Census Tip
While you are gathering documents for your family, pay close attention to every name on them. When you find an unfamiliar name, use the census to see who they were. Sometimes this can help you to determine whether they had any family relationship to your target family. If you find them living near your ancestors, check to see if the woman of the house is of an appropriate age to be a married daughter of your target family. Also, check to see if anyone familiar is living in the household, such as a child or older person bearing your target surname. Finally, check for other familiar names in the neighborhood.

Virginia Sholin Smallwood

PowerPoint Substitute
In regards to the recent tip about saving finds in PowerPoint, for those that can’t afford Microsoft Office to get PowerPoint, there is a free replacement option. Openoffice.org provides free download of a suite of tools that include a word processor, a spreadsheet tool, a database tool, and a presentation tool. The presentation files can be saved as PowerPoint files, PDFs, or several other file formats.
 
Sammy Williams

Check Local Libraries
My great-grandfather’s death certificate stated he had committed suicide. By writing to the local library with details, I was able to receive a detailed copy from the local newspaper as it was recorded at the time.
 
Rita Swift

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