School district records are an overlooked but exceptionally rich source of genealogical information. Created to track students, teachers, funding, attendance, and local administration, these records can reveal names, ages, residences, guardians, occupations, migrations, family structures, and even social history details not found in censuses or vital records. Because school districts often kept their own ledgers […]
Category: QuickSheets
ArchiveGrid is a powerful but underused discovery tool containing more than 5 million archival collection descriptions from libraries, historical societies, museums, and university archives worldwide. For genealogists, ArchiveGrid is one of the best ways to locate manuscript collections, diaries, letters, photographs, organizational records, business papers, and local history materials related to families, towns, occupations, and […]
BillionGraves is one of the only cemetery databases that captures GPS coordinates for every headstone image, creating precise spatial data not available in most genealogy sources. Beyond simple grave lookups, the GPS features allow genealogists to identify family clusters, reconstruct burial patterns, distinguish same-name individuals, and map migration or community ties within a cemetery. This […]
Have you ever been deep into old court records, probate files, land documents, or early newspaper notices and wondered, “What on earth does this legal term mean?” Many expressions that were once common in legal proceedings have disappeared from modern usage, leaving genealogists puzzled when they encounter them. This Quicksheet provides clear, concise definitions of […]
Jury lists—whether for petit (trial) juries, grand juries, or venire panels—capture everyday citizens drawn for civic duty. While they rarely appear in typical genealogy searches, these lists reveal residence, occupation, property ownership, race, social standing, and FAN-club networks. Because jury pools were drawn from eligible citizens in a specific time and place, they provide strong […]
County plat maps and landowner atlases provide a snapshot of who owned or occupied land at a specific moment in time. Published by county surveyors, mapmakers, and commercial atlas companies—especially during the mid-1800s to early 1900s—these maps show property lines, landowners’ names, acreage, transportation routes, churches, schools, cemeteries, mills, and neighboring families. For genealogists, these […]
In addition to the familiar federal population schedules, many communities, states, and federal agencies created local and special censuses that captured details not found in regular decennial counts. These include school censuses, veterans schedules, agricultural and industrial schedules, and other specialized enumerations designed for taxation, education, military pensions, economic surveys, or local administrative needs. Because […]
FamilySearch’s new Full-Text Search is one of the most quietly powerful features they’ve released in years — and easily overlooked because it’s still labeled “Beta” and buried under the Search menu. Most genealogists assume FamilySearch has no newspapers… but this tool breaks that assumption by indexing millions of pages of digitized periodicals, journals, and yes […]
Chancery courts—also known as equity courts—handled disputes that regular courts of law could not resolve, especially cases involving property, inheritance, estates, contract disagreements, guardianships, and family conflicts. Because these cases required detailed explanations rather than simple legal rulings, they often contain rich narratives describing family members, relationships, land divisions, and personal histories. This makes chancery […]
School census lists, attendance registers, and enrollment logs are among the most overlooked genealogical sources in the United States and Canada. Many survive at the county, district, or state level, often in handwritten ledgers created annually. These records identify children too young to appear in city directories, families who avoided traditional censuses, and movements between […]