If your ancestor was a landowning farmer and migrated from Point A to Point B, see from whom he purchased that first piece of property when he arrived in Point B. It might have been a relative or former associate, neighbor, etc. The owner of that property in Point B might have been looking to sell it and heard that his relative or former neighbor was thinking of moving. Worth a shot when you are stuck.

At the risk of oversimplifying, a “life estate” in property (generally a widow) is the right to use the property and receive income from the property during the person’s lifetime. They do not have the right to bequeath the property to someone or to sell it. Oftentimes a widow is given a “life estate” in a piece of property from her husband and in so doing, he specifies to whom it is to pass after her death.

Don’t forget when at the Bureau of Land Management site http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch/ to search for land warrants issued in your ancestor’s name as well. Keep in mind that these warrants may have been issued as patents in state where you ancestor never lived, if he assigned them to someone else.

Don’t search for warrants in the state where your ancestor lived. I just located two “new” War of 1812 ancestors who had warrants issued in states where they never lived.

And if you don’t know what warrants and patents are, read the FAQ section of the BLM site.

2010 is finally here and that means it won’t be all that long before we are in Salt Lake City at our 5th annual Family History Library Research Trip. Our trip is in May-June of 2010 and with millions of records at our disposal it will be a fun and exciting research time.

The early bird registration deadline has passed, but we are still accepting registrations and payment can be made through our secure link here. Those who would like other registration options can email me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com.

Details on the trip can be viewed on our site-when you register, please download the registration materials and either email or US mail them to me. Thanks!

Try a search for the name of your ancestor and their spouse on Google Books http://books.google.com. You might be surprised at what you find.

When viewing matches at http://books.google.com make certain to scroll down the hits and few a few pages as well. I found two different scans of a 1907 county book of biographies. One only had snippet views and the other had the complete book. Remember that it is always possible that Google has multiple scans of the same thing.

There are many ways to search for things at http://books.google.com in an attempt to locate genealogical information.
One approach is to try the names of an ancestral couple, either complete names or first and last names, using the maiden name for the wife.

For example:

Ufkes Grass
Johann Ufkes Noentje Grass

Tinsley Dunaway
Enoch Tinsley Nancy Dunaway

Might be worth a shot.

Remember that for every ancestor who owned a piece of property, there should be an “in” when the property was obtained, or went into his possession and an “out” when the property left his possession.

Make certain you have each one.

And don’t assume your city dwelling ancestors never owned any property. Even records on a small plot may be helpful.

We often get focused on records at one level of jurisdiction.

Keep in mind that there might be town or city records, county records, state records, and federal records of your ancestor.

Any could give you the break you need. Never assume that state or federal records are not going to help you on your ancestor. Military records and pensions are often state or federal records and these can be especially informative. Military veterans or their spouses often applied for benefits as they aged and the restrictions were loosened up.

Many genealogy pay-for sites offer free trials. Here are a few pieces of advice:

• Get the free trial when you will actually have time to use it
• Keep track of the credit card used to “hold” the free trial
• They will bill you if you do not contact them and have them cancel
• Mark your calendar for 2 days before it expires. That is the day you decide.
• If the expire date falls on a Sunday or Saturday, always plan to call on at least the Friday before that date, preferably on Thursday.

Of course, if you aren’t going to cancel, then it is not a problem.