Week 30 Prompt: Easy
This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is”Easy.” Not much in genealogy is easy. But there are times when the pieces come together simply because many of the records needed are readily available and easy to access. For me, it’s my Michigan ancestors who were fairly easy to research.
Granted, these Michigan folks came from Connecticut, by way of New York. Their pre-Michigan lives are a little more difficult to trace. But, once in Michigan, they created numerous records. I focused on this group of people early on in my genealogical journey. It was actually a great learning experience for me because I was able to study a variety of record sets, such as land and probate records, that weren’t really pertinent to my numerous urban ancestors.
At the time I focused on these families, Michigan vital records were readily available online for free through FamilySearch. I was able to order films from the Family History Library for land and probate records, as early as the time the counties were formed (today, most of the counties I work in have these records digitized and available through FamilySearch). Several county and state history books were digitized and available for free through websites like Google Books and Internet Archive. I also uncovered several reference materials, such as cemetery inscriptions, that I was able to view on a visit to the Allen County Public Library. Newspapers available online were a little hard to come by for the locations I needed, but that has changed a bit over the last few years.
Overall, spending time on my Michigan families very early on in my genealogy journey provided a great learning opportunity for me, exposing me to a variety of records and expanding my application of research strategies and methodologies.
Bottom Line: Out of all the states I work in, Michigan is by far the easiest!
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