Part of the joy of researching my family has always been the challenge of proving relationships once the “easy” records that state relationships don’t exist anymore. (In genealogical parlance this means once we don’t have direct evidence.) When we don’t have birth and death certificates that name parents, marriage records that provide maiden names, or […]
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Category: Tips and Training
Those Doggone Nicknames
My collateral ancestor Mintie was called by her middle name Lucinda in almost every record during her lifetime *except* the bible record above and one census: Nicknames, middle names and initials will get you every time in genealogical research. They still get me every now and then and it kinda drives me just a little […]
Upcoming Deed Records Lecture!
This Sunday, November 15 at 3:00 pm EST, I am excited to offer my first Zoom Webinar: “Fruit of the Earth: Using Deed Records to Uncover Your Ancestors.” Deed records are one of genealogy’s most trusted and voluminous record sets. But the legal jargon can be confusing, and besides, what if your ancestor didn’t own […]
Finding That Maiden Name
Finding the maiden names of wives is a problem all researchers will face sooner or later. When marriage records are missing there are several strategies we can use to uncover these names. Death Certificates We can use the records of a couple’s children to uncover information about that couple. I have used this in every […]
3 Reasons Why Your Research Is Stuck
We are excitedly researching our grandmother’s family, or our grandfather’s military service, or finding great-aunts and great-uncles we never knew existed. We are bursting with the joy of new discoveries. That’s when it happens. We just get stuck. Don’t know where to go next. Don’t know how to move forward. Can’t find the answers we […]
Do You Know How to Use Indirect Evidence...
Much of the hype of genealogical research often surrounds the different kinds of sources. Yes, new sources are always exciting. However, I believe that it is developing and growing research skills that will take your research to higher heights. A Field With Standards That’s one reason I recommend that everyone researching their roots have the […]
Do You Use A Census Tracker?
One of the first things I do with every family I research is to try to locate the family in every census during their lifetime. As most researchers know, depending upon the time and place, this is much easier said than done. I “track” the families using census trackers which I have created in Microsoft […]
The Community Reveals the Family
The power of researching our ancestors in the communities where they lived cannot be overstated. Above is a portion of a census table I created showing dwelling and family number, name, age and a few other notations. John and Abigail Waters John and Abigail Waters lived with their immediate African-American neighbors in the community of […]
Finding State Laws About Slaves and Free...
Finding state laws about slaves and free blacks has always been a complicated process. If you’re the typical genealogist like me, you didn’t have easy access to expensive databases. You had to visit a law library and search each year’s laws. You could also try to do that online. I promise you it was no fun. […]
Searching Ancestry Databases: Things You...
Since Ancestry remains the primary website for genealogy research, I’d like to share a few tips for researching its databases. For the first example, I’ll use the marriage database below called Maryland Compiled Marriages, 1667-1899: We Must Know the Source Typically, we put the names of our ancestors in the search box. If the search came up empty, we might conclude […]