OK – you won’t get rich when you find an obituary, but your genealogy research will benefit, and your family history research will get richer. We have a tendency as researchers to underappreciate the value of the documents or articles that we already have acquired, and spend our time looking for new “stuff.” There are […]
Category: QuickSheets
Maybe it’s just me, but I have never heard anyone write or talk about using Alumni Records in their genealogy research. I use them personally and have discovered mountains of information in these gems. I contend that alumni records are part directories, part newspapers and magazines, part biographies, part obituaries, part yearbooks, part vital records, […]
Institutional records are a record set that is sometimes overlooked and a record set that can be difficult to locate and acquire. Many people don’t think to look for institutional records as part of their genealogy research as in the past people who spent time in institutions were not always talked about out of misguided […]
Especially when trying to search the content-rich documents, such as World War I and World War II draft cards, it is often puzzling why a specific person cannot be found. Beyond tricky names and such, it is often difficult because the rules for who needed to register changed several times during each of those wartime […]
What’s a mortality schedule you ask? Well, the U.S. Census Bureau, starting in 1850, began preparing special Non-population Schedules. Population schedules are the ones that we are always using and we tend to call them just “Census Records”. There have been several Non-population schedules, including Agricultural Schedules, Manufacturing Schedules, Social Statistic Schedules, Business Schedules, and […]
Are you trying to find Obituaries for a relative, friend, or ancestor? People will tell you that it is easy – just look in old newspapers, or if it is a recent death, just Google the person’s name to see if there is an online obituary, tribute, or memorial. Here are several questions that you […]
Non-population schedules were census schedules that were created as an adjunct to the “normal census” that was gathered every ten years and still is. Essentially they were gathered to obtain information on special subsets of the population for the government to determine what resources needed to be applied to these special subsets and to obtain […]
A person who starts researching their family history very quickly runs into the question – ”What Happened to the 1890 Census? The Census Bureau explains it best in this link: U.S. Census Bureau History: 1890 Census Fire, January 10, 1921 In summary, there was a fire at the U.S. Commerce building in Washington DC, which […]
Did you know that about 20% of deaths in the United States are investigated by a Coroner or a Medical Examiner? I first got interested when I accidentally found a Coroner’s Report for my Great Aunt, who died in 1911. Her cause of death was accidental and very sad. So I began researching Coroner Reports […]
One of the first databases new family history researchers use is the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). Why? Because it is online and it is free. However, the SSDI has some distinct drawbacks because of some of its inconsistencies. This article explains the background of the SSDI, what data is in it, the inconsistencies, and […]