A good clue when searching for an individual is any varied names (a given name, middle name, a surname). The more common is more difficult, but the more unusual or unique can be easier. If you researching your father’s various siblings, pick the one with the most unusual given name and the rest will fall into place.

Keep an open mind and be willing to begin again on a family branch. Realize our ancestors could have changed their names, had many marriages, joined the circus, been divorced, or abandoned the family (wives or husbands). So the person you had found in a 1910 census living in a boarding house in another city just might be the Uncle William Harrison you had been looking for and he had left behind a wife and children. Remember everyone did exist at one time and there are multiple documents out there.

When looking for records, numerous local documents may have moved to the state archives or into a private repository such as a historical society or even a museum. Records can be held in a national, state or province or district, county or local level or in all those locations.

Family tales and legends can point you in the wrong direction. Never accept a family story or tale as 100% accurate — check it out using every method you can locate. From my family tales was the statement that an ancestor had been the personal aide to General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. By simply getting copies of the military pension records (where the pensioner had to submit complete written details of their service) for that ancestor from the National Archives, I found this ancestor was indeed an aide, but for Col. William Washington (a cousin of George). With that information, further research verified that new fact.

Examining all relatives during a time frame is helpful in finding certain people. A young daughter might now be living with her parents, instead she was a house servant for a neighbor, or lived with her grandmother in another state or even in an orphanage when one parent was still living. Imagine all the possibilities, there generally is a reason a family member is in another location.

Nothing is always spelled the same way, especially relating to names. You might not have found a person in a database because the name is misspelled. So now realizing that, you will need to review every single entry in the record to find them, not impossible, just be patient. Think how that name might be misspelled.

It can be helpful to keep a record or listing of each source you have reviewed. That way you don’t spend time redoing what you did 6 months ago — now that is frustrating. Of course if you need to re-examine some data, it is worthwhile to go over certain records again.

Keep positive — be patient and the results will come.

For decades what happened in a family estate was completely detailed in written records. It had to include what happened to any children under the legal age of 21, who survived, where and who received money, land and even at one time, who inherited the family slaves.

Not all of the 68 counties have all the years, 1663 to 1979, many times because that county did not exist in 1663. Some of the older counties with documents back to the 1660s include:

Catawba, Cumberland, Currituck, Ashe and Beaufort. Also not every county in the database has all estate records for that county.

This information can help provide names of relatives, how they are related (very important item), ages, death date, occupations, residences, and of course the wealth of a person. Use the search box to place a surname. Placing the surname ‘Walton’ produced 136 listings. Sometimes it is good to just use a surname (unless it is Smith) because given names (or use of initials) could be quite varied.

If you locate a possible ancestor click on that name and a summary of dates and places will appear. If it is still the possible same ancestor then click on the ‘view’ to look over the estate file. Keep in mind there are usually numerous pages to an estate file, not just one page. With John Walton, 1799 there were 38 pages. Use the arrow above the digital image to go to the next page. Many are handwritten, especially the older ones. You can enlarge each page, save it to your computer or print it. With the longer legal documents it may be in two parts (two separate pages scanned). What can be super interesting is viewing an ancestor’s signature at the end or throughout such records.

The lists or inventory of possessions and who get what items is another interesting element in the file. A description along with a value is attached to each item. Things like beds, chest of drawers, horses, carriages, even the departed’s clothes and boots can be on the inventory.

if you can any North Carolina ancestors covering this wide selection of years, use the search engine and see if there is a listing. They could have been in a county you were not even aware of, so do check.

Photo: Inventory list for John Walton of Chowan County.

So you could well have a family group or a couple individuals in a photo and maybe one was added later. With modern digital imaging, airbrushing and special effects, all types of ‘fantasy photos’ can exist now. When a photo from the family album is found to be altered, notes relating to the photo should be made for future reference. You may need a photographer’s opinion to know for sure any additions or even deletions were made. Yes, sometimes, a valued family portrait even had the face of a person, say an ex-son-in-law removed from the print, negative and any copies or new copies of the changed portrait.

For your own collection of family photographs you just might like to create your own fantasy photos. An example might be to create one image of a husband and wife before they ever married, dated or even knew each other. Possibly a photo of each when they were 10 years old. Unlikely they knew each other, but it is a fascinating image to see the two as youngsters together. Of course you need separate images of each at that age, similar background or one that could be altered to be similar.

A really challenging type of fantasy image would be to place members of the same family branch together, as if several generations sat at the same time for a big portrait. That would take some work, especially locating the correct type of image. If you made each image in black and white it would be easier and more natural to blend them. It could then be converted to ‘color’ and sepia-tone it.

There are several fantasy photo software programs available, some free to download and others for a fee. Do a Google search and place ‘free fantasy photo software’. One free version is ‘Gimp Shop‘ which allows you to not only fix up any imperfections in a photo, but also do some creative work with each one.

If you feel creating a large group photo is too much a challenge there are numerous photo studios and services that can perform this imaginative creation. It is similar to putting your family tree or at least a major branch or two in one photo.

Photo: My husband’s family branch which was originally pictured with 6 family members in 1917, then 7 members born after wards were added. Oldest was born 1869 and the youngest added to the photo was born 1969, her great great granddaughter.

The next step to be completed by all family history researchers is to completely and accurately transcribe handwritten documents. The purpose of such a task pays off in the long run. First it will be easier to read by you again and anyone else later. Next you will find you can be more careful in understanding what has been written. It is so easy to overlook a specific phrase of word which could be of some importance to knowing more about that ancestor. Then when you share this document, a copy of the original can be provided along with the transcription.

Some ideas as you do the transcription is first to make it just like the original, use the same words and phrases (even if different terms are used now-a-days) as in the document with the same paragraphs. Copy the way the words were spelled even if they were misspelled.
Of course some words or phrases will need some explanation, if so, use brackets. If a word or words are undecipherable, note it with comments like [unreadable] framed in a bracket.

One way which will help to do any lengthy transcription using a computer, is to scan an image of the document, one page at a time. Number them in the file title. Then have the scanned image document on your monitor screen and make it fill one-half of the screen (top or bottom). Use the ‘Restore Down’ button on the upper right of the image to achieve this. Do the same with the word processor blank page you will be typing to transcribe. This way you can read, go a few lines at a time, zoom in if need be to see each word. This method does really work.

Remember if you do an ‘extract’ you are making a true and complete copy of a document; a letter, family Bible (BMD listings – most important to do any of these), journal, record and diary. If you also do an ‘abstract’ that is a summary of key points in that document and it needs to be noted as such.

Check your filing cabinet for any documents handwritten that really should have an transcription done soon. At the end of the transcription, place you full name and date the transcription was completed. You will be glad you have this completed.

The ones listed for the United Kingdom are fairly complete. For England select a county your ancestors had as an original residence. A map will appear of that county and to the right a list of cities and towns available with information. Not every town is completed yet, but select a city that was nearby. A list of subtopics appears next to a brief history of each location. They range from maps, people, churches, streets, buildings and misc. other topics.

When looking for any specific surname it provides instruction of how to ‘find’ a name, which is in bold print. In the buildings, streets, churches, where photos are available, that is included besides information. For maps, current and any older maps of an areas are available on the site. What subtopics that are available will vary with each place.

Besides learning more about an ancestral home you can also share any maps, photos and information you have gathered so that can be placed on the site. Another contribution can be where you the researcher lives now. You could have some information to start a new link for the site.

An excellent web site with some very useful maps, photos and information.

Photo: A street named Longfield in Prestwich, Lancashire Co., England with a row of typical houses in 1938.