What is Reddit's opinion of FamilySearch.org?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Two typical solutions to this situation:

• If both grandfathers had the same first name, the naming tradition would cause the two firstborn sons to have the same name. Check later censuses for verification.
• If a child died, the next born child of the same gender would carry on the name. Check if the 1899 child died later in 1901, but before your grandfather was born.

More info: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Scotland_Names_Personal

Wouldn't 6 to 10 generations be 1/64 to 1/1024? Therefore she would be .09-1.5%. Correct me if I am wrong.

https://dna-explained.com/2017/04/21/concepts-percentage-of-ancestors-dna/

EDIT Or is this correct? https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Genealogy_Numbering_Systems_(National_Institute). OP may be right, we need clarification!

ALSO direct link to study stating the average Euro American is .18% Native American.

>European American genomes being 98.6 percent European, 0.19 percent African and 0.18 percent Native American

https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/01/07/claims-that-us-is-a-genetic-melting-pot-appear-overblown-if-youre-white/

Ciao!

This is the first place to look at. If you have the name it's an (incomplete) database of the inmigrants that came to the country.

http://cemla.com/buscador/

Edit: then you also have familysearch, but it's A LOT more difficult without knowing the year as they are microfilms, but I leave you the link if you are interested

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/2700611?availability=Family%20History%20Library

According to Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services, there are no restrictions on who can request a birth certificate. It'll cost Mr. Dennis $10 and take up to 30 working days (6 weeks).

As far as the info he needs to supply... Article text:

>[M]en opened the door to a telephone booth one cold, January morning in 1954 and discovered a cooing baby

>[...]

>The couple was traveling through Ohio from Kentucky, where he was born in a hospital. They were on their way back to Maryland when the father took the baby and left him in a phone booth.

Facts:

• He appeared to be 2 months old when he was found, so he was born in late 1953
• He was born in a hospital in Kentucky

Kentucky Vital Records Genealogy:

>Beginning 1 January 1911, Kentucky again required the registration of births and deaths. Registration was generally complied with by 1917.

FamilySearch has a Kentucky birth index for 1911-1995; Ancestry.com has a Kentucky birth index for 1911-1999.

So given his parents' names, he should be able to look up his birth info today, then order his birth certificate.

Was the family poor? Perhaps they couldn't afford the burial & didn't claim the body? In the 1940 census Raymond & Mary Alice are indeed living in Mound City.

Here are some possible explanations:

• The individual who reported this information for the death certificate was misinformed or misremembered.
• Lutisha was adopted later in life.
• Lutisha was just living with relatives other than her parents at the time of census enumerations. It's not uncommon for children to live with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins. I've found this to be especially common in families with lots of children and families with multiple marriages for one or both of the parents.

Edit: This appears to be the death record in question. It was reported by her son, who might reasonably be expected to know his grandparents.

Because Lutisha was born in 1883, I wouldn't find it unusual for her not to be living with her parents in the 1900 census, when she would have been around 17. In fact, she may have already been married in 1900. Their oldest child Elvira Deaton appears to have been born around 1900. (I haven't confidently found Lutisha or Alex in the 1900 census yet. There are two Alex Deatons in the area born about 6 months apart and I don't want to mix them up.)

Edit again: Yup, that was exactly it! Here's Lutisha in the 1900 census with her husband Alex Deaton and their daughter Elvira: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9WF-Z5F

She's part of what I call the "ghost generation" of children born in the early 1880s who didn't appear on the 1880 census, and married or moved out of their parents' homes before the 1900 census. This is totally normal.

A great deal of scanned Croatian church books, 18th, 19th, and some 20th century can be found in www.familysearch.org . Some are indexed, some of indexing was done poorly.

You can contact archives to do a research for you for a fee or free of charge if you come in person.

The Sgt Major R. S. Talbot is likely Roland Saunderson Talbot. This link has a link to his military personnel files. His granddaughter has also commented on the page and there is a link to contact her (the link isn't working for me but hovering over it shows her email address). He was in the UK in the 1911 census with the military and he was Srgt Major according to his military records so it seems likely it is him.

Think I found them: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LRTR-6RS?icid=amp_hdr_signin

Margaret Zell married Andrew Pitcairn, children:

Austin Clark

Anna L. 1882-??

Lillian May

Mary Zell

Edward Zell 1889-1922

Edited to add: 1910 census has address of 815 Rebecca.

Ernest Lemaire Wilde and Edna Marshall married 15 Aug. 1904 in Brooklyn, New York. They lived in Chicago in 1910.

Have you checked these Shelby County probate records? If William E Nichols owned substantial land or personal property, it may have required probate proceedings when he died. Perhaps William B Nichols will be listed as an heir:

• https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/109973

In case anyone's curious, here's the 1900 census record, and it really does say "Datective":

• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMDJ-8KN

I'd recommend looking for mentions of her in newspaper articles.

What if you requested to reserve the work for yourself and then just never do it? My understanding is that once it’s reserved no one but the reserving party can move forward with it.

https://www.familysearch.org/developers/docs/guides/ordinances

Have fun!

This is stuff easy for laypeople to read, but actual historical researchers can access much more that hasn’t been translated and digitized.

edit - fixed link format

This obituary for James J. Kwiatkowski mentions his late sister Barbara Malumphy.

Edit: Here's the family in 1940 living under the name "Koski".

Edit: And here they are in 1930.

Interesting. I found this website which lists the email and phone number for a Family History Center in Española that provides "one-on-one assistance and free access to premium genealogical websites." I wonder if they would be of any help to DNA Doe Project. I don't have a Facebook account so I can't suggest it to them myself but maybe someone who does can do it for me.

I'm confused about why you went to an FHC/FSAL if you didn't already know of records that you can only open/access there, that would help you in your research. You can find them from home, you just can't look at them unless you're there.

For example, take the Italian city of Foggia. Here is a link to Civil Registry records from Foggia, from the years 1809 to 1899. As you scroll through them, look on the right. Notice how, in most cases, the symbol is a little camera with a key above it? Well, that means that the images are available for viewing, but only at an FHC or FSAL. A few just have the camera, without the key, and those can be viewed from home.

So, if I'm doing research on an ancestor from the city of Foggia, I'd come across that page, right? Just to make it easy, let's say she was born in 1809. "Nati" means "birth" in Italian, so "Nati 1809" refers to birth acts from the year 1809. "Nati 1809" is the topmost image collection in that link, and on the right, the symbol is a camera with a key above it. So, now I know that to see her birth act that's presumably in this collection, I'll have to go to an FHC/FSAL.

When enough of that stuff that I can only view at an FHC/FSAL piles up, that's when I make the trek down there and look at everything at once.

It doesn't make sense to bother going down there if you don't already have things you've found in the Catalog that are restricted to FHCs/FSALs that you'd like to view.

It depends what you want the site to do, but yes, the best free site for finding records is familysearch. ancestry.com let's you build a tree totally for free (you only have to pay if you want to see records or other people's trees). And this site is a pretty good free site for getting advice.

Yeah, where's The Oregon Trail? That website http://makedatashine.com/ doesn't even exist. Tried going there and it just says "COMING SOON"

> Sarah McKee--I have no idea.

Mrs. Sarah Franklin married James R. McGee in Franklin County in 1867 (image here).

This probably isn’t completely relevant but Clifton Marshall was remarried in 1979, link to the marriage license I found

Presented at my first museum conference last week (gotta love those presentation jitters that set in two minutes before you're supposed to speak) and everything went smashing. Currently working on our next exhibit which'll focus on slavery through the end of Reconstruction in our county and finding some truly amazing stories and primary sources. We've tracked down the local USCT unit that occupied our area and there are some fantastic tales from that, a white officer murdered right downtown, a riot involving the Union League and outright political intimidation and violence on both sides of the spectrum. If anyone is interested, familysearch.org has actually digitized all and indexed much of the paperwork of the Freedmen's Bureau throughout the South. Link

I can across this Swedish household examination for a family that it might be worth looking into. The parents are Olof Nilsson and Hanna Sjöström, and they have four children living with them: Johan Georg, Ivar August, Erik Wilhelm, and Maria Katrina. This Erik Wilhelm was also born in 1878.

So this is a really good question! Academic genealogists have been asking this question for more than a decade. One reference book that talks about sources and how to analyze them is Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills. She lays out several different factors that should be considered when we look at documents:

One important point that she makes is that we have to consider separately, in some senses, the document and the information. For example, a death certificate is definitely an original document. However when we consider which person gave the information in the document, some of it that person likely knew first-hand (the date and place of death, the deceased's occupation, etc) but some of it they may have only known second-hand (the date and place of birth, the deceased's parents). Here is a lot more info about source evaluation.

Both of these factors are important when considering a document. An original document like a marriage license is generally considered to have fewer sources of errors than a derivative document like a county register. And primary information given by someone who witnessed the event(a child's date of birth reported by the parents) is generally subject to fewer types of errors than second-hand information given by someone who didn't witness it (a parent's date of birth reported by the children).

However, it's also recognized that every sources could have an error in it, so the general course is to examine all sources and evaluate their quality, look for agreements and conflicts in the information, and evaluate the evidence as a whole.

Citizens from Kentucky joined both the Union and Confederacy, as the populace was split on the issue. After the Union gained complete control of it however it produced a number of Union battalions.

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Kentucky_in_the_Civil_War

I am guessing this isn't her - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7G7-YZ7

I am also wondering if she was buried in Potters Field? Maybe she died a little while after coming to the US. Do you know the names of her parents?

Recently, all of the records the Mormons are known for having well kept were scanned & placed online at Family Search. They made searching so well defined & results produce underlying documents if available. They link to family members as more info gets updated.

Might be something to waste a day or two looking up. See if there are any records attached to a search using her name. See what relatives it adds, or websites it might produce (like FindAGrave, that can have user posts - invaluable).

Just a though!

(I have no affiliation with the website or the Church - you make a free account & voila!)

Pretty sure its Anna Smith. She was living in Girard with her husband William. The Census says she was born in 1890 PA. William's findagrave has his obit that mentions he married Anna McCall who died in 1957. Haven't found her beyond the 1940 Census yet.

I'm super curious about Desis in the U.S., and how we got here, so I sometimes do random exploration.

In this case, I started off looking for people born in India using census search websites like FamilySearch. I saw this guy, got intrigued, and started digging deeper—and the more I looked, the more I found.

The Internet is such an amazing resource for amateur history sleuths! All I needed was a computer. All the census data, old newspapers, and medical death records were all free to access.

Here's George Bratton living in Richland Township in 1840 with what appears to be a wife, three sons and a daughter:

• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHRX-LFN

There's a John Bratton of the right age to be his brother a few lines up.

Found this on family search: About her husband.

Mary JOHNSTON HUNTSMAN did not die until 1895 but on the 1871 sealing record she is listed as "Dead." This is either an error on the part of the scribe or perhaps James did not have his wife's permission to be sealed to these other three deceased women. James HUNTSMAN died less than two months later.

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/K14S-B65

Napomena: vreme se računalo po julijanskom kalendaru. Iz tog razloga za datum rođenja piše 28. jun, a ne 10. jul.

Stranica matične knjige na kome se nalazi zapis o njegovom krštenju može se pogledati na ovom linku (potreban je besplatan FamilySearch nalog).

Inače, matične knjige parohija Srpske pravoslavne crkve u današnjoj Hrvatskoj su već nekoliko godina dostupne na istom sajtu. Zahvaljujući njima, uz malo sreće, Srbi poreklom sa teritorija današnje Hrvatske mogu vrlo lako, sedeći za računarom, povezati pretke u porodično stablo i u istraživanju porekla doći i do druge polovine XVIII veka.

You can find lots of records for free at https://www.familysearch.org/

However, the family tree there is shared and conclusions about deceased individuals can be edited by anyone. (Conversely, living individuals can only be seen by the user who entered them.) On one hand, that could be helpful to you as a novice. On the other hand, you might be concerned about sharing your research with other users. (A lot of people have a very strong concept of my family tree and might object to anyone else viewing or editing it.)

If you'd prefer to keep your tree private (at least until you're more confident), you can do that for free at ancestry.com. You won't be able to view most records or hints there without a subscription, but building a tree is free and can be completely private.

Depending on where and when your ancestors lived, there are probably dozens of other free resources on the internet to help you learn more about them.

Here's another little tidbit of information that can help you be more confident in this conclusion. In her mother Martha's 1900 census record, she's noted as being the mother of 9 children, with 7 still living. But only 6 children are enumerated in her household. That seventh child is almost certainly Lutisha, married and with a child of her own in 1900.

A small caveat:

Those columns on the census are some of the most likely to contain errors. The woman of the household is the only one who can answer it authoritatively, and sometimes the men don't know about children from previous marriages. If young children provide this information, they may not even know about siblings who were born and died before them. (And no one likes to talk about deceased children, so sometimes they may not answer accurately even if they know.)

However, almost all errors in these columns are due to undercounting and not overcounting. If a woman is listed as having a certain number of children, you can be very confident that she had at least that many, and possibly more.

GEDCOM is still used. I would upload it to Ancestry and FamilySearch, the two biggest genealogy websites. You can have a free account to post family trees/work on both, though on Ancestry, you won't be able to view the trees of others on a free account. This will maximize the amount of people who can access it, and should be a good way to continue Mom's tradition. There are other websites, too, like MyHeritage, Geni, and doubtless a few others I'm missing, so depending on how much work you want to do, you might consider them, as well. But I'd say Ancestry and FamilySearch would cover most bases.

Here's a link for how to upload GEDCOMs to Ancestry. FamilySearch doesn't seem to have on-site instructions, but they do specifically state on the Sign In page that you can do it, so I wouldn't think it'd be that hard. Whatever you choose to do, thanks for your contributions! I guarantee you'll have distant cousins and descendants who'll appreciate it immensely.

Did she have a Social Security number? If so, she would have needed to provide a birth certificate, probably a delayed birth certificate in this case with affidavits from people able to verify her birth information - parent, older sibling, other relative, etc.

Wikipedia shows Cosby in Cocke and Sevier counties, is this right? The FamilySearch catalog for Sevier is no help but they have birth records for Cocke county - unfortunately, they're not digitized, but it shows the state archives as the author so you may want to contact them to see if they can do a search or direct you somewhere that you can do it yourself:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/963514?availability=Family%20History%20Library

At least that way you would have a better idea whether a birth record might exist.

Also related to the SSN, if she does have one you can order the SS-5 which will show date and place of birth and parents' names.

Here is his petition for naturalization - his real name was Paul Kurek born in Tarnow.

​

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSML-J9Y3-S?i=1585&cat=1048881

There are Shelby County marriage records here from 1792 to 1966. A marriage record from that era would typically not name the parents, unless the consent of a parent was required, or unless a parent's home is named as the place of marriage. But it would be worth ruling out:

• https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/192528

His baptism record from Parchacz Greek Catholic Church records is here. It says that he was born 26 May 1897, baptized the next day. His father was Joannes Lemecha, farmer of Parchacz, son of Alexii and Mariae (maiden name Petech). His mother was Shaphia, daughter of Stephani Lytwyn and Mariae (maiden name also Petech). The obstetrix (midwife) was Euphimia Lytwyn. Godparents were Michael Szewczuk and Parascovia, wife of Joannis Lucyk(?).

His brother Andrew's baptism record is here.

I don't see any evidence that his family, his wife, or her family might be Jewish. His wife, her parents, and grandparents are buried in Baptist cemeteries with crosses and churches on their grave markers.

The headstone applications collection on FamilySearch only covers 1925-1949, and on Ancestry only covers 1925-1963.

A quick search didn't find any synagogues in Monticello or Lawrence County, either.

It may simply have been a mistake that was never corrected. You might see if Goven had a published obituary.

His daughter Mary Nell (Hammond) Bracey/Badeaux seems to have a number of living descendants that might have more insight.

Medieval royalty used to create genealogies showing they descended from Adam and Eve as a way of reinforcing the whole Divine Right of Kings thing. So there are family trees that show this, but that doesn’t mean they’re accurate.

It was also fashionable for a while to claim you were descended from Charlemagne as a way of claiming high social status, which is why a lot of Mormons from Western European backgrounds seem to have Charlemagne in their genealogical charts. Most of them have been fudged or fabricated at some point, but it happened too long ago to sort out now.

Edit: More info — from FamilySearch, no less.

Your best bet would be to visit your local family history center. Throughout the world the church has a small "computer lab" set up somewhere in one of their local buildings. They have some irregular business hours (listed on the website above) and you can go in and there will be some volunteers willing to help people do some research. They would be able to help you access the documents, and give you a lot more resources as well.

In genealogy, proof generally means finding documentation (birth and death certificates, wills, census records, deeds, land patents, obituaries, abd so on) connecting a child to a parent, as well as showing that the child is connected to the right parent and not a stranger with a similar name, etc. https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Genealogical_Proof_Standard

It is certainly possible to trace ancestry to nobility or royalty in Europe, and if you can prove a connection to someone in a noble family, you'll often find excellent documentation of many connections, since nobles tend to intermarry.

I would be very, very skeptical of a family tree that traced ancestry to the Caesars. Julius Caesar's known relatives died out in the 5th century; all of his known children died childless except his daughter Julia, who died in childbirth along with her only child. Augustus' last descendants died in the first century, apparently childless.

Royal families have claimed to be descendants, but offered no proof. Royal family trees sometimes descend from mythical figures like Odin, too. It's extremely unlikely, to put it politely.

It's pretty neat to see the actual probate documents instead of just what's recorded in probate books. I imagine moreso to see the actual documents in person - those seals really stand out!

I'm not sure if you're aware, but quite a number of estate files are online (Most of MA, all of CT). Looks like York County, Maine also has estate files online. The collection is here. The file you took photos of is here, file 14271 (and the next 6 images). Probate volumes are here, althought it looks like you need to go to a FHC to see the early ones. Rarely (I've seen it once) they have additional information compared to what's in the estate files.

I think I may have just figured out why:

>The 1940 Census has a feature that other censuses don’t have. It states who gave the information to the census taker. From the instructions of previous censuses, it stated that when a family wasn’t at home, a neighbor could give information about them. Source: https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/census-taker-wrong/

You could volunteer through an organization, like a genealogy or historical society. You could be a volunteer indexer of records at FamilySearch. You could be a freelance volunteer and offer to make runs to your local libraries and archives for others. Something as simple as offering to do a lookup at a FHC near you is an amazing gift to a researcher who can't easily access one.

Helping people break down their brick walls on r/genealogy, FB groups, etc. is a form of volunteering. I'm not very good at it, but I enjoy it and every once in a while I actually help (lol).

Here is Rev. Elbridge Knight's death record. Herman and Delbert were his sons. Edith was Herman's daughter. Charles and Ernest appear to be children of another of Elbridge's sons. Most of the people listed seem to have lived in Fort Fairfield or Easton, Maine.

Here's his death certificate. He died when a train overturned, crushing his head. His widow died in 2009. San Diego city directory shows her living there as his widow for many years.

Yes, it usually is, even if it requires a bit of searching. Depending on where you are from, it can be quite easily accessible, for example:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?surname=smith&birth_year_from=2012&birth_year_to=2012&count=20

For those who are curious:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9B9V-VPR?i=20&cc=1473181

Line 12

John C. Wilson's probate file begins here. It mentions his widow (who remarried in April 1881), but I didn't spot any references to children.

On the familysearch.org website they flat out say that any genealogy that does that is bogus. https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/family-tree-adam-eve/

familysearch.org further requests that people who's family tree does show that to correct their family tree. https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/family-tree-adam-eve-part-2/

Joseph's World War I draft registration card gives his surname as "Czampel," and says that he was born in Jakubjan (Jakubany), Hungary.

In a list of Jakubany baptisms here, I see a Joseph Czompely, born 12 Feb. 1891 to Georgius Czompely and Catharina Lemanyik. (The 1910 census notes that George had been twice married.) There is also a Catharina, daughter of Georgius Czompely and Anna Jancsy, born 31 Jan. 1895, died 28 Dec. 1899. I see a marriage record for Georgius Czompely, 24, to Catharina Lechmanik, 34, widow of ? Benyak, on 21 Nov. 1887. Also a marriage record for Georgius Czompely, 32, widowed, to Anna Jancsy, 27, on 8 May 1894.

Her married name was Elenbaas, and she died in Elkhart, Indiana. She was living in Elkhart as early as 1962, when she became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Elkhart County deeds—searchable here—give the name of her husband, who was naturalized on the same day as his wife and is still living.

I would say it's closer to a human condition, and not specific to capitalism.

​

For example, look at common last names:

• Smith
• Cox
• Carter
• Hayward
• Thatcher
• Tailor
• Faber
• Schmidt
• Kowalski
• Baker
• Brewer
• Cooper
• Mason
• Kellogg
• Weaver
• etc.

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/England_Surnames_Derived_from_Occupations,_Ranks_(National_Institute)

​

So it would seem that "Job as identity" is a very, very old way to qualify people.

Take a look here, specifically the online records section. Some records are online, but of course not everything. I hope you can read Japanese!

Do you know exactly where in Japan your family came from? You'll need to find that out before you'll be able to do any research in records on that side of the Pacific.

There is an application for enrollment here for Viola B. Gillespey, who was born in 1902, and died later the same year. The "AD" on her card meant "Adopted Delaware."

Outstanding detective work, as always!

I believe this was his immigration record from 1911, which mentions his father and hometown of Stefkowa, and that he was Ruthenian: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JJP2-66B

He appears to have come to the U.S. with a friend Jurko Kucher, named on the next line. They were both destined for Grafton, Pennsylvania to meet Jurko's father Ignaz Kucher.

Lots of Ruthenian/Rusyn immigrants fled the Austrian empire and a large community of them ended up in Youngstown.

That Steve Marinyak was living in Rankin, Pennsylvania in 1917 and was already married, according to his WWI draft registration: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6J5-72L?

Here's the family in the 1920 census. The birth dates of the children suggest some of them are from an earlier marriage of either Steve or Elizabeth: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDGK-524

Comincia dai tuoi parenti più anziani: un semplice nonno o nonna ti può dire chi erano i suoi genitori e i suoi nonni, e se sei fortunato anche i bisnonni. Segnati tutto quel che sanno: nomi, cognomi, date (o anni) di nascita, relazioni di parentela, etc. Già così puoi andare indietro di un centinaio d'anni. Se ti interessano anche i rami collaterali chiedi ai tuoi genitori e nonni tutto quel che sanno di fratelli e sorelle e relativi figli e nipoti.

Dopodiché il portale Antenati e FamilySearch sono un ottimo inizio: se sei fortunato, gli atti di nascita, matrimonio e morte dei Comuni che ti riguardano sono online e facilmente accessibili. Altrimenti devi andare a chiedere all'archivio di Stato delle provincie che ti interessano. Ci sono anche gli archivi arcivescovili e parrocchiali, ma in certi casi potrebbero essere un po' meno accessibili.

Sia sul portale Antenati sia su FamilySearch non basarti (solo) sul motore di ricerca interno, ma impara anche a consultare gli indici annuali e decennali dell'epoca, perché i nomi indicizzati nei database sono solo una piccola parte, mentre le immagini degli indici cartacei (quando ci sono) coprono tutte le annate.

This appears to the baptism of Harry Isak in Valga. Harri Isak and his twin sister Isabella Isak, the children of Johannes Isak and Luise Melanie Prikko were born on January 14, 1930 in Valga and baptized in the Evangelical Church, Petrovskaya.

According to the transcription of his death certificate, his parents were Adom Grombling and Elizabeth Hauck. I suggest ordering the original to double check the info (Adom is probably Adam).

Do you know if they came in the last 100 years or so? Or before that?

If your family were in the States in 1940 and before, a good place to start is by searching the 1940 USA census.

I'd recommend you use FamilySearch. You may need to make a free account to use it now.

Search for your grandfather (or great grandfather) in the above link, and you'll probably be able to find them on that census. You can then check the previous censuses, and work backwards with what you know.

You should hire an expert that specialises in your geographic area of interest as they will be most familiar with local sources rather than just higher level census or other documents.

See also: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Hiring_a_Professional_Researcher

Have you searched for his name in the Social Security Death Index? Non-US citizens can obtain SSNs so it's possible his SSN was legitimate.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1202535

If it is, you could order his SS-5 application if you can prove he has died. You can prove he's deceased if he's in the SSDI or if you have his death certificate. Because you probably can't prove his parents are deceased, they'll mostly likely be redacted on the copy you receive. But you could get a birth place and birth date on the application, which would enable you - I hope - to find him in more records, including possibly his Canadian birth certificate.

http://www.legalgenealogist.com/2013/05/31/ordering-the-ss-5/

Absolutely yes to DNA, especially if you can get your mother to test, too. The reason is: if someone matches you, but doesn't match your mother, that match is presumably through your father (unless it's a false match, which is more common among distant matches).

Hopefully your mom wouldn't object to DNA testing even though she's less than forthcoming on your dad.

Here is a record about Clarence Dunker when he crossed the border from Canada to the United States through Blaine, Washington. It is from the U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1825-1960 collection on Ancestry.com. The manifest gives Clarence's date and place of birth, which led me to the second image in the link above, his delayed birth certificate (from Iowa, Delayed Birth Records, 1856-1940 on Ancestry). His birth certificate gives the names, ages, and places of birth for both his parents.

Here is Clarence and his family living in Alberta, Canada in 1916. The 1916 Census is online for free through Familysearch. Familysearch is a free site that has a decent amount of records online for you to use. Not all of its collections are indexed, though.

Here is an example of about 30 people living at a hospital in the 1910 census. It seems that it was not unheard of for employees of the hospital to live there.

You should be able to request a copy of her social security record if she is deceased. This information might be helpful: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/U.S._Social_Security_Records_for_Genealogists

Here is the matching record from county records. It does appear that the couple received a license, but that their marriage was never recorded in Wayne County.

Birt Hensley and Nancy Cloud's 1923 marriage bond is here. It says that his parents were Jennings and Matilda Hensley.

No, thank you! I know how big of a difference a tiny spelling change can make and I didn't have much confidence in the spelling of this record anyway as it lists 'Hawburg' and 'Micaragua'... Unfortunately Ancestry doesn't seem to turn up any record of a ship named Kansler either. FamilySearch thinks it's 'Kambsea' so there is a lot of room for interpretation.

As far as the route goes I could be totally wrong. On the page that Richard is listed on it has two other men, one with a last residence as Mexico and one as Guatemala. In my mind it made perfect sense for the ship to pass by all three of these Central American countries up on the way to SF, but maybe not. FamilySearch has a scan of the passenger list available so maybe you'll be able to make more sense of it and the ship name than I can!

In the certificate quoted it states he was a tailor. As a tailor he would have almost assuredly belonged to a guild, most tradesmen did at that time. He would also have served an apprenticeship. If the guild records could be found, they would list who he apprenticed under, possibly his parents names and where they lived, and more. It's worth looking into.

Seeing he was listed as having come from Aylesford in Kent, you might try the Kent Family History Society. There website is here. Familysearch also has a list of resources for Kent. Then there's the Kent County Archives where the guild records might be. Larger cities like London had individual guilds, many which still exist. Smaller cities and towns often had combined guilds, something like a modern businessman's association. Those records are often held at the county level. If not, they should be able to tell you where they are.

Is this your Thomas in the 1885 Iowa Census? If so, it says he is widowed. Which means she would have died a year or less after they were married.

Unless I'm skimming right past it, I don't see Isaac Stearns on the lists of known fraudulent genealogies: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Fraudulent_Genealogies

That said, everyone else is right. Use it as a guide, but be sure to lay eyes on the sources yourself, to be sure they exist and they say what the book claims they do.

I'll take up the mantle a bit here, however, it may be a few hours before I can research. A FOIA request (or your states equivalent) should yield a ton of info, however, it doesn't need to be your first step. A ton of subscription services can fill in the blanks. For your own research, FamilySearch is an incredible free resource.

I see others have already done a Westlaw search, I'll try a Lexis search just to see. Otherwise, I'll look on Ancestry/FamilySearch/Newspapers.com. Honestly, if the case happened during the 50's, the availability will be much better than the 80's. Newspapers have grown much less candid regarding the details of incidents and many recent records aren't online yet because of privacy laws/regulations, etc.

/u/tony_montana83 PM me if you have any questions or don't get any closer by 4pm or so.

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Some good and bad news (and please verify my information yourself, I may be mistaken so keep digging!):

Hungarian Civil Records are available 90 years after birth, after 60 years for marriages, and after 30 years for deaths. So you'd only need to wait a couple more weeks to access your grandmother's birth record.

Check here for more information on familysearch's Hungarian Civil Record collection:

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Hungary_Civil_Registration_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)

Now the bad news (maybe): go to the link below and translate the page to English. For the region you specified it seems to say there aren't any FHL microfilms for the town you're looking for. However, that doesn't necessarily mean the records don't exist, just that you would have to order them through the district/county's civil registrar or archive records (here I don't know the specifics on who you're meant to order them from in this region, you'll need to do some searching)

http://mikrofilm.uw.hu/civil/index.html

But like I said, your grandmother's birth record will be available for access in a couple weeks (good timing!).

Have you see this civil registration on family search:

Name: Giustino Pardi Event Type: Birth Event Date: 10 Oct 1889 Event Place: Ripacorbaria, Pescara, Italy Event Place (Original):  Father's Name: Domenico Pardi Mother's Name: Fioralba Di Piase

Digital Folder Number: 005707656 Image Number: 00031

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9N-ZQ46

Giustino and Eleanora's marriage record confirms parents - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLFK-17XS

It is probably him. He has the same first name, middle initial, and surname as your ggg-grandfather. He also died in the four year window you know him to have died in with the same number of living children. It seems too coincidental to be not the same man.

There is an extensive tree on FamilySearch about the Bixler family. It has Daniel H. Bixler as the son of John H. Bixler and Malinda Yoder. Take this information with a grain of salt until you confirm it, though.

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/9X95-DPM

Anna Moore married Harry F. Sweeney in 1914. He appears to have died in 1918.

I've had some problems finding one of my ancestors from Erie, PA around the same time period who ended up moving to Michigan. Sure enough, it looks like William Stafford, the son of Cyrus and Nancy, moved to Michigan as well. * Marriage Record * 1900 Census * Death Record

This is going to seem strange, but I'm pretty sure he actually died before 1920 and the 1920 census record is just a ghost records, or error. Especially if he has orphaned children living separately.

Look closely at the 1920 census image for Molly Johnson. She says she is widowed. And yet her husband is mysteriously there. I think the census taker took down his name but he was actually already deceased. This may explain the move in with the parents and why a death record cannot be found post 1920.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDBP-NXZ

Another interesting fact, Mollie applied for a marriage license to Adam Ballreich a full year before they actually got married, and in the license she said she was widowed. If accurate this further reduces the death range to before Sep 5 1921. See image on familysearch.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X8GW-HZZ

His death certificate is here. Image 1051 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99VV-TNYD?cat=1016243

He died in Matano State Hospital, but it indicates he was only there for 2 days. The obit indicates he was sick for two months and died from coronary thrombosis. His death certificate is different than the standard certificate. It notes an inquest was done to investigate his death. I am not sure who would hold these records, but I'd suggested trying the county clerk, county coroner, or state archives. One should be able to direct you to the right place.

I did a little digging, and it looks like Lucy and her children were living in Cleveland, Arkansas, during the 1920 census.

The Colbert surname comes from her youngest son's Social Security Claims record.

I am not finding any record of her in the 1930 census. It is possible she remarried and is using another surname by this time. I found her eldest son in the 1930 census, here.

For now, your best bet would be to research all of her children. You may find more documents with her maiden name on them or other details which could help you search for her. You are correct that there doesn't seem to be much of a paper trail for her, at least one available online.

FamilySearch has a lot of tutorials here, including one called "Getting Started in Genealogy", here: https://www.familysearch.org/ask/landing?search=Getting%20Started&show=lessons&message=true

They also have a lot of records they microfilmed in the 1950s and have digitized are in the process of doing so. Don't know how many of these would be relevant, depends on the locations you'll be researching: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list

I would also suggest checking out what else they have at FS that's not in their Historical Collections list. On the main FamilySearch page (or most of its pages) click on Search in the top menu to. Records will take you to a Search page where you can plug in a name, date, location, etc and see what comes up. You can also do a search of the Genealogies and Books they have at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City; most of the latter aren't digitized so you won't be able to access them but some of them are now public domain and you can find copies online at Google or Internet Archives.

Would definitely recommend you check out JewishGen, this is a great resource: https://www.jewishgen.org/

The record refers to "GS Film number 0022366 IT 3," which is here: "Microfilm of manuscript (38 p., handwritten) in the Rhode Island Historical Society."

https://www.familysearch.org/locations/centerlocator fijate cual centro genealogico te queda mas cerca, llama al numero, concerta una cita y te van a ayudar con eso. GRATIS. Es la base de genealogia del mundo mas grande, en otros lados te van a cobrar y no tienen los recursos que tienen en familysearch.

According to the Civil Registration of Liege, Marie Darat (b. 1848) passed away in 1897, Vital Augustin Joseph Wasterlain (his date of birth not mentioned) was her husband at that time. His profession: "ouvrier tourneur en fer" (iron turner), https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9Q97-Y93B-XZ?i=64&cc=2138505

For anyone else reading, here's the 1940 census record in question:

• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KHMV-RHG

> I'm hoping someone might be able to point me to a birth index that could have some clues,

Michigan birth records (or indexes) that recent aren't available online anywhere I know of.

> or maybe some 1950 census records that could shed some light.

The 1950 census won't become public until 2022.

Perhaps she was a child from an earlier marriage of Beulah or Howell, and died young.

I assume that you are from the U.K., so I can't offer as much help.

I would suggest using FamilySearch and look at the catalog section.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/search/

There are TONS of records that are not indexed, and you will miss out on so much information if you simply rely on the search function (only includes indexed items).

Simply type in the location. Probate, land, and tax records can be goldmines. They existed before vital records were a requirement.

It requires going page by page sometimes, but there is usually some sort of index.

I use it every day for my American roots, but I have also had some success with searches in Canada, German, and the U.K.

It looks like except for a company J that was formed near the end of the war and has a roster of 24 men, most accounts of this regiment only survive in contemporaneous newspaper reports of their movements and battles, and retrospective accounts of surviving officers and soldiers.

Your ancestor appears to mentioned (as Wakefield, J.W.) on a roster on page 180 of this book:

• https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Tennessee-Infantry-Regiment-Regimental/dp/1522974172

I wonder if he's the same John J. W. Wakefield mentioned as a part of Company E of the 41st Tennessee Infantry:

• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F9KV-JN5

Here is the FamilySearch version. I agree that it looks like "Imri." An Imley Rose of the right age lived across the state line in (West) Virginia in 1860. This is him in the 1900 census.

Here's an index to that death registration, in case anyone else is curious:

• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2JWJ-6J9

That Ophelia died when she was 19. Would the items in the scrapbook have been available to someone who was born around 1896?

I had no luck finding any newspaper accounts, city directory entries, or census records for him between his 1932 divorce and his 1945 death.

There's this very hard to decipher 1940 census record for an "E James" something-or-other (the transcriber on FamilySearch thought it was "Germflo") living in Kalamazoo County in 1940. His wife Mabel was the informant (marked with an ⊗) and thought he was born in Pennsylvania.

• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4L5-F58

> What is puzzling is that there is no indication of how this was compiled, or who is behind it. Is there someone out there that I might want to get in touch with?

If you visit the web version of the Family Tree at https://www.familysearch.org/ and log in there, you can see who entered each conclusion and who made each change, and sometimes (if they'd conscientious users) why they made those changes. Just click on the link that says "Latest Changes > Show All" in the side bar. You can contact them right from that list of changes, and will automatically include a link to the person you're asking them about.

I think this level of detail might not be visible in the FamilySearch mobile app.

I should have clarified. FS only has records from the first half of the 20th century. Maybe that was the issue. See here: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/628228?availability=Family%20History%20Library

Please consider posting to https://www.familysearch.org/photos/ and then tag the people in the photos—and make notations that you are looking to confirm them. If others have family trees there with these people, they will get a notification and you may just get someone who can verify it. It's a great, and underused, tool. Best of luck!

That would explain why I couldn't find Rosanna (Farrell) Denning's death record, but did find that of Rosanna (Farrell) Wright. John Denning was boarding with a Cox family in 1910.

I really need this thread to vent right now. My family has been trying to solve the biological father of my grandma since 1980. I've literally inherited this brick wall.

Good news: The DNA test my dad did last year matched with an unknown new 1st cousin.

Bad news: The new cousin also doesn't know who their biological grandpa is.

Good news: It's between two men.

Bad news: I can't find any record of EITHER of these two men's parents to corroborate with other DNA match trees. The two men: Charles Brewer and Louis Hansen

Good news: The cousin agreed to request their mother's birth certificate to find the biological grandpa.

Bad news: Colorado won't release the birth certificate because the mother changed her surname between her own birth certificate and the new cousin's birth certificate so I can't prove relation

Get your aunt to DNA test on Ancestry, get your mom/dad to test too.

If grandma is still alive, get her to test.

Also, if the baby was born in California, it's worth checking Familysearch's California Birth Index - https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2001879

You don't have to enter a name, you should set the birth year as the year(s) she was there, and enter her maiden name there.

It doesn't mean she did or didn't have the baby there, but it could help.

I can't access the family tree you linked since I don't have an Ancestry account, so I can't see if you know about him already. But I found out that a brother of Marianna, called Giuseppe Tomassi, was born in England in 15th June 1899. He was a farmer and could read and write.

Found it here (in the 1899 pdf, page 150), where you can see indexes of Fogli Matricolari (military personal records; read more about them here.

This is just the index, the real record will have more information (but likely not a lot of genealogical info). You can request it by contacting the Frosinone State Archive, whose email you can find in the site above. Italian is preferable, and they will likely take their time to respond and ask for a small payment.

Despite being born in England, he was still registered for service in Cassino (Circondario of Sora). So his family was probably from Cassino. Searching for "Franchitto" and "Tomassi" in other years, you can also see that most are from Cassino, despite a few being from places like Atina or Villa Latina.

Will update after I do a bit more research.

I'm sorry. There's definitely a mystery there. Be ready to find out anything if you go searching.

I am an atheist myself, but the genealogists at the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) do a remarkable job at finding relatives around the world. It's part of their belief that they have to baptize ancestors so they've gotten really good at finding them. https://www.familysearch.org