Women's History Month 2013: Home Sources

Resources for Researching Your Female Ancestor, Day # 29

(c) 2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega

Home Sources are an important starting point for genealogical research. However, when most of us hear the words "home source" we automatically respond, "I don't have any."  While that may be true, it's important to reach out to other family members who may have heirlooms.

Utilize social media to "get the word out." Message boards, websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and GenealogyWise are all websites where you can let others know about your research and possibly attract fellow researchers with information and heirlooms.

What types of home sources might exist? Here's a partial list of ideas.

Birth

Announcement in Newspaper

Mailed Baby Announcements

Baby Book

Adoption Record

Marriage

Engagement Announcement

Wedding Announcement

Wedding Book

Wedding Photographs

25^th or 50^th Anniversary Announcement

Divorce

Court papers

Newspaper Notice

Death

Obituary

Funeral Notice

Thank You notes

Newspaper Articles

Funeral Book

Will/probate

Funeral Cards

Cemetery Plot Receipts

School

Report Cards

School Newspapers

Yearbooks

Alumni Newspapers

Awards

Diplomas

Transcripts

Class Photos

Religion

Baptismal certificate

Christening record

Ministerial record

Transfer Letter

Military Service

DD214

Pension Record

Ribbons/Medals

Photographs

Uniform

Military Records

Veterans Administration Card

Occupation

Resume

Social Security Card

Awards

Union Membership Records

Income Tax Records

Retirement Records

Business License

Property Ownership

Deed

Homestead Records

Mortgage

Tax Records

Household Items

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Newspaper Clippings

Quilts

Needlework Samples

Bible

Genealogies

Journal/Diary

Correspondence

Citizenship

Visa

Naturalization Papers

Alien Registration

Passport

Institutional Records

Hospital Records

Immunization Records

Library Card

Fraternal Order Memberships

Charity Group Memberships

Thank You Grandma!: Forgotten Home Sources

(c) 2012 Gena Philibert-Ortega

There is no doubt that home sources are important to family history research. Unfortunately, not everyone is home source rich. I have friends who have inherited fabulous archives of family materials like vintage photos, letters, and other heirlooms. In my case, I have been lucky to be given a few items.

Home sources can be those genealogically rich items found in your home, the home of a close family member or even a distant cousin. Over 10 years ago I met a distant cousin who had a letter written in the 1800s by one of my 5th great-grandfathers. This letter included information about his children and their birth dates. A genealogy touchdown for sure.

Home sources are elusive  in that they can easily become  forgotten because they are often just a part of the stuff we have in our homes. They may not be archived or curated in a manner that reminds us of the value they really possess.

Case in point is two Air Letters, dated 1960 and 1964, I found this week hidden in my childhood stamp collection. These letters were written to a friend of my maternal grandmothers from a genealogist in England. As I started reading them I realized they provided source information for my maternal line. My grandmother was also a genealogist and would hire researchers in England to pursue sources. These two letters addressed to her friend in care of the Genealogical Society in Salt Lake City (now known as FamilySearch) provides references to parish records  and the name and dates found therein.

So how did this genealogy information end up in my stamp collection? My paternal grandfather encouraged my stamp collecting interest as a child. He and others helped supply me with stamps, including my grandmother who must have given me these two Air Letters because of their sixpence postage stamps. She was probably done with the information and thought I would be interested in the stamps. Because the stamps were not the typical stamp affixed to an envelope, I chose to keep the entire letter whole and not cut the stamp out. Now, what was once a cool stamp given to me is a home source I need for my genealogy.

Home sources can be anywhere. I would have never guessed that my grandma would be helping me with genealogy 20 years after her death.

A funny side note is what non-genealogically information is in the letters. This English researcher would receive requests from Salt Lake and she would go searching for parish registers and then send the information back. From the sounds of the letter she had quite the bustling business. But as all working moms can attest to , it was difficult to balance work and kids.

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

Seems life for genealogist moms hasn't changed.

Home Sources: Books

We all love books.  But do you have any books that once belonged to other family members?  If so, these can be a valuable home source. 

I have a textbook that was my grandmothers when she was in 6th grade and then a book that was hers as an adult.  It's nice to have a copy of her signature (she wrote her name in both books.)  But what is also nice is that she didn't always go by the same surname as a child (her mother divorced and remarried) and so I have at least one item where I know what surname she was using during what time period.

And what about those "bookmarks" that may have been placed in a book.  Yesterday, while looking through a book from my parents, a postcard from Reader's Digest fell out announcing a gift to them by my great grandmother.  Now, this isn't earth shattering but, if I didn't know the information, I now have a postcard with my parent's names and old address as well as my great grandmother's name.  This would also be important if I didn't know about when my great-grandmother passed away.  I would know from the postcard at least when she was still alive. People use all kinds of things for bookmarks, photos, correspondence, documents, etc... 

So checkout your bookshelf and the bookshelf of family members.  There just might be some great genealogy finds hidden in the  books.

Home Sources: Newspaper Clippings

We all have them. They usually are cut out very carefully so that nothing outside of the article itself can be seen. They may be about a funeral, an anniversary, a celebration or an event. They may even be about our family's darker side, an arrest, a court trial or such.

Newspaper articles are something that almost all families have.  They may be stuck in a scrapbook, photo album or just mingled in with other family papers.  What is important is to gather them up and copy them and use them as clues for your family history.

I recommend that you color copy each newspaper article (the color copy comes out better than a black and white copy) or scan it.  Store the original in an acid free sheet protector and don't let it touch any other articles or papers.  Newspaper isn't meant to last long, it's made from paper that is acidic and thus deteriorates.  That's why they turn yellow.  It will damage any other paper it touches.

These newspapers are often hard for us to cite in our genealogy programs because they lack the information from their original source. You could use online newspaper databases through genealogy providers like WorldVitalRecords, Ancestry, Newspaper Archive, or GenealogyBank to look for newspapers for your ancestor's locality.  You could also see if the state has a newspaper digitization project.  A state archive/library may also have newspapers available on microfilm.  The Kansas State Historical Society, http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/index.htm,  has a large collection of newspapers form all over the United States and you can borrow these microfilms through inter-library loan.

Home Sources: Christmas Cards

Christmas cards, as well as other holiday and special occasion cards, can be a great wealth of information. If you are lucky, maybe someone in your family has stashed away these cards. Most likely these cards will assist you in researching those from the 20th century

Christmas cards provide the names of family and friends, the envelopes provide addresses and in some cases the cards may provide a newsy letter that can lead to more clues to finding your family.

 

Genealogy isn't just about researching the dead. I have  got into the habit of saving my current Christmas cards, both an example of ones I send out and the ones I receive.  Why?  Because those signatures of granparents, aunts, uncles and far off cousins might be meaningful to my children when they grow up and might provide them clues.  One of the cards I cherish is one from an aunt who died several years ago.  She always signed her familiy's Christmas card in the shape of a Christmas tree.  One of my memories of Christmas was receiving that familiy's card and that distinctive signature.

One more story involving Christmas cards. After a cousin died and I was taking care of her estate, I used Christmas cards and her Christmas address labels  to figure out family members that I should contact.  She was from a line where I did not personally know many of the family members.  So by using her cards and addresses I was able to find family members to contact and let know of her passing. I was also able to fill in some family group sheets.

Christmas cards provide just one more piece to the family history puzzle.

Home Sources: Postcards

 

Old postcards can be a lot of fun.  They may also shed some light on your family history.  One of my cousins inherited a hundred of more postcards from her grandmother.  These postcards relate the comings and goings of her friends but they also provide a link to where her grandmother was in a certain place and time. Through these postcards, my cousin can trace where her grandmother was living and her grandmother's life in the reflections of the friends who wrote her.

Postcards evolved over time and differed according to what time period they were printed in. Two types of postcards might hold the most interest to genealogists. Mass produced postcards, which depict places and events, that many of us are familiar with and that are still sold to tourists and real photo postcards that were available to the everyday person from between 1902-1910. Kodak's Brownie camera allowed anyone to take a picture and then to have the picture developed as a print or a postcard. While the mass-produced type of postcard will help your family get a sense for your ancestral city in earlier times, the real photo postcard might provide an image of family members or the family home.