What Is Information?

I have been thinking quite a bit about the meaning of "information" for an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues. I prefer to think of statements instead as statements are more specific than "information."

Statements typically place a person in a location at a certain point in time, express a relationship between two people, or state a specific event.

Genealogists should decide the perceived accuracy of any given statement based upon the document from which it comes and the likely informant and then go from there.

I don't get too many responses here, but I'm hoping to continue to define the research process the way I actually do it. I'm not certain that models I've seen really hit at how I research.

Family History Library Trip May 2011

We still have room in my 2011 trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Join us for a week of research at the Family History Library in Salt Lake. Remember---not everything is on the Internet.



More details on our site here or email me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com.

Casefile Clues, Genealogy Tip of the Day on Facebook, etc.

In celebration of getting over 3200 fans for Genealogy Tip of the Day on Facebook, we're offering a special on my newsletter Casefile Clues untli 6 PM tonight.

For those who don't know, Genealogy Tip of the Day can be viewed on a blog with only the tips and none of the comments and other chatter that we have on Facebook. Genealogy Tip of the Day is also available in Kindle format on Amazon.com as well--just search for "genealogy tip of the day there."

As a reminder, Casefile Clues is my weekly newsletter, is low-priced and has no advertising either in the newsletter or in the blog where I write about upcoming topics, etc.

I've been working with various indexes on the Familysearch.org site today in an attempt to find several families. If it's been a while since you've looked at the databases they have, please give it a try.

1905 Minnesota State Census on FamilySearch

The image with this post comes from the 1905 Minnesota state census. Benjamin Habben was living in Lake Valley Township, Traverse County, Minnesota.

This census and the index recently were released on Familysearch.org.

Benjamin Habben is a first cousin of my ancestor John H. Ufkes.

This census is interesting in that it asks how long the person has lived in Minnesota and how long they have lived in the district in which they are enumerated--providing some migration clues for this family. Now that I see the quesions the census asked I have other families I think I'll look for in this enumeration.

The one difficulty is that it is not clear where households begin and end. This is a slight concern as I would like to know if Benjamin Habben is living with the Nelk family listed next to him. Mrs. Nelk was a relative of Habbens and it would be nice to know if they were enumerated in one household in this census.

I'll have to look in 1900 and 1910 to see.