It can be tempting to ignore subpoenas in court records as “necessary details” that don’t warrant reading. That’s a mistake. Those slips of paper can provide significant details. In the United States, they should provide the jurisdiction where the individual was living (usually the county) which may not be the county in which the case was being heard. In the case of the example, the subpoena contained an easier reading of the names of the witnesses to the will that was being admitted to probate.
The obituary of a relative indicates they were cremated. As a result, you decide to not bother with checking for a tombstone because you decide that their cremains were probably scattered in some location by the family or are sitting in an urn somewhere. That’s a potential mistake. They may still have a marker. It is possible their cremains were actually interred somewhere and a marker was erected. It’s possible their ashes were scattered to the winds in some location, but that a cenotaph was erected somewhere–perhaps in a cemetery near where they lived or where they had relatives. It’s possible their spouse (or another relative was not cremated and that their information is inscribed on that individual’s stone. Just do not assume that cremated means no marker […]
It can be tempting to think that individuals with the same last name are related to each other when they end up settling in the same area. That’s not necessarily true. My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Habben. My maternal grandfather’s grandfather’s sisters both married men with the last name of Habben. They were from the same general area of Germany and some of them lived in the same area of Illinois for a time in the late 1800s. They were not related to each other at all. It can be tempting when two individuals with a somewhat unusual last name live in proximity to each other to assume that they are related–that they have to be related. They do not have to be related. Sometimes names that are rare […]
Pre-1850 United States census records, which frequently only list a county of residence, can be a challenge when the names are spelled wrong and the writing is difficult to read. If you can’t find you person in 1830, try searching for his 1820 and 1830 neighbors in 1840 and then looking closely in the vicinity of that name (at least a few pages befor and after). You may find the person of interest.
It may sound morbid, but if you happen to be around when a loved one is at the end of their life, write down some of the more poignant moments. Not the medical details, but the other little stories. A few days before my mother died, I had finally fallen asleep at around four in the morning only to have a nurse come in and perform a bed check. I yelled and shot out of my chair. There my mother and the nurse were, laughing as if it were the funniest thing they had ever seen. Who knows, maybe it was. I was aware enough of my surroundings not to be irritated that I was being laughed at. And I remember my mother’s cousin and his wife coming […]
I’ve been told to not speak ill of the dead more than once. Non-genealogists are sometimes told this when a relative or a family has a challenging personality, has caused family conflict, or been involved in questionable activities. Sometimes it’s a fine line of how much to share and preserve and what to edit out—particularly when the events are not recorded or preserved in other ways such as newspapers, court records, .or other publicly available records. I’m pretty liberal in sharing what was in a newspaper or public court record—things were known at the time anyway. Occasionally there may be something on a publicly availably death certificate that was not publicly available at the time the document was recorded. But those things such as family squabbles and the […]
Tracking down those aunts and uncles who had no descendants is advised because it helps give the researcher a complete picture of the entire family and it helps all members of the family to be remembered. Those are excellent reasons. But there’s another reason. Some record on that relative with no children of their own could provide information on those relatives you can’t find out more about. This 1980 death certificate for my aunt listed a sister-in-law as the informant–complete with residential address in 1980. Had I been unable to track her down, the reference would have been extremely helpful. Any record on that relative with no descendants could tell you more about your relative’s life. It could also provide information on other family members as well. The […]
Genealogists often lament the fact that documents fail to include “extra” details that they would like to know. The deed between two men with the same last name that does not state their relationship. The newspaper item that mentions someone from out of town visiting a local resident without stating their relationship. Frustrating, but it is worth remember that, in the case of the deed, legal documents are created for a specific purpose–not for leaving behind details of the relationship between the individuals signing the document. If the relationship is germane to the transaction (they were both heirs to the property, for example) then it may be stated–but not always. The newspaper is about “news” and the “news” is that someone visited–not what their relationship was. Ask yourself […]
Henry Smith leaves a widow and eight children when he dies in 1820. It is possible that she is the mother of all his children, some of his children, or none of his children. Simply surviving him does not make her the mother of all his children.
Don’t forget if you have found that will in the packet of probate papers for your ancestor that there might be a “will record” contained with the probate records as well. The will record book typically includes a complete transcription of the will and is call a “will record” for that very reason. Not all jurisdictions kept these records, but many did. If the handwritten original will has a difficult-to-read portion, is partially missing, or is open to interpretation, the transcription in the “will record,” done at the time the will was proved, may answer your questions. These record copies were the legal equivalent of the original document and were made, theoretically, in an attempt to render the original as closely as possible. Wills are not the only […]
If you are stuck trying to find a document or a record or are having difficulty in interpreting something a clerk has written in a document or in a record, remember the perspective of the clerk. The clerk may not have understood what your ancestor said, may have been poorly educated himself and cared little about the accuracy of the records he left behind. Or the clerk may have been very concerned about the accuracy and reliability of his records and your ancestor may have been vague in his answers, less than honest, or generally grumpy and unwilling to provide information.
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I purchase a variety of things on Ebay because of my interest in history and genealogy. I occasionally purchase postcards on Ebay that picture places, buildings, and other things that have some connection to my own family history. Many times these postcards have been used by other and hence have an addressee and someone’s signature. While I want to keep these postcards, I need to keep them separate from my personal family history collection or at the very least indicate they were acquired from an Ebay seller and not from a relative. My purchased postcards are kept in a separate binder solely for that purpose. That way no one later sees a postcard addressed to Mrs. Frederick Schnuffleberger in Newport News, Virginia, and wonders how she is related […]
Do you have a postcard with no date on it? The Smithsonian Institution Archives has a website on “Dating Postcards.” I might have to do that with a postcard I recently purchased on Ebay.
There’s a picture of my Mom in a photo album that belonged to her grandmother. There is no writing on the picture. Several other pictures on the page have the year 1949 written on them in handwriting that appears to be that of my mother’s aunt. My mother appears at the very least to be 10 years old in the picture and probably older. Which evidence is stronger for when the picture was approximately taken? Often in genealogical research we find information that conflicts. The key is to find all relevant information and sources that may provide information about something which we would like to know. Then we can evaluate all that evidence and decide which evidence should be given more credence. In this case, the appearance of […]
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