Beginning Lesson #4 HOME SOURCES This entire month you've been collecting family history documents from various nooks and crannies in your own home and from relatives. Just so you don't miss anything don't forget that in addition to the normal birth, marriage and death certificates you are likely to find the following: military service & discharge papers naturalization records newspaper clippings - society page, obituaries funeral cards journals letters diaries scrapbooks year books church membership telephone lists photos family bible (check the middle, as well as the front and back pages) casette tapes old movies videos Don't forget to check great-grandma's old secretary desk. I found two sales receipts for hand hooked rugs purchased by one of mine at the end of the 19th century! A sales receipt puts someone in a specific place at a specific time. It never occurred to me to look for a marriage record in that adjoining county, until I found she had lived at an address for delivery of said carpets. That clue led to a BINGO! I found the certificate we hadn't been able to locate since the mid-50's when we began looking! I also have a "priceless to me" Gregg shorthand manual, with some practice pages in my ancestor's struggling pen. Check the old family cookbook, too. When times were rough, people used whatever precious book they had on hand to record names and dates of births, marraiges & deaths. This is quite common in the US Civil War time period, and on the emerging 19th century western US territories. Think again hard. Leave no stone unturned! Next week we'll be discussing the calendar with a few quirky things you'll need to know about converting dates.