It's Saturday Night -
1) What is your favorite genealogy research resource? Not a website, but a type of record, like census, cemetery, tax, etc. Why is it your favorite? [Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting topics!]
2) Write your own blog post, or add your response as a comment to this blog post, in a Facebook Status post or note.
Here's mine:
My favorite research resource is Probate Records.
Why? Probate Records from every state, county, and country are extremely useful to identify heirs, or orphaned children, of a deceased person. Wills, inventories, distributions, and other documents explicitly identify occupations, locations, real and personal property, etc. of the deceased person and their heirs. Sometimes, these are the only original source documents that even name an heir. Sometimes, real property is transferred to an heir and the probate record is the only document that describes the property.
My best example is the case of Elizabeth Auble (1814-1899), a single person with no children. See this series of blog posts:
* Making Progress on My Auble Cousins - Post 1: Finding Elizabeth's Will (25 April 2016).
* Making Progress on My Auble Cousins - Post 3: Identifying Elizabeth Auble's Heirs (29 April 2016)
* Making Progress on My Auble Cousins -- Post 4: The William Auble Challenges (3 May 2016)
* Making Progress on My Auble Cousins -- Post 5: The Sophia Auble Challenges Part 1 (5 May 2016)
* Making Progress on My Auble Cousins -- Post 6: Solving the William Auble Challenge (6 May 2016)
