Rooting Around for Farmers
Learn more about your rural ancestors with our hour-long presentation
Immediate download–handout included $25
Michael shares 30 years of experience researching his own farming ancestors
This presentation will discuss sources that should be fully utilized in a researcher’s search for more about their farming ancestor. We will look at sources and materials that provide direct and indirect information about your farming ancestor and their farming operation. Local, state, and federal sources will be covered in addition to non-governmental records. There is information available to help you gain more insight into your farming ancestor’s life and lifestyle. Material will be applicable to farm landowners in addition to tenant farmers and farm laborers. This session presumes a basic understanding of local records, including land records
Get “Rooting Around for Farmers” today—webinar purchase–immediate download (handout included)
Farmers: Tenants and Laborers
Those who worked in American agriculture but did not own their own farm are more difficult to research than those who owned real estate. In this presentation, we focus on farmers and farm families, but concentrate on those who did not own farms of their own.
Tenant farmers and farm laborers comprise a significant proportion of those involved in American agriculture. The challenge is that they tended to leave fewer records than did landowning farmers. In this presentation we will look at specific challenges involving these families and what records, sources, and methods should be utilized in order to research them as completely and effectively as possible. While there are never any guarantees in genealogy research, there are ways that we can maximize the chance we find as much about our non-landowning farm ancestors as possible.
The presentation will be given with the premise that the person being researched did not own any real estate.
Concepts covered include:
- Determining the residence as precisely as possible.
- Documenting others with whom the ancestor interacted.
- Documenting moves and migrations where possible.
- Determining if the same person has been located.
- Strategies to locate as many referencea to the ancestral name as possible.
This is not a live presentation although those who purchase the presentation before its release are encouraged to submit questions for possible inclusion in the presentation. This presentation focuses on research in the United States.
Purchase includes video of presentation and handout. Immediate download for $24.
