It’s great to ask a relative questions about your family history. Having a list of questions to ask can also make the interview process easier. But it is worth remembering that the details of an event may be remembered over a period of time and not necessarily during a one-hour interview. The interviewee may remember significant pieces of information long after the question and answer session is over. And no matter how complete or comprehensive the list of questions seems to be, there can always be aspects of a specific family’s history that is not included. There will be questions the interviewee does not think to ask. One way to ascertain this information is to maintain a relationship with the individual if at all possible–it can be via […]
Transcribing old ledgers, account books, and estate inventories can sometimes be difficult. Businesses that are no longer in existence may be mentioned, names be abbreviated in unique ways, farm implements or occupational tools may be ones that are no longer used, etc. One way to potentially determine the names is to perform searches in digital newspapers for what can be transcribed. Wild card searches (*oat, sho*t, etc.) can be helpful when items can only partially be read. Newspapers may contain more complete references to items that can only partially be read in the item being transcribed. Business names your relative partially abbreviated may be more completely spelled out. Advertisements for these businesses may provide more detail about what they sold for those times when your ancestor’s reference to […]
There is a picture of me taken when I was about one year of age. According to me, all of my grandchildren when they were one year of age bore some resemblance to that picture of me. Had my mother been alive, she likely would have agreed with me. Whether the kids actually looked like me or not is another story. But it makes a genealogy point: do we see what we want to see or what is actually there? Sometimes, after years of research and years of knowing living famiy members, it can be easy to have an emotional investment in a certain family origin story. We have to put that story aside when looking at information we have obtained and focus on what the records actually […]
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 […]
Sometimes we have to conjecture about a relative in order to move our research forward or at least get ideas of what other records could help us. Be careful with whom you share that conjecture as sometimes speculation suddenly becomes a “fact” for which you become the source. If you include speculation in your research notes, clearly label that speculation as speculation. Otherwise you may inadvertently convert your own speculation to fact.
Genealogical documents present transcription challenges, especially the older they are. One wants to make it clear in any typed up rendering of a document what comes from that document and what comes from the researcher’s mind (or other sources). I have a simple approach that I use when transcribing any document. The transcription is clearly indicated as such and put between two markers in brackets indicating where the transcription begins and ends. The analysis or commentary is after the transcription. [begin transcription] transcribe document [end transcription] [analysis] analyze [end analysis] That helps me to know what the document said and what I thought it said.
The picture discussed in this post is not included because the other two individuals are living. There’s a picture of me in a suit taken in the early 1970s. I look to be approximately four-years old. When it was taken was a mystery. There’s a little girl, also dressed up and also about my age, standing next to me. I have no female first cousins, so that’s not who the person is. I did not recognize the person and she didn’t appear to be any female relative I could think of based on her age, hair color, and general face shape. She’s not a relative. As soon as I looked in the background of the picture and saw the woman sitting in the background in a church pew, […]
I stumbled today upon the name of my father’s 4H group he was a member of in the 1950s–the Elvaston Strait-Shooters. There were 4H clubs nearer to where they lived and the reason he and his brother were members of this group instead of one of the nearby ones has been lost to history. There are a variety of organizations–including church–where your ancestor may not have attended the nearest one. There are many reasons your ancestor may have not attended the nearest church of her denomination. Your ancestor may have been a Mason, but may have been active in a group that was not nearest to where he lived. Sometimes people have a falling out with the nearby group (or church) and change their membership. Sometimes people move […]
The Bureau of Land Management website (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov) allows users to search patent database of individuals who obtained federal land. The database contains an image of the actual patent and should describe the federal act under which the individual obtained the land. The BLM site does not contain any of supporting documentation used to obtain that land. Those files are in the National Archives in Washington, DC. Generally speaking federal land could be obtained via: The amount of paperwork in the application file varies dependent upon the type of acquisition process.
A survey plat is typically an official document showing property lines of one parcel (or occasionally more) drawn out by a surveyor who is authorized to create land surveys in a specific geographic area. The plat often mentions bordering properties or a reference marker or point in order to establish the property’s relative position to other properties as well. Often these surveys are recorded in the local land records office and are legal documents establishing property lines. Survey plats were also done in areas of the United States under the federal domain before parcels were awarded via land claims or through outright purchase. Survey plats are not a “one and done” situation. Many times a later survey plat may be done to clarfiy lines that have become ambiguous […]
It is important somewhere to keep track of your research logic as you progress. Otherwise you might not remember “why” you are researching a certain person. While on a recent research trip, I focused on a certain Benjamin Butler in the 1850 census as being “mine.” Using that enumeration as the starting point, I searched other records and made research progress. A stack of papers, a file full of digital images, and records located were the end result. One problem–I didn’t track WHY I thought this 1850 census entry was for the correct person. It took me hours to reconstruct my reason. That was time wasted. When I decided the 1850 guy was “mine,” I should have written down my reasons. They were valid reasons. Resurrecting them took time–time […]
It’s Virginia in 1820. Your father has just died and named you as executor in his will. You can’t start settling up without the court approving the will and it being admitted to probate. You also have to be approved by the court as executor and become legally authorized to perform the duties as executor. This usually also includes posting a bond with bondsmen to sign along with you. The bond will have a stated value, but that’s not an amount of cash that anyone deposits anywhere. Typically it’s an amount that covers the value of the estate (or at least the potential bills) and while the executor doesn’t need to “be worth that much” the bondsmen generally (at least in the aggregate) do. The bondsmen are guaranteeing […]
It’s easy to see how stories told by a family member are reliant upon the accuracy of their memory. After all, the family member is telling you those stories. But most of what is contained in other records comes from someone memory as well. The person’s memory of what they were told may be accurate (or it may not). What they were told originally may have been accurate or it may have not. Information on census records, marriage applications, birth and death certificates, and a variety of other documents comes from someone’s memory. No “proof” was necessary and the clerk or census taker simply wrote the information down and went on. It’s not just Grandma’s memory of personal stories that a genealogist relies upon. It’s the memories of […]
Never assume that those “boarders” in a census entry are merely strangers taken in for extra income. Those boarders could be relatives as well. Sometimes the census focuses on the “financial” relationship between the head of household and the resident and not the biological one. Always do a little snooping on those boarders living with your ancestor–they may have a connection via biology or marriage. Boarders should not be confused with borders. Borders matter in genealogical research as well.
Genealogy Research in Illinois–New Webinar! This presentation will cover an overview of research in Illinois, including: state resources, local resources and records (including an overview of typical courthouse records created in Illinois—land, court, probate, and vital), and records access. Additionally statewide research facilities and an overview of their collections and materials will be discussed. Also included will be a brief discussion of searching the FamilySearch catalog and accessing and using various websites of state agencies and organizations. A general methodology for accessing records in Illinois will also be included. The presentation will be approximately 90 minutes in length. Handout with links to various websites discussed will be included. Michael John Neill is an Illinois native and the eighth generation in one family line to have lived in Illinois. […]
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