Month: September 2016

& I Was Reading Too Fast

This image was also posted to the Facebook page for Genealogy Tip of the Day but it’s seems like a good reminder for most of us. I encountered this petition from Mary Brown to be appointed the guardian of her daughter of the same name in Stow, Massachusetts, in 1766 (Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Probate Case File […]

Share

A Good Time to Use a Derivative Source

Derivative sources are only used by wayward genealogists who have not seen the light of original sources. A curse on the genealogical research of anyone who uses derivative sources. A curse on anyone who makes such grandiose statements. There are times when derivative sources can and should be used. The key, like the key to […]

Share

An Illegal Homestead Filing: Part II

Continuing our “Illegal Homestead Filing” story… True to what she said in her affidavit, Cornelia Albers did file a claim for her homestead on 17 December 1883 as evidenced by this receipt for the $9 filing fee paid in the North Platte, Nebraska, land office. This duplicate receipt was apparently the one retained by Cornelia […]

Share

Asking Why?

One needs to wonder, but one needs to avoid drawing conclusions that are not supported by the documents. I’ve been reviewing estate settlement records on three members of the Behrens/Sartorius family who died in Adams County, Illinois, between 1883 and 1889 Herman Sartorius–husband of Volke Behrens–died in 1883. Ulfert Behrens–father of Volke (Behrens) Sartorius–died in 1889. […]

Share

The Skinny on a Skinny Yodeler

Some families are simply known for being long-winded. According to family tradition printed in a privately published 1950-era family history, John Michael Trautvetter went from Illinois to California during the great Gold Rush. Fortune did not smile on John Michael in California. He found no gold and became frustrated. He decided that panning for gold […]

Share

An Illegal Homestead Filing: Part I

Cornelia Albers’ homestead claim in Dawson County, Nebraska, was not your typical homestead claim. Cornelia filed her claim before she was eligible to do so—four days shy of her twenty-first birthday. In an attempt to keep the claim in the family she transferred her improvements on it to her grandmother. Cornelia’s claim was to eighty […]

Share

Finding Catherine Blaine in Revolutionary War Pension Payment Ledgers

There’s an entry for Catherine Blaine in volume S of FamilySearch‘s  “United States Revolutionary War Pension Payment Ledgers, 1818-1872.” Most of the entry is regarding how much she was paid. There is a notation indicating she died 13 January 1856. The date could easily be slightly off, after all the pension office was more concerned about […]

Share