NALF - Research Links

Why should I care about history?

The importance of historical and geographical influence on our ancestors should never be overlooked. Could the family have easily moved to this area or would it involve a major migration? Was this male born near the end of the nineteenth century—will I find him in the WWI Draft Registration? Not long ago a fellow researcher and myself both expressed confusion over the mention "He openly expressed his views against slavery" concerning someone who lived in Ohio. Further examination showed he lived right on the Kentucky border, a state that fluctuated allegiances throughout the Civil War. Once put in context the statement did not seem out of place. This person, Daniel Kendrick Leavitt, also named one of his daughters Topsy, born about 1853 when Uncle Tom’s Cabin was popular both as a book and play.

Where IS that place and why can’t I find it?

Ultimately it is important to look beyond the present location of events, but the present location is still the best place to start. For the US, Rootsweb's Town Search is a great tool to learn the county location of any existing town. For Canada the Geo Names Query at Geographical Names of Canada or John Cardinal's Places in Canada are excellent. Geonames will locate places other than towns and cities, such as rivers. Another excellent resource for locations outside the US is Multimap, the UK’s version of Map Quest. Once the location is found, the appropriate county and province or state is also given. This is also a great shortcut to typing in those umlaut’s and so forth found in so many European locations, as you can just highlight, copy and paste.

In order to understand the issues involved in searching for the location by name as well as giving that location the proper name in your family tree, you must understand the structure of divisions for the larger area. For the US the large division in most cases is the state, with county below that. After counties much of the US is divided into townships, with all land falling in one town or another. Less populous states, however, may have towns, incorporated places, school districts, or even census enumeration districts—the boundaries governed largely by population concentration. The town name you are seeking may be none of these. For example, near me is a village called Millbrook; you will find it on the map and with Rootsweb’s town search, but it is not a town, and will not appear as such in the census. It is a village and is part of the town of Washington. Will you find Washington using the Town Search? No, but you will find Washington Hollow. As it turns out Washington Hollow is partially in the town of Washington, and partially in the town of Pleasant Valley, as part of the former was set off to the latter in 1821. You will find other hamlets here, such as Mabbetsville and Little Rest. This is just one example.

Canada is divided much like the US with provinces instead of states and parishes instead of townships. The parishes are not religious, but rather a way of dividing the counties. Within these parishes is found the same confusion of villages and hamlets, sometimes with names related to the parish name, sometimes found on the map, and sometimes just posing a very big mystery. If you are not sure of the method of dividing the country you are researching, check Wikipedia.

But, where was it back then?

Once you find the place you have to verify that it is still located in the same division today, and many times this will not be the case. This is important partly just for accuracy, but mainly because it may affect the location of record repositories. You don't want to spend days searching in the wrong town hall! For the US the best resource I have found is the Red Book. It gives a county map for each state. For each county it tells the year the county was formed, and its parent county if it was not original. It is usually possible to determine for the date of the event what county the town was in at the time. Sometimes there is more than one parent county and the location is unclear. In that case, proceed on to what would be your next stop anyway, US GenWeb. Navigate through the state to your best guess on the county and see what resources are available. Pay particular attention to the lists of town names, and town histories. You may be surprised as I have been on occasion to find excellent cemetery transcriptions pinpointing records for entire branches of your tree. If not you will undoubtedly learn much that will be helpful. I should mention here that outside the US there are many locations that now have GenWeb in varying degrees of development. Leavitt researchers are likely to find the New Brunswick section of Canada's GenWeb particularly helpful. Once you get into the proper region you may want to search out local historical or genealogical web sites as they frequently contain good background information. Several directories for both can be found here.

When all of these methods fail you can sometimes still find the location by Googling it. Be sure to include the state if known as it will limit the hits to a manageable number. If the place name is current you will likely find a web site or an advertisement. If historical you may find a piece of someone else’s tree or an article that will clarify the location. Be careful! It is easy to get distracted bouncing off these links to other names that you did not intend to research today. Better to bookmark the link and stay on track, unless it is brick wall pay dirt you have stumbled upon.

Save your tracks while saving time

Use your word processor to save time with this research. When collecting preliminary information I keep a Word document open and copy/paste anything I come across that may prove relevant into it. From time to time I "print" the latest version to an Adobe pdf as it makes searching easier than using edit/find. If your computer does not have this capability, your word processor may be able to generate a pdf file. If not, you can still search through the document using edit/find. It is easy to get an unmanageably long and unorganized file, but by searching it and just using what relates later you can save time over properly filing and documenting everything as you come across it. How can you possibly know what may prove relevant later? Be sure to copy/paste the sources for each piece of info, and use page breaks when changing subject or site, for clarity.

Knowing more about the locations you research can make it so much easier to find information about your ancestors, or to recognize information as relevant once you find it. But.... in and of itself it can just be enjoyable to learn!

Valerie LaRobardier, Webmaster

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