Who Are We, Really?
I have recently become very curious to find out about my family. My grandmother and grandfather on my mother’s side had 11 children which produced over 40 great & great-great grandchildren, yet we can’t seem to go too far past that. With the little information I have been provided my two elder aunts, I have been able to find possbile great grandparents but there’s no certainty that these are really our relatives. Names are changes and I’m unable to link brothers and sisters to the same parent. I’m not sure if there was a rule or law with the census that children with different last names could not be listed in that household? I keep getting some stange results in my search and it’s making me more and more determined to find out the real history. I could really use some help.
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June 25, 2012 at 7:59 pm
Searching on line, through, for exam[le Ancestry.com, can be misleading, since it runs on a program which can only provide suggestions, if someone has posted source material; The Sutro Genealogical library, in San Francisco (once they finish moving ) can help, as can a compitant LDS researcher ; also, check ‘resources’ on this site, and in your local library.
You can also contact other state, city and county libraries, who can guide you to sources of first hand records.
Census records only provide imfo concerning those living in a household at the time the numerator showed up at someone’s door; sometimes children were elsewhere, becasue they had different fathers, mothersor guardians.
I’ve also found clues just brousing through books – history, travel or – in one case, a book on Victorian houses (which showed part of an ancestor’s home as an example ….)
Anyhoo, good luck.