Finding my grandfather
Hi everyone,
I’m trying to find out who my real grandfather is. My grandmother’s name was Mary Susan Smith Mann, and she had a son—my dad—born July 4, 1966 in Alexander City, Tallapoosa County, Alabama, but she never told us who his biological father is.
We believe she lived in or around Alexander City at the time. We don’t have any DNA tests, and we’re not in a position to pay for records or subscriptions, so I’m hoping someone here may recognize the family, recall seeing Mary Susan or her son in local records, obituaries, or have suggestions on where to look for free/no-cost records or leads in that area.
Any information—census, birth, death, obituary, probate, or even personal stories—would mean the world to us. Thank you so much for your time and kindness.
Answers
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@chloe44614 click on the envelope next to the bell on the top right of this page
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@chloe44614 hopefully @maryellenstevensbarnes1 has been able to help you, but I'd like to offer what came to mind for me reading your query, incase it can help at all.
Birth records in Alabama are restricted for 125 years from date of birth, so your father's birth record won't be publicly or freely available via genealogy websites. It can however be ordered by a direct family member from Alabama Department of Public Health. This record would ideally be the place to start. It's not guaranteed the bio father will be listed, but there is also a chance that he is. I had a similar circumstance in my family and, if I remember correctly, we were lucky in that respect. There is a $15 fee to have a search performed, but that is inclusive of a certified copy, should they find it, or a certificate of failure to find if they do not.
Similarly census records after 1950 are currently sealed to the public. Records from 1960 onwards can only be accessed by the person listed or their heir.
If pursuing the birth certificate isn't an option for you at this time, I would suggest trying to trace your grandmother around that time instead, and seeing if that reveals any leads. It's possible to do a fair amount of research without a paid subscription. Family Search have a lot of freely available resources, not all of them indexed, so it really pays to also search the catalog. Many public libraries also have access to Ancestry Library Edition, which you can access for free on site with a library membership.
There are also a lot of community members on here that regularly help others with research assistance. If that's something that would be helpful, providing a little more information on Mary Susan such as whether Mann was her maiden or married name (to your knowledge), her rough date of birth, even her parents, would be helpful in finding accurate records.
For example there was a Mary "Sue" Smith who married a Willie Mann in August 1956, Alabama City, Etowah, Alabama. But without knowing a little more about your Mary Susan, it's impossible to know if that record might be a match.
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