A relative is married in 1843 in St. Louis, Missouri. He is married again in Illinois in 1848. The most likely scenario is that she died. It is possible that the couple actually divorced or separated and never bothered to divorce. The divorce would have generated a court record. A separation that never resulted in divorce may not have generated any records at all. But I should not assume the first wife died unless there is some additional evidence other than simply the subsequent marriage.
Notebook for Genealogy–A Four Session Pick Your Own Problem Course With Michael John Neill Our focus is on being practical, exhibiting sound genealogy methodology, and demonstrating responsible use of Notebook (Google’s suite of AI tools) in genealogy research. This course is for those who would like guidance and suggestions in how to use Notebook and have a place to get feedback and additional direction. An overview of NoteookLM NotebookLM (often simply Notebook) is Google’s suite of AI-driven tools to analyze data from files and information you provide it. . Notebook uses sources of your choosing, not what it found online. You upload your own materials—including PDF files, text files, Google Docs, slides, or web links—and the AI creates a private workspace built exclusively around that data. You can […]
5-week class on Using FamilySearch’s Full-Text Search With Michael John Neill Are you getting the most from FamilySearch’s Full-Text Search? Our five session class on FamilySearch’s full-text search will help you to get the very most from this truly paradigm-shift way of searching. Presentation and discussion is practical and down-to-earth. Students will receive practical and easy-to-implement search strategies and will be encouraged to share successes and failures with other class members via an online group and discussion sessions. Week 1 Overview of FamilySearch full-text search. This session will provide an overview of full-text search methodology, discuss how full-text search is different from typical searches, discuss workarounds for transcription errors, searching specific sets of images, and search organization. Week 2 Sourcing and Determining what has been found with FamilySearch […]
Recently I was searching the 1855 New York State census for relatives from Clinton County, New York, by querying an index. No amount of clever searching, Soundex options, and wildcards were effective. It was when I went to read the census manually that I realized the problem. Clinton County’s 1855 New York State Census enumeration is not on Ancestry.com (where I initially searched). Reading the description of the 1855 New York State Census indicated Clinton was one of the counties whose enumeration is not extant. No amount of database querying is going to find those Clinton County relatives in that census. Make certain the database is complete or at the least includes your probable areas of ancestral residence before searching.
From a while back.. Every record fits in a larger chain of events and records. When you locate a document always ask yourself: No record was created in a vacuum. Don’t analyze it in one either.
Sometimes all it takes is a “new” name to open the door to an entire set of memories. My grandmother-in-law remembered a fair amount about her family originally. After a little research, I located the maiden name of her grandmother, which she had not originally remembered. As soon as I mentioned that last name, more memories came to her mind. Sometimes all it takes is a word or a name to unlock an entire set of memories. Always go back and re-interview that person when you have located new information.
When searching for records of an estate settlement, keep in mind that it may be ten or twenty years before an estate is finally settled. This final settlement may appear in the probate records or the land records–or both. Thomas Sledd died in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in 1815. His land was finally partitioned among his heirs in 1831. Sometimes it can be easy to see why the settlement takes a while. There may be title questions to deal with, lawsuits among heirs, lawsuits involving debt or other issues for the estate. The family may be waiting to get a better price for real estate. Or, which is what probably happened in the Sledd case, they may be waiting for all the heirs to reach the age of majority […]
Can’t these women named Elizabeth (or Anna Elizabeth) marry into families other than ones whose last names start with “Her?” Johannes Herbert, Henry Herzog, Fred Herold, and Lewis Herold all married into two generations of my Trautvetter family…and their spouses were named either Elizabeth or Anna Elizabeth. I made a chart to help me keep them straight. Even if I don’t refer to the chart that often, making it helped me to separate out the individuals in my mind. This is one thing that has to be made by hand as most software packages don’t have a “make a chart of people who confuse me” option. And I thought one of these families had a connection to a man named John Herold, but I cannot find that connection […]
Used this photograph as part of a lecture this morning on farming ancestors. It was my Grandma’s farm–I was there a great deal when I was growing up and am familiar with what structures and features are where. One of the attendees aske me if there was a ravine above the house in the picture. I immediately said there was a shallow draw west of the house but no ravine. Then I Iooked back at the picture and I immediately realized what she meant. When I heard her say “above the house,” my mind immediately thought “north of the house.” After all, north is “above” on a map. It’s relatively flat north of the house. Then I looked back at the photograph and realized what she meant and […]
Enhance your Full-Text Searching with AI! Using AI to Maximize Your Full-Text Searching at FamilySearch Are you getting the most from full-text search? Are you considering all the options? Are you feeling overwhelmed even though you know what the purposes of all the boxes are? AI can help organize and structure your full-text searches at FamilySearch. It can be used to create a customized research log to track all the various searches you perform at the site and all you need to do is indicate the search was performed and what the results were. It is still important for you to know how full-text search at FamilySearch works–you cannot effectively problem solve if you don’t–but AI can make your full-text searches more efficient. The best use of full-text […]
Technically, in most cultures, a person is considered by 0 years old at the moment of their birth. It’s also reflective of the age many records use to list individuals within the first 12 months of their birth. And it’s difficult to get mixed up on whether someone is 0 years old or 1 year old–even if there is no record of their birth. But as that person ages, it’s easier for a record to be a off or inconsistent with other records. It’s more difficult to be off by much when someone is under the age of 3. When that person with no birth record has aged to their seventies, it’s much easier to be off a year or two on their age. The older a person […]
Special Announcement Land records have you confused? We have the answer. Reading the Deed Books: US Local Land Records for Genealogists There are a lot of records your ancestor may have avoided being listed in. But if he bought or sold land, there was a record created to document that transfer and a copy of that record was probably made at the local court house. Even if your ancestor never bought or sold the land he owned, he may appear in local land records. Deeds are some of the most reliable records we have, and genealogists overlook them all the time. This presentation covers the land records kept at the county and town level in the United States and the general structure and form of a deed itself […]
Genealogy “tricks” are a dime a dozen on the internet and there’s really no “trick” at all. It’s just being diligent and searching for every piece of paper or record that you can find. If we could get every shred of paper, digital image, stone, book, etc. with our ancestor’s name on it, research would be much easier. But that’s not the way it works. One approach is to think about what piece of information you would like to know and make a list of individuals who may have known that information (or may know it today) or records on which that information may have been written down. Given the time period and location, a marriage date could be in the family Bible, a civil record of the […]
If a relative reached any birthday milestone–75, 80, 90, or 100 years–there’s a chance something about it was mentioned in a local newspaper. The same goes for wedding anniversaries. These items may be located with searches of newspapers that have been digitized. For those newspapers that have not, consider searching for these items. Digital searches of newspapers are not perfect either and these are items that one may wish to search for manually as well. The names of the guests in attendance may be helpful. In this illustration out-of-town guests are named, but their relationships are not. Keep in mind locals during the time period knew how the guests were related so those details may not be included.
Ancestors do not live in isolation–after all, that’s how they come to have descendants. But it never ceases to amaze me how often extended family members migrate to where others from their family have settled. Siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc. In my own research it is rare for me to have an immigrant settle where absolutely no one from their family had already settled or eventually followed. The followers, particularly if they were the immigrants nieces or nephews may have arrived fifty years later, but the often eventually made their way across the pond. It was not just immigrants to a new country who tended to follow this pattern. Migrants across the United States often did the same thing. And if the other settlers were not […]
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