I need help finding records for a geneology project... HELP ME!!!?

Question

I am helping my sister in law with her geneology project and I am having the hardest time finding any info on their Great Grandmother! I know her name,maiden name,year of birth, date of death, place of death and I have one census from when she was married. There seem to be no records of this woman before she was married. I have searched Ancestry and done a Google search but nothing came up. Where else could I look? I cannot request a copy of any vital records because I do not have enough info. Any ideas of where to look would be appreciated. IM me if you need more info!

That would be easy except I live in Texas, she lives in Pennsylvania and the great grandmother lived in South Caroline.... guess I should have mentioned that all this has to be done online.

Answer 1

Haven't touched it in a while, but it seems that I remember SC as being a horrible place to search. It was one of the last states to require such things as birth or marriage records. One of my favorite places is www.usgenweb.com click down to SC, and the opening page is likely to have specific dates for vitals. You may find that there won't be any vital records to send for.
From there, go to the county page for the county you know she was in the census. Look for others with that surname. While there may not have been birth/death certs, there are land and probate records that may be referenced on the county page. Milk what you can from that site, even if not clear how or if related. If you do already have her place/date of death, have you attempted to get an obit?
Next, have you went to www.genforum? Again, there is an area for family names..with search box. Don't just use her name as a search option.. use the county name and see what "hits". If you did find an obit, it is hopeful that it will include names of siblings.
I always run quick checks in www.rootsweb.com's family files. Using the persons full name does NOT always work.. because an entry might be slightly different. I use the advanced search option.. run the surname and filter by the location (in the birth place and death place.. not at the same time.. alternate them).
One more option is to look for either a surname mail list or county mail list, both at rootsweb (mail list option on front page). Both of those will have archived messages that you can browse (hoping that the poster had the sense to use a good subject line). I often find old messages with what I want this way. Of course, when you start gettng email from the list.. now you can post what YOU are looking for.
Google can be wonderful. Or a pain. When putting the name in, you need to use quotation marks around the name, to pull exact hits. This will not help if you know her as Sarah Smith but she went by Sallie Smith. Another option is the surname, the word family, and name of the county.
As much as we hate it.. it will NOT ALL be online. But, do what you can, then see what is left.
Last.. please do a REPOST here and include her name, approximate dates and location. I have over 25 yrs of experience.. I posted a brick wall here the other day, and had the solution in less than an hour. The power of networking is awesome.

Answer 2

Start with what you do know. When you found her in the census, was she living close to where you think either she or her husband might have grown up? If so, start calling the County Clerk's offices in the area and ask them (very sweetly) if they could help you find the marriage license for Mr. _____ _______ (Great Grandpa) and a woman whose first name was ______. If it's not a major city (like Chicago or New York), the odds are they have the time to do a quick lookup on their database and can tell you if the two were married in that county.

Once you find the county where they were married, ask the clerk if they can send you an uncertified "genealogy" copy of the marriage license AND the marriage license application. They're often no more than $1-5 for the documents and you not only find out Great-Grandma's maiden name, but also her parents' names and where all of them were born.

I do this all the time when I don't have much to work on and most counties are more than happy to look it up and call you back to tell you if they have the record or not. If you can't find the record that way, then you need to find a volunteer from USGenWeb.org who is willing to go to the State Archives in the state where the wedding probably took place and have them go through the old libers that have been filmed to see if they can find it.

Answer 3

staying power and staying power. all of us have some lines the place others have already accomplished lots of the learn and we only fill in some blanks. those are balanced with the lost ancestors and brick partitions and ineffective ends. it rather is a factor of what makes kin tree complicated and exciting. verify your community public library. Many have money owed with Ancestry so you might use for the cost of a library card. in the adventure that your community library does not have a kin tree section, verify to confirm if possibly a close-by extra advantageous library does. regrettably you ought to do your very own discover ways to confirm that what you have is precise, or as precise as you'll be able to make it. you do no longer push a magic button and discover your loved ones historical past. And have confidence me the bushes on Ancestry are frequently approximately as some distance from precise as you are able to think of. They do regardless of if have actually billions of information and expertise. i hit upon that protecting previous floor generally uncovers new records. as an occasion, kin seek is including new records each and all of the time so I recheck each and every few months. comparable element with hit upon a Grave. After years of finding, somebody finally canvased the cemeteries interior the county the place I even have 3 generations buried and that i became waiting to fill in each and every variety of maximum suitable births and deaths. i'm hundreds of miles away or i could be helping. I additionally choose to check extra innovations at web pages like kin tree magazine, Roots television and kin tree gem stones. Ancestry and kin seek have unfastened articles and webcasts you are able to study or hear to. I even have had some magnificent properly-knownshows utilising information superhighway Message boards. do no longer provide up. happy looking

Answer 4

Try some of these sites:
These are online cemetery list of graves, but there are a lot of genealogy sites that could help you find a person who is dead.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/bkinnon/obit_li...
http://www.rootsweb.com/%7enmlincol/hond...
http://www3.sympatico.ca/bkinnon/obit_li...
http://www.hgrc-nm.org/surnames/gnmpd.ht...
http://www.obitcentral.com/index.html...
http://newmexicoalhn.net/cemeterydatabas...
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nma/cemtry.htm...
http://www.deathindexes.com/newmexico/in...
http://www.cem.va.gov/nchp/ftbliss.htm...
http://www.cem.va.gov/nchp/ftbliss.htm...
http://www.findagrave.com/
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries.asp?...



These are genealogy sites that can help you. The first one is the best one that is free.
http://www.familysearch.org/
http://familyoralhistory.us/
http://www.census.gov/index.html...
http://www.census-online.com/
http://www.us-census.org/search.html...
http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/
http://www.surnamenavigator.org/...
http://www.cyndislist.com/lin-linked.htm...
http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~lankshear...
http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?d...
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin...
http://www.usgenweb.org/index.shtml...
http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mai...
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/ge...
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/mtoll/...
http://maxpages.com/ourlostfamily...
http://www.worldgenweb.org/

Good luck finding your person. These sites will get you started. There are many many other sites if you do a search on genealogy.

Answer 5

Amber: There are many talented genealogy researchers on this board who love to jump in and help with searches like yours. But without the details, you've tied our hands. Please provide the information you already have and perhaps one of us will be able to help you!

Shalom!

Answer 6

You and your sister-in-law should go to the Public Library and ask a geneologist, at the library to help you.

Answer 7

I'd suggest you use the "Soundex" option, if you haven't already, and look for her under her middle name. Lots of my individuals named "Mary Louise" went by "Mary" from 1900 - 1930 but "Louise" from 1850 - 1880.

The rest of this is my stock answer. I have a whole page on my site devoted to looking for people in the 1880, which applies to the other censuses if you subscribe.


There are over 500,000 free sites devoted to genealogy on the Internet.

Researching your family tree is about as difficult as writing a term paper in a high school History class. You don't have to be a rocket scientist, but it isn't as easy as looking up the capital of Peru. If your great-aunt has already done it and posted her line on the Internet, you might find a line from your (dead) great grandfather all the way back to Charlemagne tonight, without any work.

If not, you will have to do the work yourself. Most teens don't want to spend the time. If you are interested, read on.

These are large and free. Many of them, however, have subtle ads for Ancestry.com in them - ads that ask for a name, then offer a trial subscription. Watch out for those advertisements.

http://www.cyndislist.com/
(240,000+ links, all cross-indexed. If you want Welsh or Pennsylvania Dutch or Oregon or any other region, ethnic group or surname, chances are she has links for it.)

The LDS site and the RWWC here would be the places to look for Great Aunt Matilda's research. Don't enter everything; just name and approximate birth year.

http://www.familysearch.com
(Mormon's mega-site. Click on "Search", to start with, or "Advanced Search")

Roots Web
http://www.rootsweb.com
and in particular,
http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi
(Roots Web World Connect; 500,000,000+ entries, of varying quality)

Ancestry.com
http://www.ancestry.com/
(which has free pages and FEE pages - so watch out)
and, in particular,
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/default.aspx?ln=
Surname meanings and origins

http://www.tedpack.org/begingen.html
My own site: "How to Begin"

United States only:

http://www.usgenweb.net/
(Subdivided into state sites, which all have county sites.)
(The Canadians have Canadian Gen Web, by province)

http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
(Social Security Death index - click on "Advanced". You may find your grandparents.)

http://find.person.superpages.com/
(US Phone book, for looking up distant cousins)


United Kingdom Only:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/
(Biggest site for United Kingdom & Ireland)

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
(Free Birth, Marriage & Death Records)

In the USA, some public libraries have census image subscriptions. Many Family History Centers do too. FHC's are small rooms in Mormon churches. They welcome anyone interested in genealogy, not just fellow Mormons. They have resources on CD's and volunteers who are friendly. They don't try to convert you; in fact, they don't mention their religion unless you ask a question about it.

This is a general hint: Even though you go in through YA Canada, YA Australia, YA UK or YA USA, all of the questions go into one big "pot" and get read by everyone in the world who speaks English. Most of the people here are in the UK and USA, but you sometimes get questions and answers from people who worry about kangaroos eating their roses. So - put a nation, or, better yet, if you are asking about a specific individual, a nation and a state / province, in all of your questions. It will help people help you.