Spoon anyone?

[Scottdavid]

I was at the 1800s relic site today for a wet muddy muggy mosquito infested dig. My favorite find so far. William H. Rogers nickel and silver spoon with initials MB engraved on handle. I have a land map from that era and trying to match it with property owner names that would be MB in area.

 

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[lenmac65]

Congrats on the spoon. Good luck with your research on the potential owner. Maybe try census data too at Ancestry.com (pay site, but free at some libraries) or FamilySearch.org (free - Mormon's website).

 

[Scottdavid]

Congrats on the spoon. Good luck with your research on the potential owner. Maybe try census data too at Ancestry.com (pay site, but free at some libraries) or FamilySearch.org (free - Mormon's website).

Thanks so much Lenmac! I’ll do that.

 

[against the wind]

Milton Bradley??

 

[vpnavy]

Nice find. Hope you can actually ID it to a family - coooooooool! Thanks for sharing...

 

[Joe-Dirt]

Nice job !! Gotta love the personal, every day items. Your sites sounds good and the coming cold weather should take care of the bugs hopefully

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

If the initials where in a fancy script, I would say look for a matching land owner. But simple initials makes me think institutional. Like for a hospital, orphanage, ship, hotel nearby. Good luck!

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Scottdavid]

Nice job !! Gotta love the personal, every day items. Your sites sounds good and the coming cold weather should take care of the bugs hopefully

Yes! So true. I love the human story it’s trying to tell. Hard to focus on my day job bc I can’t wait to get back out there. 3 hours on a site flies by

 

[Scottdavid]

If the initials where in a fancy script, I would say look for a matching land owner. But simple initials makes me think institutional. Like for a hospital, orphanage, ship, hotel nearby. Good luck!

Great tip - I will look at old records of the area

 

[Crowfriend]

One method of research. Determine the township and range from a topo map. Then go to “search GLO” records. Then search by patents. Enter the state and county then the T and R. A list of patents by homeowner’s names will come up. Then a new search under “Surveys” and the “original Survey” plat sometimes shows old homesites. I’ve done this many times.

 

[Crowfriend]

Here are screen shots to demonstrate.

1 the GLO search engine for patents

2 the results of parent search

3 results of searching by surveys.

 

[Scottdavid]

Great tip - I will look at old records of the area

Great method, thank you