Finding source(s) for parents of an individual

rgwhitaker

Hello.

I recently contacted the FamilySearch Help center when I was attempting to find the parents of an individual (Delilah Vina Jackson: KP7V-6MM).

The customer service agent immediately went over to Ancestry and found a record showing Delilah's parents. I was excited!

I too went over to Ancestry and viewed the record. But I don't see any helpful sources to back up their names and dates. I like having sources for verification purposes.

What is the best way to find sources for her parents so I can add them to my FamilySearch account?

Thank you.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

For reference, here are my original comments from rgwhitaker's earlier post:

https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/163655/how-to-find-sources-to-verify-the-parents-of-an-individual

MLV2

You are right in wanting to find sources - too often Ancestry, Geneanet, et al, quote unsourced information/stories from other databases, and users treat what they find as sources. Suggest using what you found for parents in Ancestry as leads, and search both for Delilah and those parents, to see what you can find. Search in context also, that is, look for those involved in her life (husband(s), children, aunts. uncles, etc.) as their records might have further information that could help you. Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast, in addition to FS, may have different information, so use them all.

Gail Swihart Watson

So Delilah was born in the 1700s and died in the first half of the 1800s. For this timeframe your best bet is a will of her father or mother which names her and possibly names her husband as well. Also the in-laws might have mentioned her in their will. The problem with a father's will is that you then have to prove who the mother is because it doesn't always follow that the wife in the will is the mother of the children mentioned in the will, unless the wife also has a will upon her death OR she is actually named as their mother. Both of those can happen, but not always. If you can't get a direct stated mother child relationship, you have to back into it using marriage records. Sometimes marriage records will name the father, and then you back to proving who the mother is. Another source that can have spectacular results are land records. Most deeds don't state the relationship between people who are named, but sometimes they do and that's what you look for. Then, you can thoroughly research everyone who is supposedly her siblings or her husband's siblings. Sometimes all siblings are tangled up in a court case and that is great news genealogically. Don't forget about possible church records and newspaper clippings. I see her husband lived to 1869, and there were quite a few newspapers by that time. He might be featured in a column that spotlights the elderly in the community. I've found ancestors in clippings like that and it's kind of amazing the information they gave about themselves. Unfortunately the maiden name of Jackson is not going to help your efforts. Good luck.

rgwhitaker

Thank you!

Tomie K. Avant

I have been extremely successful in locating my ancestors from the 1700-1800 in Georgia and Mississippi using the “AI full text search” experiment in Labs. You might want to try that.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/