Labor Day 2023
Mapping our labor ancestors It's the first Monday in September. Hard to believe, as always, that the summer is speeding to an end, kids are back in school, sunrises are later and sunsets earlier. And that it's the first holiday of the fall season here in the United...
Zufferin’ Zebulons!
Yep, there are at least two of them, too... So The Legal Genealogist was dismayed to learn that the John Baird of Wilson County, Tennessee, who is her 5th great grandfather isn't the one who left all the cool probate records. Sigh... I mean, I've only been trying to...
Coming up: September-October 2023
Upcoming presentations The Legal Genealogist can hardly believe it. September. Already. What happened to summer??? Sigh... So we look to the fall, and a busy fall it will be! As always I want to invite you to come along, to the extent possible, on the trip… Here’s an...
Help with Chronicling America
Tune in to LOC The Library of Congress is, without question, an American treasure. It's home to so many goodies that we as genealogists use all the time. The collection of United States Statutes at Large for those of us who -- like The Legal Genealogist -- need to...
The other John
Ruling out one candidate It's always nice when a genealogist can rule out one of two candidates to be the father of a known ancestor. Of course -- sigh -- for The Legal Genealogist -- sigh -- that usually means ruling out the one with the good records. And that's the...
The age to witness
Georgia in the early 19th century Reader Jennifer Kraus is on the hunt for clues. “I've been working on finding different ways to estimate DOBs for my ancestors in the absence of a record (e.g., bible, or church) that lists an actual date,” she writes. “I've got an...
A time for reflection
... and past time for an attitude change The disclosures of the past week or so that highly regarded investigative genetic genealogists working for law enforcement deliberately and knowingly violated company and website terms of service and -- well -- let's just leave...
No deeds, indeed!
Oh yes there are... A careful review of the grantor and grantee indexes of deeds in Winston County, Mississippi, says there are no deeds to or from William M. Robertson or his son Gustavus Boone Robertson between 1841 and 1860. To which The Legal Genealogist -- 3rd...
More than 2000 more
Copyright-free images The Legal Genealogist has said it before and will undoubtedly say it again. It isn’t possible to overstate the debt that genealogists — and Americans — owe to Carol Highsmith.[1. See Judy G. Russell, “Through the lens brightly,” The Legal...
You never know
Hitting paydirt at NARA One of the most basic truisms of genealogy is that you never know what you're going to find. That certainly was the case for The Legal Genealogist at the National Archives last week. The backstory: My maternal grandfather, Clay Rex Cottrell,...
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