Subject: Recording the Right County Resent-Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 14:08:32 -0800 (PST) Resent-From: BURGETT-L@rootsweb.com Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 17:09:23 -0500 From: sunrise1@juno.com To: BURGETT-L@rootsweb.com Hi, I think this article is well worth reading by anyone who has ever searched for anything in vain. It's from Ancestry Daily News, 12 March 1999. Ms. Sid sunrise1@juno.com srsoren@att.net ======================================================= GEORGE G. MORGAN: “ALONG THOSE LINES . . .” “Recording the Right County” ======================================================= You've heard it time and again. It is important for genealogists to determine the right county in which to search for records. Doing so can save you an inestimable amount of misspent time and effort in your research. In "Along Those Lines . . ." this week, I want to talk about the importance of this step in your research, a method of determining the right county, and the importance of recording the correct county in the genealogical records you are creating. WRONG COUNTY = LOST TIME + FRUSTRATION I received a letter a few months ago from a distant cousin who described her complete frustration at having hit a brick wall. It seems she had been searching for marriage record for her great-grandparents in Cleburne County, Alabama, without success. She had been told that the couple married in March of 1862 in Edwardsburg, and she had written to the Cleburne County courthouse to request a search for their marriage record. She received a reply indicating that no record was found for this couple and the suggestion that she try contacting surrounding counties. "Nonsense!" she said. "The family Bible says they were married in Edwardsburg, and Edwardsburg is in Cleburne County." Well, yes it is -- now. But Cleburne County was not formed until 1866. Cleburne County was formed from Calhoun, Randolph and Talladega Counties. Had my cousin done a little more research, she would have easily located the marriage record she sought. In fact, with ten minutes' reference work, I determined that Edwardsburg was actually in Calhoun County in 1862 (which had been renamed from Benton County to Calhoun County in 1858). I wrote my cousin a quick note and suggested she follow the Cleburne County advice and contact Calhoun County instead. Two weeks ago, my distant cousin sent a letter thanking me, and a copy of the elusive marriage license - from Calhoun County. HOW TO DETERMINE THE RIGHT COUNTY The method I employed to help my cousin is a simple one. It depends on using just a few simple reference materials. Here's how I do it. 1. Find a current map of the place you're seeking. I use either a road atlas or a state map obtained from the American Automobile Association (AAA). (One benefit of belonging to AAA is getting terrific maps!) I locate the town in the index, find it on the map, and look carefully to determine the county in which it is currently located. 2. Next, depending on the timeframe, I consult one of my reference books: William Thorndale and William Dollarhide's "Map Guide to the Federal Censuses, 1790-1920." It shows maps for each of the years in which the Federal population censuses were taken, complete with county boundaries as they were then overlaying the current county boundaries. The maps in this book are an invaluable reference resource. (For earlier times, I research state history books at the library; for later times, I try to locate service station maps and other atlases of the period.) 3. To fine-tune my effort, I consult "Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources," edited by Alice Eichholz. This book provides a map of each state too, along with tables of county names, their addresses, the date the county was formed (and from what other entities), and the dates when specific types of records began being kept. Detailed articles describe specific record types and provide helpful information. It is here that I determine specific years of origin for a county and can backtrack to previous counties or other governing entities as necessary. With these simple steps, you can quickly isolate the correct county in the right state in which to do your research. This is essential when writing for record copies and critical if you are planning a research trip to another place at some distance from your home. Why waste time, effort, and money unnecessarily? RECORDING THE CORRECT LOCATION If you have taken the steps to determine the correct location for your research, I have to ask whether you are recording that information, too. As a responsible genealogist or family historian, you are compiling the fruits of your research for others' reference. If someone else were to pick up your materials today, would they be able to tell precisely where you had done your research? Are you citing your sources? If you are, citing your sources also means making notations of the precise locations where your ancestors' life events occurred. I make notations of exact locations in my genealogy database. For instance, one of my grandmothers was born in Lindale, Georgia. For her birth entry, I show her date of birth and the location as Lindale (Floyd) GA. That means that she was born in Lindale, in the county of Floyd, in the state of Georgia. For each and every person entered in my genealogy database for whom I now their birthplace, their marriage location or their place of death, I have taken the time to enter the town, county and state (and country for those outside the United States). Each of these reflects the geopolitical entity that existed at the time of the event. In this way, I have accurately recorded for posterity the places where my ancestors' and my collateral and allied relatives' life events occurred. Anyone following my research will be able to immediately see where they should look for substantiating records. Have I verified and corroborated all of the dates and events with records? Of course not, but I will be able to quickly organize my materials for research when I'm ready to travel to Alabama, for instance, to research in Calhoun County. I was not always so organized and attentive to this detail in my genealogical work. I decided to schedule this work as a project for myself one winter, and spent several evenings at home and at the library doing the research. I followed that with some dedicated data entry in my database and printed off all new pedigree charts and family group sheets. Now the effort takes place as part of my preparation to enter new information into my database. My maps and reference books are always close at hand, and this has become a way of life. Why not schedule a similar project for yourself? You've been thinking about it, I'm sure, and there are still some wintry weekends left to kill before getting into the garden. Get your database records in order too. Happy hunting! George ************************************************************* Bibliography: Eichholz, Alice M., ed. “Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources.” Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1992. http://shop.ancestry.com/ancestry/anredbook1.html Thorndale, William and William Dollarhide. “Map Guide to the Federal Censuses, 1790-1920.” Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987. http://shop.ancestry.com/ancestry/mapguidtousf.html <<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>> Copyright 1999 George G. Morgan. All Rights reserved. "Along Those Lines . . ." is a weekly feature of the Genealogy Forum on America Online (Keyword: ROOTS). This article originally appeared in the Genealogy Forum on America Online. You may send E-mail to alonglines@aol.com. George Morgan would like to hear from you but, because of the volume of E-mail, is unable to personally respond to each letter individually. He also regrets that he cannot assist you with your personal genealogical research. ======================================================= Ancestry Daily News http://www.ancestry.com ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]