Question of the Week: Aside from a person, what has been your best source of information?

Question

While some of us have been fortunate to have family members to accumulate information from; aside from a person, what has been your absolutely ''best source" of information?

Comments

I live in the Kansas City, MO area, and we have a genealogical library in Indepence MO that is huge!  That has been my greatest resource on land.  On the internet, it would have to be Family Search, and Roots Web.

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For me it has been both Albert Gallatin Wheeler, American College of Genealogy (1914). The Genealogical and Encyclopedic History of the Wheeler Family in America (for more detailed information about the Wheeler Family) and Richard Anson Wheeler, (1900); History of the Town of Stonington, County of New London, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1649 to 1900 (for the Township of Stonington, where most of my Wheeler relatives started). Archive.org and FamilySearch have been my BFFS forever.

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Mostly internet searches. It would be so much fun if I could just spend days and hours doing this. I love research. I can't leave a puzzeling question unsolved. I'll keep going back to it till I find an answer.

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FaceBook!  I look for distant cousins names, and then look through their photos to try to determine if they are my cousin or not, It is usually a photo of great grandma holding the new great grandchild that provides the proof. Sometimes there are 3 or 4 generation photos and real pay dirt is a family reunion photo where everyone is identified, Than I go back and scour their other photos fhat give clues to other birth, anniversary and death dates. It's quite amazing what you can unearth.

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Yes I have used Facebook this way with success. Also forum entries and photos uploaded. Spotted my grandfather from Scotland but in actuality it was his father, my ggrandfather. Was thrilled.

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My great great grandfather killed in a Texas feud . His assailant fled justice and changed name . I found his descendants on Facebook. People post everything on there .

Answer 1

Love the question, Deborah. Its a collection of family documents mostly from the 1800's that have never been released together and became available to me over three years ago through the person whose care they are now in. Its over 800 pages that include a registry, affidavits, Wills, letters and syllabi which I now have copies of. Of coarse I was in shock, a true treasure chest. Even though the collection is through another person, this partnership has become my strongest research collaboration. So aside from this goldmine are the death records of Seeking Michigan that have helped a great deal.

Answer 2

I the early days I was surprised to find that most of my mother's ancestoral lines lived in Licking County, Ohio at some point in time.  In looking for sources I went to the Licking County Genealogical Society I found a book  called the Green Tree which was mostly concerned with Monroe Township of Licking county (where most of these lines lived) and the book was for sale there for under $10 even though it has over 900 pages.  It turns out that most all of the surnames treated in it join into my mother's lines one way or another.  So this is the source I use the most (except for censuses) even though it's not free from faults.

Answer 3

Depends on the era.

In the modern era, the answer must be Death Certificates, which are usually loaded with dates and places related to the deceased, his/her parents, spouses, and burial locations. Even identifying the informant can provide clues about the family. A few give sparse or misleading info, but most are chocked full of goodies.

But, death certificates are a recent invention. Prior to that the best general source is probably Census Reports. Wills and Estate Suits give much more specific information, but not everyone left a Will or an estate. Many people disposed of their property within their lifetime... the only way to insure one's wishes are implemented. Census records are found for all families and provide critical information for families who lived in remote areas with few legal documents. I love Wills, but we'd be mostly in the dark without Census Reports.

Prior to Census Data, it must be Estate Records. After that, anything goes... Court Records, Tax Records, Deeds, Church Records, Bibles... and lots of Luck!

Answer 4

I would have to say, so far, the resources at Antenati. They have old records in Italian from Italy and if you're looking for your Italian ancestors... well, it's perfect, in my opinion, if they have your region. Even children who are illegitimate often are marked as such and have their actual birth father's name listed on the side, and most of the records have the name of the person's father and mother, and sometimes, their father's father and their mother's father, too. Along with what town they were born in, or country if it's not Italy. There was a period of like two or three weeks where I just read through the records at Antenati, one-by-one. They're great.

Answer 5

Trove - digitized newspapers in Australia. Great for all sorts of detail not limited to family notices

Answer 6

Donald Lines Jacobus. Families of Ancient New Haven [Connecticut]. Comprehensive, well-researched, well-documented, highly accurate. A copy (three volume version reprint) sits within arms length of my work space.

Answer 7

Probate / Wills, Birth, Military & Marriage & Death records. :)

Answer 8

YDNA tests and YDNA projects at FamilyTreeDNA.com.

Answer 9

This is a difficult question to answer, it depended on the family, time period etc. "How To" books were my primary sources for telling me what to look for, how and where to look. Then family informants, then probably indexes and bibliographies of surnames and areas I was researching and then of course primary records such as vital records, census, etc.  But definitely reading the "how to" books gave me the most info/leads as well as taking classes, going to lectures and joining a genealogy society.

Answer 10

The release of census records has helped track families.  The death certificates validate the actual person, with parents usually named (sometimes place of birth) and a family member signing the certificate.  

Answer 11

The generational family home is across the road from a very large "family plot" of one of the town cemetary.

Answer 12

New England Historic Genealogical Society has been extremely helpful in tracking my maternal line as has the Great Migration Series. There has not even one particular source that has helped with my paternal line other than family records which in turn have led me to various sources and locations via web searches.

Answer 13

The "Wedding Attachments"  (huwelijksbijlagen) to the Dutch Civil Registration marriages in early 19th Century contains often not only information of the bride and groom (place and date of births) but also of their parentss and grandparents (names, deaths). Great source that I can recommend.

Answer 14

Definitely Wills and Newspapers. Both have providecd me with links that I knew nothing about.

Answer 15

Outside of the normal sources I use like "Family Search", "Ancestry" "Geni",  "Find My Past", "RootsWeb" and  "Find A Grave" listings, I use "Google Search" to find more sources. That would be my absolutely best source!!!

If I have a complete name and date of birth location, I can use "google" and it locates books and newspaper articles that have been written about the person, especially about military or those in government offices. Also Wikipedia helps with their additional sources on the botton of their page. 

If you know the date of death, google will give me direct link to obituaries that have been posted by funeral homes in the home town or special stories about the person in local newspapers transferred on line but some only give you a teaser then you have to subscribe to the newspaper.  I also look them up in Facebook if they are still alive like my cousins etc and got their marriage dates and some even their date of birth if I didn't have it yet. 

 

Answer 16

Almost all my ancestors lived in Southern Bohemia and all existing church books (plus a lot more sources like censuses etc.) for the area have been digitized and put on line for free by the State Regional Archive in Třeboň/Wittingau. Some books start in the late 1500's but most in the early 1600's. With all the collateral branches from my ancestry I have been able to document close to 40,000 family members and I'm still far from finished.

Answer 17

For me it has been the records in the New England Historical Genealogy Society.

Answer 18

This is a great question! 

I come from Clanton, Alabama which is a very small town. Very Mayberry-esque in my opinion. I have always relied heavily on, not only family documents, but, documents you find at the library. Of course you don't get immediate results in regards to the comfort of the internet BUT I like researching the "Old Fashioned" way. Also, having a family tree book is very beneficial. I have 2 and I thank the Lord for them! Of course information from family is wonderful but you have to take word of mouth from the grapevine into account! If one can travel and research documents at churches and other record buildings then you've got a better chance! So, in the end I say the library if you're unable to travel! 

Answer 19

Family Bibles. Old newspaper clips. Local Anderson SC County Museum and Library. Family photos.

Answer 20

For my ancestors that are Pre-1700, JSTOR has been a great asset in finding family histories.

Comments

What is JSTOR? Sounds interesting.

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JSTOR is a digital library containing back dated issues of academic journals, books, and primary sources and older public domain content. I have found many published genealogies by William and Mary College Quarterly and Tyler's Quartly and access to the content is free to download or free to read on line. I have a free subscription which allows me 3 items in my library at a time. 

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Thank you very much. I shall look into that.

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Thank you Elisa!