Hello friends and welcome back to the blog. I hope that since last blog you have been digging in to find occupational records! Although I do not wish to take away from the work that you have been doing or add more to your to do list, I thought it might be helpful to further detail what another set of records there are that you may want to search for, including how to locate them. Today’s record topic of choice is school records.
For most of us, we have been enrolled at a school at one time in our life. Whether that be from elementary to high school or anywhere in between and beyond. You may be aware that these institutions keep records of their students, but may not realize that other documentation under this type of record exists besides just censuses. School censuses usually list individual children, age, and name of parents. However, other types of school records such as school registers, school district ledgers, parochial and religious schools, records of school commissioners, and teacher contracts could be helpful to track down as well. Registers, religious school records, and record of school commissioners could allow you to track down similar information you may find in school censuses records, especially that of parent and children names.
So now as with any record you may be concerned on how you are supposed to find these documents. It is important most especially, to prepare yourself. You can do this through looking up the history of education in your ancestors in places which they may have lived. As with the previous record type we discussed it would also be helpful to look up what laws might apply that may affect your access to particular records. To research your ancestor’s areas, I would recommend USGenWeb. To check for the records themselves I would check local sources and archives. Remember to utilize library catalogs, recall previous searching habits recommended in past blogs.
I hope that I have not overwhelmed you with information, and instead have armed you with information that will make you feel more confident about tracking down documents within this record category. I know that outlining these steps sometimes may make the work you are doing seem easy, but applying these principles and finding these documents can be challenging. If you are struggling, please feel free to reference this blog and previous as much as you need or reach out to me for more personal help. If you would like a more detailed look into this topic or others, please check out my webinars located on this same webpage. Happy record hunting!
Winona I Laird, “The Genealogy Granny”
