Author: James L. Douthat

Family History Genealogy

Beyond the Birth, Marriage and Death Dates

James L. Douthat

In our research into the past history of our families and others, we often tend to want to fill in the dates and maybe some locations of each of our individuals. When we finish, if we ever do, we have created just the skeleton of the family. Where is the meat on the bones? We have the “what, where and when” in our scheme of things, but not the “why or how” of things. It might be of interest to know that great grandfather was born in 1840. We might…

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Federal Records

Finding Family History in Federal Records

James L. Douthat

Everyone that is serious about researching your family history will eventually run out of places to look for information. We all go through the usual library search, online avenues, asking the older generation and buying books to find the clues we still need in our database of information. There always seems to be one or two facts that are missing along the way. Maybe you are thinking “I finally found out the name of great-grandmaw’s father but I can’t find anything else about him. Where else can I go?” This…

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War of 1812

War of 1812

James L. Douthat

We have just past the bicentennial of the War of 1812 so in this article we will look into our ancestors of that time period. We may all have at least one soldier that served during this time, probably in a militia unit rather than in a military unit. In 1800, the United States only had about 1000 soldiers in the regular army so this is where the militia units come into play. These volunteers were very important to the protection of the nation at this time in history. The…

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Colonial Period

Genealogy Research in the Colonial Period

James L. Douthat

The eighteenth century, or as it is commonly known the Colonial period of history in America, is one of the harder time periods to research. This is primarily due to the fact that there are so few records that are available to most researchers. These records for most of us are confined to the eastern seaboard of the country. This is where the English made their biggest impact in colonization. However, the fact remains that many of us are not English in background; therefore, we find little information that fits…

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Cherokee Native American Genealogy

Five Civilized Tribes

James L. Douthat

In the removal records for the Native Americans, we often find the term “Five Civilized Tribes” meaning the Cherokee, Choctaws, Creeks, Seminoles and Chickasaws. Each of these tribes have records prior to, during, and after the removals. If you are tracing your ancestor to one of these five tribes, it is important to know which records apply to each. We do know that when it comes to the Cherokee and Creeks, their records can become confused as these two tribes seem to have been together at times and separate at…

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Land Records Virginia

Virginia Land Records

James L. Douthat

At some point in everyone’s research, you want to delve into the land records. This is very natural and is frequently very rewarding as to the information that is gleaned from the records themselves. I have seen deeds for a church that not only gave the donor of the property, but also the early history of the congregation. They church was actually abandoned in the late 20th century and so this was the best record of its history. Just make sure that you consult the original deed since an abstraction…

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African American Genealogy

African American Genealogy Research

James L. Douthat

From time to time, I’ve been asked to assist those doing genealogy research into their African American heritage. This is probably one of the hardest tasks I’ve encountered in over fifty years of research. The major problem is the source materials are so scattered with bits and pieces of information in some of the strangest places. Real research comes into play in this case. To begin, you have to divide your labors into about three or four groups. The first is the pre-Civil War era during the time of slavery.…

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Libraries

Library Research for Genealogists

James L. Douthat

At some point in our research, we have to go to a library to find more information. If you have had experiences as have I, a trip to the library can be better than going to an amusement park. I have found this to be especially true when I do not have a specific goal in mind. I just begin to browse the shelves and files to see what I can find. I am always researching so many things at once, I usually find something of value. I call this…

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Virginia

Travelers from the Old Dominion

James L. Douthat

Most of us, at one time or other, have found ancestors who hailed from Virginia. Figuring out where they originated in Virginia is the real question and can be very difficult to solve. We have to put everything into a time period as Virginia has one of the longest and largest presences in the United States. If you remember some of our earlier articles, you might remember that originally Virginia covered the land mass of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This was at a time when it…

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Genealogy

Immigration and Naturalization

James L. Douthat

At some point in our research, we all want to find out about our immigrant ancestors. All of us who live in North or South America have had ancestors that at one time or another migrated to this section of the world. Even our Native American came by various means from Asia. Some of them came across the land bridge through Alaska and now some are saying that their ancestors came by boat from the South Pacific Islands. We are discovering that there were Europeans in North America prior to…

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