NOTE KEEPING: Foundation for successful searching
·
Take detailed notes
·
A few extra minutes spent on keeping good notes can save more time
in the overall search for a soldier’s family and can increase find rates as
well.
·
Write information from the mil info in one color and write in
information from other sources in a different color.
·
See at a glance which info is from the mil info.
Fill in extra information as you come across it in the records
·
Names: Additional names, middle names and initials or alternative
name spellings
·
Birth info: Additional or alternative birth dates and places
·
Residences: Places lived and addresses or street names
·
Unique occupations
·
# of children living from the 1900 and 1910 censuses
·
Death dates and places
Keep track of potential relatives for later use
·
Grandchildren, nieces and nephews, spouses, siblings and parents
of the vet or his wife, witnesses, informants, next of kin, etc…
Highlight important information that you might use later.
ORGANIZATION TIPS: For smoother and faster searching
·
Bookmark all sites you use regularly
·
Search order
·
In general, search for the spouse first then work from the easiest
children to the hardest children.
·
If you’re finding nothing on a child or spouse, don’t spend too
much time on them. Put them on the backburner and move on to someone else. You
may come across them or across clues that may lead back to them while searching
for other family members. If you are able to find most family members quickly,
then you can allow extra time for going back to search that difficult family
member. However, if the search has been difficult and slow for many family
members, you will know that you shouldn’t spend much more time when you go back
to finish searching for that person.
Don’t get side-tracked
·
If you come across good information on a different person than the
one you are searching, write it down in your notes so you can refer back to it
later. If it’s a source and a certain match, add it to the tree, but go right
back to the person you were originally searching.
Use state county maps when needed
·
Use them to judge if a find is close to where the veteran’s family
was living.
·
Use them to see which counties border each other for efficient
adjacent county searches.
·
Create timelines
when needed
·
Form a mental narrative as you go
·
Use your narrative to direct your search.
·
Does the record you’ve found make sense and fit into the
narrative, timelines and patterns for the family?
·
If not, you may need to adjust your narrative or reject the
record.
SEARCHING TIPS
Be observant
and open minded
● Truncations with Ancestry
○ First and last character cannot both be a wildcard
○ There must be at least three non
wildcard characters
● Truncations with FamilySearch
○ First and last character can both be
wildcard
○ Can have as little as one letter and
a wildcard
● Types of Searches
○ First name search - works best with
unique first names or when last name is very common
○ Last name search - can search for two
surnames at a time or two truncations at a time, e.g. Sti*, Ste*
○ Parents names only search
■ Ancestry use “birth, marriage, death”
option under search
■ FamilySearch use “search with a
relationship” option
○ Street name search
■ Available on the 1910, 1920 and 1940
censuses, use keyword search in the 1930
■ Try variations, e,g, North State, No
State, State
○ Exact birthdate search
■ Use with anything that has an exact
date, e.g. SSDI, WWI, WWII draft registrations, death certificates, etc.
Things to be
aware of:
● Zero matches - Ancestry has a glitch
concerning independent cities, etc. FS doesn’t have those issues
● Conflicting results - resolve issues
by evaluating previous work and comparing evidence to new research
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