part 16

GUARDIAN BONDS
Another useful record found in courthouses is the record of guardian bonds, or orphan's bonds. These can establish the parentage of a person who was a minor and help establish dates of death for the parent or parent. Note that it was not necessary for both parents to be deceased for a guardian to be named. This
was sometimes done in cases where a minor child was an heir to a grandfather's estate through the deceased parent or if a mother was remarrying. In both cases, and in others, the guardian was appointed to protect the child's rights to the estate. I've also noted cases such as one where a person was named
guardian of two orphans who had the same last name as he. Instead of being niece and nephew, as might be expected, they turned out to be his own children. He was named guardian in order to take custody of their portion of their mother's inheritance from her father's estate.
 
COURTHOUSE RESEARCH TIPS
As always, be sure to take complete citations when extracting wills, deeds or other court records. Witnesses or those who gave bond for certain transactions should also be recorded, for these may have been relatives.
 
Remember that in the early years of our country, many people could not read or
write, so watch for variant spellings of the name you are searching. Often names were recorded as they sounded to clerks. This is how the name Bentz became Pence in most parts of the U.S. (The German "B" is often pronounced as "P.") Most often the spellings we use today were the result of an accident,
not a deliberate effort. It's probably not worth your while to look for a court
record for a name change, for it was seldom done. Likewise, people who spell
a similar surname different from you may be related to you, while those who spell it the same may not.
 
A few years ago, notice was taken of the legal name change made by a prominent person. A Johannes Hart Pence lived in New Jersey in colonial times. One of his sons, out of deference to his grandmother's maiden name, began using Hartpence as his surname. Generations later, a member of this family, remembering the story about the name having been changed in early days, went to court to have it changed back to "the old way." That's why a presidential candidate has the name Gary Hart instead of Gary Pence!
 
Another thing to watch for is translation of names. The German Zimmerman became
its English equivalent, Carpenter, for example.
 
You also need to watch for misspellings of place names, particularly in deeds. In searching for the spot where an ancestor lived, I kept finding it described as being "at the foot of Rich Mountain." No such place could be found on any map, old or new, in the area. I finally figured out why. The ancestor was German and if he described the land to an English clerk, he would describe it with a German accent. If the word was pronounced "rich," what might the correct word be? Answer: "Ridge." Sure enough, Ridge Mountain was on the map and the land was located.