? for the genealogy experts

[New England Eeyore]

My DH would like to know more about his roots, but has very little info to go on. Literally all he has is his parents' birthdates and places of birth. What is our frst step? Is there stuff we can do online? He's not looking to go very far back - grandparents would be a great start.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Hey Sista!!! Haven't seen you forever!!!

Ok, ancestry.com is the place I would start... they have a free trial... you can opt out during the trial period..

First, have DH write everything he can remember down... I hate to ask but has his parents passed???
If his parents have you can request death certs to gather additional information. Usually on death certificates they list the parents and siblings etc on there.
Now, having the birthdates and such will help too... Gather the birthdate and birth place and request the birth certificate. That will also allow him to gather the name of their parents/birth places of parents (maybe not the dates but places).... It will also tell the male parents occupation (it has on some of ours)...
Also, if he has some dates you can try plugging them into the ancestry.com site and gather census sheets.. They are from the 1880- 1930s (they are a wealth of info)...
If you would like some additional help, PM me, I love to do genealogy.. I need to get started back on mine...

 

[PrincessNancy96]

By the way, request the birth certificates too...

 

[New England Eeyore]

Hi Nancy! I know - life has been insane for the past few months. Trying to get back into posting here more.

His family is beyond complicated and strange. His dad has passed. Mom is still alive but when he asked her about grandparents she couldn't remember her parents names. (No Alzheimers or dementia - just ... strange.)

How do you request birth and death certificates? I will check out that site when I have a good 14 day stretch.

 

[hopemax]

Does Mom have old photographs? If you were to go through them with her, that might trigger memories. When I first started being interested in genealogy, I asked my Grandma what her parents and grandparents names were. She gave me her parents, but her grandparents was, "It was so long ago, I can't remember, why do you care anyway." A couple years past, and I told her some stuff about my Grandfather's side of the family, and then she asked if I could research her side! She gave me the names of her maternal grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins. She didn't know anything for her paternal grandparents because her father died when she was 6 and his family didn't like her mother so she never saw them.

But maybe if you ask a second time, and maybe come at it from a different angle. Ask about her childhood, what she did, and then if she mentions family members you can ask for names. And you could, always, have her request her own birth certificate, if she is willing. Go the website of the state of her birth; in many cases you can order online. Once you get back to people that were alive in 1930 (soon 1940) it gets easier, because you can search the Census Records. Are there any aunts/uncles still alive that you have contact with?

I know my Grandma did not have a good childhood, so I think talking about that stuff brought up bad memories she didn't want to remember. However, she and her sister are the only ones left of their generation, and now they talk about "old times" so now things are in a different context. I had set my genealogy stuff aside for awhile, but when I was in FL, she called and wanted to know if I knew her father's birthday. I didn't, but as soon as I got home I sent off requests for her Dad's death certificates, and also her maternal grandparent's death certificates. I just hope they can find her Dad's. There is an online death index for NYC, which is where I found the certificate numbers for the grandparents. But no record of her Dad. I hope it's just an improperly transcribed name (I haven't seen a correct one in any of the Census' so certainly possible.). I have the death date, so it should be "findable."

 

[piratesmate]

We got some of the same non-answers from DH's parents when asking questions. They couldn't even give me an estimate of when their grandparents had passed. We let the whole thing drop because it was very difficult for me to do without all the family stories...I had no clue who the great aunts & great uncles were so finding the right family in the census was impossible.

Anyway, some time later I asked if they had any old photos of DH that I could scan. At that point they pulled out their BOXES of photos & started looking at them. While looking at the IL's wedding photos from the mid-50s, suddenly I got "That's Uncle xxx & Aunt xxx" and that there is my grandmother." ROFL Just a couple months earlier they couldn't even give me a decade when they'd passed. Then it was "Oh yes, they were at our wedding & passed soon after." And that's when the details started to come together.

If your MIL doesn't want to talk about things, you might try jogging her memory with the photo idea.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Go to the county health department to request copies of the birth/death certificates (the counties they were born/passed in).. it will cost you but it is a wealth of information. They'll usually pull them while you wait.. you'll have to show your ID & note your relation to them.

I have photos of my Great Grandparents on my Dad's Mom's side... they were immigrants to this country... I'm only the 3rd generation born in the US on that side of the family...

 

[aeryn]

If you've got his Dad's Social Security number, you can submit a FOIA (freedom of information act) request for the original social security application. On that, it will have the names of both father, mother and often the birth cities of them. That will get you started. Since his mom is still living, you can't make the request, but she can.

Often once you have that information, in conjunction with ancestry.com you'll find a *ton* more info.

 

[New England Eeyore]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I should have clarified. There is minimal contact between DH and his mother. His father was a monster (and that is an understatement) and to call his mother neglectful would be kind. DH talks to her about once a year, which I think is incredibly generous of him. So no family photos (DH has a grand total of 3 photos from his childhood), no SSNs, nothing more than that basic info that we have. But it sounds like its enough to at least get started and find out his grandparents names.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

NEE ~ go the BC route first... the SSN will give you info much later that you need.. The BC will get you started....

 

[LindaBabe]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I should have clarified. There is minimal contact between DH and his mother. His father was a monster (and that is an understatement) and to call his mother neglectful would be kind. DH talks to her about once a year, which I think is incredibly generous of him. So no family photos (DH has a grand total of 3 photos from his childhood), no SSNs, nothing more than that basic info that we have. But it sounds like its enough to at least get started and find out his grandparents names.

Check the social security death index. You do not need his social security #, just the name and state and if you know his approximate age it would be useful if there are several people by his same name.

Be careful with death certificate information for things like name and parentage. Those things are usually provided by living people who may not know the reality. For example - my husbands great grandfather was buried as Joseph B---- because he'd always been called Joe. But when we went back to the German village in which he was born, we got a rather offended response "Joseph is a CATHOLIC name. His NAME was Johan Jost B-----!" Okay, then.

If you have a local "family history" center run by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter day saints (Mormons) you can get a LOT of help there, and much of it will be free. For example, you can access Ancestry.com and some of the other pay data bases there for free, they have local census records on microfilm and can get others from other areas.

Be sure to document what information you found where.

Download a pedigree chart and family group sheet on which to record your information. It will be easier to keep track of what you have and don't have.

 

[piratesmate]

This may not be of much help to NEE, but if anyone would like me to check out newspaper articles on GenealogyBank just send me a PM with the name, state & approximate years. I keep forgetting I still have that subscription, but got it because Ancestry didn't have any/many newspapers for the areas in which I was researching. You can view a snippet without actually have a subscription, so you may even be able to weed through a few of the options.

They have historical documents & recent obits starting around 1977 (although I haven't found many back that far) as well as historical newspapers.

 

[party of 3]

I'm not involved in this but wanted to say
Hi Deb!
It's nice to see you!!

 

[Lisa]

I am another who gets a lot of info from www.familysearch.org. (Church of Later Day Saints) I have gotten a copy of SS file of my mother's father. It really didn't give a lot information and it was pretty expensive. I wouldn't recommend following that venue myself.

If you know approximately when and where they lived, I would recommend checking census info. The last available census was 1930, 1940 should be coming out next year. You can find where relatives lived, who lived in the house, apt, etc, their ages, their occupation, etc. Birth certificated and death certificates give a lot of good info, as well as marriage certificates.

NEE, where was his family from, perhaps if we know that, we can provide links of what might be helpful.

 

[buckler]

My DH would like to know more about his roots, but has very little info to go on. Literally all he has is his parents' birthdates and places of birth. What is our frst step? Is there stuff we can do online? He's not looking to go very far back - grandparents would be a great start.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Do you mind sharing the approximate years and states for his parents' births? It might help with ideas on how to approach this. For example, some states have online birth records. Or if his parents would have been alive in 1930 the census would help.

 

[New England Eeyore]

His parents were both born in Massachusetts, which does have a vital records department /office we can check out. One was born in 1930. I think the other was later.

 

[buckler]

If you can go back a little further, Massachusetts has their vital record information index from 1841-1910 in an online database. This is only an index so you would have to request the actual record to see the details.
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/vitalrecordssearch/VitalRecordsSearch.aspx

List of other Massachusetts links here:
http://www.deathindexes.com/massachusetts/index.html

The parent that was born in 1930 might be in the 1930 census depending on when they were born (if they were born in January they should be there, if they were born in December they probably won't).

You can search in Ancestry for free but you can't see the details of the record without a membership. You may be able to get full access for free at your local library.

Another site to use is the Family Search site that someone else mentioned. Try this newer version of their database in addition to their main site.
http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html

If you are comfortable sharing the name, birth date and birth place of the parent born in 1930, you can PM it to me and I can see if I can come up with any leads to help you. Do you know the names of any older siblings of the parent born after 1930? Or is the last name uncommon?

 

[New England Eeyore]

Thank you, Buckler - that is very helpful! I'll take you up on your offer and PM you.

I'm definitely going to try the 14 day trial of ancestry.com when I have a little more time and I don't mind paying for longer if it's helpful.

 

[buckler]

Thank you, Buckler - that is very helpful! I'll take you up on your offer and PM you.

I'm definitely going to try the 14 day trial of ancestry.com when I have a little more time and I don't mind paying for longer if it's helpful.

I have 2 possible's in the Social Security Death Index for his father. I sent you a PM with the info. You can use the social security number to request a copy of his SSI application. It should have the names of his parents on it. You may not have much luck with his mother's family until she passes away and you can get a copy of her social security application. They won't let you have it while she is alive.

 

[New England Eeyore]

Got it - Thank you so much!