GENEALOGY RESEARCH TIP OF THE DAY:

Question Every Sentence

The next time you read an old obituary that you think is not helpful, stop at the end of every sentence. Ask yourself:

• would this fact have generated a record?
• have I looked for those records generated by the facts in this obituary?
• how would the informant have known this detail?
• is there a chance this statement is correct?
• are the details in chronological order?
• would one person have had first hand knowledge of all this information?
•  are there any details in this obituary that are inconsistent?  

Please visit the Library's Online Obituary Database for the Jefferson County Area covering the periods of 1860's through "current day!" 

GENEALOGY RESEARCH TIP OF THE DAY:

Lines Over a Letter in a Name?

If you see a single line over one letter in a name in a document, it usually means that the letter was actually used twice in the name and not just once.

This notation was not used everywhere, but this illustration shows a "Fanny" written as "Fany" with a line over the "n."