In a recent case we worked on, a dispute over land led to identifying the parents of an individual and solving a family brick wall problem. 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, … [Read more...]
Get to the Courthouse: Three Southern Records You Should Be Searching
If you've hit a brick wall in extending your Southern family history, try searching these three types of Southern genealogy records. 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. Common Obstacles with … [Read more...]
Decoding Property Records: Genealogy and the Base and Meridian
Property records are full of genealogy information! Here's how understanding the baseline and meridian in land records can help in your genealogy research. 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 … [Read more...]