Month: August 2020

What Is McKeown?

It is easy to criticize indexers and transcriptionists for making mistakes. But there are times when it is easy to see how such “mistakes” are made. This 1964 California death certificate for Georgiana Elliott makes the point. Box 9 is for “Maiden name and birthplace of mother.” The clerk has entered “unk, McKeown, Pennsylvania.” Box […]

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Yellow Warters

The reference was in an 1803 affidavit made out in a court case regarding the death of horse in Amherst County, Virginia. The cause of the horse’s death was not really genealogically relevant in any way, but it was an item of interest. Learning more about the cause of death could help my understanding of […]

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How Specific for that Place of Birth?

My great-grandfather’s sister-in-law died in Montana in the 1940s. The Illinois native was born in the 1880s in Hancock County, Illinois. At this point in the research, her place of birth has been recorded as: Breckenridge, Illinois West Point, Illinois Sutter, Illinois Obviously a person cannot be born in more than one place. These places […]

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