Persistence Paid Off (search, certificate, grandmother, last name)

[Arkay66]

Got a call from one of my mom's first cousins. His father died when he was two years old, in 1936. He's been searching for his father's death certificate for years, but until Mom gave him the death location, he'd been stymied. Mom's been the family genealogist since 1958 and has, quite literally, an entire room of records and family documentation.

So he found out where his dad died, but the state still couldn't pull up the death certificate. Mom had info about the funeral company, so Cousin went through every funeral company in that town. He actually found the funeral company, still in business under a third or fourth name. They went down into their basement, found all the records on his dad, and shared. Three months later, the state finally sent him his dad's death certificate.

Since he'd asked for several copies, he called me to get Mom's address, so he can send her a certified copy. When it arrives, I'll scan and upload it for the rest of the family. My job is to maintain the online tree(s) and to scan all Mom's records.

Always happy to add another bit of documentation, and thrilled for Cousin.

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by Arkay66

Got a call from one of my mom's first cousins. His father died when he was two years old, in 1936. He's been searching for his father's death certificate for years, but until Mom gave him the death location, he'd been stymied. Mom's been the family genealogist since 1958 and has, quite literally, an entire room of records and family documentation.

So he found out where his dad died, but the state still couldn't pull up the death certificate. Mom had info about the funeral company, so Cousin went through every funeral company in that town. He actually found the funeral company, still in business under a third or fourth name. They went down into their basement, found all the records on his dad, and shared. Three months later, the state finally sent him his dad's death certificate.

Since he'd asked for several copies, he called me to get Mom's address, so he can send her a certified copy. When it arrives, I'll scan and upload it for the rest of the family. My job is to maintain the online tree(s) and to scan all Mom's records.

Always happy to add another bit of documentation, and thrilled for Cousin.

Applause. I love to hear good news like this. Reading it actually gave me a slight case of the chills! To think that by connecting with your mom who is so dedicated to genealogy, he finally found the certificate. And to think that the funeral home went to all that trouble to search their basement! That's wonderful! Yup, after all that (and much more, of course) it's up to you to keep things going. Thanks for sharing your story.

[bigbear99]

When I first started genealogy about 30 years ago, things were a bit more open than they are now. Census records told me that an particular cousin of my grandmother was in a state mental hospital during the census. I contacted the hospital who sent me a copy of the records (fascinating and sad read...) along with her picture. That led me to the county probate court archive, at the state archives in the town I lived in at the time. Those records led me to learn that she had 4 daughters who became wards of the state, and sent to a state home. I petitioned for access to those records, which told me that the oldest daughter, a teen, vanished, the youngest died and was buried at the home, and the two middle girls were boarded out to local farms as laborers. The records gave the names of the farm owners.

Since these were small towns, it wasn't hard to call folks with the same last name. For one of the girls,I spoke to a now elderly woman who knew her as a child, knew she got married, and knew her daughter, who lived near me. We got together.

Turns out she had been trying for decades to learn more about her mother's background, only to have people mis-lead her. When I showed her what I had, everything fell into place, and puzzles she had growing up were now explained.

I doubt one could get records like I did now. But the story shows how walls can fall in strange ways. There is much more I could say about the saga, but for respect of the privacy of the living, I won't. Suffice to say the mother was railroaded into the mental hospital...

[Sarahsez]

I need to do a followup on a relative I found through Ancestry last year. Her mother died when she was a toddler and her father was in the military so she was raised by some other people. She had a little bit of info on her grandmother who was my great grandmother's sister, but with a last name she could not trace. Her sister in law had added her to the tree to try and help. I contacted them thinking they had more info. I was able to provide a maiden name for the grandmother and had discovered this lady still had living uncles. I should probably check in and see what she found.