Asking For Help

There are plenty of people who are willing to help you get to the next step. It's good research karma ;-) There are message boards on Ancestry.com, FindAGrave.com, and RootsWeb.com, just to name a few. These are searchable for years and may have boards dedicated to surnames and/or places. There's also Facebook: Genealogy Tip of the Day, Ancestorville, and others that cater to specific ancestry like Swedish Heart Genealogy and AfriGeneas. You can download a list of the 4,000+ pages and groups on Facebook here.

BASIC ETIQUETTE

 1) DON'T YELL. You may think that your post will catch someone's eye because it's all in caps but online that is considered yelling. Putting a surname in all caps would be appropriate or a word or two for emphasis but an entire post in caps is just rude.
 2) No cursing. On some pages your post will be deleted and you may be banned. If you read other posts you should be able to tell what is and isn't acceptable for that particular site.
 3) Say thank you. If someone takes the time to check the subscription site they're paying for to see if there's a record of your ancestor acknowledge that, even if they didn't find anything, e.g. "Bummer. Thanks for checking."
 4) Don't be greedy. When someone gives you information don't then ask, "What about...?" or "Can you look up...?" Say thank you and go research.
 5) Proofread your post! If you're going to post and then not be online for a few hours make sure you're not sending someone on a wild goose chase searching for your ancestor in 1720 when you meant 1920.
 6) Have messages enabled on your account. If the answer to your question is lengthy or if a helper has a question about your post that may be too personal for a public wall they may want to message you.
 7) Comment on your original post. If you forgot a detail or have a clarification do not post the information in a new post.
 8) For those who like to help... Tell how/where you got the information. Remember the Chinese proverb:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

After the jump: What to include in your post

WHY?!?!?!

Comments after the jump.

 JOHAN ERNST KURTZ

 Born: 24 Aug 1701 in Germany

 Marriage: 16 Jun 1734 in Germany to Mary Eva Barbara Weigand

 Arrival: 1747, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 Died: 1768 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 Sources

 1870 US Federal Census; Clay, Wood, West Virginia

 1870 US Federal Census; Greenwich, Gloucester, New Jersey

 Ancestry Family Trees

 Ancestry Family Trees
 Connecticut Town Death Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection)

 Family Data Collection - Deaths

 Family Data Collection - Marriages
 New York Genealogical Records, 1675-1920

 Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s

 1. Pennsylvania, 1747, p. 260

 2. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1747, p.366

 Pennsylvania Census 1772 - 1890  

 Public Member Trees

Stop and Look Around

Once you find an ancestor take a look at the people around them. This is especially helpful when looking at a census record or walking a cemetery. You may find the family of another ancestor. I had trouble finding my great-grandfather William Gillespie (age 15) in the 1900 census. I knew he was living with an unrelated family but didn't know their name. Before going through pages of records in the county I thought he was in I searched for my great-grandmother Agnes Sundberg (age 8 in 1900). She was living with her family just as I expected her to be but as I scrolled down the page looking for the Sundberg family I saw "Willie Gillespie" living with the Pearson family NEXT DOOR. My dad's generation was aware that he lived next door his future wife but none of them ever mentioned it. Turns out William even remembered seeing Agnes eating breakfast in the high chair one of the first times he stopped by.

William Gillespie and Agnes Sundberg on their wedding day. 

If your male ancestor married someone with an unusual first name look for that name a few pages before and after his in his last census as a single man. You may get lucky and finally find that elusive maiden name.
In a cemetery a family plot may not be marked as such so check the graves around your ancestor. If you can't get to the family cemetery five states away go to Find A Grave and see if someone else has documented the cemetery. Volunteers add memorials from obituaries, cemetery records and by "mowing the rows" (photographing a local cemetery row by row). If you find an ancestor there click the name of the cemetery and search for the surname. Some memorials may include an obituary and/or family photos, not just a photo of the grave.
Here's William Gillespie's memorial page. Don't rely on the family links on Find A Grave anymore than you would rely on an undocumented tree though! Look at all the evidence. If two people share a stone they are probably related: spouse, parent or child. If there is a row or block of matching stones they are probably related. Sometimes it will be obvious, i.e. matching stones or one stone with "mother" and "father" above the names.

Tip for a Find A Grave search: Start with as little information as possible (first and last name and maybe the year they died or the state they're buried in). If you get too many results to wade through add info piece by piece to narrow a search.


PREVIOUS POST: The Time Travelers
NEXT POST: WHY?!?!?! 

The Time Travelers

Comments after the jump.

 MA ANTONIA VELA

 Born 1903 in Mexico       

 Died ???? in Mexico

 Father     Salvador Vela                 Born 1719 in Bosnia   Died 1800 in Mexico

 Mother    Agueda Longoria Chapa   Born 1719 in Mexico  Died 1788 in Mexico

 1744  Married Joseph Miguel Alanis

 1767  Married Jose Miguel Alanis Sr

 1910  Living in Bexar, Texas

 1920  Living in Cambria, Pennsylvania

 1920  Living in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico

 1930  Living in Hidalgo, Texas

 Children with Joseph Miguel Alanis (1720 - 1797)

 Tadeo Alanis Garza (???? - 1819)

 Esteban Alanis Vela (1750 - 1768)

 Jose Miguel Alanis (1750 - 1831)

 Jose Damian Alanis (1767 - 1819)

 Manuel Zapata (1923 - 2002)

 Children with Jose Miguel Alanis Sr (1892 - 1797)

 Tadeo Alanis (???? - 1819)
 Tadeo Alanis Garza (???? - 1819)

 Joseph Miguel Alanis (1720 - 1797)

 Jose Miguel Alanis (1747 - 1797)

 Esteban Alanis Vela (1750 - 1768)

 Jose Miguel Alanis (1750 - 1831)

 Jose Damian Alanis (1767 - 1819)

 Jose Joaquin Alanis (1769 - 1812)

 Ellis Alanis (1898 -     )

 Eddie Alanis (1902 -    )

 Jose Daniel Alanis (1905 -    )

 Josephine Alanis (1910 -     )

 Manuel Zapata (1923 - 2002)

 Plus 7 more children listed as living

US Census 101

Happy Season 3 of Who Do You Think You Are?!!! 

Really looking forward to tonight's episode :-)

"Martin Sheen, a longtime activist, sets out on a journey to find out if his ancestors shared his greatest passion. His search leads him to Ireland where he investigates his uncle's ties to the Irish Civil War and his devotion to activism. He continues his journey in Spain, where he uncovers another relative who also fought for social justice and was wrongfully imprisoned during Franco's fascist regime. As he continues to trace his Spanish roots back to the 1700s, he unearths an unexpected family secret." (from NBC press release) 

 Census Tip #1

Be open to different spellings of names.

I was helping someone once and found a census entry I was 99% sure was the correct family. The person I was attempting to help said it couldn't be them because they didn't spell their last name that way. This was on a popular Facebook page and no matter how many people agreed with me the person refused to believe it was their family. AAAAHHHH!!! 

Census enumerators had a lot of ground to cover and did not usually ask how to spell every name. In some cruel cases they didn't even bother with first names and just used initials but we won't go into that because it makes me want to throw things.

How would your ancestor have pronounced their own name? Remember that they may have pronounced your surname much differently than you do. Did your ancestor have an accent? Now imagine you're from a completely different part of the world than your ancestor. What does the name sound like to you? Gillespie could end up as Galespy, Villagran as Viagran or Hochstetler as Hostetler. Even without an accent some names may be difficult to determine and an enumerator may have asked how to spell them but many people couldn't spell their own names. So be flexible and creative when spelling names. 

PREVIOUS POST: My Head Hurts: Part 2
NEXT POST: The Time Travelers