Tuesday, December 30, 2014

My Best Ancestral Genea-Discoveries of 2014

I guess it's OK to write this post now - I had many ancestral genealogical discoveries in 2014, and I want to list the best ones.  I'll list them in chronological order:




*  Found a Record for My Thomas J. Newton! (17 January 2014).  This is the only actual record I've found for him.

*  Finding Lambert Brigham's Death Record in Massachusetts Town and Vital Records Collection (29 January 2014).  I didn't know this before; it helps the timeline for my Sophia (Buck) Newton.

*  RootsTech 2014 - Day 1 - I Went to the Library! (5 February 2014).  I found quite a bit of material at the FHL.

*  Now Where Did I Get That Name? I Got Lucky! Mocavo Helped (28 March 2014).  A Mocavo search found what Google did not.

*  Getting Help From My Friends - More on the Morgan Surname Post (16 May 2014).  I received some help from my friends.

*  Working on One Surname at a Time - a Proper Goldmine (29 May 2014).  FamilySearch Books comes through.

*  Finding Able/Auble Probate Records in Sussex County, New Jersey (2 June 2014).  New Jersey probate records are on FamilySearch.

*  Forrest Gump Principle Strikes Again - The Frederick Sovereign (1786-1875) Drawing (22 July 2014).  I found a sketch of a 4th great-grandfather.

*  Organizing the Taylor County, Iowa Land Deeds of Ranslow Smith and Devier J. Smith (22 July 2014).  How did I organize 28 deeds?

*  A Nice Surprise - "David" Smith and Abigail "Vanse" Wisconsin Marriage Record (25 July 2014)

*  Finding the Taylor County, Iowa Properties of Devier J. Smith (29 July 2014).  Earthpoint.us and Google Earth are excellent tools.

*  Looking for United Empire Loyalist Ancestors (8 August 2014).  WDYTYA helped me find Canadian land grant information for my Loyalist ancestors.

*  Finding Loyalist Petition Papers on Library and Archives Canada (LAC) (9 August 2014).  More help from my friends leads me to really great land grant information.

*  Middlesex County, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1648-1871, Now Available on AmericanAncestors.org (13 August 2014).  These are original papers from estate packets.  Very cool!

*  Amanuensis Monday - Post 230: 1929 Petition for Determination of Heirship of Devier J. Smith Estate (11 August 2014); Amanuensis Monday - Post 233: More Papers in 1929 Devier J. Smith Probate File in Red Willow County, Nebraska (1 September 2014); Amanuensis Monday - Post 234: 1929 Hearing and Decree in Devier J. Smith Probate File in Red Willow County, Nebraska (8 September 2014).  My friend Chris obtained these records in McCook, Nebraska for me!

*  "Forrest Gump Principle of Genealogical Research" Strikes Again... (10 October 2014).  Another Google Books find.

*  Crowd-Sourcing Works Again! Finding Elizabeth Dill's Birth Record in Eastham, Massachusetts Records (4 November 2014).  I found the elusive birth record for my 3rd great-grandmother with help from a reader.

*  Episode 473 of "I'd Rather Be Lucky Than Good!" (7 November 2014).  I requested a Find A Grave photo for Ranslow.

*  Tombstone Tuesday - Elizabeth Spangler (1796-1863) in Crawford County, Pennsylvania (11 November 2014).  I requested a Find A Grave photo for Elizabeth also.

Looking back, there's no really big breakthrough there - just a lot of small additions to the genealogy database for my ancestry.  With this list, I should be able to remember what I did accomplish in 2014!


Hat tip for the blog idea:  Jacquie Schattner of the Seeds to Tree blog.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/12/my-best-ancestral-genea-discoveries-of.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


1 comment:

Steadgreen said...

Thanks for summarizing your discoveries of the year. I'm a regular reader of your blog and still missed your article on the organization of your Taylor Co. Iowa Deeds. Glad to see it today, as I sometimes shy away from land records because I'm just not sure how to organize the information. Our society library is open tomorrow (New Year's Day) so I hope to start the year with a discovery of my own. Thanks for all of the helpful information you share.