Very useful skill to use, especially with older documents that provide much less information to correlate with other documentation. An interesting use of signatures can also be in determining original surnames for immigrant families. Some immigrants would sign certain documents in their original language, giving the proper spelling in their original language. This is how I learned my Goldberg family were actually Goldenbergs, because my great-grandfather signed his naturalization in Yiddish as all other documents he signed were in English using just Goldberg.
Thanks for the tip! It sounds like that one signature was a real brick wall buster. In the example I showed from the second marriage record, the clerk’s spelling of the name and the groom’s signature with the German style letters had differences as well. Sometimes those tiny details help us make huge progress in our research.
Thank you for this video. I have not used signatures to identify records, I have a hard enough time just reading some of the documents. I have a couple of questions: do you have the 1850 US Census for William and did he live in Ohio?
True! Some documents are hard to decipher. I have not found the couple from the 1847 marriage record in the 1850 census, at least not in the same county or clearly identifiable as them.
Very useful skill to use, especially with older documents that provide much less information to correlate with other documentation. An interesting use of signatures can also be in determining original surnames for immigrant families. Some immigrants would sign certain documents in their original language, giving the proper spelling in their original language. This is how I learned my Goldberg family were actually Goldenbergs, because my great-grandfather signed his naturalization in Yiddish as all other documents he signed were in English using just Goldberg.
Thanks for the tip! It sounds like that one signature was a real brick wall buster. In the example I showed from the second marriage record, the clerk’s spelling of the name and the groom’s signature with the German style letters had differences as well. Sometimes those tiny details help us make huge progress in our research.
Thank you for this video. I have not used signatures to identify records, I have a hard enough time just reading some of the documents. I have a couple of questions: do you have the 1850 US Census for William and did he live in Ohio?
True! Some documents are hard to decipher. I have not found the couple from the 1847 marriage record in the 1850 census, at least not in the same county or clearly identifiable as them.