Photo by JF Martin on Unsplash

My favorite discovery was found slogging through various circuit and county court orders from Christian County, Kentucky.

Online family trees and an absence of one of my ancestors in 1850 Census implied that this person may have died prior to 1850. No death or cemetery record has been located to verify the death of this individual. An appraisement for his estate was written in January 6, 1845. There were other court recordings between 1842 and 1844, that would put his year of death to 1844.

Persistent exhaustive research

I went through indices of Will Books, Court Records, and Deeds, looking for his surname, surnames of other relatives and known neighbors. I made a list of all the mentions and the corresponding page numbers. Then read through each entry.

Prior to my research, my ancestor appeared in three readily available records, his 1825 marriage record, the 1830 and 1840 censuses. The court records contained a much more detailed account of his life. His role and status in the community. You cannot always go for the ‘low hanging fruit.’ Delving deep into microfilms may provide a better glimpse of your ancestors.

When the court came back from the winter session break in 1845, my ancestor’s death was mentioned in the court report. As the death wasn’t recorded in the December entries. I believe my ancestor died unexpectantly in December 1844.