Late Is not Always Dead

“Late” can mean formerly. A person referred to as being “late” does not have to be dead. This reference to Antje J. Fecht (late Habben) simply means that she had previously used the last name of Habben although she was using the last name of Fecht at the time the document was written. It does not indicate how her name changed, but that it had changed.

The Clueless Informant

A relative died in rural New Mexico in 1925 after a fall from a horse. A neighbor who had probably known him for a short time was the informant. Based on the information on the death certificate, the informant likely knew the relative’s approximate age, that he was divorced, and that he had lived in Oklahoma before moving to New Mexico. That was it.

And it makes perfect sense if someone moves somewhere to “start over.” The relative was not hiding who he was, but his new neighbor had no need to know the names of my relative’s parents or the name of his ex-wife. The place of birth given for my relative was Oklahoma–where he had lived before coming to New Mexico.

The age on the death certificate lists only a year. The place of birth is Oklahoma. The names of parents, their places of birth, and the wife’s name are all unknown. Makes perfect sense given the time and the informant. The names of parents being unknown are also frustratingly consistent with what the relative listed on his marriage record from the 1880s.

Keep in mind the relationship. The two men functioned perfectly well as neighbors without the two sixty-something year old men knowing who the parents or the ex-wives of the others were or precisely where they were born.

View Deaths in Family Context

Always think about the family that was left behind when someone died? Were there children who would have needed looked after? Was there a spouse who would have needed some assistance? Was there an adult child who would have been unable to look after themselves?

Who would have been nearby to help these individuals?

Were there court records, guardianships, or other records resulting from issues when the person died?

Memory Does Not Matter

Every document in the United States indicates that my third great-grandmother was born in 1808. I’ve seen the year so many times in United States records that I have it memorized. I “know” my third great-grandmother was born in 1808. It’s even in the church record of her death.

The problem: it is wrong.

Her christening record in Germany when she was a few weeks old indicates she was born and baptized in 1807. That’s a record that provides primary information about her date and place of birth. It was created close to the time of her birth with information likely provided by her parents. The difference is only a year off from what records in the United States indicated. All those records in the United States are secondary as far as her date of birth is concerned as they were recorded after she reached the age of fifty.

My memory about the year does not matter.

Adopted Children’s Descendants a DNA Match?

The story was that my second great-grandfather’s sister and her husband had adopted the child of a neighbor some time before they moved to Nebraska in the 1870s. The child was born a few years before their marriage and the story sounded reasonable. I had traced a few generations of the adopted child’s descendants.

I was surprised when one of the child’s descendants showed up as an autosomal DNA match to me. They had a reasonably complete tree going back five generations and, from what I could see, it looked accurate, but the line going back to the adopted child of my second great-grandfather’s sister stopped at that child. The rest of the DNA match’s tree contained family from Sweden and other areas where I had no family.

Then I looked at the shared matches I had with this person. Over half of them had been identified and they were all individuals who connected with me through my second great-grandfather or one of his ancestors. It was then that I realized that the adopted child of my second great-grandfather’s sister was not one adopted from totally outside the family. That child was either her child or the child of a very close relative based on the amount of shared DNA.

Descendants of an adopted child may be in your DNA matches after all. Adopted children can easily be a biological relative of the person adopting them.

+ at FamilySearch Lab’s Full Text Search

Putting a “+” in front of search terms in the full-text search interface at FamilySearch Lab’s full-text search seems to force that term to be in your search results. This allows you to narrow your search results much easier.

Thanks to webinar attendee XXX for mentioning this.

You can learn more about our recent FamilySearch Lab full-text search webinar here.

Your Own Cheat Sheet?

Searching for your ancestors in databases and websites is not like taking a test, but a “cheat sheet” of sorts may still be helpful. In a word processing document or on paper, keep track of what search tricks you used on a specific website so that you’re not left re-inventing the wheel when you go back and use the site later.

For example, does the site allow you to use wildcards (such as *, _, ?, or %)? How many wildcards can be used in each search term? Does putting a + or a – in front of a search term impact the search? Does the site have a series of records between say 1800 and 1895, but appear to be missing the records between 1840 and 1842? Those details matter, but are often things we forget a few days after discovering them.

I find a cheat sheet particularly helpful for sets of local records on FamilySearch that may have special nuances that vary from one county to another.

The Original Indexes

Many local records had indexes that were created by the office that originally created and maintained those records. Sometimes these indexes get overlooked by later finding aids. That can be a mistake when searching any record, but particularly when searching land deeds. Your genealogy goal with land records should be to have documentation of how your ancestor acquired his property and how it left his ownership.

The acreage acquired should equal the acreage “unacquired” (with a slight discrepancy perhaps for survey and measuring variations). Grantor and grantee indexes to land deeds (created by the office that originally had the records) can help with locating all of these materials, keeping in mind that these indexes usually only referenced the first grantor and the first grantee. There may be other documents (particularly court records, probate records, or wills) that transfer title to real property as well.

But if you’ve used local land deeds and have never used grantor/grantee indexes, you may be missing something.

Why to Organize?

There are many reasons to organize your genealogical data, including:

– noticing clues you did not notice before;

– finding gaps in your research;

– making it easier for you to share your research;

-reducing the number of times you locate something you already have;

– making it easier for you to publish your information (if that’s your goal);

– making it easier for someone to preserve your information after your death;

– making it easier for someone looking at your information to help you; and

– saving money if you hire a professional–they will have to organize it for you before they can help.