Month: January 2019

Dad Heads to Texas and We Hosted a Dance

On 2 December 1898, the Warsaw Bulletin, published in Warsaw, Illinois, indicated that Mike Troutvetter[sic] was headed to Corsicana, Texas, accompanying J. L. Welier and family. The Weliers were “leav[ing] for their new home.” The reference did not specifically state that Trautvetter was making his new home in Texas–just that he was accompanying the Weliers on […]

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No Farm of Less Than 3 Acres

Census instructions matter, but genealogists do not always read them as often as they should. The image that is a part of this post comes from a set of instructions for the United States federal agricultural census schedules found on the www.census.gov website. It says that: “No farm will be reported of less than 3 acres, unless […]

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A Telephone, A Mail Route, and Proximity to Schools: Selling a Farm in 1915

The classified ads in a newspaper can provide more clues about something than simply who was selling what and when. This 1915 advertisement from Quincy, Illinois’ Daily Journal contains a “for sale” notice for a farm owned by my ancestor, Henry Sartorius. I don’t know just from this advertisement whether Henry lived on the farm at the […]

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It Can Happen in an Instant

Many things are relative. The use of word “instant” (often abbreviated as “inst.”) is one of those things. Newspapers are one of the places where the genealogist first encounters “instant” in the sense of meaning “this month.” “Instant” does not necessarily mean in the past. The 1865 newspaper reference indicated that the troops would start […]

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Needing Permission to Get Married?

When searching and utilizing marriage records, do you always consider the age of the bride and groom? Do you ask yourself if they were of legal age to marry and what additional information may be in their marriage record if consent was required? Going back as far as my great-great-grandparents, I only have two ancestral […]

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Her Cross

It’s common for someone to make “their mark” on a document when they are not able to sign it. It usually means the signer is illiterate, but they also could simply be unable to physically sign their name. This document, from the probate file of Benjamin Butler in Vernon County, Missouri, contains a request from […]

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