If relatives are reminiscing during holiday get-togethers, consider recording those stories in one way or another. Making a video or audio recording is an easy way to initially preserve those memories. Some family members may prefer writing. Remember to get permission to record what someone is saying and don’t share the recording or video without their consent. And make certain you have preserved or backed up those stories–no matter what form they were originally in.
The suggest flitted across my computer screen: “to preserve family history items and antiques, give them as holiday gifts.” I’m not certain that is how it works. Just because you put great-grandma’s christening gown in a shadow box and give it to someone as a gift, does not mean that they will automatically cherish it enough to preserve it and keep it to pass on to future generations. Thrift stores, antique malls, flea markets, and the like are full of unwanted gifts. If you’re going to give someone a family history item in hopes that they preserve it, try to see if they have any interest in it first. See if there are ways to cultivate an interest in family history. I fully understand the frustration felt in […]
We had an eighth note put on the reverse of my great-aunt’s tombstone to symbolize her life-long interest in music. If you encounter any iconography or image on an ancestral tombstone, make certain to determine what it symbolizes. There may be clues as to membership in a fraternal organization, religious community, ethnic background or more. Stones in non-traditional shapes may be symbolic of something as well. There may be more clues on a stone than just what is written in words and numbers. This page has links to common images and their meanings.
This tip is from a post I made on our Genealogy Tip of the Day page on Facebook. Here’s a challenge. If you’re going to post a holiday greeting to Facebook (or anywhere on social media), consider using a photo of a personal ornament, decorative item, traditional food you cooked, etc. as the illustration for the post instead of stock images that some of us tire of seeing over and over. I finally took out all my old Christmas ornaments that my mother packed away and put them haphazardly on a card table. The box was falling apart, some ornaments that were highly organic had disintegrated and needed to be tossed. I had not seen them in years because of well…some of you know how these things go. […]
If you know that a relative was named for a specific person, do you include that knowledge in your genealogy notes on both those people? Just be certain that you are certain there was actually a name connection between the two individuals and that it was not a coincidence. My name is Michael John. I have a great-great-grandfather named John Michael. He is not where I got my name as my mother told me how both my names were chosen. I have those notes in my genealogical database. Avoid assuming. Someone later may be glad you recorded that information…and how you came to know it.
Just remember that in pre-1850 United States census records the oldest person might not necessarily be the head of the household. If a grandparent or parent is living with someone, they might be the oldest person enumerated while the person named as the head of the household is actually someone younger.
If your ancestor was a farmer, was he a farm owner, a tenant farmer, or farm laborer? The differences are significant and knowing which helps indicate how mobile your ancestor likely was, what types of records he left behind, etc. Farming isn’t the only occupation where these distinctions are important? Did your ancestor work in a blacksmith shop, or own his own shop? Again, the difference is important. Sometimes all we have are vague ideas of what our ancestor did–but sometimes we do have more. Use that information to your advantage.
Naturalization was not a one-step process in the United States. An alien, or unnaturalized immigrant resident of the United States, would file his declaration with a local court. Then, when the appropriate amount of time had passed, the individual would petition to become a citizen. The declaration of intent may contain more information than the final naturalization and may have been filed in a different jurisdiction than the final naturalization. Before 1906, any local court of record could process naturalizations. Federal legislation in 1906, the “Naturalization Act of 1906,” changed that and began the era of more direct federal oversight of naturalization.
“buy yourself something you really want with the $25.00” Genealogy writing prompts can come from a variety of places and this comment in a graduation card is a perfect example. It was written by my grandmother in my eighth grade graduation card and I can almost hear her saying it as I read the words. Digital pictures of cards can be a way to preserve them and the information they contain if it’s not possible to keep all the card due to space limitations. Sometimes one can see signatures change over time, realize that couples who signed cards together no longer are, or other life changes. There may be something in one of those cards that gets you thinking and gets you remembering. Sharing them with others may […]
Searching Google Books can be challenging for some genealogists. A way to start looking for materials on Google Books (books.google.com) is to try searches like the following–change the names and places to yours. trautvetter hancock illinois rampley harford maryland emmar ross divorce nebraska These searches located a case involving my Trautvetter that was appealed to the Illinois State Supreme Court, a Maryland state law that involved my Rampley family in 1838, and a divorce from Nebraska in the 1870s that was appealed to the Nebraska State Supreme Court
I’m working on a family where the mother was named Elizabeth. A daughter was named Elizabeth. Three of the sons married women named Elizabeth. To keep myself straight, I made a list of all five Elizabeths and summarized their biographical and genealogical information–name; dates and places of birth, death, and marriage; names of parents; names of all spouses; and place of burial. The intention of the chart was to help me avoid confusion later. It did more than that. Creating the chart made me realize that I’d nearly confused two of the Elizabeths who had married sons of Elizabeth. Join Michael in Salt Lake City, Utah, or Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in 2024 on a genealogy research trip.
The 1943 obituary of Viola Tittle in the La Belle, Missouri, the LaBelle Star indicated that she was survived by three half-brothers: Arsulus, George, and John Rampley. The obituary even indicated that Arsulus lived in California. It’s possible he was living in California in 1943, but the probate of George Rampley provided documentation that Arsulus had not been seen since sometime in the 1930s and that his children had looked for him to no avail. It may have been easier to say Arsulus survived. It’s possible Viola didn’t want to admit her brother was deceased. As our research extends to more distant family members, it’s more difficult to know or to have heard how the family may have reacted to events within that family. Any statement in an […]
Locating my uncle’s children was much easier when I decided to research the children his wife had with her first husband (before she married my uncle and had children with him). Those children had no biological relationship to me, but their records mentioned the children my aunt by marriage later had with my uncle. And that made them much easier to research.
The 1860-era probate file for Wiley Ashlock does not indicate where in Hancock County, Illinois, he lived. A copy of the sale bill that was included in the probate case file indicated that the administrator of the estate lived in Wythe Township. That would suggest Ashlock lived in that township or near to it given that he was tasked with overseeing the sale of all of Ashlock’s chattel property. The sale bill indicated the sale would be held at Ashlock’s late residence, but his estate inventory does not indicate he owned any real estate. Three men were appointed to appraise Ashlock’s chattel property. Researching where they lived may be in order as they likely lived in the same area of the county where Ashlock was from. We may […]
Your ancestor–perhaps more than one–may have perished in a 19th century epidemic. Cholera and other illnesses could sweep through an area, wrecking devastation in a very short matter of time. The difficulty now can be in learning about these past outbreaks. Local newspapers and county histories are two places to start looking for this type of information. If the time period is right, one can look through old death certificates one after the other to see the cause of death. Academic articles in a variety of journals (historical, sociological, medical, etc.) may also mention earlier epidemics. Readers without home access to materials of this type may wish to see if they can access academic journals though their local library. Some academic studies may be online and located through […]
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