genealogy tip

Today’s post is an example of when a property record gives you non-property information for your brick wall search!

I know my ancestor Sophrona Duram was married to a Horace Meeker, but given the earliness of the records (he died in 1859) and the fact that the couple was around the Duram family rather than the Meekers, I have not had any luck in tracking down Horace’s family.

Enter property records! I know that the Durams moved from Waterloo, NY to Coopersville, MI sometime in the early 1850s, and Horace and Sophrona’s children were born there and Horace died there in September 1859. From here, I searched the Ottawa County property records for the Duram and Meeker families and came across the following document:

WARRANTY DEED.
Received for Record, the 28th September 1859, at 8 o’clock, AM.
M Scott Dep Register.
This Indenture, Made the Twenty first day of September in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and fifty nine BETWEEN Sophrona Meeker of Polkton
Ottawa County State of Michigan of the first part, and Edwin Meeker of Pulaski Jackson County Michigan of the second part, Witnesseth, That the said party of the first part, for and in consideration of the sum of One Hundred Dollars to her in hand paid, by the said party of the second part, the receipt whereof is hereby confessed and acknowledged, ha___ granted, bargained, sold, remised, released, aliened and confirmed, and by these presents do_____ grant, bargain, sell, remise, release, alien and confirm, unto the said party of the second part, and to his heirs and assigns FOREVER,
All that Certain piece or parcel of Land known and described as follows to Wit. The East half of SouthWest quarter of South West quarter of Section Fourteen in Town Eight North of Range Fourteen West in Ottawa County State of Michigan containing Twenty acres of Land more or less.
Together with all and Singular, the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining; and the reversion and reversions, remainder or remainders, rents, issues and profits thereof; and all the estate, right, title, interest, claim and demand whatsoever, of the said party of the first part, either in LAW or EQUITY, of, and to the above bargained premises, with the said hereditaments and appurtenances; TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the said premises, as above described, with the appurtenances, unto the said party of the second part, and to his heirs and assigns FOREVER. And the said party of the first part, of her heirs, executors and administrators, do___ covenant and agree, to and with the said part___ of the second part, ____ heirs and assigns, that at the time of ensealing and delivery of these presents, she is well seized of the premises above conveyed, as of a good, sure, perfect, absolute and indefeasible estate of Inheritance in the law, in Fee Simple, and that the said land and premises are free from all incumbrances whatever: ____________ and that the above bargained premises, in the quiet and peaceable possession of the said party of the second part, his heirs and assigns, against all and every person or persons lawfully possession of the said party of the second part, his heirs and assigns, against all and every person and persons lawfully claiming or to claim the whole or any part thereof, will forever WARRANT AND DEFEND.
In Witness Thereof, The said party of the first part has hereunto set her hand and seal the day and year first above written.
Signed, Sealed and Delivered in the Presence of
T. S Hungerford Sophrona Meeker
Mary Meeker
STATE OF MICHIGAN,
Jackson County
On this twenty first day of September in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and fifty nine before me, a Justice of the Peace for said County, personally came the above named Sophrona Meeker known to me to be the person who executed the foregoing instrument and acknowledged the same to be her free act and deed.
T S Hungerford
Justice of the Peace

Although Meeker isn’t a particularly uncommon name, it seems quite a coincidence that an Edwin Meeker would be buying land from Sophrona the very month her husband Horace died. I can now follow up with Edwin, especially since I have his place of residence (Pulaski in Jackson County, MI) as a possible brother or cousin of Horace.

In today’s example, I show what a record might look like for your ancestor, what’s contained in it, and where to go from there.

I have a newspaper article about my great great grandfather Watson Smith in which he described his life. In it, he said he moved to Wexford County in 1871 and helped raise the first log cabin in the county for Jess Clark with Charley Miller. I found the earliest listing of Watson purchasing land in the index for Wexford and from there pulled up the following record:

From Chas W Miller To Watson M Smith
Received for Record the 28 day of Aug A. D. 1874 at 9 o’clock PM.
H B Slurservant Register.
This Indenture, Made this twenty first day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy four BETWEEN Charles W Miller and Hannah Miller his wife parties of the first part, and Wason M Smith party of the second part, Witnesseth, That the said parties of the first part, for and in consideration of the sum of two hundred ($200) Dollars to them in hand paid by the said party of the second part, and to his heirs and assigns FOREVER, all that piece or parcel of land described as follows to wit the east half of the north east quarter of of section eighteen (18) in township twenty one (21) north of range ten (10) west and containing eighty (80) acres more or less according to the governments survey.
TOGETHER with all and singular the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging, or in anywise appertaining. TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the said ___ premises as described with the appurtenances, unto the said party of the second part, and to his heirs and assigns forever. And the said parties of the first part, for their heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns do covenant, grant, bargain and agree to and with the said party of the second part, his heirs and assigns that at the time of the ensealing and delivery of these presents, are well seized of the above granted premises, in Fee Simple. That they are free from all encumbrances whatever; and that they will, and their heirs, executors, ____ administrators and assigns shall Warrant and Defend the same against all lawful claims whatsoever.
In Witness Whereof, The said parties of the first part have hereunto set their hand and seal the day and year first above written.
Signed, Sealed and Delivered in Presence of
E. T. Sawyer Charles W Miller
J. Byrne Jenkins Hannah Miller
STATE OF MICHIGAN,
COUNTY OF Wexford
On this 31st day of May one thousand eight hundred and seventy five before me a noting public in and for said County, personally appeared Charles W Miller and Hannah M Miller known to me to be the ____ persons who executed the foregoing Instrument, _____ and acknowledged the same to be their free act and deed and the said Hannah M Miller wife of the said Charles W Miller on a private examination by me separate and apart from her said husband acknowledged that she executed the same freely and without any fear or compulsion from any one
Eugene T Sawyer
Notary Public
Wexford Co Mich

This record gives me not only corroborating information to Watson’s presence in Wexford in the 1870s (prior to my first census record of him in 1880), but also his association with Charles Miller. Further, I have the location of this plot of land from the description! I like to use this website to put in the range, township, and section to get an idea of where these land records point to. See the map below for Watson’s first land purchase!

Next, I would continue looking for more property records from Watson to plot out a good timeline of his movements in Wexford County, including earliest and latest years in the county to help with any movement to other areas. I can also follow up on any people listed in the records, which can be really helpful for making connections for tracking families as we’ll see in the next post!

This week we’ll look at a one of my favorite sources – property records!

If you’re doing genealogy in the U.S., you likely know that a census record is one of the best ways to get ballpark dates for your ancestors birth, marriage, and death dates as well as locations where they were born and lives and family members.

But what if you’re looking before 1850? Or your ancestor wasn’t enumerated? Or you’re trying to fill in the gap between 1880 and 1900? Property records are a great source for this.

Property records will only work, of course, for ancestors that owned property. These records are most prolific for white ancestors who were either well off or were farmers who purchased land during westward expansion, although also a potentially good resource for free African-Americans before or shortly after Emancipation. In my opinion, these records are always worth checking, particularly for ancestors living outside urban areas, with the caution that not all searches will produce results.

My favorite easy online resource for property records is FamilySearch’s catalog. First, navigate to FamilySearch.org and click on the Search dropdown menu:

Then click catalog:

In this example, I’ll use Michigan property records. To search for that, I’ll just type in “michigan”, select the suggestion “United States, Michigan”, then click search.

This brings up all the collections on FamilySearch related to Michigan. I’m using the catalog instead of the search function for a couple reasons. First, not all property records are indexed for searching. Second, I’ve found that often a name has been omitted from the index, or is transcribed in a way that prevents me from finding it in a search. Starting with a search is always good, but if that fails (or doesn’t produce what you’re expecting), it’s good to check the catalog and search manually.

I scroll down to Land and property, which gives me books and databases but not the records I expect.

Instead of the whole state, I’ll check at the county level:

There they are! I choose Deed records, 1830-1931; index, 1824-1902. From there I can click the camera icon and start searching for my ancestors:

Having trouble finding land records? We can help! Email info@weavingthetapestrygenealogy.com .

While something like a birth announcement or an obituary helps us fill in our family trees, the newspaper is also a great way to get to know your ancestors’ daily lives. My 4th great grandfather, Joseph Duram, is an amazing example of this. From newspaper records, I have pieced together quite the narrative about his life.

According to his headstone and census records, Joseph W. Duram was born on 18 August 1798 in the state of New York. He can first be found in the town of Mentz, where he and his wife Minerva, daughter of Seth Higley, sold their land to Archibald Wilson in 1822. The family is still in Mentz in the 1830 census. We pick them up again in the town of Waterloo, where in spring of 1833 Joseph advertises in the paper for 50 men to work at the dry dock in Waterloo. He is also selling a canal boat. Later in 1833 he also purchased the saw mill with Ebenezer Metcalf from the heirs of Elisha Williams. This venture failed, and a sheriff’s sale of his and Metcalf’s land commenced in the fall of 1837. His daughter Nancy had married David Hamell the previous year. He further petitioned for bankruptcy in Auburn in March of 1843. He was also elected constable that year. He appears to have repurchased the boatyard he advertised for in 1833 again in 1845. His wife Minerva died of apoplexy (stroke) at 48 years old on 23 November 1847. He remarried the following year to Mary Himelberger. He continued to fail in his business ventures, and the boatyard where he built boats with his family was auctioned off in 1850. The continued strain of these business failures may have contributed to the family’s decision to move west to Michigan, approximately in 1853 (though he was purchasing land in preparation by 1848). By his headstone, Joseph died on 6 October 1857 in Michigan at the age of 59.

A full if tragic life, laid out in the newspaper articles of the day.

Need assistance reconstructing your ancestor’s movements? Email us at info@weavingthetapestrygenealogy.com for a free estimate!

We just posted about finding additional information, like date and place of death, in the newspaper when traditional records like death certificates cannot be found. But the best thing about a full obituary is that often we can find so much more than just this data!

Remember Martha Crakes from our last post? This is her obituary in full. What additional information can you find?

Just from this document, we know that Martha:

• Was born in Yorkshire County, England on 15 August 1786
• Emigrated to the United States in 1828, first setting up home in New York
• Moved to Huntington County, Indiana in 1830
• Moved to Madison Township, Indiana (near South Bend) in 1876
• Died on 15 September 1878 in Madison Township, Indiana
• Had a son named Thomas

What next steps could we take?

• Check Yorkshire birth records for any Marthas with this date of birth, or close to it
• Check marriage records in Yorkshire for a woman named Martha marrying a Crakes…perhaps finding one that matches a Martha with the birth of 15 August 1786
• Check ship records for 1828
• Check the 1830 census for both New York and Huntington County, Indiana
• Check subsequent census records through 1870 in Huntington County
• Look for a headstone matching her information in the Madison Township area
• Follow up on her son Thomas

All this data and steps for following up, just from one obituary! Unfortunately, a published obituary isn’t as common as we would like it to be, but it is often a very useful tool when it can be found.