Part 2
Find your father’s sources, even though you know who your grandparents are, see if you can find documents to prove it. Then find your mother’s sources, then your siblings, etc. If they are living, move back in time to deceased relatives.
Don’t just find the answer and move on quickly, check out all the records available that you can find about that ancestor. You may now find interesting war records, land records, histories, wills, newspapers, photographs, etc. Why not just stick with the death certificate? You may expand your knowledge and understanding of the family, find additional clues, and find contradictions. You may also prove or disprove your relationship and keep yourself from getting off track.
Don’t expect exact or consistent spelling of names and places. Clio and Cleo may or may not be the same person in the family, depending on the occasion, we can’t necessarily decide by just using the spelling of the name. Think phonetically while you are searching.
Search by full names, part names, nicknames, maiden names, married names, abbreviated names and initials! You need to search for the name that was listed at the time of the event. When I search I do not fill in all of the blank boxes. Just because they list a place for the first name, last name, parents names, birth date, birth place, death date, death place, etc. doesn’t mean you need to fill them all in. Think “less is more.” If you fill in all of the fields, the search engine will only find records that match all of those fields. Just search for a name, if that brings back an unmanageable list to look through, then add one clue at a time until you get to a more manageable search.
Don’t forget to keep track of where you have looked and which sites you have searched. Keep a research log, there is even an app for that now, Research Logger for the iPhone and iPad. If you think your ancestor should be in a record set, keep searching, try last name only with the birth year, etc. It may be indexed incorrectly or hard to read on the record.
For more information, contact Shanna Jones shannasjones@msn.com (435) 628-4900.