Month: May 2020

Never Assume Those American Records Are Right–Even If Sometimes They Are

When I saw the index entry in Ancestry.com‘s “Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1519-1969” for Johann Friederich Janssen [Ufkes] in Holtrop, Ostfriesland, Germany, I was concerned–at least initially. Every record on Johann in the United States indicated his birthdate was in 1838. It was in his obituary,the family history, and it was on his tombstone. […]

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Everywhere an Ekke

The 1892 homestead application of Ekke Behrens of Weyerts, Nebraska, makes several good genealogical research points as it contains information other than the number of acres Ekke was farming, what he was growing, and the size of his livestock herd. There is a naturalization record for Ekke Behrens in the homestead application of Ekke Behrens […]

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Starting on My Pictures

I am fortunate enough to have a significant collection of pictures from my parents, grandparents, one great-grandmother, and one of my grandfather’s sisters. Some are in albums with paper mounts, some are in the nefarious “sticky” albums, some are in albums with deteriorating plastic sheets, some are in the original folders, and some are in […]

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Point and Click Oversights

The details have been stripped since some individuals involved are still living. Working on a twentieth century family where there are multiple marriages and divorces can be confusing–names change and obituaries may not state relationships as precisely as one would like. The problem is compounded when the family never seems to stay in one place […]

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That New Cousin

To call him a new cousin is incorrect because I know exactly who he is or as much as one can know someone from a few newspaper references and a locked down Facebook profile. I could stand six feet from him in an essential establishment during this pandemic and not recognize him–wearing a mask or […]

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How Were the Records Made?

Research is not just trolling for images of records and information. That’s gathering or harvesting. Research is sort of like cooking after the items have been gathered. Vegetables may be peeled, bad spots may be cut off, rotten items may be tossed, etc. Not everything ends up being used and things need to simmer, cook, […]

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That’s Not a Matchmaker

The question is the occupation of two daughters of Christian Troutfetter in the 1880 census for Alexandria, Clark County, Missouri. I knew it wasn’t a matchmaker and had a long blog post written up about what it was. Then I decided to just google what it looked like–“mantuamaker.” Sure enough it found it and now […]

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Creating a Neill Cluster

One reason I took a DNA test was so that I could make some discoveries on my Irish immigrant families. Consequently I’ve focused on DNA matches to known descendants of my Irish immigrant ancestors. Samuel and Annie (Murphy) Neill were Irish immigrants (probably from different places) who married in New Brunswick, Canada, in the 1860s. […]

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