Volunteers, Please! And a Lesson to Be Learned . . .

NGS Conference Volunteers Needed

Are you going to the National Genealogical Society Conference from the 8th to the 11th of May 2019? Would you like to be a room monitor? Your assignment will be a session of your interest so you won't miss anything. Room monitors do need to be registered for the conference, but if you think you might enjoy helping out, please send an email with a preferred telephone number to Marilyn Brennan at volunteers@stlgs.org and she will get back to you with instructions. We need many volunteers for a successful conference and we will be most appreciative of your assistance. (If you have already signed up at a previous meeting, you don't need to email again. Marilyn will be in touch with you as soon as she knows where people will be needed.)

Whenever Possible, Look at the Original!

(Thanks to StLGS president, Kay Weber, for reminding us about 

how important it is to always check original documents, if you can.)

Kay writes, "After finding that our great-great-grandfather was a landowner in Saline County, Missouri, my cousin and I were hot on the trail to discover more. This was the first property these immigrants purchased after arriving in the United States from County Meath, Ireland. I found several transactions in a deed book and followed the purchase procedures. The handwriting was very good. The only description of the land was in the deed book and stated, “The following town Lots in the town of Marshall and described on the plat of Sardtown as follows to wit. Lot No. Eight in block No. Seven Situated in Sardtown of Marshall in Saline County State of Missouri.”

My cousin decided to thoroughly investigate this and even obtained an intensive lesson on land records from another genealogist. He looked at current maps of Saline County in the area of Marshall. No Sardtown. He looked at historical maps. No Sardtown.

We had a few other questions concerning this family and decided to obtain help from a genealogist at the library in Marshall, Missouri. A look at the original deed told the story. There on the original you could see, although it is very faint, the dot over the third letter of “Sardtown” and a definite space between the "d" and the "t." Sardtown was actually “Said town.”

We now know that James King purchased lot number eight in Marshall, Missouri. Today that land is part of the town square."