Your Family Search may eventually be hampered by the changing geography. There are several reasons why the places where our ancestors resided are hard or even impossible to find.
Natural disasters have periodically wiped out cities and towns throughout history. Floods, tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, and forest and prairie fires have wiped away many hometowns and homesteads. One of the main problems with natural disasters is that the records at the courthouse are cleaned up after the broken bodies, the broken houses, broken water mains, broken trees, and broken power poles. Of course, now we have electronic, off site, backups of all those records. The old data that has yet to be microfilmed is damaged and gone forever. That is the tragic loss.
As the American territories became states and joined the Union, boundary lines were drawn and redrawn. The Nevada Territory carved off a large chunk of Utah to join the Union in 1864. It also included parts of New Mexico and Arizona Territories. When Arizona and New Mexico joined the Union in 1910 and 1912, respectively, they took back the area that had been claimed by Nevada. I bet the postman got dizzy with the change of address forms. Not Really. Those towns on the borders just “moved” from 1 territory or state to another.
Progress has also rendered a few towns and homesteads non-existent. As electric power and flood control dams were built, towns were flooded and/or moved. Luckily these town closures were planned and the records were, for the most part, saved. Those towns, not rebuilt on higher ground, moved the vital records were moved to a nearby town.
You will need to use a little resourcefulness in your family search, but your answers are out there. Keep searching.
Craig Hinz is a genealogist with over 15 years of experience. Please visit his website at www.searchforrelatives.com. You may also email him at info@searchforrelatives.com
Craig Hinz is a genealogist with over 15 years of experience. Please visit his website at www.searchforrelatives.com. You may also email him at info@searchforrelatives.com
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