5 Definite Reasons to Use School Records

School records follow our ancestors from as early as five years old. Sure we an see them in their first census but the information is limited. Name, age, parents, some or all of the siblings depending on the birth order. Early census also share their education level. But, census do not reveal the whole story, and we can't be sure the informant to the Census Taker was accurate. Except in 1940 Census, we aren't even sure who provided the information. 

Collaborating Data
Since genealogists use collaboration to uncover facts, and to uncover mistakes in records, I wonder why so few ferret out vital School Records.  These are primary records, contemporary records, that shares your ancestor from abt 5/6 years old to 18.  

1.  Need a birth date?

2.  Need parents' names and siblings?

1939 School Enrollment, Kemper MS. 

Put Norms Aside

All research is not clean. It's complicated and the researcher must think out of the box. Ask "would that be possible."  The answer is probably YES, regardless of the seemingly absurdity of the question.

3.  Need to Identify An Abandoned Child 

Was this abandoned child Helen, my mother?  That's what a client asked. He knew his mother was raised by the Cannon family, but no one knew her birth name until we turned to school records. These school records married with court records solved this mystery. 

Helen went to second grade using the Cannon surname. However, she was never legally adopted. 

Of course, the question then was "How did the Cannon's get Helen?"  Yes, we turned to the following

1) research on the children's orphanage/institution

2) research on the Cannon's

3) research on the court records and the judge's practices

Bracing Helen further, we uncovered her legal name when she registered earlier for Kindergarten while in a children's institution. 

4.  Need to Release A Historical "Untruth Assumption"
Sure, I could have just said a false assumption, but the assumption that all schools were segregated before Brown vs. Topeka is an argument I refuse to have anymore.  My entire paternal grandfather's family integrated schools in Kansas, as did my mother's family, as seen below in 1890.  Aunt Pearl, as known to the family, had perfect attendance in 1890, Coldwater, Kansas. And she kept all of her school records.

5.  Need to Prove African Americans Attended Non-HBCU Schools

This is just one more Untruth Assumption. It is assumed that since Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) were in America as early as 1837,  Cheyney University, PA , that black students were compelled to attend them.  Yet, extant records prove this assumption to be false.

African Americans were attending non-segragated schools and since at least 1799 when John Chavis is on record of attending Liberty Hall Academy in VA. Alexander Twilight, though, is the first African American to be awarded a bachelor's degree in 1823 - Middleburg College, VT. 
***Just a Name Dropping Note: Kathleen Brandt also took 9 hours toward her Master's Degree at Middleburg in the 1980's. 

Early emancipated African Americans may have been educated in free state schools. The Moseley children of Jackson, Mississippi, were emancipated by their white father William O. Moseley. They were sent to Ohio, a free state, to be privately educated and to attend Oberlin Prep School (1870-1872).

(Moseley family has been DNA and papertrail proven.)

School record research is your homework for this Holiday Season! 

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5 Research Tools to Serial Killers in the Tree

Library of Congress: The Kelly Mass Murderers

Uncover Your Killer Kin
Before the FBI, before fingerprinting, and long before anyone coined the phrase “serial killers,” which was not until the 1970's, there were mass murderers or lust murderers, or Jack the Ripper. 

Our killer - kin left trails of violence that stretched across the wild west in the late 1700's while they travelled between American territories and states. The Harpe Brothers terrorized frontier travelers from Kentucky to Tennessee. Serial Killers often vanished under new names. They just blended into the frontier. But it wasn't just the wanderer. There were early women serial killers like Delphine LaLaurie, a wealthy socialite in 1830s New Orleans who tortured and killed enslaved people in her attic. And let's not forget the first serial killer of Wyoming, before it was a state, Polly Bartlett.

The list is long and your chance of learning of one in your community, crossing the path of your ancestors, or your ancestor being guilty of being a serial killer is not far-fetched.

Why?
Because all 50 states in the United States have had at least one notorious or unidentified serial killer operate within its borders. 

Sometimes they acted alone. Sometimes it was family and friend's "pasttime" like the Bloody Benders of Kansas, who lured travelers to their inn in the 1870s. They left, the area living the grounds filled with ....hmmm "parts", "human body parts.

Newspapers.com, 1873

This was not unique to America, even though our serial killer per capita is impressive. Serial killers, some women, like Mary Ann Cotton, an English woman, was suspected of poisoning over 20 people for insurance money.

Not My Ancestor! Are you sure?
This is a topic that genealogists wish to ignore. It goes beyond that "black sheep" in the family. And, it is true. Not everyone had a bonafide serial killer in the family. But some did have murders. Let's leave that topic for later

Just because your ancestor wasn't the serial killer, were they a victim of one? Have you checked the Court Record in a community for the timeframe that these killers took action? More than once have I found ancestral connections (for clients, not mine) in court record books. Serial killers often lived in the neighborhood. They were the friendly smile at the local mart, they were the dairyman. Your ancestor may have held the clue to solve the issue of missing persons in the community!

Finding Clues in the Records
Researchers may uncover hints in the following 5 records:

1. Court Records
2. Coroner’s inquests listing unidentified bodies.
3. Penitentiary registers with aliases or “unknown origins.”
4. Court dockets describing sensational trials.
5. Newspaper reports used vivid 19th-century language like “dastardly deed.”

Where to Get Started

If you are looking for a serial killer in your ancestor's community, you probably already have folklore, newspaper articles, or a suspicious hunch that drives you to learn more on the disappearance of people in your ancestor's community.

Let's consider what resources will assist: 

Search newspaper archives for crime reports (Chronicling America, GenealogyBank).
Visit county courthouses for trial records or indictments.
Check state archives for prison or asylum rosters.
Investigate coroners’ inquests - they often name witnesses or relatives.
Review cemetery databases for unmarked graves or unknown burials.

Leads to your Killer Kin

• Victims in unmarked graves

• Ancestors who went missing

• Unknown children connected to violent offenders

• People who changed their identities after crimes

• Consider DNA testing with forensic opt-in option. GEDmatch, FTDNA are the leading tools for cold cases. Using mtDNA, Y-DNA, autosomal testing, and forensic genealogy platforms like GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA, cold cases from the 1700s - 1800s are being revisited

  Forensic genealogy allows scientists and descendants to identify remains from the 1800s.
  Using Y-DNA, mitochondrial DNA, or autosomal matches, we can:
  

  • Reunite unknown victims with their families.
  • Confirm, or refute legends of criminal ancestors.
  • Match skeletal remains to known family lines from early settlements.

5 Research Tips

1. Killer.Cloud: birth months, states, and female serial killers
   This list isn’t just trivia; it gives the family historian data to analyze. Genealogists can use birth months and timelines to track aliases, movements, and identity gaps when studying criminal ancestors.

2. Library of Congress Early American serial killers
   The Library of Congress even has a summary of early killers. This is a great resource for genealogists looking for context.

3. Online and Local Newspapers
   Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank, Chronicling America

4. Court and coroner’s inquests
   Be sure to also look at guardian records that my provide additional court data. 

5. State archives and  penitentiary registers
   Remember, women prisoners may have been placed in homes or in an adjacent county/state.

"Happy Holidays" doesn't seem right to sign off with this post. But, wishing you a happy holiday anyway!

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5 Places to Find Newly Freed Ancestors

“Freedom was not delivered in a single moment,

it was legislated, 

debated,

and recorded in ink,

 state by state.”

Freedom Before the 13th: The State Story
When we think of emancipation, most of us picture the 13th Amendment, ratified 6 December 1865 when the federal decree officially abolished slavery across the United States. But, freedom wasn’t born in one stroke of national law. In the year before the amendment, several states, especially the border states caught between Union and Confederate lines, rewrote their constitutions to acknowledge the newly freed men, women, and children within their borders.

For family historians these moments shaped when and where the papertrail of freedom began for our ancestors.

Border States Lead the Way

Register of free negroes, Missouri

Maryland: November 1, 1864
Maryland became the first border state to abolish slavery by popular vote, adopting a new constitution that took effect 1 November 1864.

Research tip: Manumission lists, early voter rolls, and 1864 – 1865 labor contracts mark this transition. Many newly freed families appear in records of the Maryland State Archives and the U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau.

 
Missouri: January 11, 1865
A state convention abolished slavery “forever” without compensation. The change preceded the 13th Amendment by nearly a year.

Records: Missouri emancipation affidavits, “Negro Registers,” and petitions for loyalty oaths are housed at the Missouri State Archives and the State Historical Society of Missouri.

West Virginia: February 3, 1865
Though slavery was limited when West Virginia separated from Virginia in 1863, the legislature passed a complete abolition act two years later.
Records: County courts recorded freedom registrations and apprenticeship contracts for minors.

Tennessee: February 22, 1865
A Union-backed constitutional convention declared slavery “forever prohibited.”
Records: Freedmen’s Bureau Nashville District files contain the earliest post-slavery family and labor agreements.

Arkansas: March 1864

Under Lincoln’s “10 Percent Plan,” Unionist Arkansans drafted a constitution abolishing slavery while the war still raged.
Records: Early 1864 – 1865 state militia lists and Freedmen’s Bureau documents detail the shifting labor system.

 
Virginia (Restored Government): March 10, 1864
Unionist delegates meeting in Alexandria abolished slavery for Virginia’s occupied territories long before Lee’s surrender.
Records: U.S. Colored Troops enlistment records for Virginia often follow this declaration.

Reconstruction Rewrites: 1865–1868
After Appomattox, emancipation was written into law again and again as Confederate states sought readmission to the Union. Each new constitution confirmed what the war had already made inevitable.

Holdouts and Delays
Not every state was ready to embrace freedom’s ink. These state constitutions retained outdated slavery language for decades.

• Delaware rejected the 13th Amendment in 1865 and didn’t ratify it until 1901.
• Kentucky refused until 1976, though the amendment applied federally.

Where to Find the Records

1. State Constitutional Convention Journals 
   Available through many state archives (e.g., Maryland State Archives, Missouri Digital Heritage).
2. Freedmen’s Bureau Records (1865 – 1872)
   Document early contracts, marriages, rations, and disputes.
3. County Court Records (1864 – 1868)
   Apprenticeships, loyalty oaths, and “Negro Registers.”
4. Local Newspapers 
   Announcements of new conventions and voter registrations.
5. State Militia Rolls and Voter Lists
   Many newly freed men appear in 1865 – 1868 militia or electoral documents.

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