Genealogy Tip of the Day

Do you have all place names spelled correctly in your genealogical database? I'm not talking about the German village that you can barel...

Remember that in many cases, the indexer indexing the record you are using was not familiar with the names in the area where the records wer...

Are there occupational clues hidden in the inventory of your ancestor's estate? Sometimes it can be difficult determining what your pre-...

The vast majority of records genealogists use were not created for genealogists. Probate records were created to settle estates, land record...

If you arrived at a person's date of birth from a date of death and an age at date of death then the resulting date of birth should be i...

Is there a book on a collateral branch of your family that may provide information on your direct lineage? My great-grandfather's sister...

If you can't find your ancestor in a census, consider that he or she might have been listed without their last name. My ancestor in 1870...

If there is a relative who "disappeared" after a certain point in time, determine if there were any estates they might have inheri...

In current genealogy practice, the adjectives primary and secondary refer to information. Primary information is given by someone who had fi...

In any record, make certain you take note of all column headings. This is particularly true when taking screen shots of record images or tak...

Is that story your aunt Gertrude told you one she heard when she was a small child? Sometimes children only hear parts of things and make up...

This phrase generally means that a widow had more legal powers if she stayed single than if she married after her husband's death. Back ...

Does your ancestor "evaporate" from church records late in their life? Don't assume it is because they died--perhaps they chan...

In courthouses that have them, genealogists often focus on the packet of papers--court papers, probate papers, etc. Don't forget that so...

Is your ancestor enumerated in a census or other record with an extra consonant at the end of their name? Emma Sargent is enumerated as Emor...

When you locate a deed for an ancestor or relative, look a few pages before and after to see if others documents were recorded at the same t...

Sometimes it might be worth it to order a record you "don't" need. My grandmother's brother died in the 1930s with little ...

There was a time when "Ia" stood for Indiana, not Iowa. While today the letters "Ia" usually refer to the state of Iowa,...

Are you searching a digital version of that county history, biography book, etc.? Try searching for locations as well as names. It can be a ...

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Look carefully at that next original document you see. Does it appear that the handwriting was all done at the same time by the same person?...

Think about that letter you think is an "l." Could it actually be a "t" that simply didn't get crossed? Even if the ...

We are excited about Tip of The Day making the Top 40 Genealogy Blogs of 2011 . The offers originally here have expired, but it's not to...

It was late and I was trying to search for a person I knew I had found in an 1860 census--William Brice. After several attempts, there he wa...

A gentleman bemoaned the fact that he could not find his ancestor in the 1880 census. When he asked for help, I asked to see what he knew ab...

Online databases change--sometimes they add data or make corrections. Part of your tracking your search should include the date an online da...

Google maps does not always get every location correct when you see it marked on the google map. Some cities had renumbering or renaming of ...

Remember that your ancestor might not have named all his children in his or her will. They might have had a falling out with some children o...

I was lucky that an ancestor married in October of 1870 a few months after the census. Finding her parents was a little more difficult. I se...

If you don't know what it means, look it up. Misinterpreted terms can create even bigger brick walls for yourself and other researchers....

Your female ancestor marries for the first time in her late teens or early twenties. The marriage takes place apparently several states away...

Keep in mind if your foreign-born ancestor proved a homestead claim in the United States, he had to prove citizenship. What this means is th...

My ancestor's second wife disappeared after his death in the 1880s. Apparently dropped off the face of the earth. Turns out, she married...

There are things that researchers will not be able to pinpoint precisely. No record might exist that provides great-grandfather's exact ...

I've seen quite a few deeds in my genealogy research. Recently I located one where the wife was listed first, instead of the husband. Wh...