Account Books, Journals and Diaries 1772 ~ 1925

Did you know that AncestorsAtRest.com has online Account Books, Journals and Diaries 1772 ~ 1925

Over the years Brian has rescued original Ledger Books, Journals and Diaries from stores, schools, and individuals. These old books are a wealth of great genealogy data. The ledgers can act as a census substitute, letting you know if your ancestors were there in the years between census. They also contain the kind of personal Genealogy data that often can not be found any other way by giving you a window into the daily lives of your ancestors. It is often quite amazing what one can find in some of the books. Store owners might record the death of a customer who owes money to the store. A farmer may note the birth of a neighbor's child. You just never know what you will find.

These wonderful Ledger Books are being scanned and published on AncestorsAtRest.com. Each book will be published as a downloadable PDF file on AncestorsAtRest website so that genealogists and historians can access them freely.

Go to the Index to List of available Ledger Books

Genealogy Tip: Search Account Books, Journals & Diaries

Account Books, Journals and Diaries 1772 ~ 1925

Shoemaker's Ledger Boook

AncestorsAtRest.com has compiled a unique collection of original Ledger Books, Journals and Diaries from stores, schools, and individuals. These old books are a wealth of great genealogy data.
Over the years Brian of

The ledgers can act as a census substitute, letting you know if your ancestors were there in the years between census. They also contain the kind of personal Genealogy data that often can not be found any other way by giving you a window into the daily lives of your ancestors. It is often quite amazing what one can find in some of the books. Store owners might record the death of a customer who owes money to the store. A farmer may note the birth of a neighbor's child. You just never know what you will find.

Brian has begun a project to scan all of these wonderful Ledger Books. Each book will be published as a downloadable PDF file on AncestorsAtRest website so that genealogists and historians can access them freely.

Go to the Links to available Ledger Books listed below

• Staunton, Macoupin County Illinois 1930 ~ 1957 Court Records.
• Orono, Lagrange, Howland, Penobscot County, Maine 1923 to 1925 Store Ledger.
• Maine Store Ledger 1922-1927 PDF files available for download Index, P. 1, P. 23, P. 43, P. 63, P. 85, P. 105, P. 123, P. 215, P. 241, P. 273
• Lubec, Washington County, Maine 1894 to 1995 Store Ledger. Over 4000 entries.
• Lincoln County, Maine 1832 Samuel Hinds Ledger.
• Clear Spring, Washington County Maryland 1861 to 1874 Store Ledger. Hundreds of names from North West Maryland and West Virgina
• Salem and area Essex County, Massachusetts 1772 to 1780 Student Work Book And Store Ledger. MANY LOCAL NAMES
• Townsend Middlesex County Massachusetts 1868 General Store Ledger. OVER 3850 NAMES
• Massachusetts Boston Environs Ledger 1892-1894. PDF Files available for download Start p. 2, Start p. 20, Start p. 39, Start p. 63, Start p. 89, Start p. 109, Start p. 129, Start p. 151, Start p. 177, Start p. 200
• Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri 1879 to 1889 Ledger Book Of Edward Moore. OVER 300 LOCAL NAMES PDF file available for download
• Fillmore Village, Andrews County, Missouri. Town Council Minutes 1900-1913 PDF file available for download
• Grafton County, New Hampshire 1841 ~ 1877 Account Book Of William Thissel.
• Rushford and area, Allegany County, New York 1868 ~ 1872 Stacy And Kyes Ledger Book. FULL INDEX ONLINE.
• Oswego, Oswego County, New York 1858 ~ 1859 Samuel Stevenson Saw Mill Ledger Book. PDF file available for download
• Oswego, Oswego County, New York 1875 Samuel Stevenson Saw Mill Ledger Book Money Owed . PDF file available for download
• Oswego, Oswego County, New York Samuel Stevenson Saw Mill Ledger Book List of Electors . PDF file available for download
• West Winfield, Herkimer County, New York 1865 ~ 1866 West Winfield Academy Cash Book. OVER 400 NAMES
• Richfield, Otsego County, New York Auction sale 1880 ~ 1890. Found in the West Winfield Academy Cash Book. OVER 200 NAMES
• Lubec, Washington County, Maine 1894 to 1995 Store Ledger. Over 4000 entries, many from New Brunswick, Canada
• Rose Bay and River Port, Lunenburg County Shoemakers Ledger Book 1897 ~ 1918
• Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio 1889 Store Ledger.
• Marietta, Washington County, Ohio 1837~1838 Store Ledger.
• Frederick, Miami County, Ohio 1869~1877 Blacksmith Ledger, Over 4500 names. Online For FREE.
• 1858 Bucks County Ledger PDF files available for download
• Bernville, Berks County, Pennsylvania 1867 to 1877 Haag, Kline & Co Ledger. Over 1000 names.
• Bernville, Berks County, Pennsylvania 1863 to 1870 Haag, Kline & Co Ledger. Over 300 names. PDF file available for download
• Mill Creek Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania 1885 to 1890 Mountain Spring Mills Ledger. Over 800 entries with names. PDF file available for download
• Elk Creek Township, Erie County 1876 to 1878 General Store Ledger. Over 4000 entries with names.
• Lower Heidelberg Township, Berks County 1874 to 1903 Farm Ledger of John W Gaul. Many Local Names.
• New Hanover Township, Montgomery County 1858 to 1904 Farm Ledger. Also includes some names from Berks County and Bucks County.
• Muncy, Lycoming County, PA 1831 to 1865 Docket Ledger of General William A Petrikin. OVER 250 NAMES.
• Lebanon County, PA 1887 Heilman Dale Creamery Milk Book.
• Hopewell Township, York County, PA 1890 Tax Collectors Book. (OVER 500 NAMES)
• Schuykill, Pennsylvania Tax Collection Ledger 1913-1922 PDF files available for download Part 1, Part 2, Miscellaneous Papers
• Ladonia, Fannin County, Texas 1908 to 1915 Jackson McFarland Store Ledger . PDF file available for download
• S. R. Turley Ledger Book, Culpeper Virginia. 1896 PDF files available for download Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
• Wytheville, Wythe County, Virginia Court Records Ledger. ALL PAGES ONLINE
• History Of Tazewell County Virginia Book Sales Ledger. ALL PAGES ONLINE
• Clear Spring, Washington County Maryland 1861 to 1874 Store Ledger. Hundreds of names from North West Maryland and West Virgina

1890 List of Shareholders Canada

Recently I found an old book called "Report of the Superintendent of Insurance of the Dominion of Canada for the Year Ending 31st December 1890"
 
The book was published in 1891 in Ottawa, Canada, and included in its pages are approximately 60 pages of names of shareholders and guarantors for various Insurance and Assurance Companies across Canada.
The date for the list of names is 1890 and the wonderful thing about these is that they include people from all over Canada, as well as USA and Europe.
Each individual has a residence listed, in some cases, an actual street address. What really intrigued me about these lists was that the residences included such places as:

Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Scotland, New York, Quebec, Vermont, Pennsylvania, NWT, England, Illinois, India, Newfoundland, Manitoba, Cape Breton, Jamaica, Ireland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachussets, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Channel Islands, and Wales. 

These lists can be used simply to verify that an individual lived in a certain place in 1890. They also contain quite a bit of detail for some entries, which are terrific clues for further research.

Have You Checked Assessment Records for that Elusive Ancestor?

Genealogy records for early Ontario (Canada West, Upper Canada) are challenging to find. They are sporadic and held in different repositories. Some often over-looked pre 1850 records include Assessment Records. 

Assessment Record Page

These work well as a census substitute and they usually provide an exact location of land (Lot and Concession Number) within a Township.

Some give numbers and type of livestock and crops. Assessment records were used to assess individual's property and holdings in order to calculate and collect tax revenue.  

Not all townships' Assessment Records have survived. Not all townships did assessments for the same years. So if you are looking for these records you will need to find out if your County and Township of interest has any that survived. 

I am very pleased to announce that thanks to the generousity of transcriber Fred Blair, Olive Tree Genealogy has published 10 Assessment Records for early Ontario. Following is the list of Assessment Records now available for download on Olive Tree Genealogy Ontario Assessment Records section

    Assessment Ancaster Township, Wentworth County, Home District 1816
    Assessment_Ancaster Township, Wentworth County, Home District 1818
    Assessment Beverley Township, Wentworth County, Home District 1816
    Assessment Beverley Township, Wentworth County, Home District 1818
    Assessment Grand River Tract, Haldimand Township, Wentworth County, Gore District, 1816
    Assessment Nelson Township, Halton County, Gore District 1816
    Assessment Nelson Township, Halton County, Gore District 1818
    Assessment Trafalgar Township, Halton County, Gore District 1816
    Assessment Trafalgar Township, Halton County, Gore District 1823
    Assessment Trafalgar Township, Halton County, Gore District 1825

A Journey Down Memory Lane With Canadian Voters' Lists

Guelph Voters' List

 Ancestry.com and Ancestry.ca have brought Canadian Voters' Lists from 1935 to 1980 online. These act as a substitute census of sorts and are especially welcome since Canadian census records that are available to the public only go to 1911.

The lists are only available for the years below when there were Federal Elections. They are fully indexed for the years that are starred below, but not indexed for 1979 or 1980

1935* 1940* 1945* 1949* 1953* 1957* 1958* 1962* 1963* 1965* 1968* 1972* 1974* 1979 1980

Here I am living with my mom & aunt!

I had a lot of fun looking up my parents and grandparents and myself! Because I looked for so many people I discovered what a bad job of indexing has been done.

Ancestry used OCR (Optical Character Recognition) in place of transcribers, and so the results are messy. They recognize the issues that OCR causes and ask for viewers' assistance in correcting errors. Here's part of the blurb in the description of the database:

Because this collection uses OCR technology, we encourage you to correct any errors you find in the data by going to the image and editing the name in the correction panel at the bottom of the page.

If you are searching for your family and ancestors in this wonderful database (and you should!) be sure to use wildcards and limit your search terms if you don't get results. Here is an example of the  OCR issues:

 Above we have the typed voters' list for George McGinnis, farmer, in Alma Ontario. Below is the indexed entry for "Gwrgt'i Farmer McGinnis"

If you were looking for "George McGinnis" in the search engine, he won't show in the results. You'd pretty much have to just search on his last name. And since I found my McGinnis maiden name badly recognized in the OCR, I used wildcards to search for M*G*n*s

I found my surname indexed as Moginnis, Mrginnis and so on. There are many errors but don't let that keep you away. I was thrilled to get street names and numbers for my ancestors in Guelph Ontario. I can't wait to go back to Guelph to drive around and actually see where my Grandparents lived in 1935.

Voters' List 1867-1900

There is a companion database of Voters' Lists for Ontario for 1867-1900 but it is odd as it is not supposed to include women since they did not have the right to vote until 1918. But it does.

I have found thousands of women listed. For instance a search under just the first name "Susan" brings up 267 hits, all for women. A search for "Sarah" has over 1,200 results! It's not an error in names. I still haven't figured that discrepancy out! I'm also rather curious as to why Ancestry didn't OCR the last two years 1979 and 1980.

To search these wonderful Voters Lists, see Ancestry.com and Ancestry.ca