Follow a lifeSUBJECT COLLECTION · 8 ARTICLES
Study lives through connected records. Distinguish the event, the person who reported it, and the document that survives.
4 min readFamily history & personal papers
A method for following people and households across census years while accounting for reference dates, changing questions, transcription errors and reported information.
4 min readFamily history & personal papers
A jurisdiction-first method for reading certificates, registers and indexes without confusing an event, its registration and a later copy.
4 min readFamily history & personal papers
How to identify the right congregation, interpret baptism, marriage and burial entries, and account for boundaries, denominations and missing coverage.
3 min readFamily history & personal papers
How to reconstruct a conversation from letters, envelopes, drafts and related papers while separating the writer’s perspective from established fact.
4 min readFamily history & personal papers
How to connect burial registers, grave books, plot maps and memorial inscriptions while respecting missing markers and separate custodians.
4 min readFamily history & personal papers
A method for reading dated personal writing as a constructed, incomplete record while preserving sequence, revisions and the writer’s changing perspective.
4 min readFamily history & personal papers
How to move from a probate index to the will, administration, inventory and court material that document an estate without mistaking one paper for the whole file.
4 min readFamily history & personal papers
How to follow residents, businesses, occupations and addresses between censuses while recognizing coverage gaps, abbreviations and publication lag.