Researching female relatives is challenging. Often, they are listed as a first name or worse “Mrs. So and So”. If you are looking for records to help with your more current female relatives, look no further. The Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 is online at Ancestry.com and it’s a winner! An Important Genealogy…
Category: Alternative Records
Working with the California Divorce Index
Ancestry.com has the California Divorce index, 1966-1984. I’m searching through it to fill in some holes in my descendants list and to answer a few questions about people who seemed to have too many kids and not enough spouses and vice versa 😉 I’m working with surname searches for now so as to find groups…
Delayed Birth Records May Help Hawaiian Genealogists
One of the most frustrating things about researching in Hawaii is the difficulty in obtaining vital records prior to 1910. Their are registry logs, but the information can be cryptic, incomplete, or undecipherable. I’ve gone through them and found entries where parents are listed only as “Jose and Maria”. Great, which Jose and Marie? Almost…
Religious Newspaper Comes to the Rescue
I knew that the city of San Francisco did not have a copy of the marriage record for my Great Great Grandparents, Thomas A. Jones and Margaret Kelly because the records were destroyed in 1906. I also knew that the state of California did not begin recording vital records until after 1905. I didn’t know…
Newspapers Provide Proof When Disasters Destroy Records
MARRIED JONES–KELLY–In this city, February 7, by the Rev. Father Scanlon, Thomas A. Jones to Miss Margaret Kelly, both of this city. [San Francisco Call, San Francisco, CA, 9 Feb 1869, page 3] It doesn’t look like much, does it? A groom, a bride, a priest, and a date. To the untrained eye, it’s just…