A reminder, based on today’s adventures in my own life–do not trust your memory. Write things down. You will forget.
Early in my research, I was unaware that my 3rd great-grandmother had two husbands with whom she had children and that I descended from her first marriage. There was a clue in their estate records. A big one. The 3rd great-grandmother and her husband died a few years apart and their estates were settled separately. The notice of “impending probate” listed more heirs for the 3rd-great-grandmother than the one did for her husband. A daughter and children of a deceased daughter were mentioned in her probate, but not in that of her husband. No heir or family member died between the death of the 3rd great-grandmother and her husband. At the time all heirs should have been notified. The fact that they had different heirs, technically “heirs-at-law,” was […]
A reminder: Don’t just grab the first record that seems to match the names of the individuals for whom you are looking and assume that it’s the “right people.” It may or may not be them. There can be husband and wife couples with the same or similar names living in the same country, state, county, parish, etc.–particularly if the names are relatively common. Those couples can be unrelated to each other, particularly if the geographic distance is significant. They couple be cousins of the couple of interest–which still means that you’ve got the “wrong people” just wrong people who are related. Records in the United States all indicate that my Irish immigrant forebears were in Canada by the mid-1860s and that they started having children by the […]
From a while back… While viewing a newspaper account of a relative’s accidental death in 1906, I noticed a reference to a woman’s murder in an adjacent county. She was shot by her husband. Somewhat curious, I decided to do a little “quick” online research into the woman and her husband. She was mentioned in quite a few online trees, but none referenced her short marriage to her husband or the circumstances of her death. It was easy to see in this case why nothing else had been located: The woman was born after 1880 and in 1900 was living with her parents. By 1910 she was dead. Her tombstone does not mention her husband’s name–just the names of her parents. The marriage records for the county where […]
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A distant cousin of mine used the name “Hobby.” I knew that his immigrant parents had likely actually named him “Habbe” and that “Hobby” was the spelling he used because that’s how his name sounded to an American ear. My first reference to a relative in the US was as “Jede.” I know that her name was most likely “Tjede” because that name was more common in her ethnic group and would have sounded like “Jede” (or perhaps “Chede”) to an untrained ear. If your ancestor has an atypical name and you are aware of their ethnic group or linguistic history, ask someone familiar with the language what the name could have been in their original tongue. That may help you to find them in records of the […]
Not every relative to whom you reach out will respond to your genealogy request. Some individuals maybe busy with immediate family concerns or unable to respond to your request for other reasons. Others, for a variety of reasons, may have no interest in their family history or any desire to communicate with family members. Accept this and work with those who are interested. Others may eventually come around or they may not. But that’s their decision.
A reminder… I’m working on a man named Andrew Trask who had a sons Edward and George and a daughter Harriet. There is a man named George living near where he did in the 1840s who can’t be his father, but that George had a daughter Harriet. That George had a brother Edward and a sister Harriet. There’s enough name “connection” to make me think that my Andrew probably has a connection to this family, but that name connection is not proof. Just a clue that I need to follow.
Don’t immediately assume that the child your ancestors adopted was not related to them in some way. Depending upon their ages and the ages of their own children, that child could actually be a grandchild. Others may have adopted a niece, nephew or other relative. Adoptions can impact the DNA matches of any descendant of the child who was adopted. If descendants of the adopted child are DNA matches for some descendants of that child’s adopted siblings, consider the possibility that the adoption was “in the family” in one way or another. Get Genealogy Tip of the Day–the book–for $17. Details about the book here.
I had quite a few relatives who homesteaded in Dawson County, Nebraska, in the 1880s. I have created maps that show the relative position of their homesteads. An uncle lived in the same county, but came a few years later and purchased his property from a landowner instead of homesteading it. I never bothered to see where his property was located. Turns out it was across the road from where his nephew homesteaded. Always map out those properties. Get Genealogy Tip of the Day–the book–for $17. Details about the book here.
Libraries, archives, historical societies, and other organizations that hold records sometimes have materials that have been uncatalogued and uninventoried. It takes time, patience, and skill to sort, organize, and track materials that have been donated. Even groups that have sorted and organized their materials may not submit them to online cataloging systems such as WorldCat. The only way to learn of the collection is to contact the organization directly. Some smaller societies may not even include such materials on their website. After you have read what a library, society, or archives has listed on their website, consider reaching out to ask them if they have materials in their collection that are not listed on their website or in their inventories. You might be surprised at what they have. […]
Obituaries for a husband and wife couple to whom I am related mention their children who died as infants. The obituaries do not state where the children’s births and deaths took place. And yet, there are online trees that use the obituary as a “source” for the location of where vital events in the infant child’s life took place. The obituary of the parents is a source for the name of the child, their relationship to the child, and the fact that they died at a young age well before their parents died. That’s it. Don’t attribute something to a record that is not stated in the record.
Genealogists often visit cemeteries, but sometimes it pays to go deeper. I’m not talking about digging up the body but instead determining if there are cemetery records, sexton’s records, or other similar materials that document who is buried in specific lots within the cemetery. Knowing who else is buried on the same set of graves as your ancestor could be helpful. Not every grave has a stone and not every stone is still extant. It is important to remember that not every cemetery has such records, particularly cemeteries that are no longer in use or rural ones that are smaller and may have only been used by a handful of families. Local historical or genealogical societies may be able to help determine who has records of the cemetery […]
Witnesses on documents are names that should not be ignored. However, one should not assume that witnesses are always relatives. Sometimes witnesses are other people were also in the office of the person who created the document that your ancestor signed. Witnesses who appear on multiple documents of your ancestor are more likely to have had an association or affiliation with your ancestor–potentially through biology or marriage. Of course that witness who appears only once could still be a relative and witnesses who have the same last name as your ancestor (or their spouse) should definitely be investigated. Just don’t assume that a witness has to be related. They don’t.
That stone with the “wrong last name” in your family’s cemetery plot could easily be a relative of which you are unaware. A recent visit to Kansas located the graves of a relative, his wife, and their two grown children. Buried near them was an infant with a last name I did not recognize. The infant was the child of the relative’s married daughter and had been buried in the grandparents’ cemetery plot. A few years later, the daughter and her husband left the area and are buried elsewhere. Never neglect those stones with “wrong names” in your ancestor’s set of graves. They very well could be relatives of whom you are unaware.
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