Polite Persistence Pays Off
When searching for documents, you should not always take the word of the person onsite. I recently revisited a courthouse that merely had a note in a book that divorce proceedings had been dropped. After explaining that there had to be documentation for the divorce entry and refusing to accept that there was not any documentation, I was led to the basement where twenty-six boxes sat. There I found the filing for the divorce of the ancestor I was searching and it listed all living children, a marriage date, etc. My determination paid off.

Anita Keller

Photo Scanning Project
In the process of cleaning out the dresser drawer of my husband’s parents, many photos of extended family have been found hither, thither, and yon. We are scanning the photos and making album gifts for his siblings’ families, and keeping one copy for ourselves. It is a daunting task but is very gratifying. One uncle had the foresight to store copies of each sibling’s wedding invitation and birth announcements, and they make great additions to our albums. There are even some yellowed, but readable, newspaper clippings about noteworthy occasions. The scanned copies come out beautifully, and in fact we can often enlarge them to reveal some details unnoticed originally.

Best regards and good luck in your searches!
Julianne Jakab Brezina

Family Correspondence Speaks to the Heart
I have been scanning letters to share with my cousins. Family letters are often saved because they speak to the heart. And it is family stories that do that best. That is one reason scriptures are so effective--family stories.

Here’s an example from Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Damaris Fish
Central Point, Oregon

If you have a suggestion you would like to share with other researchers, send it to: Juliana@Ancestry.com. Thanks to all of this week's contributors!

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Weekly Journal please state so clearly in your message.

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