Getting the most out of historical records

How do we wring the last drop of information out of historical (genealogically significant) records? If you happen to be using one of the more popular genealogical database and family tree programs, you are probably getting a lot of record hints. In most cases, the record hint technology has advanced to the point that they are fairly accurate. But if you simply click on the record link and give it a cursory review and then attach it as a "source," you may be ignoring and losing the full benefit of information supplied.

Let me give a few examples of the in-depth information that is likely lurking in those ignored records. Granted, if you have a great deal of genealogical research experience and use a large variety of record types, you probably know how to read a record for content but if you haven't looked carefully at the existing records attached to an individual or family and wrung them dry, you will benefit from a more detailed examination. Here I go with the examples. The first one is a commonly used U.S. Federal Census Record. 

This is a page from the 1900 U.S. Census taken in the St. Joseph Precinct, Navajo County Territory of Arizona. What can this Census record tell us other than the obvious fact that my ancestor's family lived in this location on the date the record was created? Some of this additional information only becomes of interest when we ask a series of questions about the record. 

A record such as this one was not created in insolation from every other event in my ancestor's life. This particular record is, in a sense, a snapshot of one day in the life of my ancestral family. To fully understand the record and glean all of the available information, we need to know a lot about the history of the area and the history of the families that appear in the record. As we continue to gather records, we will begin to have an increased insight into the details contained on this particular record we may have missed in our first brief review. 

My ancestor is Henry Martin Tanner. He is shown with his wife Eliza E Tanner and nine of his children. The record indicates that both Henry and his wife, Eliza, were born in California. There is no information about the birthplaces for Henry's parents, but Eliza's parents were said to have been born in England. Remember, a census record is a record that was created by a census enumerator and the person supplying the information may or may not have accurately known the information supplied. But if start to look at this record, we will see more about the individuals and the family as a whole. 

We should continue to examine each entry for each person in the family. The children were all born in Arizona. This information gives us a sense of the continuity of the family but also raises a question about the birthplace of the parents in California. It appears that even though the parents were both born in California something must have happened to have all the children born in a very small and isolated town in Arizona. It is also significant that all four of the older children are designated as being "at school." Looking at all of the entries suggests that further information about the family might come from school records, records in California, and in the case of Eliza's parent records in England or elsewhere. 

To add some outside information, Eliza's parents emigrated from England and lived in Australia where they joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and travel to America where they ended up living in San Bernardino, California where Henry's parents had also settled. In 1857, the United States government sent an army led by Albert Sydney Johnston to put down a rebellion in Utah. As a result of this military action, the members of the Church who lived in California were "called home" to Utah and some of the families including Eliza's family and Henry's family moved to Utah. This event is the basis for the seeming anomaly of the parents' birthplace. 

Perhaps you can begin to see how much history is wrapped up in just a few entries in this census record. Now, what else it there? Census records in 1900 were systematically enumerated, that is, the enumerator went up and down the streets in the town so the people who appear on this sheet lived physically close to my ancestral family. Right next door, there is another Tanner family, Emma E. Tanner and her four children. Who is Emma Tanner? She is the plural wife of Henry Martin Tanner. The four children are Henry's four additional children by his second wife. Interestingly, these children's' parents were both born in Utah. Emma's family also was born in England and then emigrated to Australia and then to America so her parents were born in England but the father of her children was not born in Utah. He was born in California. Why Utah? Now, we get into a lot of history. The simple explanation is that whoever gave this information lied about the father's birthplace because plural marriage or polygamy was illegal at that time in Arizona. 

Who else shows up on this same census page? Martin Tanner Jr. and his wife Prudence. Martin Ray Tanner was the oldest son of Henry and Eliza but he was not a junior at all. This process can go on and on. If I examined the rest of the census pages for St. Joseph (now Joseph City), I would find even more relatives and more implied history. There are only four pages of the census from the St. Joseph Precinct. 

Of course, this census record suggests looking for birth records if they exist, church records, newspaper records, probate records, marriage records, death records, and many other records of different types.