need help with a family tree?

Question

so i am looking on ancestry.com and they don't have all my family records on there. yes i am looking up deaths. but nothing. i even go on the ssdi and nothing. what gives. i know that these people died and what state and some what city but nothing comes back. what else can i do? btw....i can't ask anyone in the family cause the ones i need to talk with r dead.

Answer 1

One thing to remember is that Ancestry.com is one of many tools available to the genealogist. It doesn't have even 5 % of the records out there available. They are making a valiant effort to make new resources available constantly and they do have the complete censuses for the years 1790-1930. If there is a certain locality where your ancestors resided, I would suggest visiting the local library in that town and see if they have a local history/genealogy department. If they do, I would bet that you would have much more success than sitting in front of a computer screen. Besides books, they would likely have the local newspaper, city directories, old church records, etc.

Also, I did read that you said that you can't ask anyone in your family because the ones you need are dead. Ideally, we would all love to talk to the ones who have passed on and know the genealogy firsthand. I have to say talk to all of the relatives you can about your family. They don't have to be 90 years old to have some valuable information. Even siblings have different information than their other siblings. For instance, my uncle had told me that my great grandfather was a twin. He is seven years older than my dad who had never heard that piece of information. Further research proved that my uncle was indeed correct.

Keep in mind, genealogy is not a "one stop shop" kind of hobby. It is like an extreme puzzle that is never really solved! For every person you find, you have two more to look for (because everybody has two parents.) Besides Ancestry.com and the library, you would likely find records with the cemeteries, funeral homes, courthouses, the National Archives, and many others. Each source has something different to offer you. Be patient when doing your genealogy, it will come together. Some lines may come together very quickly, while others may take years.

If I may, I would like to make one suggestion regarding Ancestry. Our ancestors (yours and mine) really weren't all that diligent about correcting people who misspelled their names. If you can't find them with the correct spelling, try alternate spellings, nicknames, first initials, etc. You might also find searching by "soundex" might bring more desired results. Soundex is a way of indexing based on the way a surname sounds rather than the way it is spelled. Here is a link that may explain soundex a little better than I can.

http://www.archives.gov/publications/general-info-leaflets/55.html

When searching the Social Security death index, I would put in the information I do know. For instance, if I knew my grandpas birthdate, I might just type in his last name, date of birth and state, or any combination of things you do know about the person you are searching for. Sometimes, by not putting in the first name, you learn that your ancestor actually went by a middle name rather than the his given first name.

I hope this helps. Good luck in your search.

Answer 2

Everyone here says is "the best" site. MY perspective is that there is no best site... that the more sites you use, the better off you are. NO WEB SITE IS GOING TO HAVE IT ALL.
I am a pretty solid researcher. I have (many times) been unable to find a certain fact, only to have someone here find it, within 10 minutes. And every day I help people here, who cannot find something... yet I find it for them. I have LONG ago learned to not say "it isn't there".. but "I didn't find it". Especially with the ssdi (which does have errors or omissions)... I have even been unable to find it one day, gone back in the next day and found it. "Milk" the ssdi with the advanced search... use the surname ONLY and filter it with the state or the county. Sometimes persons live near a state line, going to a hospital (or home) in a nearby town over the state line, thus the death shows as a different location.
ALWAYS use more than one source for information. I can guarantee that you will find conflicting information.. thus you will sometimes need a third or even fourth to evaluate the probable "correct" answer.
Finally... as for no one left to ask.. think of that as completely normal. The whole point of research is that you use historical records to find what no one else "knows", or what they believe they "know" turns out to be fallible.

Answer 3

Order death certificates. They give the names and place of birth of both parents including the mother's maiden name.

Don't expect all information on a website. Website should be a supplment to real research.

Ancestry.Com has the most records on its website than any and is obtaining more and more all the time.

I understand to be on the SSDI, a person must be drawing SS at the time and on their own social security number. For instance, my mother isn't on it as she was drawing off of my father's social security number.

Now recently Ancestry.Com has picked up some people who never drew Social Security. The only thing I can think of is these were people who had to get a social security number in order to get Medicaid.
Usually if a person went into a Nursing Home and they weren't wealthy they had to have Medicaid. They use to not have a lot of good nursing home policies like they do today. I don't know who furnishes the death information to Social Security on these people as the ones I have seen the dates of death were wrong.

Family tree information on any website must be seen as clues not as fact as most is not documented. Even if you see the same information over and over by different submitters, a lot of copying is being done.

Answer 4

Some answers that may help: Keeping those records were a 20th century thing, taking my cue for place from SSDI. SSDI would be later 20th. Have you got cousins, aunts, uncles? I found a distant cousin researcher via a post on, I forget which, a rootsweb or ancestry.com surname message board. Or maybe it was place - county and state. She knew some things I didn't, or had forgotten, from great grands back.

Sometimes you cannot get what you want online, but may find what you need in a cemetery or courthouse.

Answer 5

If you know the city and the dates, look in the obituaries of that local paper. You can contact the cemetery association of the cemeteries where they are buried; the association usually has a file. You could also contact the funeral home which was in charge of the services; they might have a file. Check to see if there is a local genealogical group in any of the cities where your relatives died, they might help. Did they belong to a church? Check there. County courthouses are a good place to find records if you know dates and names. If your relatives worked for a railroad, they may not be listed with ssdi, but you might check railroad association and retirement lists. Good luck and happy hunting.

Answer 6

Remember that ancestry isn't the only great genealogy site out there!

http://www.familysearch.org -- Probably the best free online resource.

Also, you can check the surname message boards for his surname at:

http://genforum.genealogy.com

For links to helpful sites, you will want to take a look at:

http://www.cyndislist.com

And finally for a lot of different resources:

http://www.rootsweb.com

You may also want to check out http://www.findagrave.com which has information on more than 16 million graves (mostly the United States).

But if you know the place and date of death, you could easily request the death certificate as has been mentioned, which can cost between $5 and $20 per certificate.

Good luck,
Dave
--
http://www.familypulse.org

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Contact the county records office where the death occurred. They might be able to help you. If you're looking for a burial site, they don't record that, at least not here in Missouri!

Answer 9

You're gonna' have to contact the Department of Vital Statistics in each particular state where these people passed on.