some genealogical issues are more prevalent in modern times than they
were in the past in today's episode of the ancestral findings podcast
I'll give you some ways you can get past these issues in your research
there are certain genealogical problems that are more prevalent in the modern era than they were
in the past human nature being what it is all of these things existed to some degree in the past
and can be issues for genealogists researching past generations these things are more common
in modern times though and the genealogist who is tracing their modern family and putting together
a list of current descendants of a particular ancestor can find themselves confronted with
these issues more often than the genealogists of the past genealogists working on modern family
trees as well as future genealogists will have to deal with and overcome these issues these
are some of the most common modern genealogical problems and how you can solve them unwed mothers
this can be an issue in finding the names of the father especially if the mother gives the child
her maiden name birth records will have to be searched which are not always available to the
general public in many states some states make you wait as much as 100 years after the birth before
you can get a birth certificate if you are not the parent of the child or the child listed on
the certificate if you know your relatives well and the unwed mother is someone you can talk to
you can always ask about the father if you feel she will answer you if you are able to get the
birth certificate the father's name may be on there but it also may not if a woman doesn't
want to name the father she can leave the father's name blank on the birth certificate you also need
to take into consideration the fact that she might not know who the father is either due to multiple
partners or rape if the father's name is on the birth certificate then you have a name and family
line to search which makes it much easier for you if the mother gave the child the last name of the
Father but you have no birth certificate and she hasn't or won't say who he is you still have the
last name to go on search families of that last name in the area and in places the mother traveled
around the time of conception you might come up with a lead if the mother and child agree you can
so DNA tests a child and see what / journal matches come up in the database of the testing
company explore these matches and you may find the father and or relatives of the father that
allow you to trace that side of the child's family tree or to just add the name of the
father to your own tree non-traditional burials there have always been what we would consider
non-traditional burials these would be things like cremation burial at sea burial in a cave
or leaving the body outside for animals to devour these are all practices used by cultures in the
past and some cultures still use them cremation and burial at sea are still a couple of choices
people in America and other Western nations have if they don't want to do a traditional burial
there are also graves that are unmarked which can be frustrating for genealogists sometimes
the family just couldn't afford a headstone other times they might have belonged to a religion that
did not believe in them such as Quakers who have largely observed the practice of forgoing
headstones since the denomination was founded in the mid-1600s you can use death certificates
funeral home records and obituaries to piece together when your ancestors died and where and
how they were buried sometimes ashes are buried in cemeteries after a cremation so don't discount
this possibility there may even be a headstone be sure to check all possibilities if the burial was
before the time when there were records kept such as death certificates you can often find
the location with an obituary in an old newspaper or with records of the location of burials from a
cemetery you may find burials for ashes and even headstones for people who were actually buried
at sea if there are no headstones or burials you may find a disposition of the remains and
obituaries these are all sources you should be looking at in your research deaths including
non-traditional burials are pretty well documented in public records so you shouldn't have too much
of an issue in finding the information you desire divorces don't let a mere divorce throw you off
track in your genealogical research the people involved in a divorce are still very searchable
while divorces were traditionally difficult to obtain in past centuries they were still
a thing and were sometimes granted adultery and abandonment were usually the reasons divorces
were granted in times past but extreme cruelty could also be grounds for one in fact the first
divorce granted in the American colonies by the Puritans was to a woman whose second husband
abused her and her child by her first marriage so badly the Puritan religious authorities believe
the husband was no longer fit to be one and granted the divorce in the 1680s the woman
went on to marry a third time and at a long happy marriage with that one there are a good selection
of records you can search for divorces and the people involved in them court records
when they are available to the general public and newspaper records are often good sources
with all the salacious details of what brought the couple to the point of divorce newspapers
back in more distant times used to print entire stories around why a couple got divorced and
where each spouse went afterward if you know the couple divorced but can't find a record of
it you can still research each former spouse individually to discover where they went and
whether they remarried and had other children the records are there and modern family tree software
programs usually have fields to indicate a couple divorce and to add new spouses if they remarried
you
do you know the tale of the ghost army of World War two it's a fascinating
story that is just coming to light their tail shows what a difference an artist's
come in join me in the next episode of the ancestral findings podcast and I'll share
their story to learn more about genealogy and sign up for our weekly giveaway visit
ancestral findings com copyright by ancestral findings all rights reserved