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Show Genealogy begins with U American Churches (membership, records, ministerial acts and minutes). We have a large collection of Swedish-American, books histories, periodicals (including church papers published monthly, quarterly and annually)." This center is a real help for those who are trying to find out about Swedish ancestors. Karen Kay Esberger, Box 116, Midlothian, , Tex., 76065, needs the names of the parents of Issac B. Welch, born 1792, Georgia, died 1881, Winona. Texas ciple we will talk about next week-the fifth genealogical principle the Chamber of Commerce. Com-merce. ANCESTOR LINE Ancestor Line is brought to you as a public service of the Iron County Record. For answers to your genealogical questions, comments, or queries, please contact us c-o Ancestor Line, P.O. Box 1568, Cedar City, Utah 84720. Lily Setterdahl, researcher for the Swenson Swedish Immigration Im-migration Research Center Augustana College Box 175 Rock Island, 111. 61201, recently told us about the center. She told us, "We have 1,539 rolls of microfilm about 236 Swedish-American Swedish-American Newspapers ( representing 21 states and 2 Canadian provinces). We also have a steadily expanding file of microfilm of Swedish- The fourth principle of genealogical research will be termed Courthouse Cour-thouse Records. These are normally birth, death and marriage certificates. However, deeds, wills, abstracts and administrations ad-ministrations may also offer alot of information. I have combined all of these . records together in this article because normally they are all found at the county courthouse. They are normally in the county clerk's office (some part of the county call this office probate judge office or district clerk's office). Let us consider birth and death certificates. Ever since man has been on the earth, there have been births and deaths. However, not until within the last 100 years did localities have to legally keep any of these records. Because of the settlement patterns of the United States, most of the older birth and death records were kept in areas that were first settled (Virginia, Bay area, etc.). When looking for a birth or death record, keep four things in mind. First, remember the people at these offices will not look up information. in-formation. This may be like asking for John Jones' birth record in Flemingsburg, Ken. You need to have some idea of a date of birth or at least a five-year span of which to look. Second, only try to obtain birth records which contain the information in-formation you need. Hirth records vary greatly on what they contain. Some simply state boy baby born to Mr. and Mrs. Bishop, 1899. This does not help much. Third, consider your source in death certificates. cer-tificates. Normally, death certificate information in-formation may not always be correct because the informant is normally going through a terrible feeling of loss. In a case where the relative is very old, the informant may not actually know very much information. Fourth, always remember to follow up your leads you receive in these documents. These may include address of next of kin, place of birth of parents, total number of children born to this family and spouses name. Wills are a very good source of information. This is especially true because normally a person leaves something to all of his family. It may list the names of every daughter, son, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, etc. They also list what the person owned and where it was located. Location, as we will learn later, plays a lot of importance im-portance in our research. Deeds, administrations and abstracts are very good sources for finding out where our relatives lived. They also establish the date and times when they lived there. Remember, when you obtain information from these records to file all information in the proper foldres. You should also fill out your family tree charts and put your tacks on the map. After doing all of these things yuou will notice that you may have alot of incomplete information. For example, you may find a will of John Bishop. In this will he leave a 300 acre farm in Fauquier County, Vir., to his sons. This is an excellent piece of information to combine with the research prin- |