Part One: Seven Long Shots to Find Your Ancestor

Do you have an ancestor that is hard to find? The following seven ideas have been proven to help in the discovery of ancestors that are difficult to identify:

Children

It makes more sense to research the children of your ancestor because it is possible the names of parents could be listed with the children on some records.

Make a list of all the children of the ancestor in question. Fill out a family group record (see basic forms) which will help you identify information that you are missing.

If you notice that details about birth, marriage, or death are missing, research the appropriate records to fill in the missing information. In the process you may find parents listed.

Be sure to consult these records for each child:

• Census
• Church records
• Obituaries
• Vital records (birth, marriage and death certificates)
• Wills and probate records

Neighbors

Why research neighbors?

… because our ancestors lived in communities, traveled in communities, and died in communities of people. And where you find their marriage witnesses, their children’s baptism godparents, their next door neighbors, their naturalization sponsors, their witnesses to deeds or probate, you find your ancestors.” See “How to Find Ancestral Records Using Friends, Associates, and Neighbors.”

If you research each child and still do not find the parents, go to the earliest census that you have and trace neighbors using the records listed in the section about tracing children above. Look for extended family members. It would not be uncommon to research siblings or cousins to link back to the ancestor you are trying to find.

Newspapers

At first newspaper research can feel like shooting in the dark. Many newspapers that existed long ago do not exist today. You need to research which historic newspapers are available for research and how to access them. Just recently, GenealogyBank released a list of 125 newspapers for Kansas genealogy. See 125 Kansas Newspapers Now Online for Your Genealogy Research.

Start searching available indexes and databases for obituaries on family members. Try searching the obituaries of people with the same surnames. Then search each newspaper published in an area for articles about family members. You may even find clues to other resources to research. Do not be surprised if the newspaper collections you need are only available on microfilm.

School archive

Enrollment records “can provide great information about your ancestors. You may find their name and the names of their parents, their address, their race/ethnicity, date of birth and possibly the name and location of previous schools attended.” See School Records as a Genealogy Resource.

Enrollment records, yearbooks, and old school district records, etc. can accessed through state archives, school district archives, university archives, or local libraries.

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Genealogy: Digging Deeper Into Newspapers

You can collect names, dates of events, and places for only so long before you yearn to know more about your ancestor's story. When there just are not many folks left to pose your questions to, you will certainly wish you had been more interested earlier when the right people were around to share with you. All may not be lost though if pieces of your ancestor's story were captured in the local newspaper. Hopefully, the following finds will encourage you to begin your own newspaper research journey.

Newspaper articles can fill in missing details about your ancestor' education, residence, employment, and travels. The article, "Holmes Resided Here," gives the details about each of these. Thomas H. Holmes, an American mining engineer from Chihuahua, graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology once lived in Washington, D. C. His former residence is given. In three short paragraphs you learn about his education, where he lived and much more.

Most people researching their family history search for obituaries in newspapers, but how many think to look for the memoriam one year after ancestor's death? "In Memoriam," was published on December 18, 1920, exactly one year after the death of Melissa Johnson Gordon. It names her children and their spouses.

When an estate is probated, you can often find a notice that was required to be published in the paper. Emma Campbell died on Oct 2, 1918 without naming an executor of her estate. The probate notice in the newspaper shows that her son, Fred, filed a petition to be named executor. It is wonderful to find these probate notices because they point directly toward probate records that can be found online or in the courthouse or archives where you can learn more. You should search the newspaper for probate notices as readily as you search obituaries for family members.

The next event to document on the timeline after your ancestor's death and births of children would be marriage. Remember more events planned around the marriage could also have received publicity such as a prenuptial, engagement party, or reception. Miss Helen Morton Young and Miss California Marion Wilson were honored at a dinner given by Mrs. L. B. Jorgenson of Los Angeles in April of 1909. Miss Young was visiting friends, and this dinner would have given her the chance to see more of them. Miss Wilson was being honored due to her marriage to Mr. Ellis Paul Gray.

In this particular case, the article was more a notice about the dinner party rather than a marriage announcement. You might find a photo of the bride and groom in an engagement notice or marriage announcement.

Did your ancestor play a sport in school? If so, you will definitely search the sport section of newspapers for mentions. In "Coleville Defeats Oroville," Coleville beats Oroville 22-0 on Oroville's turf. The manager, coach, team members and the positions they played are all mentioned. Wouldn't it be great to collect the articles from the sports section that highlight your ancestor and the team they played on?

What details have you discover about your ancestor in the newspaper?

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Part 3: Finding Burials for Formerly Enslaved People

Ellis McClure reading inscription at Fairview Cemetery, 2014

This is the last of a three part series highlighting resources that can help you identify the burial site for Emancipated ancestors and their children. In Part 2: Finding burials for formerly enslaved people, you learned about different types of historic cemeteries and how to use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to find cemeteries using property records. Below you will learn about three more resources to discover burial sites.

Local history

Many cemeteries that no longer exist have been documented, and cemetery books are found among the local history and genealogy collections of the public library. Check out the library catalog of the library located in the area where your ancestor lived. County or parish cemetery books have indexes containing cemetery names or surnames of individuals buried in a cemetery. Librarians are also good resources for locating cemeteries or the history of families from a particular area.

Other places to check to learn more about local history are:

1. Local historical society
2. Local genealogical society
3. Local archives

The book, "Greenwood County Sketches," a local history book by Margaret Watson, proved to be quite helpful in learning about early cemeteries in Abbeville and Greenwood Counties, SC. It provides the histories of local families, early churches, and cemetery information. One early family mentioned descended from John Partlow. John Partlow was a large plantation owner and a devout Universalist. At the time he and his family attended worship services in Mount Moriah Baptist Church.

When John Partlow died, his family was not allowed to hold his funeral service at Mount Moriah because Universalists believed all people would be saved. His sons had a new church built in four weeks in 1844 and sent for a minister to deliver his eulogy. The name of this new church was Save All as given by Thomas Coleman Lipscomb who purchased the property when the Universalists eventually left the area. Coleman sold the property which became a burial ground for people of color from the mid 1800's to about 1966 according to surviving cemetery markers.

Probate records

Many times the final expenses for burying a loved one were paid from the proceeds of the estate. Chances are that you may find records showing payments for a plot, funeral home, clothing, or transportation. If the funeral home is mentioned, find out how to access those records to see if the burial site is mentioned. If the funeral home is no longer in business, ask funeral home directors who are currently in business to see if they know who is storing the records from the older funeral home. Also check the local library, historical society, or genealogical society.

Newspapers

A very productive way to learn about burial sites is to search old newspapers. Create a timeline of newspapers in a locality while accounting for boundary changes. Search for the most recent obituaries in the most recent editions of the newspapers. Use the U.S. Newspaper Directory at Chronicling America, 1690 to Present to discover all the various titles of newspapers to search in a given area.

As you move back in time, make note of the earlier cemeteries that are named. Figure out what burial sites people traditionally used for early burials. Search the following to glean what you can from the newspaper:

• obituaries for specific people to identify burial sites
• funeral homes for where they buried people
• early probate notices that may lead to maps and estate records
• early real estate sales transactions where cemeteries might have been
• articles naming early churches that may have had adjoining cemeteries

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Hunting for Treasures at the Library

Joliet Public Library, Robin Foster 22 April 2016 © 

One of the greatest divides in genealogy is the distance between us and the resources that a library has which cannot be found online. Are they the first go-to items we gravitate to when documenting our ancestors? No. When we get desperate for records, their treasures are worth the time and travel to access them. I visited a library in the town where I grew up, Joliet. I hope this makes you curious about the library where your ancestor grew up.

History I wish I had in school

There is a local history section full of resources on the second floor that I never bothered to approach out of all the time I spent here growing up. With limited time now, I am anxious to document myself and the previous generation using these unique records. Can anyone else relate?

I made a full sweep of everything first taking photos, and then I went back to determine record content and time period.  In this process, I figure someone else that I am connected to may somehow also have Joliet roots.

What of education? The topic bewilders me especially since my parents paid for me to go to private schools. If we do not teach the history of the area in which we live and how we are connected to it, how can we inspire true leaders, public servants, productive communities? Below are resources right in the Joliet Public Library that document a history that was never even mentioned throughout all the years I spent in school here.

Always check the library website to learn what local history and genealogy resources they have, however, remember that other resources may be available on site that are not mentioned online. If you have items that may be of interest to other patrons, you should make a donation to the Friends of the library to be added to the local resources.

Funeral programs

                                                       Robin Foster, April 2016 ©

The first items that drew my attention were these colorful binders. Can you imagine 19 volumes of funeral programs documenting African American people who died in the Joliet area and the history that each program holds? Funeral programs often give rich biographical details, and they also mention parents and other members of the person's family group. They are a great starting point to discovering historical documentation.

Funeral Service Brochures for African Americans of Joliet and Lockport, Illinois, Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

 Obituary index

Obituary index in binders, Robin Foster, 22 April

2016 

The library is working to make an obituary index searchable online. So far, the online index of obituaries indexed in the Joliet Herald News covers 1979-2010. They also have a printed obituary index in binders.  Notice on the shelf they have a Joliet Daily News Obituary Index from 1909 to 1913.  If you use the index books onsite, you can look up the obituary on microfilm after you find it.

Yearbooks

People ask me all of the time how to go about finding photos of family members. We all want to be able to know what our ancestors looked like. One great place to check are the yearbooks at the local library. While I was there a brother and sister who looked to be high school age found there mother in a yearbook. It was fun to watch them. 

Yearbooks may exist for elementary school, high school, and college. I noticed the following school yearbooks at Joliet Public Library (some are extinct schools or schools that have been renamed):

Joliet Central High School

Joliet East High School

Joliet East Crown

Joliet West High School

Lewis College

Lewis University

Plainfield High School

Ridgewood Baptist Academy

                                               Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

                                            Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

                                              Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

                                                Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

City directories

City directories are great for finding the location of family members between census years. The Joliet Public Library has directories from as far back as 1881. You can also find the directory includes name of spouse, address, occupation, and business addresses if they own a business. 

I found my parents in the 1966 Joliet city directory.  My father, Robert Foster, was a mathematical statistician at a local ammunition procurement plant. My mom is also listed. Also included on this page is Theba Foster who was a realtor and good friend of the family but not related. 

Polk's Joliet (Will County, Illinois) City Directory 1966 Including: Crest Hill, Lockport Township, and Rockdale

Maps

The library has map and plat books for Will and surrounding counties. One of the earliest for Will County was published in 1862. I was able to locate the area I grew up in the Will County plat books:

Newspapers

                                                Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

I did not know Joliet had so many newspapers. The current newspaper is the Joliet Herald News. The library has the Herald on microfilm from 1940 to 2015. Prior to April 1940, the local paper was the Joliet Evening Herald News. Several different papers extend back to 1846.  I will discuss them in a future post.

I have not yet been able to find an online newspaper database that has all the Joliet newspapers. If you know of one, please share. When newspapers are not digitized, you have to access them on microfilm, and that takes time. It is difficult on your eyes to work for more than a couple of hours researching newspapers on microfilm, but I have done it many times when that was all there was. 

Hopefully, these treasures will make you curious enough about what libraries may hold in the area where your ancestor lived. My next sweep through the local history department included pulling open every drawer and spying on local history on the shelf. Stay tuned for my next post!

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