Welcome to Family History Month!!!
I am so EXCITED for Family History Month!
I had a friend on Facebook ask a question about researching her family. She wanted to know if she did not know the full names and birthdays of her older relatives, could she still have success researching her family roots. DEFINITELY!! This would be the best course of action:
Talk to Your Parents
This is the first step if your parents are still living. They could give you a roundabout age of your grandparents then do the math to calculate the year they were born. Familysearch.org is a free genealogy site. You must create a login in order to see the documents. It’s completely free…no tricks. Look at census records (before 1950) to confirm their age and who they lived with. Checking the census records confirms that you are looking for the correct people. Your parents should show up on these records as long as they were born before 1950. Note on the census their place of birth because this is important.
Look for Marriage Records
Looking at the marriage record for your grandparents can give you additional information. If you have their birthplace and approximate birth year, enter their names into the records search to see if any marriage licenses match for that location. If a record does pop up, it should contain your grandmother’s maiden name (if you didn’t know it already). Most marriage records contain the names of the bride and groom’s parents. If this is the case, now you have your great grandparents’ names!
Family, Associates and Neighbors – the FAN Club
Continue to review the census records of your grandparents living in the households of their parents. The census records should give you information about your great aunts and uncles, their education, their occupations. Also, most children lived in their parents’ neighborhood after marriage so look at the entire census records for other relatives that lived close by.
Death Certificates
I have always said, you can find the living through the dead. Death certificates give you the decedent’s birth place, their exact birthdate (most of the time), decedent’s parents’ names and where they were born and other important information like if the deceased was a veteran, their occupation, informant’s name (this is most likely a relative), their last address and if they were married/divorced/widowed. All this information can lead you to additional records that can help you go back even further.
Next question – what if your grandparents were born in another country? That’s a question for another post. Stay tuned!
If you’re interested in knowing your family history but you don’t have the time or resources to do so, I have affordable packages to do the research for you. If you book the Kati or Kubwa packages during October 2022, you will get a 10% discount plus a free gift!* Click here to contact me.
*You must book and pay the 50% non-refundable deposit before 11:59pm on 10/31/22 in order to receive the discounted services and free gift.