Select Page

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...

Where did it go?

The rest of the land In December of 1796, Joseph Moore was granted 200 acres of land by the State of North Carolina. The land was entered in June of 1794,1 granted on 20 December 1796,2 and recorded in the Rutherford County, North Carolina, deed books on 27 July...

Memorial Day 2023

Remember and honor In so many ways, they were so much the same. And yet … in so many ways, so different. What they had in common — both were born to pioneering families. Both chose to fight to protect what they believed in. Both were 23 years old when they...

About that milestone…

Missing Tim He came into this world 50 years ago yesterday, a tiny little boy fighting desperately for his life. Born with hydrocephalus and spina bifida, the odds were very long against his survival — and even if he did make it, his lifespan at the time was...

Revisiting the storms of spring

Remembering Thelma Note: Yesterday’s weather news has my cousin Thelma so front-and-center for me, her story so much in my mind. Her long life — we lost her in 2016, just shy of her 97th birthday — reminds us all that there is not always an unhappy...

Where he lies…

Cemetery may have been located He is The Legal Genealogist’s favorite mystery correspondent. I don’t know much about him, except that his name is Andrii, he lives in Kalush, Ukraine, and he speaks English and German. Oh, and that he is systematically...

Color me…

When it comes to RootsTech Relatives… As of 9:30 a.m. Eastern time today, The Legal Genealogist reportedly has 9,219 relatives attending the RootsTech 2023 conference either in person or virtually next week. They’re all on my mother’s side...

Just 33 years…

From 1838 to 1870… He came into this world in the very early morning hours on a cold February day 185 years ago today. He left it only a little more than 33 years later. And, in between, there must have been a life of unimaginable difficulty. Johann Nuckel,...