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 […]
Author: Kenneth R Marks
Kenneth R Marks was born and educated in the San Francisco Bay Area, receiving a BS in Mathematics in 1968. His career was in Information Technology; with the last 20 Years as a software executive with Boeing, Pearson, and NASA. His genealogy career began in 2004. He is an expert in newspaper research for genealogy, as well as additional genealogy topics. He regularly conducts webinars on the subject and has authored three genealogy books. See the About page for more details.
The Ancestor Hunt, founded in 2008, is focused on helping genealogy and family history researchers of all skill levels to achieve their goals, by providing links to free online genealogy collections, and search tips and techniques, largely via easy-to-understand Quick Reference Guides.
What if your ancestors’ marriage involved more than two people exchanging vows? A Dowry Agreement could document money, land, livestock, household goods, or other property contributed to a marriage—and identify the relatives who provided it. For genealogists, these agreements can reveal parents, guardians, family relationships, property ownership, and financial arrangements that might never appear in […]
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 […]
GenealogyBank, a subscription newspaper site, has announced its updates for last month. There are 15 New Titles and 3 Titles that have had issues added in the previous month. From GenealogyBank: Here are some of the details about our most recent U.S. newspaper additions: To see our newspaper archives’ entire title list of more than […]
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: […]