E is for ERA – as in
when did this ancestor live. (Where is also a consideration, but for the
moment considering only folks on the North American continent.)
Bottom line: Just as
in mysteries, follow the money. The
further back in time, the more you will depend upon records that concern MONEY,
because those are the records that were preserved. Within the last year I heard a lecture about
a person in the 1770's. Walking through
the proof, the speaker tied in Y-DNA evidence and 127 off-line records, all but
a few records having to do with land, tax, wills and probate.
Remember, until
1850, even the census' only listed the name of the head of household, and the
earliest census, 1790, is a full century plus from the first English
arriving. Land, tax, will and probate
records were made as soon as "non-natives" arrived; one had to keep
track of the money. These same tax,
land, will and probate records can supply the threads to tease out
relationships; Michael Bates leaves only 6 silver teaspoons to his eldest
daughter, Olivia, as she has already received her wedding portion, and begs
that his son John will welcome Martha into his household for the remainder of
her life (read wife/mother), and for this consideration gets an extra portion
of land.
A century later, in
1870, the full family will be on the census.
Names and activities can be verified with those wonderful county
histories, as well as land, will, probate and tax records. Fingers crossed that the folks you are
researching had enough scratch that they made these records. However, other changes in the 1870's
impacting research in 1870 was the growth of newspapers, which, with the
technology of OCR are now incredible sources for fleshing out family history,
as well as finding the elusive facts.
Happy finding…
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
2018
begins with an "ABC-darium," a walk through the alphabet expanding
into short comments on matters genealogical. Published on Tuesday and
some Fridays, a letter may be visited more than once before moving
on.
©
2018, SE Ross