Most of have too many passwords. Sometimes we even are forced to change passwords periodically and unable to "reuse" passwords for a specific amount of time. Colleagues at work have suggested using a word and a number after the word, incrementing the number by one each time. Great idea. Not.

If I can't remember whether I used bubbagum12 or bubbagum13 and I enter in the wrong one too many times, I get kicked out.

I designed a different system. I use initials (or names) of relatives and their year of birth. This works better for me as I "know" from memory the name of each ancestor through my great-grandparents with their year of birth. Then my challenge question is simply "so and so" and I know what it means.

For those who say that others might be able to figure it out based upon the challenge question, that is taken care of too. I have "nicknames" for each grandparent that no would (other than my parents) would know. My challenge question is not "Grandma Neill," but rather "Grandma Goose" (not her real nickname), or "Grandma Goose's mother." Then I know to whom I was referring and I can enter the appropriate password.

I just got sick and tired of making up arbitrary passwords I could never remember.

Labels: tips

Labels: directories, dirks, tips

Footnote.com has added more newspapers from Chicago during the 1870-1877 era. The Chicago Tribune is the paper currently being added.

Users of Footnote.com have been viewing the images and some have noted pages of marriages show in the newspaper, such as this one from 1880. The nice thing is that the newspapers have OCR search, so a full-text search is possible. Keep in mind that Footnote.com is still adding newspapers and that their collection is incomplete.

Of course, if one finds a marriage referenced in a newspaper, the actual civil and religious record (if applicable) should be searched. If the civil record indicates the officiant was a justice of the peace, then looking for a record of a religious ceremony is ill-advised.

I've been searching the Chicago Tribune for some of my wife's Frame family, but so far no luck. Part of the problem is that the last name "Frame" is more difficult to search for since many references are to frames, being framed, etc. But if anyone finds references in the paper to a Thomas or Elizabeth Frame, please forward them off to me.

Newspapers are a wonderful source and the more they are converted to digital format, the easier they will be to search.

Labels: newspapers, tips

I've been reading Dick Hillebrand's blog about obtaining copies of vital records in New York. Yesterday he posted an update to information he blogged about earlier in regards to free lookups in the indexes.

Those who are interested in the lookups are highly encouraged to follow the directions he has posted from the library on the website. The directions are clear and easy to follow and the librarians are offering this service on a voluntary basis. Do NOT send them a request for a search of "all Smiths" from 1900 until 1930.

I sent my request in Monday, as soon as I found out about the Onondaga Library's service. I was looking for Louis Demar, a Clinton County, New York native who after living in Chicago for 30 years, returned to Clinton County. I actually forgot about my request, but today in my inbox was the response:


"There seems to be a match in 1935 - here is the listing as it reads: Louis Demar 6 Oct 1935, Saranac, #60631This is a confirmation that there is a record. If you contact Saranac they should assist you with getting a copy! "

A BIG thanks to the library for providing this service. I appreciate it.

Now, I'm off to get a copy. We'll be posting updates as we get them.

Labels: demar, tips

Upstate New York Genealogy Blog has posted an entry on "Accessing New York State Vital Records," with some commentary about the locations of microfiche indexes to these records, which start in the late 1800s.

I've put off getting vitals on my wife's Clinton County, New York, relatives but might start now--particularly Louis Demar who lived in New York state for several years, moved to Chicago for approximately twenty years and apparently returned to Clinton County after the 1930 census.

Labels: tips

A search for "Rampley" resulted in a few hits, one of which was this biography from a Bedford County History. While I already had located the biography, this full text search would have made it easy to find in seconds--much easier than the first time I located it.

Of course, tracking your research is important. Part of the post here also includes part of the title page from the 1884 publication. And don't forget the page number.

Thomas Chaney is my ancestor--I descend through his daughter Elizabeth Chaney Rampley.

Labels: chaney, rampley, tips

The Family History Archive at Brigham Young University has digitzed a number of family histories and placed them on their website.

I found one book that I already had used years ago, but it is nice to know I can easily access it if I want to refer to pages that I did not copy originally.

• DeMoss Family In America, by Edith Caughron

A clip from page 19 of the DeMoss Family in America is a part of this post (John DeMoss born 1718 is my ancestor). Of course, be certain to doublecheck anything you find in a published family history. These are excellent resources, but they are still compiled sources. The images are full-text searchable and pages can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat. No membership or account is required to use the site.

Labels: books, demoss, tips

We've looked for great-great-grandma for years on passenger lists and I'm just excited to find her (I think).

Labels: tips, ufkes

Family Search Record Search has added some of the WW2 draft cards for the "Old Men's Draft" for those men born between 28 April 1877 and before 16 February 1897.

At the time of this writing, the project is 29% complete, including the states of:

• Delaware
• Illinois
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• Pennsylvania
• Puerto Rico
• Rhode Island
• West Virginia

Cards are arranged pretty much alphabetically by state and users have to browse these images--at present there is no "click and get it right away" index. However, this still is an excellent set of records to have available at no cost.

The sample image is from Peter Verikios, my wife's step-grandfather. I've got a whole bunch more to find in the Illinios set of data. I had searched these before, but time never allowed me to search for all the cards I really wanted.

Labels: draft, tips, verikios

This page (which I don't link to anywhere) gets quite a bit of traffic, so I thought I'd mention it here.

Researching Your European Origins Online http://www.rootdig.com/european2.html is a page I use as a part of my lecture on this same topic. It is not meant to be comprehensive and is more intended to be a starting point for further work. Maintaining a page with hundreds of links is not something I care to do, but this is a good place to get started and provides links to pages I use when I'm working on a family from "across the pond."

Mailing lists are especially helpful. The Ostfriesen mailing list at Rootsweb is one of the best around.

Labels: tips

We've posted two articles on our site on searching the 1870 census. The discussion is applicable to other years as well and focuses on alternate spellings for names, variant last names, places of birth, and other issues with locating people in the census. The focus is on organizing and thinking about what you want to search before you start mindlessly entering names in search boxes.

• Ready to Try 1870
• 1870 Census Finds

The second article centers on an analysis of entries located while trying to search for Johann Ufkes (born 1838 Ostfriesland, Germany) in the 1870 census and provides some ways to analyze entries.

Unfortunately I have not found either person (Johann Ufkes or Ira Sargent) I was looking for in 1870. But the search continues.

Labels: 1870 census, census, sargent, tips, ufkes

1. I could have written the name of the paper and the date on the original and then my scan would have included that information.


2. I could have used my photoediting software to add the same information in text format on the document.


3. I could have included the source in the file name of the document--without being too long.

Probably the best option is 1 or 2 and 3. File names are not always included with printouts, so that is a limitation of only using option three. Including the source in the file name (along with the name of the person on the scan), makes it easier to search the hard drive or media for specific words or phrases.

My attempt to date and locate the source would require using contextual clues from the document. I already know the paper is one in the Chiago area, which could have been determined using the place names and addresses. Had the year not been known already, a perpetual calendar and contextual clues would have given a good guess as to the paper's date. The real problem would be in determining in which newspaper the obituary actually appeared.

The desired obituary on this page was that of Peter Verikios. He's my wife's step-great-grandfather. At least I copied more than his obituary which helped to provide additional contextual references. It is usually a good idea to copy a little more than you think you will need.

Labels: tips

Many of us write our genealogical citations on the source, particularly if we are in a facility where we are making photocopies or receive photocopies in the mail. As mentioned earlier, black ink works best.

There is an article on the Board for Certification of Genealogists' website on this very topic. Those who are concerned about tracking their sources (as we all should be) may want to take a look at Amy Johnson Crow's article from the May 2000 issue of On Board, published by the Board for Certification of Genealogists.

Labels: tips

My continuing work into the Neely-Rathbone scandal located two references in Meekel's Weekly Stamp News as mentioned in a previous post.

Fortunately my librarian was able to quickly and easily obtain copies of the articles. Unfortunately the library supplying the material to me did not write an issue date on my copy [nor was it on the newspaper itself]. I was lucky that the article request form was sent to me along with the articles and I was able to determine the date of each reference. But always make certain you have dates and other relevant sourcing information for any copies of materials you make.

And don't write in green ink. It doesn't always copy or scan well ;-)

The image in this post is from Meekel's Weekly Stamp News on 24 May 1900.

Labels: tips

Like many genealogists, I use the online newspapers at:
World Vital Records
Genealogy Bank
Ancestry.com

However it is worth remembering that these newspaper collections are sometimes incomplete and that other sites may have newspapers on them as well, in some cases for free.

The Quincy, Illinois, Public Library is a good case in point. They have scanned old Quincy area newspapers from the microfilm, and created a digital database that can be searched. The interesting thing is that I KNOW I have searched this database for the last name Trautvetter several years ago and already viewed all the small number of hits. Today a search for that name again (on a whim) resulted in two new hits, including the one that is shown in this post. I would have remembered seeing this reference.

The Quincy Daily Journal from Quincy, Illinois 22 March 1918 listed those who had taken their teacher exams for second and third grade. A surprise to me was the listing of Luella Trautvetter from Mendon, Illinois. I never knew my great aunt had taken the teacher exam. She would have been 17 and a half years old at the time she took the exam.

If not for the digital version of the newspaper, I would never have located this reference.

The digital archives of the Quincy [Illinois] Public Library can be found on their site.

Labels: tips, trautvetter

Just because two individuals have the same last name does not mean that they are related. Researchers working on a Smith family know that two people with this common last name are not related, but what about a more unusual surname?

Well it depends on the origination of the name (and that even is not a guarantee) and jumping to conclusions makes for bad research.

One of my ancestral surnames is Habben--a somewhat unusual name. In Ostfriesland, Germany, where many of these families originate the surname is somewhat more common. However, the name is a patronym actually meaning "child of Habbe." While patronymics was practiced, two men with the first name Habbe would have children with the last name of Habben--though there might have been no relationship.

Sweden is full of Larsons, Carlsons, etc. for exactly the same reason--patronymics.

Even surnames that are not patronymical in origin may be shared by two unrelated individuals. This is especially true with surnames such as Baker, Farmer, Lake and other names that may have been derived from occupations or nearby geographical features.

There may be cases where all individuals with the same surname are related, but let research, not your gut, be your guide. My tentative hypothesis is that all or most individuals with the last name of Trautvetter are related. However, research is not complete and just because the name is concentrated in a certain area of Germany does not mean there was one common ancestor.

Last names can be used as clues to relationships. But a last name only means it was that person's last name, not that he (or she) had to be related to someone else.

Labels: tips

My family has lived in Illinois for generations.

Yet my parents were born in Iowa. My grandfather died in Iowa. My great-grandmother died in Iowa. The reasons is simple: the county where I grew up did not have a hospital until the 1950s. The nearest hospital for many was in Keokuk, Iowa, across the Mississippi River.

When researching in a time period when births and deaths typically took place "at home," the location of the nearest hospital is not as much of a concern. However, during that era, the location of the nearest hospital is important as the death or birth record will be filed there, not where the person was living.

Regardless of the time period, it is always important to remember that birth and death records are filed where they took place. If Grandma moved during the last six months of her life to live with her daughter that's where it will be recorded.

And that's also why later sources providing secondary information may be incorrect.

Just something to think about.

Labels: tips

Online images and databases are nice, but it is worth noting that there are still vast quantities of information that are available only in paper form. Local county records housed in the original courthouse come to mind as records that are occasionally overlooked (and do not assume that the Family History Library filmed EVERYTHING if they "filmed a courthouse.").

Another overlooked source are manuscript collections, materials that may be housed in a library or a private archives, with letters, files and other documents that may have been donated at some point in time.

A google search was how I located information on Philip Troutfetter in a manuscript collection at the Kansas Historical Society. I was fortunate that the finding aid to this Bristow collection was online. If it had not been I would have been unable to locate the reference as easily as I did. I'm working on locating additional papers regarding the investigation into Troutfetter.

Searching World Cat (http://www.worldcat.org) may also bring up some manuscript collection,but bear in mind that only the "main" names in a collection are indexed--not every name. And the material has to have been cataloged and uploaded to OCLC in order to appear in Worldcat. That it not true of every item in every collection.

Labels: tips

There is an interesting blog on upstate New York Genealogy maintained by Dick Hillenbrand. It is nice to have a site for New York that focuses on areas outside the city for those of us whose work in New York does not usually require information on NYC.

My wife's great-grandmother was born in 1895 in Clinton County, New York, which I think is about as upstate as one can get. I found a few hits for "Clinton County" when I did a search of his blog. And there's general research advice and information on his site as well.

Labels: tips

Ancestry.com released a version of a database of land patent data from the land patent database at the Bureau of Land Management. The Ancestry.com Land Patent Database currently does not contain information on as many states as the database at the Bureau of Land Management does.

I was excited however as the Ancestry.com version allows users to search based upon keywords. That search apparently does not function in the way I think or it does not function. Searches of keywords for "smith" and "johnson" resulted in no hits, yet there are obviously names such as those in the actual database.

The Bureau of Land Management contains more states, is free to use and contains a Visitor's Center that provides a background on the patents and the land description process followed in federal land states. Understanding how land is described is crucial to searching effectively.

Some time ago I made an extended post about using the Bureau of Land Management site.

Labels: ancestry, land, tips

A search of the 1910 census index at Ancestry.com resulted in 4342 hits when searching for natives of Antarctica. Some of these are very difficult to read and others are probably typographical errors.

Just remember to consider leaving out place of birth when doing a census search.

I did not look to see whether or not these Antarctica natives were living in warm or cold US climes.

Labels: tips

Juliana Smith at the Ancestry.com Blog recently posted my article "Avoiding Assumptions."
It contains a list of suggested assumptions that we have to make sometimes and discusses when these assumptions should be dropped and the importance of realizing that you have made assumptions. There are times when we have made our own brick walls.

The complete article "Avoiding Assumptions" can be viewed on the Ancestry.com blog for free.

Labels: articles, tips

Rarely is all genealogical information consistent. This is one of the reasons that most genealogical software programs allow for multiple dates of birth, multiple places of birth, etc. This way one can accurately record what each record indicates. It is up to the researcher to determine which location or date is most accurate. This largely is dependent upon the perceived accuracy of the individual sources, etc. Then one can choose the "preferred" date or location. It is always important to include your reasoning as to WHY that date or location was chosen.

Another way to analyze conflicting information is to create a discrepancy chart, listing each different date or place and where that information was obtained. I wrote an article some time ago on using these charts. Unfortunately, I am no closer to learning about great-grandma's parents than when the article was written several years ago.

Labels: tips

Those on Rootsweb mailing lists know that things are suppose to stay on topic and that attachments are not allowed.

Our Ostfriesen mailing list at Rootsweb set up an "extra" list on Googlegroups so other things could be discussed outside of genealogy, but still related to our common heritage. This is a great idea for any ethnic based list at Rootsweb.

One of the recent postings was for a New Year's Cookie, which we may give a try this year. It will also be a good lesson for the kids in metrics!

Labels: ostfriesland, tips

Undocumented Chaos

from the Ancestry Daily News Michael John Neill – 10/16/2002

As genealogists looking to the past, we are forced to focus on paper records left behind by our forebears. We also use historical records and information about larger historical movements and cultural trends to reasonably infer things about our ancestor's lives. For many of us, there are times when neither of these sources or approaches is particularly helpful. Sometimes things just do not make any logical sense. There are times when our confusion stems from a misconception or ignorance we have about records, history, or cultural practices. But there are times when we've tried to learn as much as we can about the situation and perhaps have asked others more knowledgeable about the area to help us out. At times even the experts are stumped.

And so I occasionally wonder: Did some event in my ancestor's life throw the entire family into chaos?

Some of these events may be easily documented. There generally are records of epidemics, natural disasters, or the closing of a major employer (the main exception being when these first two events took place on the extremely raw frontier). The impact may have been very direct and very immediate. County historical societies, newspapers, county histories, or other sources may provide at least some information on an outside event in our ancestor's life. The loss of employment by the father, the death of three family members due to an epidemic, or a massive flood might have easily thrown a family into turmoil. The more difficult situation is where the causal event left no record.

The connection may not always be easy to make.

Maybe . . .

A marriage was hastened in an attempt to avoid the draft?

An emigration took place to avoid compulsory military service?

A sudden move took place because the father lost a job?

A move took place because of a significant economic opportunity?

A child left home because of a difficult step-parent?

A son left for California to pan for gold?

In these cases the causes are partially discernable. Rash generalizations should not be made. When the outside factor is something large and something relatively well known it is easier to logically connect it to events that took place within the family. It is important though not to grasp at straws and create convoluted soap operas to fit scant ancestral records.

Where's The P?

In logic classes, students study implication, cause, and effect. If p happens then q happens as a result. The problem in some family history situations is that we have the q, but have no idea what the p was that preceded it.

There are many explanations for the p above, but we'll focus now on events within the family that might have caused other family members to react. They might have responded in ways that do not always make sense when analyzed two hundred years later without the perspective of living within the actual family itself as it endures the turmoil.



Did Some Event Throw Your Ancestor's Life Into Chaos?

Did one parent die at a young age? The death of the father (typically the breadwinner) might have been a major challenge for the family. The death of the mother (typically the housekeeper and minder of the children) would have been equally difficult, especially if the older children were not of an age to take care of the younger ones. If your ancestral family was living in an
area outside their kin network, the death of one young parent might have hit them especially hard.



Hubby Dead . . . Mouths To Feed

One ancestor died in the 1850s while in his early thirties. His widow Barbara was left with two small children in a town several hundred miles from where they had married and had family. As a German immigrant, Barbara likely spoke little English and had few marketable skills. The small river town where she lived offered few employment opportunities. Her options were
extremely limited, she did not have some of the options her great-great-great-grandchildren may have today. Within six months of her husband's death she married a man who left her two months later. The records only point towards the recorded facts, they provide little idea of the
likely situation in Barbara's home. And while we cannot find a tombstone, the breadwinner of her family was buried in the local cemetery and she was left with two young children to care for. She did the only thing she could: she ran her husband's tavern for several years until she married for the third time. And from newspaper records, that tavern was quite a place.

I had another ancestor die and leave a widow with children in Kentucky in 1814. The children were old enough to help out and the husband left the wife with a few hundred acres of property. Records are scant, but it appears this forty-something widow was not in quite the same situation as my German immigrant in the 1850s. Still, the road after her husband's death was likely not easy.

In some cases, children may have scattered after the father's death as a necessity. Some may have gone to live with other family members or even strangers. Some may have been apprenticed to learn a marketable skill, potentially leaving records. These apprenticeship records (if available) are typically found at the county level. In some cases, there may be records of guardianships as well. But if the family was particularly poor, records of
guardianships may be non-existent.


Wife Dead . . . Mouths To Feed

A young widower with small children was in a similar situation, especiallyif there were no nearby family members to provide childcare. Widowers who had older female children may have enlisted them to help care for younger siblings. One of my own ancestors married three times, wives one and two likely dying in childbirth and leaving behind several small children. This ancestor waited a year, at most, to remarry.


My own great-great-grandmother "disappears" ca. 1882 and her two young daughters live with other families for several years, apparently while the father gets things "together." I am not exactly certain what happened in this family. All I know is that the mother "left" (or so I've been told) and was never heard from again.

Unknown Chaos?

Some of the cases already discussed leave records that hint at the problems. Some situations can reasonably be explained by other historical records. Not all chaotic situations leave behind records delineating the problem. And the records that do document the results rarely focus on the past. There may be no record indicating a family member was mentally unstable or had an alcohol problem. Yet these situations may have impacted the family significantly, perhaps for generations.



The family of the sibling of one of my great-great-grandparents had particular difficulties. The mother apparently became mentally unstable in the 1880s while the children were young. She died a few years later. The father never remarried and knew two things: "how to acquire land and drink whiskey." A doctor who visited the family at about the same time said he never knew a family who lived in such squalor. One of the children was classified as "simple" and intentionally injured himself on at least one occasion. It is not difficult to see how the family lost contact with other family members, particularly the mother's family. Nor is it difficult to see
why some family members show little interest in their family's past.


This family's home life is partially documented only because upon the father's death there was legal trouble and court records provide a scant paragraph on the family's past. Had there been no money worth going to court about, this family's lifestyle would not have been documented.

Was there chaos in your ancestor's life? There might have been, but the problem will be in proving it. The real problem is that the chaos frequently creates records that make no sense without a rough knowledge of the underlying issues.

Copyright 2002, MyFamily.com, Inc.Used by the author on his website with permission.

Labels: articles, tips

I've been using the Historical Newspapers at GenealogyBank in an attempt to learn more about Philip Troutfetter, who was involved in some interesting financial activity in Colorado around the turn of the twentieth century. I love to do soundex and wildcard searches when possible, but GenealogyBank does not allow Soundex searches (however wildcard searches are possible at GenealogyBank).

I find it best to make a list of variant spellings of the name before beginning any search.

Here's a few:

Trautvetter
Trautfetter
Troutfetter
Troutvetter
Trantvetter
Trantfetter
Troutfelter
Trautvelter

There are MORE.

It is important to remember that when printed materials are digitized, letters can easily be misread. For that reason, Trautvelter is a reasonable variant as is Trantvetter. Small "e" can also be misread as a "c." Searching records that have been digitized and indexed with OCR requires thinking about how letters can be misinterpreted if part of the image is difficult to read.

Labels: genealogybank, ocr, tips

I have written before about the estate settlement of Anna Haase in Hancock County, Illinois, in the 1950s. Anna died with no descendants and this wonderful probate lists all her heirs as of the time of her death in Novenber of 1955--over forty heirs. Anna had five siblings who pre-deceased her, and several of her neices and nephews were deceased as well, only increasing the number of heirs.

Anna's mother Barbara Siefert Bieger Fennan Haase Haase (died 1903 Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois) had children with Peter Bieger and Conrad Haase. Her estate settlement in the 1950s essentially is a genealogy of her mother's descendants compiled fifty years after her mother died.

The probate lists the heirs, their relationship to Anna, and their address. Also listed were how the heirs were related. My initial attempts to find these individuals has been somewhat successful. Generally speaking, I used census records online at ancestry.com to find the family groups in 1900-1930 census records where possible . The estate settlement did not mention spouses or ages or places of birth and census enumerations were helpful in obtaining approximate ages to allow me to more effectively search other records. This also helped me put together more complete family groups and get details on individuals that did not appear in the estate settlement.

I searched for these various family members at:

World Vital Records, using in particular their:

• Newspapers
• Birth, Marriage and Death Records

GenealogyBank, using in particular their:

• Modern Obituaries
• Historical Newspapers

Given that many of the males were required to register for the World War I Draft, I used the database of World War I Draft Cards at Ancestry.com as well. There were other databases used at Ancestry.com that I also used, but the census records and the World War I Draft Cards were particularly helpful for my problem.

I too am a relative of Anna Haase, but I wasn't alive when she died. Her oldest sister, Franciska Bieger Trautvetter (1851-1888) is my great-great-grandmother.

Labels: anna haase, tips

This picture taken by my daughter a few years ago makes two important points. Watch your shadow and avoid getting it on the stone. Of course, photoediting software can help in getting rid of the shadow, but that may take more time than avoiding it in the first place and you don't want your photo to look "doctored."

And watch the feet. There are toes in the bottom of this picture. Those are easily cropped out.

Labels: tips, tombstones

I've been reviewing several tombstone photographs we took several years ago. There are a few things I would do differently:

Labels: tips, tombstones

There is a reason that genealogists are told to work from the present to the past and not to "skip around."

My wife's great-grandfather is William Apgar, born around 1888 in Chicago. I spent hours looking at Apgar families in 1880 and in 1900 (and in city directories), trying to get an idea of who his parents could be.

Turns out Apgar was not his last name after all--it was a last name he took upon his marriage for reasons I am not entirely aware of. His marriage record and a 1910 census enumeration, along with some other information made it clear that his name at birth was actually William Frame. All that time spent looking for Apgars was for naught. Had I worked on him in more detail initially in the 1909-1920 time frame, I would have realized this and not spent so much time looking for the wrong family.

And for those who wonder if Apgar was a name in William's background, the answer is no. It appears he simply chose the name from somewhere other than his own family history.

Labels: apgar, tips

Labels: haase, tips

Labels: mueller, tips

When I was in Salt Lake last May, one of my goals was to search for some declarations of intent and other naturalization documents on a few of my ancestors.

Like other documents, declarations of intent to become a citizen can vary greatly from one location to another and from one time period to another. Those familiar with naturalization research and history realize that records before 1906 are less detailed and less uniform than records after the 1906 reform.


There are two declarations of intent included in this post. The first one comes from Adams County, Illinois in 1856. Bernard Dirks is simply stating his intent to naturalize. It is not known (yet) when he immigrated, but it was likely close to the time this declaration was filed in April of 1856.





The second declaration of intent (partially shown in this post) comes from 1853 in Hancock County, Illinois, just north of Adams County. This form is significantly more detailed than the 1856 form for Bernard Dirks. In this declaration, George Trautvetter indicates his date and place of birth in Germany and his date and place of landing in the United States. His declaration was filed on 4 January 1855, a year and a half (approximately) after his immigration in July of 1853. Why the delay is not known. George did settle in Hancock County, Illinois, pretty much immediately after his arrival in the United States as he is listed as a resident of Hancock County, Illinois, when he purchased property in the fall of 1853.

Unfortunately, declarations of intent are not always preserved at the county level and as we have seen here there can be inconsistencies in how much information they contain. However, they should still be included as a part of any research plan for immigrant ancestors. And don't forget that before 1906, any court of record could naturalize.

Labels: dirks, tips, trautvetter

Labels: dirks, tips

The second image is larger and only shows the directions of each line. It gives a little better perspective. What I really need to do is fit all the deeds together in order to better understand what property Thomas Sledd owned at his death and how that property was allocated amongst his heirs.

Labels: land, Sledd, tips

Labels: lake, tips

Granville is my wife's great-grandfather.

Labels: lake, tips

Labels: dirks, tips

Our earlier post today regarding the Habben family's manifest from 1867 indicated I was having difficulty finding the same entry on Ancestry.com in their index. After some creative searching, I discovered the name was read by the indexers at Ancestry as "Walelsen." I can see it now that I know what they thougth it was. Of course, it looks like "Habben" to me, but that's because I already know what it is.

Labels: habben, tips

This is part of the 21 Oct 1867 arrival manifest for the Union which landed in New York City.

The names are intended to be:

• Mimke Habben
• Antje Habben
• Trientje Habben
• L[ubbe] Habben
• Jasper Habben
• H.
• John
• M.
• J.
• Ger.
• Inft.

The names are a little "off" from what they actually are, but they are very close considering.

I actually located the reference several years ago using the Germans to America series--which included the last name spelled as "Habben." I am trying to find the family in Ancestry.com's indexes and so far have struck out. I'll keep trying and post a followup message on how these names appear in their database.

Labels: habben, tips

All of us at one point in time or another have difficulty locating someone in a census. Juliana Smith just posted my article on Ancestry's blog with a list of census searching reminders. Feel free to post your own suggestions at the bottom of the post.

The article can be viewed here on Ancestry.com's blog.

Labels: census, tips

Georgia recently uploaded an index of it's death certificates from 1919-1927. There are many search options, including first and last name.

The nice thing is that if one does an "advanced" search, one can search all the name fields, including those of the parents. This made it easier for me to track the movements of some extended members of the Rampley family, including Rachel, whose son's Samuel Mosley's death certificate from 1921 is partially shown on the left.

I'll be spending more time with advanced search. Feel free to post your tips for using the site here as well.

Labels: tips

Many genealogists use ebay to make a variety of purchaes. Keep in mind when buying books that you may be bidding on a book that is still in print. Find out what the publisher is charging for the book before you bid. I have seen several occasions where a bidder ends up paying MORE for the book on ebay than they would have had they purchased the book directly from the publisher.

I ususally try and find the book for sale somewhere else online and then use that to base my bid--assuming of course that the book is still in print.

Save your extra genealogy money for copies ;-)

Labels: ebay, tips

My "Tip from the Pro" which appeared in last week's Ancestry World Journal.

Disappearing Ancestors in Census Records

You have found your ancestor in the 1820 and 1830 censuses, but he
cannot be located in the 1840 census. What can you do? There are
several approaches, but one idea is to locate his 1820 and 1830
neighbors in the 1840 census and see if your ancestor is nearby with
his name woefully misspelled or written in a barely legible fashion.
It is possible that your ancestor moved out of state; locating those
1820 and 1830 neighbors in that "new" location may allow you to find
your ancestor living there among them.

Of course, it is always possible that your ancestor is dead in 1840
and not enumerated at all. And there is always the chance that if he
is living with one of his grown children in 1840 that the grown child
is listed as the head of the household. In this case, the ancestor is
there, but just one of the "tic" marks for an older family member.

Labels: census, tips

The headline appeared on a news website:

"Auction houses that won't sell"

Does it mean auction houses have things they will not sell or does it mean you can auction your own home if your own home does not sell?

The latter was the intent.

Make certain your genealogical writing is clear as well. If something can be interpreted in more than one way, rephrasing is probably necessary. Creating ambuigity is never a good thing for the genealogist.

Labels: tips

Notices of the estate settlement were posted in 5 places for my ancestor's 1918 estate settlement:

Two local banks.
Two local meat markets.
and what appears to be a harness shop.


The banks did not surprise me, but I was a little surprised that notices would be posted at the two meat markets and a harness shop (the 1920 census for Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois, indicates a 69 year old Joseph Radford living on Marion Street and working as a harness maker).

What is really interesting about John Trautvetter's estate settlement is that a copy of the actual sale bill is included in the estate papers.

Labels: tips, trautvetter

This entry is from the estate settlement of Mimke Habben, indicating his tombstone cost the estate $50.00. The burial was in 1877 and based upon the estate records, it seems reasonable that the stone was erected within a year or so after his death in Prairie Township, Hancock County, Illinois on 11 February 1877.

Habben was buried in the Barnes Cemetery, Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois. This small cemetery hasn't had a burial in decades and is located south of the much larger (and still used) Moss Ridge Cemetery. I was there on Sunday and had not seen the sto