Filling in the "Pieces" to Tell a Story

Have you ever thought about how your ancestors lived their daily lives? Who was president at that time?  What was happening in their community? 

What was near and dear to their heart?  Which interests did they have or what were their indifferences?  What were the local and global news of the day? 

Or, perhaps you know some things about your ancestor's life and events but need to gather more information to tie the pieces together.  Those "pieces" can sometimes be found in old newspapers specific to the county in which your ancestor lived.  Newspapers

can help make your ancestor's life "come alive" by providing facts about local events and/or happenings of the day.  It's another resource for obtaining photos of community events as well as national and global occurrences.

Do you know how they migrated to their final place of residence, where their parents and grandparents were born?  If doing African-American research, you need to determine where possible slaveowners migrated from and/or lived before arriving at their domicile. These and other similar questions may be answered by visiting FamilySearch and Heritage Quest Online.  At FamilySearch, there's a United States Newspapers link, Town Records link, Migration link, African American link, and helpful links including a United States Maps link.

Heritage Quest Online can be accessed for free using a library card issued through your local library and/or your school ID card. Heritage Quest Online contains links to books on family and local histories and one can search through selected Revolutionary War records, selected census records as well as a find a wealth of other related information.  African-American researchers can search for possible kin using the search feature for the Freedman's Banks records.

Well, don't delay, "get to searching!"  And, tootles till next time.

The USGenWeb Project

The County Clerk's Office in the town, city or parish where  your ancestor lived may contain that piece of information that you've been searching for regarding your long, lost and sometimes, forgotten loved ones.  Knowing the geographical location in which your ancestor lived can provide a wealth of information if you just knew where to look.  Well, look no further!  With just a few clicks of the mouse, you can access the USGenWeb Project's website!  What is the USGenWeb Project, you might ask?  Quoted from their website is the following excerpt:

"Welcome to The USGenWeb Project! We are a group of volunteers working together to provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. This Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free genealogy access for everyone.  Organization is by county and state, and this website provides you with links to all the state genealogy websites which, in turn, provide gateways to the counties."

 Projects that are currently accessible at their website include:

1. The USGenWeb Archives Project
2. The USGenWeb African American Griots Project
3. The USGenWeb Genealogical Events Project
4. The USGenWeb Kidz Project
5. The USGenWeb Lineage Project
6. The USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project
7. USGenWeb Archives Sub-Projects.

Why don't you check them out and their resources as well at:  The USGenWeb Projects Index.

See you next week!

Attempting to Identify the Slave Owner in African American Research

African Slave Chains

For African American research, identifying slaveowners of your respective ancestors can at times be very challenging.  After you've found your African-American ancestor in the 1870 census, you can look for clues that may reveal a possible slaveowner of your family.  Although not always, but sometimes just by identifying a white neighbor of your ancestors in the 1870 census could reveal a potential slaveowner, especially if that white neighbor lived close to your ancestor.

Once you've identified a possible slaveowner, you can then look for the slaveowner in the 1860 census of the county that your ancestors lived in.  Additionally, you can began to search for records that a particular slaveowner had that may reveal information on any slaves that they owned such as wills and deeds.

One good place to check for these records would be the county clerk's office of the county that your ancestor(s) resided in.  And while for some African-Americans, the search may not be as promising depending on the county in which your ancestor lived and available records, for others, the search may yield some very promising results!