If their are no living relatives to ask about deceased relatives, where do I start to get informatio
researching my grand parents and great grandparents but I am having a difficut time in locating records. Relatives are all deceased and no one to ask questions, where do I begin as far as trying to fill out my family tree?
Best Answer
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That depends: what continent, and which century, to start?
It's very old advice, but still completely true: in genealogy, you start with what you know, and work your way back. Presumably, you know your parents' names. Do you know when and where they married? Do you have a marriage certificate for them, or can you acquire one? Based on their marriage record, or on your own knowledge, can you track down their birth records? Those should tell you their parents' names at least. And so forth and so on.
One complicating factor is that records about recent events — within the past 100 years, give or take — are unlikely to be online or publicly available. You'll likely need to talk to government offices and pay for extracts or certificates until you work your way back far enough.
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Hello and welcome @BettyBrown0!
As Julia says, first fill out as much as you can on your parents. FamilySearch may start giving you hints for records at that point. Just make sure that the source belongs to your relative and not someone else with the same name.
Obituaries can also offer great clues because they often reveal birthplaces, children, and sometimes will list siblings or even parents. Many newspaper archives are available online. FamilySearch's Research Wiki can tell you where to access the local newspapers, as well as how to get other records for basically anywhere in the world: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Main_Page
The community is always here to help, too! If you find any "brick walls" or ancestors that prove difficult to track down, let us know, and we'll do our best to assist you.
This link is a good stepping stone to start your tree:
Good luck in your research!
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If it's more than just the bare statistics you're interested in, newspapers can be a great source of information on your relatives - although finding details can be rather "hit and miss".
I wondered for a long time why my ancestor John Harrod was already a pensioner by 1871 - seemed a bit young for someone in their early 60s to retire back then. Eventually, I came across several newspaper articles about his retiring, at 60, (as a prison officer) through ill health. The details even included his being awarded a small annual pension and the fact he was presented was an engraved watch upon his retirement!
If I find I am missing some facts about my relatives, I always go to websites featuring scanned pages of newspapers (specifically the BNA website, here in the UK) and have often had success in finding details about them. There is also the newspapers.com website, which covers North America, etc.
As @GFre mentions, obituaries are a great source - often mentioning the deceased's relatives' names, too.
Finally, just typing a name into a search engine (like Google) can often produce results, especially if your relative(s) had a fairly uncommon name.
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Start with yourself and what you know and start building back.
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Thank you all for responding. My problem with my resarch, my dad was married three times Al. and MS. I have all three married license. His mother name was listed but I can't find anything on her, his father first name was listed, no last name. I knew my father Aunt. I can't locate any obituaries. Alabama did not start keeping records until early 1900. I knew where my father was born, I have his obituary. My father never talked about his family. I don't know if my father mother had any sisters or brothers. I think he was the only child. The Aunt that I knew, I am unsure if she was my father Aunt and my great Aunt or my father sister. I only know her husband name and her married name. I cannot locate an obituary for her or a marriage license. I know where she was buried, I don't know where she was born. I have been researching for 20 years and hit a brick wall. I have did DNA for myself and my brother, and a long time member with Ancestry. Any more advice that you can offer me?
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If a marriage record lists only the father's given name, that means that his surname is the same as his child's. (Or assumed to be so by the form designers.)
I know next to nothing about genealogy research in Alabama and Mississippi, but I'm sure the people in the Southern States Research group have some advice to offer, especially if you give them some specifics to work with.
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Sometimes it helps to shift your focus to someone else highlighted in a record [the ORIGINAL record/document]. See what you can develop on that person, building out their family/relationships. In the course of doing that you may stumble across a connection back to your primary line. Sounds like you have some potentially good sources to start from. Just be sure to look closely at the details…. Good luck…
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Many marriage records from southern states do not include the names of the parents.
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile wrote:
Many marriage records from southern states do not include the names of the parents.
Not just southern states (and not just states) — but Betty indicated that her father's marriage record(s) listed only the given name of his father, and that's what I was responding to.
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Hi Betty, I would like to help you If I can. Please contact me so that we can get started. ~ T
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@BettyBrown0 Did your DNA test have any good matches? Reaching out to unknown matches to see how you're related would be a good first step. Also, if your father's mother's name was listed, have you tried searching your matches by that last name?
Beyond that, there are groups and programs that can sort through the matches and help with your tree. I've heard of a group called DNAngels that find family, but there are many others. There's also GEDmatch, a site where you can upload DNA results for free, expanding your search beyond just one platform, and they have some tools to look at matches too.
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Newspaper obituaries can be a good place to start too, if you're struggling to find records. If you don't have a Newspapers.com or Genealogybank.com subscription, let me know and I'll see if I can find anything for you!
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