Don't Neglect Researching the More Recent Past

I obtained a digital copy of my Dad's 1st cousin's will by calling the county clerk's office two years ago. At the time I didn't have a working printer so I had not printed a copy out to put in my Cooke Jakes Archives Binder. I took care of that today. Cousin Hazel had no children of her own so the will was pretty straightforward. She was the only child of my paternal grandmother's brother John Jakes.  Great Uncle John had been a barber in Murfreesboro, TN. He passed away in 1937 when my Dad was really young thus Dad didn't have many memories to pass on concerning his Uncle John or his cousin Hazel who was 10 years his senior. People fall out of touch when there are deaths in the family and such was the case with my grandmother Pearl Jakes Cooke and her deceased brother's daughter Hazel.

I knew that she had married into the Jetton family but pretty much nothing else. When I was writing the article about my great-grandparents James Jakes and Annie Frizzell and their descendants, I found out more about her life. I wish I'd had the Full-text search that is offered in the FamilySearch Labs on FamilySearch.org at the time I was writing that piece.  It's probably just as well though as I am uncovering oodles of info and that would have been too much for the paper article which had already pushed the limit for inclusion in the quarterly.

The important point I want to make is that we shouldn't overlook researching our more recent relatives, such as parents, grandparents, their 1st cousins, and 1st cousins once removed. This is particularly important if you are using DNA research and want to identify matches on your DNA list. While there are privacy laws, there are still many public records that can be accessed through requests or by searching newspapers and directories. Be sure to explore the Full-text Search for those more recent ancestors and cousins.  It may give you ideas for additional places to search for information.