While records of birth, marriage, and death are the usually sought and the most consistently helpful records, only the genealogist’s imagination and resourcefulness limit newspapers’ usefulness in giving clues about historical occasions, local history, probate court and legal notices, land transactions, political biographies, announcements, notices of new and terminated partnerships, business advertisements, and notices for settling debts.

Newspapers can provide at least a partial replace for nonexistent civil records. For instance, a person’s obituary may have appeared in a newspaper even when civil death records for that individual do not exist. And newspapers are an important source of marriage records, particularly in those states where civil recording of marriages was essentially nonexistent until the twentieth century.

Genealogists are generally positive and energetic, and most are ready to share their findings or research experience with anyone they can help. There are hundreds of genealogical societies at the grass-roots level. Knowledge of the genealogical community will place you in the midst of much activity, increase your productivity, and alert you to the importance of research standards and etiquette.

Some excellent compilations of estate records have been produced; however, others leave much to be desired. As useful as published probate information is, the researcher must still be aware of some significant limitations.

Limited Coverage or Information – Some printed sources serve only as finding aids; they indicate that a record pertaining to a certain surname exists in a specific county, without showing given names or any detail from the document. Others provide added details but still have such limited data that they merely serve as locating tools, such as those that give only the names of people specified as relatives while ignoring names of people who do not appear to be relatives, such as in-laws, neighbors, etc.—names that are very valuable to the research process.

Although there are always dangers in relying solely on printed material, the advantages of published probate and estate records greatly outweigh the disadvantages if you are thorough, careful, and consistently review the original documents as well. Overall, published statewide indexes to wills and estate records serve as valuable finding aids. Other benefits of printed volumes include fast retrieval, concisely recorded data, easy-to-read text, and broad availability.

Indexes – The most valuable printed works include verbatim transcripts and every-name indexes. Most provide citations to identify the facility where the original records are stored. High-quality abstracts include volume and page numbers and/or case numbers from original records; these can serve as practical and reliable indexes to the original documents.

Locating printed county and regional probate transcriptions or indexes is easier today than ever before due to electronic media. Major library catalogs are now available at local libraries on network computer systems, in CD-ROM format, through telephone communication systems, or as microfiche copies.

Importance of Learning the Correct Locality – As indicated earlier, county boundaries have frequently changed, and these changes can prove challenging for those seeking probate materials. Which county should you look at first, and why? What if there is no comprehensive statewide index?

The first Federal population census was conducted in 1790. Delaware’s census records for 1790 are missing and believed to have been destroyed during the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington, D.C.  Delaware’s census records for 1890 have also been lost. Population census records up to 1920 have been released and are available for Delaware. Delaware’s Agricultural Census and Census of Industry are available for the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Until about 1850, the information collected by census takers varied considerably. You will find more consistency in later records.

County Court (1619–1902) – County courts were the court of record used by most Virginians. In 1904, county courts ceased to exist, and their functions were taken over by the circuit courts.

County courts were established as the monthly court in the Great Charter of 1618. The monthly court was held in different precincts and heard petty civil and criminal cases. It served two primary functions: (1) it relieved the president and council of part of their duties as justices, and (2) it brought justice closer to all Virginians. When the eight original shires were formed in 1634, the monthly court was redesignated the court of shire, and by 1642 was called the county court. The county court was required to meet at least six times per year.

This site was submitted to me yesterday and I liked it so I am now sharing it with you……
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Welcome to Chronicling America, enhancing access to America’s historic newspapers. This site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1860-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

While these lists do not claim to include the names of all the Tories of the state, they are representative of that group who were interested enough to take an active part. Prior to making these transcripts it was impossible to locate by name or profession any considerable number of Tories in the state. The names given here and in the following appendices probably include the greater number of the more prominent Loyalists.

Table of Contents

Appendix A – List of Loyalists – most of these names are those of soldiers, but there are a few widows and orphans listed.

Whenever you’re doing a project that requires gathering a huge amount of details, it can be truly difficult to keep the job as neat and structured, if you do things manually. The same concern will also apply to creating a family group tree.

With undertaking a family group tree project, you may be collecting a great deal of facts from different sources, and with regularly and effort you’ve invested, you certainly want to ensure that your genealogy project will be structured, and everything is in its proper place. To make your genealogy project a simpler task, you could turn on to specialized family tree software for help. Here are some ways for selecting the right genealogy software for your requirements.