’s siblings because she had first hand knowledge of their parentage? No. She had been told. Did she have reason to doubt it? Probably not. Was she wrong? Not likely in this case. She was suing her husband’s family and they stood to inherit some property. If she had provided an incomplete list of heirs, someone would have noticed. It’s not 100% proof she was right, but any source needs to be kept in context. Secondary just means that she didn’t have first hand knowledge of who her husband’s siblings were. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the […]
There are many ways to search for things at http://books.google.com in an attempt to locate genealogical information.One approach is to try the names of an ancestral couple, either complete names or first and last names, using the maiden name for the wife. For example: Ufkes GrassJohann Ufkes Noentje Grass Tinsley DunawayEnoch Tinsley Nancy Dunaway Might be worth a shot. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
When viewing matches at http://books.google.com make certain to scroll down the hits and few a few pages as well. I found two different scans of a 1907 county book of biographies. One only had snippet views and the other had the complete book. Remember that it is always possible that Google has multiple scans of the same thing. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Try a search for the name of your ancestor and their spouse on Google Books http://books.google.com. You might be surprised at what you find. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
Don’t forget when at the Bureau of Land Management site http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch/ to search for land warrants issued in your ancestor’s name as well. Keep in mind that these warrants may have been issued as patents in state where you ancestor never lived, if he assigned them to someone else. Don’t search for warrants in the state where your ancestor lived. I just located two “new” War of 1812 ancestors who had warrants issued in states where they never lived. And if you don’t know what warrants and patents are, read the FAQ section of the BLM site. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
At the risk of oversimplifying, a “life estate” in property (generally a widow) is the right to use the property and receive income from the property during the person’s lifetime. They do not have the right to bequeath the property to someone or to sell it. Oftentimes a widow is given a “life estate” in a piece of property from her husband and in so doing, he specifies to whom it is to pass after her death. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If your ancestor was a landowning farmer and migrated from Point A to Point B, see from whom he purchased that first piece of property when he arrived in Point B. It might have been a relative or former associate, neighbor, etc. The owner of that property in Point B might have been looking to sell it and heard that his relative or former neighbor was thinking of moving. Worth a shot when you are stuck. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
If records at the county level have not brought about success, consider town/village level records or township or federal records. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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