Part Two: More Ways to Find Your Ancestor's Parent

In Part One, you learned four avenues to take to identify your ancestor’s parent. Here are three more:

Church

Church records can be helpful if vital records (birth, marriage death) do not exist. The first thing that you need to know is the denomination of your ancestor. Next, find out how to research your ancestor’s denomination. For example, this resource will help those whose ancestors were United Methodist: Historical Society of the United Methodist Church Genealogy Section. If your ancestor was Baptist, you may find more success researching state resources. See Baptist Historical Collections.

Membership records and records documenting marriages, baptisms, confirmations or burials can help you reconstruct your ancestor’s family. You may even discover ancestors among the records of the clergy, donors or history of the church.

Some repositories provide online finding aids and research guides. This is a great research guide for church records: University of Delaware Library: Church Records. Look for information about church records in the following places in the state or region where your ancestor lived:

• university archives
• historical or genealogical societies
• church archives
• Family History Library Catalog

Do not assume that if you come from a long line of Baptists, that your family was always Baptist. If your ancestor migrated to a new area, there may not have been a place to worship. The family may have attended the same church as others in the area even though they may have held different beliefs.

While assisting someone recently who believed her ancestor was Baptist and did not check the records of different denominations, the ancestor was found on the original church records of a different denomination. There was no other place to meet, and there was no other authorized clergy member in the area.

Local manuscripts

Universities, libraries, and museums collect manuscripts. It is a definite long shot, but these manuscripts may either mention a family name, or they may help you learn more about your family or the institutions and organizations they were involved with.

Begin by searching the online catalog of the university library in the area where your ancestor lived. See the example of the manuscript collection at the University of Virginia Library: Virginia Genealogy. Record types that you may discover include but are not limited to:

• journals
• biographies
• churches
• genealogies
• photographs
• personal papers
• business papers
• organizations
• schools

Courthouse records

The answer to your genealogical problems could be literally hidden away among the courthouse records in the area where your ancestor lived. It might be time to take a break from online research to discover what you have been missing. When you make a trip to the courthouse, you do not want to do it blindly.

1. You will want to find out as much as you can about what records are available and how they are organized: Visit the online website of the county or parish to see if it provides instructions for researchers or types of records available. Contact them to learn more.
2. Search the Family History Library Catalog to see what courthouse records are available on microfilm. For example, one courthouse record available for Johnson County, Arkansas is: Johnson County, Arkansas Circuit & Chancery Court Records 1841-1965

Courthouse records provide another alternative to the unavailability of vital records. Some records that can help to identify parental relationships are:

• Naturalization
• Civil and criminal
• Wills and probate

Other records that may provide clues are:

• Land and property
• Guardianship
• Tax

Hopefully, you are now armed with a few more ways you have not already tried in search of your ancestor’s parent. If any of the suggestions from this article or Part One, open the door to discovering them, please share on the Saving Stories Facebook page. Even if you do not find success from these suggestions, please feel free to share the things you have already tried in your quest.

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Marriage records for DeSoto County, Mississippi African Americans 1866-1933

My African American ancestors would have married in DeSoto County, Mississippi before 1900. Marriage records would not be found online for them yet, so I need to order the record on microfilm. Perhaps I will trace all my family from that time period in DeSoto while I am at it.

Do you have marriages of African American ancestors from DeSoto to document? If you do not find the marriage in the Mississippi Marriages, 1800-1911 online collection at FamilySearch or if the marriage you are looking for occurred after 1911,I have included a list of microfilm for marriages in DeSoto County between 1866-1933 on the table below.

Find the microfilm that corresponds to the date of the marriage, and locate the film number on this page in the Family History Library Catalog.  The microfilm will appear on the section half of the page.  It will be hyperlinked.  Click on the link to order the film, and have it sent to your nearest FamilySearch Center.

Are you looking for a marriage that took place in a different county in Mississippi?  Let me know in the comments section below.

Film	Film Number
Marriages, colored, v. A-B, 1866-1871	895696
Marriages, colored, v. C-D, 1871-1883	895697
Marriages, colored, v. E-F, 1883-1893	895698
Marriages, colored, v. G-H, 1892-1898	895699
Marriages, colored, v. G-H, 1892-1898	895699
Marriages, colored, v. 1-2, 1898-1903	895700
Marriages, colored, v. 3-4, 1903-1908	895701
Marriages, colored, v. 5-6, 1908-1912	895702
Marriages, colored, v. 7-8, 1912-1916	895703
Marriages, colored, v. 9 (p. 1-125, cont.), July-Nov. 1916	2413625 Item 5
Marriages, colored, v. 9 (cont., p. 126-end)-v. 11 (p. 1-547, cont.), 1916-1922	2412427
Marriages, colored, v. 11 (cont., p. 546-end)-v. 14 (p. 1-33, cont.), 1922-1928	2412428
Marriages, colored, v. 14 (cont., p. 32-end)-v. 16 (p. 1-277, cont.), 1926-1931	2412429
Marriages, colored, v. 16 (cont., p. 276-end)-v. 17, 1931-1933	2412495 Items 1 - 2

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8. Resources are Tied to Geography, Part 1

    South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina Campus: Repository for manuscripts and published materials documenting the state's social, political, literary, and cultural heritage.

     It can be quite intriguing to research an ancestor's life and be able to share actual documentation about events you learned about in oral history interviews.  It is even more exciting to be able to share proof of noteworthy events forgotten by posterity.  Our ancestors lived real lives just like we do.  They are only different because they lived in a different time and sometimes a different place.  Historical documentation helps to validate the fact that they were really living, moving, and breathing individuals who followed similar hopes and dreams.  Documentation gives credence to the stories that survive. 

      At this point in our quest, you should be able to identify the geographical area where your ancestor lived.  Records were generated at each level of government.  It is important to document each known locality that corresponds to each event in your ancestor's life.  For example, George Anderson Tucker lived in Buffalo, Union, South Carolina, United States, and he died in Columbia, Richland, South Carolina, United States.  At each level of government, records were kept that could give clues about his life.

     Recording places and events will help you identify government agencies, libraries, and archives.  Many resources are being made available online.  Knowing the county or parish where your ancestor lived will open the door to resources online and offline.  If your ancestor lived in more than one place, use the timeline you created to keep track of where to look for his or her vital records.

     It is important to research the history of the geographical area, particularly paying close attention to the boundary changes which occurred.  Nothing is more frustrating than to search for documentation in one place only to find out that it was redistricted, and even though your ancestor never moved, he lived in more than one county during his lifetime because of boundary changes.  You will need to search for his/her life event in the place within the proper boundary on the date the event was recorded.  Be sure to study the local history of the area because many available resources can be found in this way. 

     Most people that I assist hit a "brick wall" in their research because after they search the obvious places, such as the census, they are discouraged.  They fail to do two key things:

1.  Research records generated in the actual locality where their ancestor lived.

2.   After they discover one piece of documentation, they jump back too quickly to the next generation without realizing that they should search for every piece of evidence that would exist for every member of the ancestor's family group.

Moving back too quickly and not being thorough will limit what you will discover and will hinder your research.  On numerous occasions the information gleaned from researching a collateral line has helped to reveal a direct-line ancestor.

     One of the biggest challenges to learning about the ancestral home has been the amount of time it has required to locate resources and undertake the study of a particular area.  Until recently, this has also been quite costly.  Such was the case until FamilySearch introduced the FamilySearch Research Wiki.  This community-based encyclopedia is a wonderful place to start locating records that exist by geographical area.  After many years of research, I am still amazed by the many types of historical documents that exist.  As the community of professionals and enthusiasts contribute to the FamilySearch Research Wiki, it will grow to revolutionize the way we conduct family history research.

    

     We have provided a few screen shots so that you can see how to perform a simple search for resources on the Wiki.  The first screen shot shows the homepage of the Wiki.  You can register on the top right of the page, and you can learn more about using the site by clicking on "Tour" under the search bar. 

Let's perform a search for Pennsylvania in the search field.  The first result will take you to the main page of resources for Pennsylvania. 

 

Notice the left sidebar with topics you can explore.  There is a history of the origins of Pennsylvania at the top and links to genealogical resources on the center of the page. Near the bottom portion of the page you will find a list of county links.  Let's choose Philadelphia County, PA. 

A whole page of resources that you can explore exist here.  You will just need to be sure that you select a resource that corresponds to the lifespan of your ancestor. Once you narrow down the location by county, parish, or province, etc., be sure to locate the link entitled "Family History Library Catalog" because this link will take you directly to resources in the Family History Library for that particular area. 

Feel free to locate the closest Family History Center where you can order and view microfilm you find in the catalog. You may discover that some libraries and archives are also authorized to order microfilm.  

Looks easy enough, right?  Just remember that this site is dependent on its users to grow.  If you find a resource that is not on the Wiki, why not contribute it?  If you need help getting started, ask on FamilySearch Forums in the FamilySearch Research Wiki discussion section.

     

Happy Hunting!

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