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After finding some info on the free sites about my family I thought it may be interesting to try and find info on my kids Father's family since they never spoke about any past relatives.
I know the EX's Mother's maiden name, and her sister's name along with a brother they NEVER spoke about, though they did meantion his name, so I had the 3 kids names to go on. I found information from a 1945 FL census record I found. It shows his GM's name being different than what we knew her as, and what I know legal records say it was (like when she bought a condo) but it's for sure her. I know she was married 3 times, with husband #1 being the father of the kids.
Anyhow, the surname is unusual and it was very interesting to find out that the EX's grandfather (he never knew him) was from Syria! What I found weird, in looking at the census record from 1930, it shows the family living in Texas, but the name for the son is different from the one listed in 1945.
Also, I found another family, same last name, living within a few blocks of where my EX's family lived, with about 7 kids, 3 with the EXACT same name as my EX's family! Both families with Syrian roots. Just seems weird! The only thing I can figure out is that maybe the men of the family were brothers, and they named kids the same, maybe after other relatives?
Also, when I look up the SS Death Index for his Mother, nothing comes up, but when I do a search via Ancestory, it shows the listing (I don't have this service) Why wouldn't the SS Index show the same?
I'm going to try and see if I can find out his GM maiden name. I did find she was of German decent, born in Pennsylvania, but under what name, first and last, I don't know. The records show Fannie in the census, but I knew her as Faye.
I'm trying to find out what happend to the GF, there's no SS listing for him at all, maybe he moved out of the country? And I wonder if the other family with the kids who have the same name are family. As far as I know, there was no family on his mothers side, only his fathers, which wasn't big at all.
Do libraries have access to any sites that normally one couldn't access on their own computer without paying? I did find one that I was able to access with my library card on my computer, but are there others? Any that ALL librarys may have access to?
Thanks for any input or even opinions on the above, esp. with the names. There's other tidbits, but it's getting too confusing even for me much less sharing it on line.
In my experiences most of the paid information lookers are finding the same thing that you can find yourself for free, then charging you.
Google the various free web sites, you'll find lots of information and references to where to look for further information. Even Ancestry has a free trial period of at least 2 weeks. You can find a lot of information in that amount of time.
Read some of the previous posts on this thread. There are many people with great genealogical knowledge that have posted places to look, people to see, places to write etc.
You must keep in mind that the posted data was provided by someone or some document which may not be correct. And that applies to all Internet genealogy data and it makes no difference if it is free or paid. You can only safely use it to research, confirm, or compare. Do not take any one of them as fact. It appears you have already found that families often "recycle" names and it is very frustrating. Good luck in your quest.
Censuses are often incorrect. The general rule is that you should find 3 different records before confirming a particular fact to be true. If you knew her as "Faye", the census enumerator probably just incorrectly wrote her name down as "Fannie". I have countless censuses with my ancestor's names mutilated.
Do libraries have access to any sites that normally one couldn't access on their own computer without paying? I did find one that I was able to access with my library card on my computer, but are there others? Any that ALL librarys may have access to?
Thanks for any input or even opinions on the above, esp. with the names. There's other tidbits, but it's getting too confusing even for me much less sharing it on line.
Many libraries allow you to access Ancestry for free from one of their computers.
I'm going to try and see if I can find out his GM maiden name. I did find she was of German decent, born in Pennsylvania, but under what name, first and last, I don't know. The records show Fannie in the census, but I knew her as Faye.
I know what you mean, they did alot of misspelling of first names, that was done with my family, sometimes I get a hit typing in a distant cousins last name and thankfully someone had started a tree, that helped me.
Honouria became Nora on some of the census, I don't think the census takers could understand the Irish speaking. It took me awhile to put 2+2 together to realize Nora was the key to my searching.
I didn't have alot of luck searching the old Irish or German birth/death records, I have typed in surnames with a google search but the names came up in german or french and I could not read them
Also remember back in those olden days many people could not read or write, and pronounced or wrote their names phonetically, so the census taker would write it down that way. So try phonetic spellings and when looking up ancestors. Don't forget to try variations of the name spelling also. For example I have in my research Darnell, Darnall, Darnel, Durnel, Dernel etc etc.
Tip: if you're having trouble translating different languages, here's a site that may help you... http://translatorbar.com/
Also remember back in those olden days many people could not read or write, and pronounced or wrote their names phonetically, so the census taker would write it down that way.
It's true names on censuses are often spelled phonetically but I'm not sure it was common for that to be a result of illiteracy - after all, most of the US censuses had a field for whether the individuals were able to read/write or not. Unless the census confirms the members of your family were indeed unable to read/write, it's more likely the enumerator was simply not interested in getting the spellings correct. My understanding is that it just wasn't their top priority. Censuses are taken for demographic reasons and names aren't actually that important. An enumerator probably had hundreds of homes to get through, he/she wasn't going to waste time getting the exact spellings correct. Many probably didn't even ask how the names were spelled so it might not have even mattered whether your ancestors were literate or not.
Fortunately, it seems all my ancestors were literate according to the censuses so I can blame all misspellings on the enumerator, lol.
I'm trying to find out what happend to the GF, there's no SS listing for him at all, maybe he moved out of the country? And I wonder if the other family with the kids who have the same name are family. As far as I know, there was no family on his mothers side, only his fathers, which wasn't big at all.
When did your GF die? Most of the records in SS death index were of people who died after 1962. It didn't become mandatory to have an SSN until the 1960's. Children, that were not working, were not required to get one until 1986.
Honouria became Nora on some of the census, I don't think the census takers could understand the Irish speaking. It took me awhile to put 2+2 together to realize Nora was the key to my searching.
Nora was probably a nickname she used.
People can be listed under any number of ways on the census; first and middle names seem to have been interchangable. One year they'd be William S. and the next Samuel W., or they'd be Buddy, or they'd be Baby, or they'd be Bill, or Will, or they'd be W. S. or they'd be S. W. And that's even if they got the name right. Because the copy of the census we use is a second or third copy, names could have been easily misread, or written on the wrong line.
Beyond which, until the 20th century, when record-keeping became nation-wide, spelling just didn't matter.
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Both families with Syrian roots. Just seems weird! The only thing I can figure out is that maybe the men of the family were brothers, and they named kids the same, maybe after other relatives? 
