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| photo from Colorado GenWeb |
Most burned counties can be categorized as Hopeless, Almost Hopeless and Difficult. New Kent is categorized as Hopeless, after several early random fires, and then, the burning of the government buildings in several wars -- including the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. As New Kent had been categorized as hopeless, I figured it really meant, well, hopeless. I was shocked to find as much information as I did. The key is not to focus on what's not there, but try to figure out what is available.
When you hit a burned county, just know that you must really learn the history, connect to sources you may not be used to working with and work a little harder.
1. Look for information on your surname in adjacent counties.
2. Go to FamilySearch and check all the existing films available for the county you're searching and review the state-wide information that's available.
3. Look for records and indexes that may have been recorded and published. You might be pleasantly surprised at what you find.
4. Check the local state library or archive to see if there are unusual state collections available. Virginia, for example, has nearly 150 years worth of patents.
5. Be sure to check GenWeb to see if there is a strong page of information for your county.
6. Join the local genealogical society or at least check it out. The society is likely to know what kind of information is available.
7. Finally, it's worth checking the Chronicling America website or other early newspaper pay-databases to check for random newspaper information.
may I get some guidence? I have early TN/VA ancestors, John Higgins and Elizabeth mnu. I've searched for their circa 1802 marriage record fairly extensively-TN/VA/IL/Carolina, to no avail. so I'm assuming it's in a burned county. but we don't know which one. it was thought Jackson Co., TN at one time, but that's been refuted-how thoroughly, I don't remember, but I was relatively convinced by it at the time. John's tombstone states he was born 22 Dec 1776, Elizabeth's tombstone states she was born 22 Dec 1786. one child survived long enough to get on a census that stated where their parents were born, and that is where we got TN and VA from. they removed from TN to IL by 1807, and from IL to MO by 1817. and that is it. we can't get much beyond that. how do we find the county and state they were in originally, when the name is so common and the dates are so early? and so many counties are burned, and they moved so much? we do know they settled in Cape Girardeau Co., MO, and prior to that, Greene Co., IL. prior to that are guesses and hypothesis. I'm extra interested to find out because Elizabeth is my MTdna ancestress. we have some middle names that may be earlier generations surnames-Lofton, Delaney, Haram (I think, may be Hiram?), and Ladosky. I haven't found a place yet with all of these surnames bunched together. my MTdna tests as H10 German, so Elizabeth's deep ancestry must be from the area now viewed as Germany.
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