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 […]
Category: QuickSheets
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 […]
Probate research often begins and ends with a will—but the richest genealogical evidence is found in the probate packet, the full collection of documents created when a court settled an estate. These packets contain dozens of papers that reveal relationships, debts, residences, occupations, land boundaries, social networks, guardianships, inventories, and disputes that never appear in […]
While most researchers focus on the main census columns—names, ages, birthplaces, occupations—some of the most revealing information is found in marginal notes, crossed-out entries, symbols, enumerator comments, and side annotations added during data collection or later review. These scribbles and remarks often explain discrepancies, identify temporary absences, clarify household relationships, or point to additional records. […]
Obituaries are one of the most sought after articles that are published in old newspapers. They can be found a multitude of ways. If you are searching newspapers online, there are several methods to get you to the obituary faster and more effectively. There are thousands of indexes to newspaper obituaries that have been created […]
Long before large-scale passenger list systems were established, millions of immigrants and migrants moved inland across America using stagecoaches, railroads, wagons, and early road networks. Although these forms of travel rarely produced formal “passenger lists,” they generated an impressive variety of traces—tickets, baggage records, hotel registers, newspaper notices, timetables, accident reports, and local travel announcements. […]
Find a Grave is one of the most widely used genealogy websites in the world — and also one of the most misunderstood. Millions of memorial pages exist, but genealogists frequently treat each one as a quick lookup: a name, a date, maybe a headstone photo… and then they move on. This approach leaves an […]
Researching ancestors with common names is one of genealogy’s most difficult and time-consuming tasks. When dozens—or even hundreds—of people share the same name in the same state, county, or decade, traditional record-by-record searching quickly becomes overwhelming and misleading. But common-name problems are rarely impossible. The key is to stop relying on the name as your […]
Families who moved frequently—whether across town, across counties, or across the country—leave scattered and inconsistent records that can frustrate genealogical research. But mobility also leaves patterns, paper trails, and clues that, once recognized, can reveal a surprisingly complete picture of a wandering family. This Quicksheet shows you where to look, what to document, and how […]
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to combat nationwide unemployment during the Great Depression. One major component—the WPA Historical Records Survey (HRS)—employed writers, teachers, historians, editors, and clerical workers to document America’s historical and cultural heritage. The purpose of the HRS was: However, in fulfilling this mission, the WPA […]