In a recent case we worked on, a dispute over land led to identifying the parents of an individual. We share this story with permission to illustrate the importance of thorough searches - not just in vital records, newspapers, and censuses - but in land, probate, and court records.Our client asked us to trace the ancestry of his Boykin family, and research had stalled with a direct-line ancestor named William T. Boykin of Southampton County, Virginia, about whom little was known. Our … [Read more...]
How I Traced the Genealogy of a House
Several years ago my family and I had the opportunity to spend one year at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania while my husband attended the U.S. Army War College. Carlisle Barracks is one of the oldest Army posts in the United States – second only to West Point – having originally been a British outpost before the Revolution. We were thrilled when we were assigned to live in the old farmhouse on post, due to the size of our family.Ask the NeighborsAs a genealogist, I was accustomed to … [Read more...]
Get to the Courthouse: Three Southern Record Types You Should Be Searching
Doing research in the United States pre-1850 can be challenging anywhere, since the colonial and early federal period across the nation generally affords genealogists fewer record types with much less biographical information and variety than later eras, but the South is notoriously even harder to research than other parts of the country.This is the case for a couple of reasons. First, the South has always been far more agrarian, isolated, and independent in nature than its northern … [Read more...]
Dealing with Shifting County Boundaries
As anyone who has ever delved very deep into American research knows, the shifting boundaries of counties and even states can complicate research. You want to get right to the source, to know where to look for records of your ancestor, since many key American record types are often kept at the county level – civil vitals, probate, and deeds, to name a few. But what happens when it’s not your family member that did the moving, but the county line? This was extremely common in the earlier days of … [Read more...]
Genealogy and the Base and Meridian
Back in 1855 when the state of Utah was getting organized, the Salt Lake Meridian was established and it was from this very point that the entire state of Utah was surveyed. The stone post in this photo is essentially the center of Utah, and the baseline (or latitude) and meridian (longitude) is still surveyed from here. This was an accurate way to survey land, as opposed to the system used by the original thirteen colonies, that of metes and bounds. With metes and bounds, the description of … [Read more...]
Early United States Maps We Love
As genealogists, we love maps. They're such a helpful way to show a client where an ancestor was living, especially if the ancestor lived near the border of another town or county, which can affect what records need to be searched.Here are some great resources for maps:We love http://mapofus.org. When you click on a state and scroll down, you get to a section that shows county boundaries by year. For example, here's Tennessee in 1801:Isn't it great to see what your ancestor really … [Read more...]
State Land Grants or Patents
We've recently been helping a client discover more about an ancestor who lived in North Carolina in the mid- to late-1700s. Southern U.S. research that's this early requires a careful look at existing documents, especially since often there aren't nearly as many documents available as there are for the mid- to late-1800s. We were happy to find that this particular ancestor had received a state land grant from North Carolina so we could obtain more information about him as we searched for the … [Read more...]
Deeds and Other Land Records
Deeds, and land records in general, can provide helpful pieces to the puzzle you are trying to solve about your United States ancestor. They are especially helpful in areas or time periods where few records of other types are available, like the southern United States before 1850.Most counties and some towns in the United States kept deed books, recording the ownership of land in their jurisdiction. A person would present a land grant patent or title to the county or town clerk who would … [Read more...]
