Archive for » April, 2010 «

11
Apr
Newspapers – Beyond the Social Pages
Debby

Genealogists love the social pages in a newspaper to find birth, marriage, and death notices, plus a bit of gossip.  The rest of the newspaper contains excellent content as well.

One of my great findings was found in a horse riding demonstration announcement.  Not only could I confirm residence, I now had an occupation, employers’ name and great facts about an ancestor’s skills as a rider and a businessman.

Indexes are being released daily for newspapers and some do capture information beyond announcements.  Val D. Greenwood’s The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy talks about where to find old newspapers.

Category: Genealogy  Tags: , , , , , ,  One Comment
09
Apr
Census Taker cause Grief
Debby

Regardless of which country you are researching, census records can help.  There are issues when working with census records though.  For example, human error and poor penmanship on the part of the census taker can change a name from Shirley to Sterling when captured by an indexer.  Another issue sometimes found is when a census taker decided to use initials for first names.  Can life get any more complicated when reading a list of common names and not even have the benefit of the full first name?

I appreciate the work that the census takers did and I am extremely happy when I come across a page which is nicely printed out with full names.  It just adds to the frustration of finding those wanderlust relatives when census pages are hard to read.

Kathleen Hinckley’s book on Your Guide to the Federal Census has excellent tips on handwriting issues, these have saved me from many costly mistakes.

Category: Genealogy  Tags: , , , , , , ,  25 Comments
07
Apr
Timelines
Debby

Knowing when [what dates or period] to search for a particular event for a person is just as important as knowing where to search.  By making a simple timeline of when the person appears in a record group can narrow down the search of the next event.

For example, if I know that a father was a witness to his son’s marriage in 1847, but was listed as deceased on his daughter’s marriage certificate in 1851, the time span is narrowed to a five year window.

Another great thing to add to a timeline is a listing of world, regional, and local events occurring at the time being researched.  I have troubles keeping all the wars and historical events straight, so by using a timeline, I can better calculate why a particular person might not be where I thought they should be.

In The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by Loretto Dennis Szucs, timelines and other first steps are explained in great details.

Category: Genealogy  Tags: , , ,  One Comment
05
Apr
Obituaries
Debby

I recently began a quest to find descendants for a friend.  I received the basic information and off I went in search of answers to a few basic questions.   When people give me information on a family, I always like to check what they give me for accuracy (facts do get mixed up sometimes).  One of the resources I love to use are obituaries.  Getting the snapshot on someone’s life can answer a lot of questions, it can also introduce more questions.

The best thing to remember about obituaries is that the information they provide also needs to be verified.  Nicknames, incorrect relationships and dates can add to the mystery.

Let’s come back to the family I was looking for, I found this most amazing obituary that not only told me basic information, but it provided the history of this person’s life with such details, that it made it so simple to verify it.

Not everyone has an obituary, but they might be mentioned in another obituary… thank goodness for indexes.  Yes there are flaws with indexes… but that’s a story for another day.

For more information on obituaries, I recommend you check out Hidden Sources by Laura Szucs Pfeiffer.

Category: Genealogy  Tags: , , , ,  2 Comments
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