11 Key Record Groups Where Your Ancestors are Hiding

11 Key Record Groups Where Your Ancestors are Hiding ©

By Dayna Jacobs, AG®

http://www.ongrannystrail.com

(You are welcome to copy this for your own use, but please do not publish it online or copy for distribution to others. Thank you!)

CENSUS

• In the U.S., every ten years beginning in 1790
• State censuses in-between sometimes
• Provide information on birth, marriage, occupation, children, and more

MILITARY

• The United States has been involved in at least 15 wars and multiple Indian wars
• Even when the country was not at war men enlisted in the military
• Military records are plentiful, contain valuable genealogical information, and can be found for almost any family

LAND

• Land records are the earliest sources available to us as genealogists
• They apply to more people than any other type of record in the U.S.
• By the mid-1800’s approximately 90% of adult white males owned land

NEWSPAPERS

• Newspapers recorded events in the daily lives of our ancestors
• Besides births, marriages, and deaths, we read about their coming and going, visitors, accidents, celebrations, local government, new buildings and businesses, opinions about current events – all the things that were important in their lives

CHURCH

• Church records pre-date official government vital records
• They can be found in places where government records have been destroyed
• Churches were a central part of communities and people’s lives
• Many kinds of church records besides vital events

DIRECTORIES

• City directories give us more than names and addresses
• Other kinds of directories besides city

HISTORIES

• Always learn the history of the places where your ancestor lived
• Histories can have abstracts of other records in them, biographical sketches, and origins of the settlers

MAPS

• Maps can solve genealogy puzzles
• Geography helps us to understand our ancestors’ community life and movements
• Maps help us to know where to look for records

MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS

• Letters
• Photos
• Private papers
• Any kind of original, unpublished document

IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION

• Ship’s passenger records can provide birth data, a physical description, names of relatives and destinations
• Immigration generated other kinds of records when our ancestors wanted to become citizens

STRATEGIES FOR FINDING RECORDS

• Digitized
• Microfilmed
• Original
• Compiled

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