The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-And-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors (41 page)

A file created when a person claimed land under an act of Congress, such as the Homestead Act of 1862. The person first filled out an application at the local General Land Office, and sometimes provided other information (such as marriage or immigration documents). The file also might contain receipts; affidavits of occupation, immigration, marriage and homestead application; or other materials. You can obtain land-entry file information for eastern states from the National Archives and Records Administration.

A settler's application to receive public land.

Public land given to an individual by the government, usually as a reward for military service.

A document transferring land ownership from the federal government to an individual.

In a land patent, an exact identification of the land being transferred using survey terms.

Property or money bequeathed to someone in a will.

A claim placed on property by a person who is owed money.

Usually, a book about a particular town or county. Local histories were quite popular in the late nineteenth century. While they often give the history of the development of the area, they usually also include some information about the important families that lived there.

Files kept in probate packages that consist of original accounts, receipts, distributions, and other papers not recorded in the probate books.

Handwritten documents and records such as diaries, letters, or family Bible entries that can contain items relating to family, business or organization papers. You can find manuscript collections by consulting the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), which shows libraries' holdings.

Contracts between parties who are either on the threshold of marriage or of separation. These may be premarital, antenuptial, or postnuptial agreements.

Paperwork associated with medical treatments. Medical records, because they are considered private documents, may not be accessible to the public, but hospital records, doctors' or midwives' journals, veterans' files and asylum records can be found with some hunting.

An imaginary north-south line. A principal meridian is the starting point for a rectangular land survey.

A land survey method employing compass directions, natural landmarks and distances between points.

Beginning with the American Revolution, records of military service have been kept in one form or another by the federal government. Military records fall into two basic categories — compiled service records and veterans' benefits — and can include volunteer records, pension and bounty land warrant applications, draft registration cards and military discharge papers.

An indexing system similar to Soundex that was used to organize the results of the 1910 census. Miracode index cards are computer generated rather than handwritten, and are organized first by Soundex code, then alphabetically by county, then alphabetically by given name.

Genetic material both males and females inherit from their mothers. Because it's passed down mostly unchanged from mothers to daughters, mtDNA can tell you about your maternal line — but the results reveal only “deep ancestry,” not definitive links to recent generations.

A section of the federal census listing information about persons who died during the census year.

The United States' archive of all federal records, including census records, military service rolls and pension applications, passenger lists and bounty-land warrants. In addition to the primary archives in Washington, DC, NARA has a branch in College Park, Md., and thirteen regional facilities across the nation.

Documents of the process by which an immigrant becomes a citizen. An individual has to live in the United States for a specific period of time and file a series of forms with a court before he or she can become naturalized. Naturalization records provide the birth place and date, date of arrival into the United States, place of residence at the time of naturalization, a physical description of the person and sometimes the name of the ship the person immigrated on and the individual's occupation.

A narrative report showing an individual's descendants arranged by generation, this uses an alternative numbering system to the Register report. Every child in a family gets both a Roman numeral and an Arabic numeral. A plus sign indicates that a child appears as a parent in the next generation. Both the NGS Quarterly Report and Register Report make good books. Named for the journal of the National Genealogical Society.

A genealogical numbering system showing an individual's descendants arranged by generation. All children in a family get Roman numerals (i, ii, iii …) and every child later listed as a parent also gets an Arabic numeral (2, 3, 4 …) so you can easily trace a family line from generation to generation. Named for the journal of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

An oral will declared or dictated by the testator in his last illness before a sufficient number of witnesses.

The study of names. Study the names of collateral kin for naming patterns and to identify unusual given names and middle names used in the family. If you are researching a common surname, given names of several family members can make it easier to distinguish your Brown or Jones from the others.

A collection of family stories told by a member of the family or by a close family friend. You can transcribe an oral history onto paper, or video or tape-record it. Oral histories often yield stories and information you won't find written in records.

An orphanage, or home for children whose parents have died.

The division of lands held by joint tenants or co-owners into distinct portions so that each is held individually.

List of the names and information about passengers that arrived on ships into the United States. These lists were submitted to customs collectors at every port by the ship's master. Passenger lists were not officially required by the United States government until 1820. Before that date, the information about each passenger varied widely, from names to number of bags.

List of a person's ancestors.

A benefit paid regularly to a veteran (or his widow) for military service or a military service-related disability.

Fixed taxes, levied by head (per person). See poll tax.

A print and online index to more than two thousand genealogy and local history periodicals published in the United States and Canada between 1847 and 1985. It's organized by name, location, and subject. PERSI is a project of the Allen County Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and available through HeritageQuest Online (access through a subscribing library).

A drawing that shows the boundaries and features of a piece of property. In genealogy, platting refers to creating such a drawing from a metes-and-bounds or legal land description as a surveyor would have done.

Issued by colonial and antebellum counties and towns, this was a set, uniform amount that adult males were assessed beginning at age twenty-one (sixteen or eighteen in some areas) and continuing until they reached a set age, customarily fifty or sixty.

Legal authorization for one to act as another's agent in various business matters.

The right of a settler to acquire property that he had occupied before the government officially sold or surveyed it.

A record or other source created at the time of a particular event. A primary source is always the original record — for example, birth and death certificates are primary sources for those events. But an original record is not always a primary source: For example, a death certificate isn't a primary source of birth information.

The exclusive right possessed by the eldest son, by virtue of his seniority, to succeed to the estate of his ancestor, to the exclusion of the younger sons.

Records disposing of a deceased individual's property. They may include an individual's last will and testament, if one was made. The information you can get from probate records varies, but usually includes the name of the deceased, either the deceased's age at the time of death or birth date, property, members of the family, and the last place of residence.

Land originally owned by the federal government and sold to individuals.

A member of the religious group called the Society of Friends. Quakers kept detailed records of their congregations, including vital statistics.

A release; an intention to pass title, interest, or claim that the grantor may have over the premises.

A land tax typical of the colonies of New York and the South, assessed by the ruler of the colony to increase revenue.

In the rectangular survey system, one-fourth of a section of land, equal to 160 acres.

A row or column of townships lying east or west of the principal meridian and numbered successively to the east and to the west from the principal meridian.

Land and anything attached to it, such as houses, building, barns, growing timber and growing crops.

The land survey method that the General Land Office used most often. It employs base lines, one east-west and one north-south, that cross at a known geographic position. Two large rectangles, called townships — each generally 24 miles square — are described in relation to the base lines. Townships are subdivided into sections.

When you request records or other information from people and institutions, you should include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) in your letter.

A record created after an event occurred, such as a biography, local history, index, oral history interview or computer database. Original records also can be secondary sources for information about earlier events — for example, a marriage certificate would be a secondary source for a birth date because the birth took place several years before the time of the marriage. Use the details you find in secondary sources as clues until you can verify them in original records.

A division of land within a township that measures one square mile (640 acres) — about
of a township. Sections were further subdivided into half sections, quarter sections and sixteenth sections, or into lots.

An index of Social Security Death records. Generally this includes names of deceased Social Security recipients whose relatives applied for Social Security Death Benefits after their passing. Also included in the millions of records are approximately 400,000 railroad retirement records from the early 1900s to 1950s.

A system of coding surnames based on how they sound, which was used to index the 1880 and later censuses The Soundex system is useful in locating records containing alternate surname spellings. Soundex cards are arranged first by Soundex code, then alphabetically by given name, then (if necessary) alphabetically by place of birth.

Land originally owned by a state or another entity, rather than the federal government.

The tenth part of one's income contributed for charitable or religious purposes. Broadly interpreted, any tax or assessment of one tenth. Titheable may be synonymous with taxable. A tithing man was the constable. In colonial Virginia, the tithe was imposed on the personal property of males of productive age, as established by legislative act — variously sixteen to twenty-one years of age.

In a government survey, it's a square tract six miles on each side (36 square miles); a name given to the civil and political subdivisions of a county.

A parcel of land that isn't fully contained within a single section. Tracts within a township are numbered beginning with “37” to avoid confusion with section numbers.