Checking out COURTHOUSES

Now I'm going to switch gears and talk about finding actual COURTHOUSE RECORDS which can include VITAL-BIRTH, DEATH, MARRIAGE RECORDS, PROBATES, LAND RECORDS, etc. Not many of these court records are online which means you may have to write to a court clerk or visit a courthouse sometime to further your research or hire a local genealogist to do that for you. Addresses of Courthouses can be found on USGenWeb.org or with GOOGLE. (Coryell Texas Courthouse below where my husband was born and raised.)

SUMMARY OF RECORDS available online, in Court houses and/or other places like libraries 

1. LOCALITY records-censuses, histories of towns, counties, states, regions, etc.

2. VITAL RECORDS-marriage, death, birth, adoption, etc., kept in counties+towns, some online, varies by state or area when and how they collected info. 

3. COURT RECORDS-probate, land, tax and adoption records, divorce, citizenship, naturalization papers, etc.

4. CHURCH RECORDS-can have vital records: births, deaths, marriages, confirmations, baptisms, etc.

5. BIOGRAPHIES-can be found in county and town histories and other local collections

6. MAPS-plat maps, etc. It's fun to find where your ancestors lived and walk on their land.

7. NEWSPAPERS-obituaries, marriages, etc-lots of digital newspapers on-line, do google search by areas-country, state, county and some towns have local papers with archives.

8. CEMETERY and funeral home records-may need to write to get these, check death certificates for where buried.

9. MILITARY RECORDS-many ancestors were involved in wars, Google search+ www.nara.gov, and www.ancestry.com

10. CITY DIRECTORIES and old telephone books-good for unusual last names, find in libraries

11. ORGANIZATIONS-State, County Historical Libraries and local Historical Societies can have good local genealogy collections.

12. Personal WEBPAGES and BLOGS-find with a search engine. Check out my family history webpage www.geocities.com/famhistory1867

Tip of the ICEBERG

I've now been blogging for 3 weeks or 21 days about Family History Research and guess what? I've only touched the tip of the iceberg on what is available. More material is being added DAILY in the form of personal webpages, blogs, and actual digitized resources to search. You could get lost surfing in the Internet for your ancestors and never be missed (unless your spouse or family noticed your absence.)

What's to be done to prevent wasting your valuable time searching without any results? HAVE A PLAN-don't look for every surname on your family tree, pick just one branch to research. Then be SPECIFIC-what info are you missing? A death date for great grandpa? Well, then don't look for his birth record but focus on obituaries, death certificates and cemeteries just in the area where he possibly died. Always check HOME SOURCES first before turning to the INTERNET. Then try a GOOGLE SEARCH before checking out some of the websites I've suggested previously: www.familysearch.org, www.ancestry.com, www.cyndislist.org, www.usgenweb.com, www.rootsweb.com among others. (Click on links for more info.)

Keep good notes in some kind of a RESEARCH LOG so you know where you've looked and jot down any ideas as you're working on where to check next...a TO DO list. Remember census records can be great clues if you're searching in America as to where your ancestors lived. This is like a mystery to solve. One thing leads to another until you discover the facts needed. Sometimes you'll find you need to write letters to Courthouses or make a visit in person or hire a researcher to find info for you. Maybe you'll get lucky and find an Internet cousin or two. Good luck!