The Ancestor Hunt

What if your ancestors had to prove they were free to marry before the wedding could take place? A Marriage Investigation File may contain much more than a simple marriage record. Created when a religious authority needed to examine a proposed marriage more closely, the file could include statements from the bride and groom, witness […]

A death certificate may tell you how your ancestor died. A Coroner’s Case File may tell you what happened. When a death was sudden, accidental, violent, suspicious, or otherwise required investigation, the coroner could accumulate an entire file rather than create a single record. Witness statements, medical reports, photographs, correspondence, police information, and personal effects […]

What if dozens of people signed your ancestors’ marriage certificate? Quaker marriage certificates can be remarkable genealogy documents. Because Friends traditionally married in the presence of their meeting rather than through a conventional clergy-led ceremony, the resulting certificate could include the bride and groom, their parents, the marriage location and date—and the signatures of relatives, […]

Before there was a death certificate for every individual, there was often a book. Clerks, registrars, churches, hospitals, and other institutions recorded deaths line by line in registers—sometimes preserving names, dates, family relationships, birthplaces, causes of death, and burial information. A Death Register may be the original surviving record of an ancestor’s death, not merely […]

What if your ancestors needed special permission before they could marry? A marriage dispensation allowed a religious authority to waive an obstacle that otherwise prevented or delayed a marriage. The reason for that obstacle—perhaps a close family relationship, different religious affiliation, or another restriction—can produce exactly the kind of genealogical information researchers hope to find. […]

A gravestone tells you who is buried there. A cemetery interment card may tell you who is buried around them—and why. Created as part of a cemetery’s working records, interment cards can contain burial dates, grave and lot locations, funeral homes, relatives, lot owners, and other details that never made it onto the gravestone. Even […]

Marriage wasn’t always just a union between two people—it could also be a carefully negotiated financial arrangement between families. A marriage contract may identify property, children from earlier marriages, inheritance rights, relatives, trustees, and assets that the bride or groom brought into the marriage. For genealogists, the people and property named in the agreement can […]

An obituary doesn’t have to be online for you to find it. For decades, librarians, genealogical societies, historical societies, and volunteers have read local newspapers and created obituary indexes pointing researchers to notices buried in microfilm and bound newspaper volumes. A good obituary index can give you the two pieces of information you really need: […]