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Position:Home>Genealogy> Clarifying a previously asked question about my great-great-grandfather?


Question:I had asked this question a few days ago:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

I have since noted a few mistakes in what I had said.

1) I can't figure out who he was because I can't figure out what his last name was. I ca find his wife without a problem because she died later and everyone had her death information.
2) I can't seem to find anyone on the Ellis Island record site, and I'm not familiar with any research libraries locally (though I'm sure there must be one. I live in Los Angeles. It's more an issue of being able to get to one that isn't an hour away).
3) Nobody remembers him because the oldest members of the family were too young when he died to remember (and the eldest had moved to California shortly before the death and remembers very little).

My question is this: how can I find what his last name was with the little information that I have?

Thank you all so much. You have been so helpful already


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I had asked this question a few days ago:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

I have since noted a few mistakes in what I had said.

1) I can't figure out who he was because I can't figure out what his last name was. I ca find his wife without a problem because she died later and everyone had her death information.
2) I can't seem to find anyone on the Ellis Island record site, and I'm not familiar with any research libraries locally (though I'm sure there must be one. I live in Los Angeles. It's more an issue of being able to get to one that isn't an hour away).
3) Nobody remembers him because the oldest members of the family were too young when he died to remember (and the eldest had moved to California shortly before the death and remembers very little).

My question is this: how can I find what his last name was with the little information that I have?

Thank you all so much. You have been so helpful already

Drop me a note through my profile and I'll do my best to help you find his name. There are a lot of questions to ask you that are hard to fit on this one screen, but it has to do with where they lived before he moved and what everyone else's names were. We can narrow it down with census, voter registration, land records, etc. Then we can refine it with marriage, death and birth records, and especially with church records if they were Christian. The good news is that our ancestors never go anywhere. The bad news is that some did a better job and hiding themselves than did others. But as long as he didn't live between 1800-1868, we should be able to find him pretty quickly.

If you have your great-great grandmother's name and obituary, you should be able to determine her husband's name from her death records. You have to get that before you can carry out any research, and your g-g-grandmother is the place to start.

Since you can find the information about the death of his wife, try to find an obit which might say "Preceded in death by her husband, John Doe who died in 1857" or the like.

What I've done to find my ancestors is to search for people that I do know about in the census and then see who is in the same household. If they are still living with their parents, then voila, you have the parents names.

Example: I search for my g-grandmother Katherine Duffy. I knew what town she lived in and the year she was born, as well as a few of her siblings names. Using that info, I was able to find her on the census when she was still living with her parents. That gave me the names of her parents and approximate years of birth as well as other information like where they were born. Using that information I searched for her father and found him when he was still living with his parents. That gave me the names of his parents and approximate years... and so on. I did hit a roadblock eventually, because they were immigrants, but it worked for a while.

After reading your prior question I see what the problem with that would be. I had a similar issue on the Jewish side of my family. I was eventually able to find them. It was tricky because they each had 3 different first names (Ira, Israel and Isaac; Rachel, Regina, Raschel) as well as a few versions of a last name (Abrams, Abrahams, Abraham). I was able to follow them back through the census until I got to the time when they came over to the US. In 1930 census my g-grandpa was Harry Abrams, in 1920 census (but I know it was him because of wife and children's names) he was Harry Abraham. I was able to follow him back through to when he lived with his parents by matching siblings names and dates of birth with what I knew.

If you know what his children's last names were you can search variants of the same name (like in my situation) or even translations (White may be Weiss, etc) and see if any info matches up.

You might also want to try Jewish-gen if you haven't already. They're very nice over there and can be helpful.

EDIT: If you have when and where she died you can order a copy of her death certificate which should have a lot of info on it that may help. You may even be able to order that through ancestry.com. They are usually around $40.00.

may I offer 2 tips?
there is little way of knowing what we might be able to locate for you, since you have not posted any name or date for us to work with. I understand it might be an estimate, but sometimes 'fresh eyes' breaks a wall.
2nd- something I frequently do (when I see a person with a number of questions, working a problem) is to go back to the prior questions, to see if I can find a lead or clue. Your questions are made private. You may have a reason for this, but for genealogy, it sometimes makes a big difference.
If you can post details about even his children's names and birthplace/ dates, we may be able to pin him down.

Sweety his LAST name is or should be the same as hers.
That is if they were husband an wife.
If you now where she was buried at then they will have that info and more at the cemetary/graveyard.
That is were all my info is setting there waiting for me at.
Good luck