The passing of time
Marking the mortal milestones It happened for the first time on the 12th of January 2005. On that day, The Legal Genealogist had lived more days, more months, more years than an immediate forebear. My father’s father — the German grandfather I had never...Milestones, 2024
Looking back to 2023, forward to 2024 The very best part of falling headlong into family history research is the stories. Stories in The Legal Genealogist’s family take us back a long way in America on the maternal side and in Germany on the paternal side. Stories...Resolved — and resolved!
A win in 2023, and on to 2024 It was just a year ago when The Legal Genealogist resolved to solve, once and for all, the mystery of the marriage of the New Year’s Eve baby. The baby was my father’s aunt, born, the church records say, at 9:30 a.m. on 31...Thank you, David!
Where there’s a will… It was 185 years ago yesterday that David Baker died near what was to become Bakersville, the county seat of what is now Mitchell County, North Carolina. It wasn’t even Mitchell County then; it had originally been Rowan County,1...More to the story
There just has to be… It’s not possible for a genealogist to come across a key date in a family history and not want to know more. So too for The Legal Genealogist, looking at a birth 227 years ago tomorrow in a place far across the ocean. Maria Margarethe...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...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...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...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...Subscribe by Email
