Tuesday, November 21, 2006

"Family Chronicle" Magazine

One of my colleagues subscribes to Family Chronicle magazine, and I peruse it occasionally. I picked up a copy of the Nov/Dec 2006 issue on Saturday, and found many interesting and useful articles.

Janice Nickerson wrote an article about "Finding a Wandering Relative" with proven strategies for tracking down ancestors who moved away. The strategies advocated by the author include:
  • Wills and Estate Files
  • Newspaper Obituaries
  • Other Newspaper Stories - family or visitation articles
  • Land Records - look for deeds and mortgages
  • Occupational Clues - what did they do?
  • Other Relatives - did they move to be with family?
  • Chain Migration - did they move with kinship?
  • Historical Events - what happened there?
  • Institutionalization - were they in an institution?
  • Adjoining Territories - did they move across the line?
  • Reverse Migration - did they go back?
  • Boundary Changes - did the locality boundaries change?

There are, of course, several paragraphs for each of those strategies. The article is well written and researched.

I find Family Chronicle to be one of the best of the magazines I subscribe to and read regularly. Have you read it?

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