Anyone really good at geneology stuff?

[Snoozan]

My Dsis and I have been searching online for ANY info on our Mom's father - she never knew him and her mom never told her any info about him. She has his obit, but with no dates indicated(her mom cut off the date and any family history info). His name was Vernon George Hartford and he was killed in a streetcar/taxi accident back in the late 30's/early 40's? This info was from an old Boston Globe article, but I can't find anything in the old Boston Globe obits I can find online. Supposedly he was an Olympic swimmer, but I can't any info about that either. My sister is currently signed up for Ancestry.com and we can't find anyone that might fit, other than one born in 1899. Anyone have any ideas on how to search further?

 

[buckler]

You could try to get a copy of his death certificate from the state. They will search a 10 year range for $18. If you can go into their archives in person you could look at the index.
Massachusetts Vital Records

The archives is in Dorchester.
150 Mt. Vernon Street
Dorchester, MA 02125-3105

If you want to PM me more info, I'll brainstorm some other ideas.

 

[Feralpeg]

Do you know his spouse's name? Children's names. Did he actually die in Boston? I can try to run it through Ancestry.com to see what comes up, but any additional information would help narrow the search.

 

[buckler]

Do you know his spouse's name? Children's names. Did he actually die in Boston? I can try to run it through Ancestry.com to see what comes up, but any additional information would help narrow the search.

OP, if you could type up what info is in the obituary that might provide a clue. Something might not seem useful to you, but it might trigger an idea for some of us that have been doing genealogy for a while. The obituary might give Feralpeg some of the info she needs on Ancestry. My subscription to that expired.

 

[Feralpeg]

I found a Vernon George Hartford who died in Massachusetts. Very little other information was listed. It had his spouse as Alice Gertrude Beeder. Does this ring any bells?

If you can give me additional info, I can see what I can find.

 

[Snoozan]

Feralpeg - THAT'S THE GUY!!!! My grandmother was Alice Beeder(or it might be spelled Bieder). Where did you find that??? My sister currently has a membership on Ancestry.com, but couldn't come up with that anywhere. As far as we know, he never married my grandmother, but they had my mother, Phyllis Audrey Hartford(born 6/29/34). We always assumed she was born out of wedlock. Please let me know if you find anything else - date of birth, date of death, any family info. Thanks so much - this gives us hope that's there's something out there about him. It would mean so much to my mom if she could find out anything about her father.

 

[whatcateydid]

It seems like he maybe was a swimmer. I searched "Vernon Hartford" in the Boston Globe historic archives (http://search.boston.com/local/Historic.do) and it came up with 22 articles about swimming. The archive only goes up to 1926 and you have to pay to read the articles, but hopefully it's relevant to you!

 

[Snoozan]

whatcateydid - YES! That's the guy. We did know he was a swimmer, supposedly in the Olympics, but I couldn't find a swimmer listed for the site I found with Olympic info. I'll try searching the link. You guys are good! Anything else you might find is greatly appreciated.

 

[buckler]

He took the national junior title in the 50-yard in 1924. This is from the New York Times archive.

HARTFORD WINS JUNIOR 50-YARD SWIM TITLE; Takes National Indoor Honors in Boston Meet -- Hull Captures Diving Championship.
February 21, 1924, Thursday
Section: SPORTS, Page 12, 121 words

That's all you can get for free. You can buy the article for $3.95

 

[Feralpeg]

I'm not finding anything else. I found him in a family tree, but there was no information other than his name and his spouse being Alice Gertrude Beeder. I'll try to do more looking later.

 

[buckler]

If we assume your ancestor had to have been a teenager in 1924 when he won the swimming competition, his birth might be indexed in the online database available for Massachusetts (only goes up to 1910). If he was born in 1910 or earlier he would have been at least 14 at the time of the swim meet.

Massachusetts Vital Records Index 1841-1910

There aren't any Vernons, but there is one generic Hartford male born in 1908 in Braintree, MA that could be a possible. That would put him at 16 in 1924, which sounds plausible for the swim meet. This is just pure speculation at this point since you can't be sure he was born in Massachusetts.

 

[buckler]

The 1920 census has a Alice G Beeder listed in Plymouth County, MA (born circa 1907). If you needed info on her too you should have your sister pull up that record. My subscription to Ancestry ran out so I can't pull it up but I can see some info in the index. Her father is named Paul H. Beeder and her mother is Bertha L. Beeder. She was born circa 1907 and has an older brother, Arthur W. Beeder.

The Massachusetts marriage record index shows an 1892 marriage of a Hermann Paul Bieder to a Bertha L. Schelbach in Cambridge, MA. That might be them but you would need to do more checking to be sure. This is speculation.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

Just wanted to say I share your frustration. I have a missing ancestor aswell and have searched everywhere for information of what happened to him and where he came from. His name was Hughe Egan and I know he married his wife Ann Morris in 1842 in Parramatta (Sydney) Australia. They had a couple of children in Parramatta before moving to Melbourne in the early 1850's where they had another couple of children. Ann died in the 1880's but I have no idea what happened to to Hughe after the birth of his last child. There is no record of his death anywhere in Australia that I can find. I have also visited Ann's grave and although she is buried with several other family members, Hughe is not one of them.
Good luck with your searches and if anyone has any suggestions for me, I'd love to hear them.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

Your local library may be able to help out. Not sure where in MA you are, but I'd imagine the city libraries would have the old Globe's on file somehow in the reference section. (You could even give a call to library in Boston, ask for reference.) They might have more extensive indexing (or know better how to "work" how it is indexed) to find either the obit or records on the accident.

 

[agnes!]

Re: your grandparents being married or not. See if you can get a hold of your mother's birth certificate. Birth certificates often have the parents' address (or *addresses*) and might have other additional information like if your grands were married.

I also have a mysterious ancestor, but this goes back to the 1750s... Know the date he was born, his military service in the American Revolution and details of his life after the early 1790s, but there are lots of mysterious bits. Don't know where he was born(different colony, different country?...don't know), anything about his background or his family (who his parents were, if he had any siblings, if he was married before marrying my gggggrandmother), plus he drops out of sight between his service and the early 1790s. Very odd. Oh, and confusing the picture is that different branches of descendants have *completely* different stories about the man & his background.

agnes!