How to find information on ancestors?

Question

I have tried all genealogical databses, went to my local courthouse and library, newspapers. asked older relatives, and have been on gen forum, lds..etc. this was my great great grandmother, all i have are her first initials and last name. I know where she is buried and it has no grave marker, and the old cemetery records weren't kept ehn she died. Any one have anyother ideas? and yes I have checked census also.

Answer 1

Sometimes you strike out. I was going to suggest the Family History Center in your local LDS church, if you live in the US. They have access to all of the censuses, not just the 1880. With luck you can find her from 1850 (When they started listing women and minors my name, instead of just totalling them up) to 1900. It is rare for someone to be on three or four censuses by their initials.

It is common for someone to be "Mary J" in one census and "Jane M" in the next.

Once in a while - 5% of the time or less - you get a father-in-law living with the family, or a single brother-in-law, which gives you the maiden name, maybe.

(Married or widowed brothers-in-law may be through the husband's sister.)

She may be with one of her children in the later censuses.

Her marriage record should have her full maiden name, if you can find what county she married in.

You may know all of this already; if so, I apologize for wasting your time.

Answer 2

Hey Jessica,

Start with your Records, and family interviews. Get Birth, Death, Marriage, Wills, Probate, any records, pictures and stories from all the living relatives.

Then look at your family tree base, and determine exactly what information it is you need, to link to what next connection. You need to do one node at a time. Anything else will drive you crazy.

You can get vital records (birth, death, etc), by knowing a place and year. So, go to a certificate, say for your mother, and look at her parents information on her certificate - it will give their place of birth. From there you order the Certificates for that person.

Beyond this, each case is a specific research project. General answers will not do if you need GGMother specifically. Give some details about what you know, and perhaps someone could really help. For now, here are some Vital Record sites, and Obiturary Sites.

Answer 3

You didn't really tell us how close you got. It would help if we knew how you got her initials. I suppose you know her husband's name? Then you should be looking for his marriages in vital statistics records.
Also a record should exist of her death. If you know approximately the year of her death you should be able to find her that way.
There were also special reports such as deaths in 1849, I suppose they were getting ready for the Census. There were other years where they had special collections of data.