Month: December 2016

Read Enough…

[I posted this short piece to my Facebook wall and decided to share it here as well. Just some food for thought.] Legal documents can be wrong. Peer-reviewed, edited materials written by stuffed-shirt academics can use terminology incorrectly, get details wrong, and reach unsupported conclusions.  Live long enough or do enough research and you’ll encounter […]

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Early 20th Century Confirmations Confirm and Question

The records of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) as digitized on Ancestry.com have been mentioned before. The digital version of these records contains an index that is only partial and usually just includes records of baptisms, marriages, funerals, and some confirmations. It is still advised to browse the digital images of these records manually. There are other […]

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Tombstones in Books

Nothing lasts forever, even a tombstone. While personally visiting a cemetery, having a local person take pictures, or using modern pictures on websites such as FindAGrave are options, there are times when the stone is weathered and unreadable, broken into too many pieces to read, or simply no longer extant. That’s one reason why published or […]

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Deacon Gibson Marries in 1755

There’s two reasons why I nearly overlooked this 1755 marriage for Timothy Gibson in Stow, Massachusetts: He was approximately seventy-six when he married in 1755. His first wife had died early in 1754 and frankly I didn’t think he married again. I’m well aware that some people do marry at that age, but really didn’t […]

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For Good and Weighty Reasons: Holman to Gibson

The vast majority of times land deeds contain pretty much dry, mundane details: who is selling or transferring the land to someone–grantor who is receiving the land–grantee where the property is located–the legal description how much money (if any) is changing hands–the consideration date of execution date of acknowledgement date of recording Sometimes that is […]

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Cleaning Mother’s House–Reprint

  [This ran in the Ancestry Daily News in 2002–we’re rerunning it since it’s always a timely piece.] It has been nearly a year since fictional genealogist Barbara passed away. Her daughter Charlene reflects upon that year in a letter to her friend Karen. Charlene truly has been busy. Barbara is probably rolling over in […]

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Happy Holidays From Rootdig

Happy Holidays and Season’s Greetings! I posted this image to Genealogy Tip of the Day, but thought I’d share it here as well. This Santa Claus was real and lived in Missouri most of his life. Those who have a little free time on their hands will discover that he spent some time in Colorado around […]

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