Personal Life Media

Transcript

Since there are so many different types of genealogical records, we’ve got to know what they are and go after them in a way that makes sense.

As you know by now, we start at the end of an ancestor’s life and work our way backwards to their birth.  So this is the order in which we’re going to pursue their records.  In this episode I cover the types of records that exist, and then I’ll be devoting future episodes to each record type and we’ll go in depth on how and where to find them.

One thought to keep in mind as you try to figure out what might be out there is this:  any time a personal change occurred in the life of your ancestor that affected the government, or any time a financial transaction of some type occurred that involved the government (such as purchasing land), records were created.  And in the same respect, this is also true with religious institutions.  Any time a religious milestone was crossed a record was created. 

So as we talk about the various records that you’re going to be looking for, you’ll notice that it’s often the case that these types of situations were the catalyst for generating the record. 

Vital Records

Marriage Records include application for marriage license, marriage license, and marriage certificate, and church records.  So as you can see, for this one happy event, there are NUMEROUS records that you can look for. 

With each of the various records we cover today, you should ask yourself “would this have made the news?”  In the case of a marriage, the answer is “absolutely.”  And that means that you’ll want to add to your to do list to locate the newspaper from the location and time period of the wedding and see if you can’t find a newspaper article about it.  Maybe you’ll even get lucky and there will be a wonderful photograph of the happy couple!

I just LOVE finding the newspaper article that go along with these milestone events!  That’s where you really get the “color commentary.”  But just to be clear, newspaper articles are not Vital Records, and they are not Primary Sources.   And why is that?  Because they were created after the fact by someone who was not an authority on the event, but rather a distant observer.  So while newspaper articles are fascinating and will absolutely provide you with solid clues, they are not primary sources which means you’re going to want to find solid documents to back up, or dispute for that matter, what was reported.

Cemetery Records

Not only will you be looking for a tombstone which will have family data on it, but very possibly the main office for the cemetery will have records on for that ancestors death and burial

Census Records

In the United States the federal population census is taken every ten years.  Because of privacy rules the most recent census available to the public is the 1930 census.  So we’re backwards you would start with the 1930 and locate your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc.  Then you would go backward to the 1920, then the 1910 and so on. 

The kind of information you’re going to find will depend on the year that the census was taken. In general the more recent the census, the more info you’re going to get.  Most census records will at least give you the names and ages of everyone in the household, which is terrific because it helps you see relationships.

Compiled Records

These are records that were put together by someone else.  If you think about it, there’s a good chance that someone, somewhere has already done some research on your family tree.  And there’s certainly no reason to reinvent the wheel!  Tapping into Compiled Records will get you off to a great start, if you just keep in mind that there may be errors, and you will want to be very careful to continue to look for primary sources for key pieces of information to ensure that it’s right. 

You may have even found some compiled records when you went through your house looking for clues.  Or you might find something more sophisticated like a published family history in the library.  Or a family tree that’s been posted on a website.  So this is all good news because it means that some of the work may already be done.

City Directories

They are basically the phone books of yesteryear. But they are better than phone books because they often listed who was living in the house, and where they worked.  And best of all, in many communities they were issued every year – certainly more often than census records were.  So this means you can follow your ancestor’s movements and work history much more closely.  You can also get an idea of whom their neighbors were and the communities they lived and worked in.  

Wills and Probate

As I mentioned earlier, when a person dies they can generate a lot of records, and there will be even more if they left a will.  These records can be crammed full of relatives, belongings, and intimate information about your ancestor. 

Military Records

Even men who didn’t serve in the military often registered for the draft, and that created a paper record that can be found.  Since the military is an arm of the government it is loaded with paperwork, which means a lot of good data for us.  And along with military records we’ll be looking for military histories, photos and newspaper accounts.  Again, a topic worthy of an entire episode, which you can look forward to.

County Histories

In the U.S. in the 19th century communities were being formed and evolving and the folks in those communities were really proud of what they accomplished so many counties went to great lengths to publish comprehensive histories of their origins all the way to their current day, naming everyone from pioneers to their modern day prominent citizens.  Your ancestors or their families may very likely be found amongst those pages.  And if they aren’t, you will still gain a great deal from reading about the towns, businesses and events that shaped their lives while they lived there. 

Immigration and Naturalization Records

For most of you in the U.S. there will come a point in the research process where you will run in to the time when one of your ancestors immigrated from “the old world” if you will.  The immigration of an ancestor offers up the possibility of finding ship’s passenger lists and manifests.  Immigration often leads to naturalization which was the process your ancestor may have gone through to become a U.S. citizen.  The process was lengthy and generated paperwork such as the Declaration of Intent and the actual citizenship papers.

While you may know what country your ancestor came from, it’s not as likely that you know they name of the town they last lived in or the village where they were born.  Luckily, this information was commonly included in the immigration and naturalization records, and it’s so important because the village name is your key to locating church records in that country. 

Foreign Church Records

Don’t be intimidated by the idea of looking through church records in a foreign language.  There was a rhyme and reason to the records they kept, and with the understanding of just a handful of key words you can absolutely find ancestors in the old world.  I don’t speak a lick of German and yet have gone back several generations in German church records.

Travel Records

When you think about passenger lists, remember that some of our ancestors traveled back to the old country to visit. So there may be passenger lists out there for those trips that weren’t part of their immigration at all. And that kind of travel particularly in the 20th century means there are likely passport applications to be found. 

Land records, Tax Records, Voter’s Registration Records

By thinking in terms of our ancestor’s life activities, and their interactions with the state and with the church, you will very quickly be able to focus in and come up with ideas of where to look. 

Now it’s probably just about impossible to name every single record possible, but this covers a wide range, which is going to give us a lot to work with. 

As you can imagine, many of these records are now available online; some for a fee and some totally free.  In the next episode we are going to talk about what your options are.

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Email Lisa with any questions or suggestions that you have, or just to share your family history experiences. genealogymadeeasy@gmail.com