This is a photo of my namesake family. The Peterson's of Custer County, Nebraska. The young man in the middle-back of the photo is Nels W. (Nelson) Peterson, my Great Grandfather. He was born Nels W. Nelson, but his father, Soren Nelson died when he was 4, shortly after they arrived in Nebraska. Nels' mother Maren later married Hans C. Peterson and the family is pictured here in 1904. 

This Certifies that 
Benjamin Nicholas and Margaret Beynon
were united by me in the 
Holy Bonds of Matrimony
At Caersalem Chapel on the 28th day of 
February in the year of our Lord 1881
In Presence of Signed: 
James Williams
Baptist Minister Dowlais (?) South Wales
John Beynon
Elias (sp?) Jones

This is another of my Great Great Grandfathers, Benjamin Lewis Nicholas. He was born in Wales and came to America and settled first in Kansas and then Custer County, Nebraska. This photo is of him as a young police officer in Wales. 

This is one set of my Great Great Grandparents and their family. Ozro and Adelaide (Waxham) Foster, had four children Will, Gertrude, Lon, and Ida. Ida was my Great Grandmother. Ozro Foster was from Indiana and made his way to Nebraska after the Civil War. He is on the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington DC. Ida would go on to marry George Porter and serve as the Custer County Register of Deeds after his death. 

Earlier this year, I was working on a very complicated family history project where several members tragically died young. As a result, families were split up, and some children were adopted and connections were lost. In unraveling the story, I was able to track one family down and find that a few of them had passed away in Colorado, but had never lived there. This fact jumped off the page to me and I immediately wondered why? Then it hit me...Didn't people go to Colorado to recover from illness in the late 1800s and early 1900s? What kind of illness would this be? As I searched further, I discovered that another family member had died of tuberculosis and it all came together. One quote I read said that at one point nealy 1/3 of Colorado's population was there because of tuberculosis. Whoah! It turns out that our people were probably in Colorado trying to get better and never made it. This disease devastated many American families and had impacted this one greatly.

The lesson here is that there are often bits of information that are screaming at you from behind the scenes. They may not be written on the documents in front of you, but always pay attention to what is not being said. Sometimes it can reveal the answer you are looking for.

This site compiles and analyzes court documents filed by slaves seeking their freedom from 1800 to 1862 in the District of Columbia. This is an amazing resource. 

http://earlywashingtondc.org/

The introductory information includes State, County, City, and Page.

1. Names of heads of families: Once again, this is the only part of the record with a name listed. The rest of the form contains totals for each category.

2. Free white males under 10

3. Free white males 10 thru 15

4. Free white males 16 thru 25

5. Free white males 26 thru 44

6. Free white males 45 and over

7. Free white females under 10

8. Free white females 10 thru 15

9. Free white females 16 thru 25

10. Free white females 26 thru 44

11. Free white females 45 and over

12. All other free persons except Indians, not taxed

13. Slaves

Introductory information includes County, City, and Page. 

1. Names of heads of families: This is the only written information on the record, it lists the head of the family and the rest of the fields are counts in each of the categories.

2. Free white males of 16 years and upwards, including heads of families.

3. Free white males under 16 years.

4. Free white females including heads of families.

5. All other free persons.

6. Slaves.

Introductory information includes State, County, City, and Page.

1. Names of heads of families: This is the only written information on the record. It lists the head of the family. This field also lists free black heads of households. The rest of the fields are totals in each category.

2. Free white males under 10

3. Free white males 10 thru 15

4. Free white males 16 thru 25

5. Free white males 26 thru 44

6. Free white males 45 and over

7. Free white females under 10

8. Free white females 10 thru 15

9. Free white females 16 thru 25

10. Free white females 26 thru 44

11. Free white females 45 and over

12. All other free persons, except Indians, not taxed

13. Slaves

If you are having trouble locating a person or event that you just KNOW happened around a certain time period, take a step back and look around. There might be a newspaper in a neighboring town or even a different state that can shed light on your topic. Recently, I was looking very hard for something that happened in Davenport, Iowa...I found it in the Rock Island, Illinois.

Get yourself a new map indeed.