Month: February 2017

Is That Brick Wall In Your Head?

This originally ran in the Ancestry Daily News on 14 July 2004. Genealogy brick walls–those problems we think are insurmountable– are frustrating. Occasionally the brick walls are of our own making, and those walls are the ones we are looking at this week. Some ancestors left behind confusing records, but it is possible that we have muddied […]

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A Delayed Birth Certificate By Fifty Years–Part II

It took fifty years to record the 1913 birth of Anna Apgar in Chicago, Illinois. Fortunately it didn’t take me that long to find it. Once I found an index entry for the birth certificate in FamilySearch‘s “Illinois, Cook County Birth Certificates, 1871-1940,” it was significantly less than fifty years before I had an electronic copy. Digital images of […]

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Another Apgar Birth

This 1914 birth certificate from Cook County, Illinois, is the only birth certificate for a child of William Apgar and Mary DeMare that was recorded contemporary to the birth. The birth certificates for their three older daughters all were recorded as delayed certificates. There is no known reason why the earlier births were not recorded […]

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The Importance of “Why There?”

When a record is located for a relative, one should always ask “why there? Why was that record in that place?” Many times the reasons are mundane and have obvious, instant answers. The land deed was recorded in the jurisdiction in which the property was located. The relative died at home and the death certificate […]

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Webinars: FamilySearch Indexes and Land Records

Using Indexes at FamilySearch Sunday, 12 February 2017 from 4-5 central time. Making the best use of indexed materials at FamilySearch requires a knowledge and understanding of how the indexes at FamilySearch work and how they do not. After providing an overview of search strategies to use at FamilySearch we will look at several examples where locating the […]

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Webinar: Do I Cite it All–Determining What to Cite to Prove Your Point

Do I Cite it All?–already given—order download below Making “your case” is more than simply citing every document that mentions a date of birth, a date of death, a marriage, a parent-child relationship, etc. It is determining what to cite, and if no one document states the fact clearly, including all the relevant documents. Depending […]

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Do I Always Cite the Census for Birth?

Questions that include the word “always” are often easy to answer as the answer is often a clear “no” and occasionally a clear “yes.” Questions that don’t include the word “always” are a little more difficult t answer. The question “should I cite a census for the birth?” really depends on the situation. If the […]

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