Find Your Mystery Ancestor

We all likely have a mystery ancestor, the elusive one who cannot yet be found. When encountering a brick wall ancestor, the following tips may be helpful in finally breaking down that wall so he or she can be found.

ONLINE TREES

Start by looking at what others have researched on the elusive ancestor. Whether they have resolved the problem or not, new information may be learned that could lead to more clues. A rule of thumb to determine the reliability of others’ research is to see how much documentation has been used. The more documentation, the better! If photos, original certificates, pages from a family bible, and/or stories are included, it is possible the person who did the research is closely related and has had information passed down through the generations. Though the information found in family histories may not be totally accurate, there is generally an element of truth in most stories. Hopefully, some clues may be found. Places to look for published trees include:

• FamilySearch
• Ancestry Public or Private Member Trees
• MyHeritage
• WikiTree
• Geneanet
• Google: type the name of the ancestor in quotes and add a location

TIME LINE

A time line is essential when trying to solve a problem. It helps keep names, dates, and places in order and sometimes reveals clues not seen before. Write down everything you know about the ancestor.

FAN CLUB

The FAN club stands for Friends, Associates, and Neighbors and is crucial when trying to solve a difficult problem. Identify your elusive ancestor’s neighbors on all censuses, friends and associates who signed as witnesses on documents, people named in land transactions and in wills or other documents. Once you have a list of friends, associates and neighbors, research those people.

SAME NAME/SAME PLACE

Always remember to look for those with the same or similar surname in the same vicinity in all the records you search.

CENSUS

Find the family on every census possible. It will form a framework or outline of their lives as you learn where they lived. If they moved, you will want to search the records of each of these areas. Additionally, censuses provide other valuable information, such as age, birthplace, sometimes where parents were born, relationships, other relatives possibly living in the family unit, occupations, immigration information, and more. You can search the censuses online for the United States, Canada, and the U.K. at FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com. MyHeritage.com has excellent resources for Scandinavian censuses.

When using Ancestry.com for a census search, be sure to look at the hints for every single person in the family on each census. Often hints appear which have never been seen before and are clues to assist in solving a problem.

Remember to conduct your FAN research when you are doing census research. It is possible your ancestor moved to the area at the same time from the same place.

VITAL RECORDS

Once you know approximately when and where your ancestor was born, married, and died, you can search vital records. The main types of vital records are civil registration by the government (births, marriages, and deaths), and church records (baptisms, marriages, and burials). FamilySearch and Ancestry both have many resources for vital records.

Family Search The FamilySearch Research Wiki is a good place to learn what vital records are available for the area in question. For civil registration in the US, marriage records usually begin around the inception of the county. Births and deaths generally begin in the early 1900s, although a few states do include earlier years. For the start of civil registration in other countries, check the FamilySearch Wiki. 

The FamilySearch Library has indexed and digitized many civil registration records around the world. In the catalog, type in the town, county, or state where the event occurred. Select the record type Vital Records. The best way to find church records is to look for city, town, parish, or village in the FamilySearch catalog and select the record type Church Records. Do not forget to check for church records in the United States, especially if your ancestors were immigrants. There are many jewels to be found in these records.

Ancestry.com Go to the “Search” page and scroll to “Explore by Location.”  Choose your country, then state or province and examine the records available.  Both civil registration and church records will be listed.  

OBITUARIES, CEMETERIES, and MORE

There are other options to be explored which reveal further information about an ancestor’s birth, marriage, death, and relatives. Findagrave.com was started as a place to post photos of gravestones and basic information, but rapidly became a place to include biographical information, obituaries, and links to other family members. Billiongraves.com also has photos of gravestones, but not quite as much biographical material. Once a death date is found for an ancestor, you should search for an obituary. There are pay websites which can be searched and may be available to use at your local FamilySearch Center, such as newspapers.com and genealogybank.com. You can also call the county library where the ancestor died and request a search for an obituary in any surviving newspapers the library may hold. The “US Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007” is on Ancestry.com. This is an index of applications made by those applying for social security and often includes the names of parents.

HISTORIES

One US research stone to not leave unturned is histories, particularly county and town histories where your ancestor lived. These often include biographies of those who lived in the area for a length of time, and there may also be personal histories found, as well. A good place to look for histories is the FamilySearch catalog. Do a Place Search by typing the name of the county or town, and when the record types appear, click on History. Also on FamilySearch, you can search digitized books by searching the “Books” section which is found under “Search.” In this area you will find a collection of family and local histories digitized by the Family History Library, as well as from partner libraries.

County histories can also be found at books.google.com which may be digitized. The Internet Archive is a valuable resource and often has older histories. For biographies, try a google search for the ancestor and include the name of the place where he or she lived. A general search for the ancestral name on Ancestry.com may also reveal articles on your ancestor you have never seen. 

MILITARY RECORDS

Military records can provide history as well as vital information regarding a soldier and his or her family. In the United States, the major wars before 1900 include: Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish American War, and Indian Wars. There are two main types of records: service records and pensions. Service records contain interesting facts regarding when the soldier mustered in and out, when he received pay, and possible injuries or absences. Pension records generally contain valuable personal and family information and may include dates of marriages, births of children, where the soldier lived since his service, and more. When you obtain a document, be sure to carefully look at every page in the records.

To learn about military records in the United States, go to the FamilySearch Wiki and type in “United States Military Records.” This has a “Beginner’s Corner,” as well as how to get started and where records are located.  In the FamilySearch Wiki you will also find pages describing military records for other countries. Ancestry.com has a section devoted to military records which contains indexes to records of various wars.  Fold3.com is a website devoted to military records and has many original images digitized and available to view. Both Ancestry and Fold3 are pay websites, but are free to use at any FamilySearch Center.

If the original record is not available through any of the above sources, there are researchers near the National Archives in Washington DC who may be willing to find and copy them quickly and inexpensively.

IMMIGRATION  

One of the main goals for most Americans is to learn from which city or village their ancestors originated.  Hopefully, the previous steps discussed will provide clues as to where your ancestors specifically came from. If not, a good step is to investigate immigration records. As discussed frequently above, a good place to start is with the FamilySearch Wiki under “United States Emigration and Immigration.” There you will find a general history of immigration in the United States, as well as a “Beginner’s Corner” which explains what records are available, where they can be found and accessed, and search strategies. Make sure you know the difference between the two terms: ‘emigration,” meaning to leave a country, and “immigration,” meaning to enter a country.

Some of the records to find will be ship passenger lists, naturalization records, border crossings, and alien registration files. These are all explained in the FamilySearch Wiki, and many are searchable through the main index on FamilySearch, as well as on Ancestry under the “Search: Immigration and Travel” tab. The Alien Registration Files are valuable for foreign born ancestors alive during World War 1 and II and who were from countries with which we were at war.

LAND, COURT, AND PROBATE RECORDS

One of the most used record groups when delving into researching an ancestor are land, court, and probate records. In the United States, these records are most often found on a county level and the Family History Library has most of these microfilmed and available through their catalog. Many have been digitized and even indexed. A new OCR Full-Text search was recently released, making searching these records so much more valuable. You can read how to use this index on our past blog post Research Game Changer Part 1 and Research Game Changer Part 2. Ancestry is adding these records to their collection, as well. 

To learn more about available records for each county in the United States, go to the FamilySearch Wiki, search for your county of interest, and there will be sections devoted to each of these record types. You can also search the Wiki to learn about land, court, and probate records available in other countries, as well.  For example, England and Canada have excellent pages describing records and their availability.

CONCLUSION

Uncovering a mystery ancestor can be a challenge, but with patience, persistence, and the right strategies, the task becomes manageable and rewarding. By exploring online family trees, creating detailed timelines, and examining the FAN club of friends, associates, and neighbors, you can gather crucial context and clues. Utilizing census records, vital records, obituaries, military records, and land, court, and probate records further expands the evidence needed to piece together your ancestor’s story. Each source of information plays a unique role in breaking down genealogical brick walls, offering glimpses into the lives of those who came before us. Whether through meticulous research or serendipitous discoveries, solving the puzzle of a mystery ancestor enriches our understanding of family history and provides a lasting connection to our roots.

If you need help with your elusive ancestor, Lineages can help! Reach out to us today.

Diane

Images in possession of Diane Rogers

Tombstone photo from Findagrave.com, ID 142056369, created by Mary Arvidson added 31 January 2015

Marriage record originally received by mail from Hancock County, but is now available on www.wvculture.org and FamilySearch.org