I am looking for info on my grandfather?

Question

i know that he was in the army but i don't know anything else besides his spouse's name and his first and last name (no middle name, the last name is davis so there are too many websites to try on the internet). i don't know anything else because he left my grandmother after their 11th child, never showed up again. my dad refuses to talk about him, wouldn't even tell me his name, i don't even ask anymore because he gets in a really bad mood for a few weeks. any idea of where to go for info, i can't post any more info because i don't know if he is dead or alive, if it was a recent death i can't post anything.

Answer 1

find your dads birth certificate it will have his fathers name on it.  go to court house where your fathers birth was, and look it up there  you will find what state he was born in  it should have his age also

Answer 2

I would try to find out where he was born or married for starters.  Try talking to your aunts or uncles if your dad won't talk.

Answer 3

How about instead of asking your father the name of your grandfather, ask him if he knows the name of his father's parents, your great grandparents. What surname and what locations are we dealing with here?

Answer 4

If you would like to email me through my yahoo profile I will be quite happy to do  a search to see what I can find for you.

Hope I can help you.

Answer 5

Sometimes I have found people by looking for the spouse's name, or even the children. If you know any of these, you might try it, too. Rootsweb.com is free. Or, like the others have said, I'd be glad to do a search for you if you want to email me (see my profile) some names and approximate dates and locations. If he served in WW1, chances of being still living are very slim; and WW2, he'd be in his 80's at least

(my Dad served in WW2 and was born in 1923. If he were still alive, he'd be 85 this year)--and these veterans are getting fewer as time goes on.  Korean War vets, born about 1930 or thereabouts, would be in their late 70's.

Answer 6

use http://www.ancestry.com, it would cost you little money

Answer 7

First, you CAN post info about someone if you know them to be dead.  However, I would avoid asking dad anything else, since it clearly is/was traumatic for him.  What you DO know is that there were 10 OTHER children.  If you are close to any of them, you can casually casually mention that you have been bitten by genealogy, and you are doing your family history, but you can't go anywhere on that line without knowing where he came from. You are not asking.. you are making a statement in such a way that they can respond if they want.

2nd.. you DO know grandma, and hopefully her facts/ details.  Thus.. if you have she was born in 1921 in Atlanta, Georgia, she PROBABLY married about 1941, and you also can obtain the birth year of the eldest child, and more helpfully.. where that child was born.  Your odds are that the marriage record is in that county, or nearby.  If SHE was born prior to 1930, he probably was also, and is likely to be in the 1930 census, again.. the odds are that he is not far away.  

You did not say what country you are actually in.. if you are in the US, you CAN try the social security death index, and use the search filter for his name, along with the state (or leave state blank, and use the state you suspect he came from for where ss card was issued.) You can run it several ways.. all of them born in 1921; all born in 1923, etc.  YOU WILL AT LEAST GET A SMALLER LIST, which you can work with.

Keep working "around" it, and the probable details will come in.  At some point, you will find or hear something that goes off like a red flag, that this is the RIGHT person.