When searching the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) General Land Office (GLO) records database of federal land patents for warrantees, remember that the warrant is geographically tagged to the location where the patented property was located, not necessarily to where the warrantee was living. If the warrantee assigned the patent to someone else, the warrantee likely did not move to the area where the property was located. Your War of 1812 ancestor who never left Kentucky may have received a land warrant that he eventually assigned to someone who settled in Iowa. The resulting patent (which is on the BLM GLO site) will be tagged to the Iowa location where that property was located by the patentee–not to Kentucky where the veteran resided. Upcoming: We’ve moved the start […]
There are times where seeing things on your screen or being able to search quickly to “figure out who someone is” isn’t quite enough–at least for me. I’ve been working on my Ostfriesen families and the similarity of the names can lead to confusion. There are times where the names Antje Jurgens Ehmen Antje Tonjes Ehmen, Tonjes Jurgens Ehmen, Jurgen Ehmen, Willm Jurgens Ehmen, and Willm Tonjes Ehmen start to run together to the point where I’m about ready to start looking for Tonjes Antje Ehmen (there was no such person). These individuals are all children or grandchildren of the same ancestral couple (and there are more similar names that are not included here). To keep me organized and to where I don’t have to search for them […]
We’ve moved the start date for our Genealogy Methods Class to 21 Oct–so there’s still time to join us! Details are on our announcement page.
If you are taking a trip to a genealogical library, browsing the stacks can be a great way to find and locate materials that could be helpful in your research. However… There is also the card catalog and that needs to be used. Books may be catalogued for more than one county or location but they can only physically be in one place in the bookshelves. A book may contain Revolutionary war materials on Bedford and Amherst Counties in Virginia, but it cannot be in two places at once. A card catalog search for either county will locate the book in the catalog and then it can be located on the shelf. If you only browse the shelf for one county, you may miss it.
From a while back… Note: I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one on the Internet. Seek legal counsel if you have serious copyright issues you wish to pursue legally–but remember–it ain’t cheap. I realize that they are “your” ancestors and you probably have some emotional attachment to them. That’s perfectly normal. You may also have some emotional attachment to facts that have taken you a long time, some money, and a great deal of time to ascertain. Let’s say that you “discover” that Johann Schmitpluffer was born on 12 August 1739 in Gottareallylongschmirkingname, Germany, the son of Erasmus and Anna (Umlautholder) Schmitpluffer. You decide put those facts online, perhaps including your analysis along with those facts. It is a very long and detailed analysis, reflecting your […]
Learn more about our Genealogy Process class starting this week. Full-Text searching at FamilySearch got you confused? Our two-hour presentation is getting rave reviews.
A record indicates that a last name is a woman’s “maiden name.” Is it possible that it’s technically not her last name at birth, but something slightly different? It could be any of the following: •Last name at birth? •Biological father’s last name? •Biological mother’s last name? •Step-father’s last name? •Adoptive parents’ last name? First husband’s last name? We’ve moved the start date for our Genealogy Methods Class to 21 Oct–so there’s still time to join us! Details are on our aannouncement page. Full-Text searching at FamilySearch got you confused? Our two-hour presentation is getting rave reviews.
Thanks to everyone who support our webiar closeout sale. If you missed it, details are on our page and we’ve extended it for readers of Genealogy Tip of the Day. If you had issues with a download, please let me know.
Charles Brown “chose” his guardian in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in 1766. His choice still needed to be approved the court and, if necessary, post a bond in the amount determined by the court. Charles may or may not have been fourteen years of age on 30 September 1766 when David Jewell was approved by the court as his guardian. The document only says “upwards of 14 years.” Jewel’s connection to the family is not known, but he was not Charles’ step-father. It is possible he was willing to teach Charles a trade, but any apprentice relationship is not stated in the guardianship papers.
Reminder that our genealogy webinar closeout ends 10 Oct–don’t wait. We’ve decided to stop offering most of our older webinars to cut down on server space and so we can focus on other activities and presentations. We will offer support for download issues, but sales will stop at that point. Coupon code for a 40% discount is CLOSE2025. These presentations will no longer be sold after 10 October 2025: Additional content details and ordering information can be found on our website.
It is not always possible to get the precise date of an event. There are places and time periods where just determining the year of birth can be a challenge and researchers may only be able to get a range of years for a birth, marriage, or death. When researching people whose lives were spent in times and places with few records, having a year or a short range of when a vital event probably took place may be sufficient to help you research the person’s children, spouse, and parents. The key is to make certain that you have looked at all available records and that you have not inadvertently merged two distinct people into one individual. It’s also imperative to think about records that may imply an […]
We’ve decided to stop offering most of our older webinars to cut down on server space and so we can focus on other activities and presentations. We will offer support for download issues, but sales will stop at that point. Coupon code for a 40% discount is CLOSE2025. These presentations will no longer be sold after 10 October 2025: Additional content details and ordering information can be found on our website.
In some denominations, the minister would take the church records with him when he moved to another congregation. This is more likely to happen in frontier churches and in denominations that tended to keep less detailed records. Catholic priests tended to not do this, but there are exceptions. As a result, the records may be in the last church the minister ministered at, the hands of a descendant of the actual minister, a local historical society or library that happened to obtain the records, or somewhere else. Any of these places could be quite a distance from where the actual church was located.
We have set the dates for our 2026 trip to the Allen County Public Library’s genealogy collection. Details on our announcement page.
To transliterate something means to write it in the closest possible way using the letters of a different alphabet or script. Sometimes there simply is no way to transcribe every letter of a document as it was written using the keyboard or script of choice. Slight alterations or choices may have to be made. That’s what could done when transcribing this marriage record between a husband and wife with the same last name. Many descendants use the last name Huls, but if I’m trascribing this marriage the way it is written, then it needs to be “”Metha Hüls married Gerjet Meinert Hüls at the Immanuel Lutheran Church.” If I do not have the ability to use an ulmaut on my keyboard, then I could go with “Metha Huels […]
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