11 Important Record Opportunities When Conducting Genealogy Research - article by Good English Article Sites

11 Important Record Opportunities When Conducting Genealogy Research

Biographies and Family History Books: If you inherited your aunt's handwritten notes about your grandmother's family, don't throw them out! You never know what little gems and pearls of wisdom are hidden in there.

Church Certificates: These include christenings, baptisms, confirmations, marriages, funerals, and memorials. Church records may contain symbols representing certain events, or the condition of events, that communicate as much as the written words in that entry.

Diaries, Journals, and Books of Remembrance: These often provide important facts and clues genealogists need. They also reveal the personality of the people who wrote them.

Family Newsletters: Personal computers have made it easy to publish a family newsletter. Over the years these become more and more valuable as a record of family members and to preserve the stories and memories of family members. They are often used to share the results of genealogical research.

Histories (Published and Unpublished): Just like biographies, you need to verify their facts with other sources, but histories often contain interesting information about the places people lived and the economic, social, and political events that happened during their lifetimes. The smaller the geographic area covered in a history book, the more likely you are to find your resident ancestor mentioned there.

Hospital Records: Hospital records covering births, illnesses, and deaths provide valuable information. Don't overlook work records for hospital employees.

Letters and Postcards: Personal letters frequently contain valuable information about the places people lived and the intimate details of their lives. They often reveal relationships and significant events observed in families. Postcards may mention relatives' names and the places they lived or trips they took. The postmark on a postcard may provide clues, too.

Memorial Cards: Memorial cards are sent to relatives living far away to announce a death in the family. They generally include birth and death dates, age at death, and place of burial. Many mortuaries print memorial cards as part of their services.

Newspaper Clippings: People often save clippings of birth, marriage, and death notices, as well as articles about anniversaries, civil ceremonies, church activities, and social events. These must be verified with other sources because they are not always accurate.

Photos, Albums, and Scrapbooks: Photograph albums are infamous for being full of unlabeled pictures. If that is the case, your job is to talk to living relatives and friends to identify the people in those pictures. Some types of albums are notorious for destroying photos. If your photos are stuck, do not force them out. Scan them through the plastic pockets of the plastic pages.

School Records: These generally contain such information as birth dates and family relationships, achievements and awards, and graduation dates. You can approximate an ancestor's age from the date and grade on a report card.

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