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In our pursuit of our
family history, we often find new documents. Sometimes we have searched
for years and years to find and track down this scrap of information. We
want to be sure to take advantage of all the information we find.
When you find a new document, have you:
* Entered the information into your genealogy database if you're using the
computer to keep your records.
* Have you completely read and analyzed the document?
* Have you thought about what other records this new document suggests you
research?
* Have you filed the document so that you can find it again?
* Have you adequately cited the document so genealogists who come after
you can also find the original?
We only THINK that we have criminals today! I found a little snippet in
the Carroll County, Illinois genealogical publication that reads,
"Dentists of this vicinity have been notified that a gang of dental office
thieves are at work in northern Illinois. Dentists are being asked to
cooperate in capturing the gang. On last Sunday, six offices in Kankakee
were robbed of $400 worth of fold and teeth and a day later fourteen
offices were looted in Joliet!"
Dentists, lock up your gold!
Here's an idea if you can't find a death record. Sometimes a person dies
in one county, is brought to another county for his funeral, and is then
buried in still another county. If you can't find a death record in the
standard death indexes of a county clerk's office, be sure and ask if
there is a transient death record index!
Pat Maddox, a long time friend from The Clan Henderson Society, shared an
idea the other day. Pat said she had listened to the news after September
11 and had felt so very sorry for the families who had to take hair
brushes and tooth brushes to the authorities for DNA samples.
Pat said she was having her hair cut when the thought of the valuable DNA
being swept up into the trash can came across her mind. She saved a lock
or two of that hair. She trimmed her fingernails later that day, and saved
the trimmings to go along with her hair. Pat said she then put the hair
and nail trimmings in an empty prescription bottle and labeled it, "Pat
Maddox hair and nail trimmings, September 20, 2001." She then took the
little bottle and put it in her safety deposit box.
It's a no-cost way of saving your own DNA and that of all of your family
members.
I love this. "Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them
are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all
day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing!"
Margaret Chittenden, writer.
Most areas of the country have "pioneer certificates" of some kind. It's
pretty easy to find out about the programs in your own area of interest.
Just contact the state genealogical society and ask. I know there are
programs in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, etc.
In all of the above situations, the papers submitted for the certificates
have been combined to make books of information about the first settlers
of an area.
I ran across a list of "cures" from the days before antibiotics, flu
shots, cough drops, etc. I thought you might enjoy reading a few of them
although sometimes the cure was worse than the ailment!
If you lose your appetite - boil two cups of dogwood bark with 2 cups of
water. Drink twice a day.
If you suffer from baldness - rub cow dung over your scalp.
If you are bitten by an insect, place a small amount of turpentine on the
bite or hold a "chaw" of tobacco over it.
If you have an injury that is bleeding, place chimney soot over the wound
if needed, or cobwebs...or, a "mushroom." |
