Genealogy Tip of the Day

Years ago, I wrote a county in Virginia and asked for the marriage register entry for my ancestors. The county office sent me a copy of thei...

When copying or scanning an entry from a record, particularly one that is handwritten "free-form" in some type of journal, copy at...

Remember that some records, particularly church records, may have no page numbers. Creating a citation for these records can be difficult. O...

I know not everyone uses a research log, but at least try and leave yourself an audit trail or enough breadcrumbs to retrack your research s...

Skipping the introduction to a book, microfilm, or any record can create research problems and make brick walls even worse. Declarations of ...

Search boxes that allow us to quickly find census and other records have changed the way genealogists locate many records and save time. H...

So you've found your ancestor in a personal property tax list? What was required to be in the tax list? Did the person have to be a cert...

Not every location organizes records in the same way. A marriage index indicated my wife's great-grandparents were married in Burlington...

In reading through Civil War pension applications, the one thing that amazes me is the number of people who really didn't know when they...

Every so often, read an article, blog post, etc. about a family or location completely unrelated to your personal research. You likely won...

Every few weeks take a look at what is on FamilySearch http://www.familysearch.org . New information is being added on a regular basis. We a...

Is it possible that some of your ancestor's children were sent to live with neighbors or strangers? That may explain why you cannot find...

Make certain when you get a copy of a deed or transcribe a land record that you look at where the deed was acknowledged. Those acknowledgeme...

If you are travelling a distance to do research, , do more than just make certain the records office will be open when you are planning to a...

In answer to several questions, here is a summary of our freebies: Michael's article "Brick Walls from A to Z"--email your r...

Don't assume your ancestor moved infrequently. Some people did move rarely and others moved every few years. It might have just been you...

If you'd like to receive a sample copy of Casefile Clues for Beginners--email me at beginner@casefileclues.com . Thanks.

I just assumed that a genealogist I had known for ages had correctly transcribed a date from a Virginia land record correctly. When I review...

Remember that the only parent who has to be present at the birth of a child is the mother. The dad had to be around earlier, but could easil...

Never assume that your relative was too insignificant to have been effected by historical events. A step-ancestor who was a native of Canada...

Is that "S" an "L" or is that "L" an "S?" These two uppercase letters are easy to confuse. And that...

If your ancestor had a guardian appointed, look at when the guardian was released. It should be a clue as to approximately when the person f...

Think about who might have written the obituary of Grandma that appeared in the newspaper. Was it a family member with "issues?" W...

I was using an index to land records that covered  the first fifty or so years of the county's land records. One entry was difficult to ...

You can obtain a lot of information via libraries, microfilm, published books, etc. You can get help from people who have never stepped foot...

Effective 8 June 2011, we'll be ending the $7.50 6 month rate for Casefile Clues Beginners . To facilitate bookkeeping, we'll be acc...

Make certain the county or record agency does not also have copies of delayed certificates. Sometimes if a certificate was not filed when th...

There is still time and room to join me on my annual research trip to the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. We have a great...

Even if an entry in a death certificate or other record appears to be incorrect, keep in mind that, on the surface, it can be hard to determ...

Don't forget that there was a special 1890 US census enumeration that included Civil War veterans and Civil War veteran's widows. Un...

Remember when reading those widow's pensions, that it was in the widow's interest to make herself, "poor, destitute, and withou...

A deed may have the date it was signed, the date it was acknowledged, and the date it was recorded. Make certain you indicate which is which...

If a family sold a deceased parent's land after the parent died, not all of the children might have lived near where the property was lo...

My aunt was the third wife of her fifth husband. In her Civil War pension application, she mentions having his family bible which included d...

Use abbreviations sparingly. Does "w/o James Rampley" mean "wife of James Rampley" or "without James Rampley?"...