Helpful Chart handy for calculating birth dates from ages listed on Census
HOW TO FIGURE A BIRTHDATE REMEMBER THIS NUMBER 8870 This is not an error: It is the number to remember when you want to find the birthdate of someone when you only have the date of death and age. How do you figure the birthdate? Suppose the person died May 6, 1889, at the age of 71 years, 7 months, 9 days. 1. Write the year, month, day as:->18890506 2. Subtract the age at death:------->710709 3. This gives the figure:--------->18179797 4. Now subtract 8870:----------------->8870 5. The result is:----------------->18170927 Year 1817, 9th month (Sept), 27th day or 27 Sept, 1817 (contributed by Brenda Sessoms)Calculate age from Tombstone data i.e. 46 years 4 months 16 daysGenealogical Dictionary
Lots of helpful definitions!
Inflation Calculator 1800-1998 . See the value of land etc.
Virginia Money
Dating Old Photographs
Family Chronicle - Dating Old PhotographsDefinitions - Terms
ALL THESE PAGES ARE MISSING. Does anyone have the URL? http://www.rootsquest.com/~jmurphy/lessons/tip04.htm old terms, mostly legalold terms, mostly medical Medical terms and remedies
dates/calendars
legal terms
ramblings - includes tombstone carvings
old definitions F-G
old definitoins G-H-I
old definitions I-J-K-L
old definitions M
old definitions N-P
old definitions Q-S
old definitions S-Y
old time remedies
professions: pewterer, coppersmith, silversmith, miller, cabinetmaker
professions: wainwright,coachmaker, bookbinder, limner
Conversion Tables
If you go to the following URL, you will find conversion factors for almost any unit of measurement that you can think of. http://pos.net/guest/ref/conversion.htm Chains(Gunter) = Feet 66 Links (Gunters) = Feet 0.66 Links (Gunters) = Feet (US Survey) 0.659998 Links (Gunters) = Inches 7.92 Links (Gunters) = Meters 0.2012 Links (Gunters) = Miles (statute) 0.000125 Links (Gunters) = Rods 0.04 Links (Ramdens) = Centimeters 30.48 Links (Ramdens) = Chains (Ramdens) 0.01
Old Handwriting
Von Stachon's page. (Missing, send the URL to us) Images of many of the common words found in old documents with a table showing the image with the transcribed word.Johncowand@aol.com
In regard to reading old deeds, it applies to reading any of the old literature. You need to know how people wrote in those days. There were a number of things written differently and there were writing rules for such things. Jesse is a good example. I ran into the same problem with a Jesse that I was tracking. It was written Jefse. The first "s" of a double "s" was written like an "f." It was called a tailed "s." In handwritten documents, the "f" and "s" together often resembled a fancy "p" or Jepe, for example, instead of Jesse. Another one that can throw you is the capital "F." It was written "ff."
There is an excellent book that covers a number of these oddities. It is NORTH CAROLINA RESEARCH Genealogy and Local History by Helen F.M. Leary. It is put out by the North Carolina Genealogical Society.On-Line help:Deciphering Old Handwriting http://amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/oldhand.html
Researching in Bertie County - Check these
(Shared by Cathy Farris)1. Birth Certificate 2. Marriage Bonds 3. Consents 4. Applications 5. Certificates 6. Divorce Petition 7.Divorce Decree 8. Annulments 9. Death Certificate 10. Will 11. Codicil 12. Estate Appraisal(s) 13. Real Estate 14. Personal Property 15. Guardians 16. Conservators 17. Warrants 18. Notice to Heirs (newspaper) 19. Notice of Sales "" 20. Notice to Creditors "" 21. Advertisements "" 22. Administrator 23. Executor 24. Inventories 25. Pensions 26. Estate Taxes 27. Dower Rights 28. Legitimation 29. Appeals 30. Deed(s) 31. Grants 32. Patents 33. Titles 34. Abstracts 35. Liens 36. Tax Lists (by year) 37. Naturalizations Petition 38. Oaths of Allegiance 39. Naturalization Decree 40. Name Changes 41. Manumissions 42. Petition for Freedon 43. Certificate of Freedon 44. Inquistions of Lunacy 45. Adoptions 46. Orphans Records 47. Appeals 48. Apprenticeship(s) 49. Legislative papers 50. Congressional 51. Petitions 52. Minutes 53. Subpoena 54. Affidavit(s) 55. Jury Duty 56. Final Sentencing 57. Bankruptcy 58. Civil Suits 59. Veteran Discharges 60. Autopsy 61. Licences 62. Voter RegistrationResearching 1900's in Bertie County
Social Security Index - on-line sites Military Service Records - WWI, WWII, recent service records Census 1900, 1910, 1920 (major libraries) Deeds - Courthouse Wills - Courthouse Delayed Birth Certificates - Courthouse Marriage Records - Courthouse Death Records- Courthouse Naturalization papers - Courthouse City directories/telephone books Business directories (on-line Branson Directories) Funeral home info Church records Bertie-Ledger files - Newspaper office Organizations Rotary, American Legion, VFW, Masons Old School Annuals
Churches in Bertie County tend to be smaller without full time staff. It would be best to make an appointment even for churches in larger towns. Genealogy is not the primary function of the church, and sometimes they designate a "historian" for the church who might meet with you and be of assistance.
Not all churches allow outsiders to see their records.
Visit the Bertie County Church Page which is already on-line to learn as much as possible.Garrett Funeral Home in Ahoskie has always handled burials and re-burials in Bertie County. Their records have never been microfilmed and some of their older records no longer exist.
If interested, call in advance and make an appointment to see their records.
Virginia Money
Simply put, VA (Virginia) Money was paper money issued by the Colony of Virginia. England couldn't/wouldn't provide much in the way of money to the Colonies for commerce so the Colonies resorted to printing their own. It was common that money issued by one Colony be accepted in a neighboring Colony, especially in the case with Virginia - North Carolina. Virginia had nearly a hundred year head start over North Carolina and many early settlers of North Carolina came via Virginia, so their were a lot of close ties between people of Virginia and North Carolina in North Carolina's early Colinial history. Contributed by Jeff Seawall to the Bertie Mailing List.________________________________
Codes on how to read old legal stuff, like Wills and deeds
a.a.s.=died in the year of his/her age (anno aetitis suae) ( 86 y/o died in year 86) d.s.p.=died without issue (Child)(decessit sine prole legitima) d.s.p.l.=died without legitimate issue (decessit sine prole mascula supesita) d.s.p.m.s.= died without surviving male issue (decessit sine prolem asculasupersita) d.s.p.s =died without surviving issue (decessit sine prole supersita) d.unm=died unmarriedd.v.p. died in the lifetime of his father (decessit vita patris) d.v.m.=died in the lifetime of his mother (decessit vita matris) Et al=and others (et alia) Inst= present month (instans) Liber=book or volume Nepos= grandson Nunc=Nuncapative will, an oral will, written by a witness Ob=he/she died (obit) Relict=widow or widower (relicta/relictus) Sic=so, or thus, exact copy as written Testes=witnesses Utl =late (ultimo) Ux or vs=wife (uxor) Viz= namely (videlicet) In reading newspapers, books and magazines from the 18th Century you will invarably notice that an "f" is apparently used where there should be an "s." For instance, the word "vessel" is printed as "veffel," the word "same" appears as "fame" and "castle" becomes "caftle." Because of the confusion encountered by readers new to 18th Century documents, we have asked three individuals knowledgeable in the history of typography to render their views on the subject. Their explanations follow: "The Long S is a legitimate form of "S." See the American Heritage Dictionary "S" entries. The Long S is similar to a lowercase f but the horizontal stroke does not go through the top of the letter. The long s still survives in German (or at least it was available when I studied German). German has an uppercase S, a lowercase long f and a lowercase s. "The Rules Are: "Regular uppercase S; "Terminal lowercase s and medial s under certain conditions; initial long f and medial long f." "Examples: "In the 1791 Bradford edition of Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the Introduction reads: "Perhaps the fentiments contained in the following pages are not yet fufficiently fathionable to procure them general favor...." "You will note that both fentiments and pages end with a normal lowercase "s" and both fentiments & fufficiently have an initial lowercase long f." - Richard Irby The typographic script "s" is an analogue of the handwritten letter, a sort of double loop, and used in the middle of the word. PrintersSsetSthe graphic version of the handwritten letter, which differs from the "f" in having a very minimal cross-stroke. They (the "s" and the "f") are not the same. To be precise, the script "s" was used in all positions except the last. Thus the word "success" would have begun with a script s, the penultimate letter would have been a script s, but the final letter would have been what we consider a normal "s". - Philip A. Metzger Special Collections Librarian The symbol ("s") was not an "f" although it looked like one. The long s letter can better be described as an "f" without the crossline traveling through the vertical line. The crossline only extends to the right of the vertical line. Also, the long s was never used at the end of a word or to denote the possessive or to pluralize. Since handwriting was considered an art form, the placement of the long s depended on what the "clark" felt would be visually pleasing to his audience. In a hand-written document, the top of the long s looked like the lower case fS." - Lawrence Davis
Please send comments and suggestions to
Virginia Crilley varcsix at hot.rr.com