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Death certificates, newspaper obituaries & newspaper stories, church records, land record transfers, and wills have provided me with the most help on my tough to decipher lines.
In one line I was able to follow the family through censuses by searching for the unusual first name of a son...Delorian.
As others say, start with what you know and work back slowly. Trace & record all the brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and somewhere in process you will find something helpful.
If you wish help, post your info & others here will give look.
I got back to a certain point, then found several families with the same names. To figure out which one was mine, I traced both of those families forward. I tracked not only the people who may have been my direct ancestors, but also their siblings and their kids.
I finally gathered enough evidence to know which one was my family. It was a combination of census records (one family stayed in the same location for several generations, others didn't), death certificates and obituaries for the next generation down and for siblings of the men I was interested in (couldn't find death certificates or obits for the men themselves), and an old city history with a few paragraphs about the wife's sister's husband that gave specific location clues.
It took years. That's the mystery I am most proud of solving...and now I get to do the same thing for his parents in the location where they originally lived.
Once I get to a person in my tree with a common name (I have a "Brown" line), I just stop searching that line. I mean, what's the point? When I check all those people who are likely DNA cousin matches, and I see that the only name we have in common is "Brown" my heart just sinks. Their Browns are never remotely close to my Browns. The only time I would dig any further would be if there were some other specifiers, like a Brown in Leicester, England.
I feel your pain. I have a similar name, let's say Black, in England. There are thousands of them in one certain area. I even paid a little bit for a researcher from the Borthwick Institute in York to try to sort them out but he said it was hopeless. So where does that leave you. I still plan to take a trip to the LDS in the next state to see if they have anything. It's very sad to lose the trail like this. (and why was every one of them named James!)
I am black so many times it is pretty easy to point out my family in certain areas (I have some Jonses that were somewhat easy but I have been having issues with them lately). I just look for the black/negro Jones person in town lol.
But I have some Robinsons from Pennsylvania that I cannot go very far back on due to there being so many black Robinsons and Robinsons of all varieties in Pennsylvania. Both the Joneses and the Robinsons are on my maternal line who were free people of color, but on the Robinsons I cannot go back any further than the 1850s on them. I am thinking of hiring someone in Pennsylvania to jump start it for me like another poster suggested.
Once I get to a person in my tree with a common name (I have a "Brown" line), I just stop searching that line. I mean, what's the point? When I check all those people who are likely DNA cousin matches, and I see that the only name we have in common is "Brown" my heart just sinks. Their Browns are never remotely close to my Browns. The only time I would dig any further would be if there were some other specifiers, like a Brown in Leicester, England.
I work with a woman whose last name is Brown. It was her maiden name, and it is her husband's last name, too. Her sister also married a man named Brown.
I'm stuck. I'm looking to find a birth cert or something on
George West dob April 1860
born in Manhattan NYC
Parent's born in New York according to census's..
I need to find out who his parents were or any siblings.
I'm so stuck. There are so many George West's in NY and I don't know how to narrow them down.
So did you track backwards and then get stuck at this point, if so, what are your facts thus far? Grandparents, parents, siblings, spouse, children, location in 1870-1880, death location, date...?
I understand that you are attempting to locate his parents and siblings, but how did you get to the point you got to? Sometimes that information is more valuable in locating ancestors.
Here's all I have on George West. I don't even have a middle initial.
George West born in April 1860 in Manhattan NYC According to census his parents were born in NY also. George is missing from the census between 1905 and 1910 and census lists Antonella/Annette and Christina living at Manhattan address without him.
He married a woman I assume from Germany as that's where her parents were born, and she was born in 1890 'at sea'. she was named
Antonello, They had one daughter as I far I know
Christina J West born Jan 1890, lived in Manhattan NYC
Christina J. West Born in Jan 1890, married Harry MacConnell in 1911, had 4 children and died 1919 with location still in Manhattan NYC. Their children were Harvey, Dorcas, Kenneth, and Alice. Kenneth died 1936 at age 20. The rest of the children lived to ripe old ages.
It's not until Harry remarries that he moves out of Manhattan to Staten Island and has more children.
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