Tracking down the untraceable family member?

Question

I want to learn about my family, but nobody to ask.

I know nothing about my dad, and it's his side that I want to know about, namely my grandparents.

How would I go about looking?

Answer 1

See if you can get a copy of your dad's birth certificate or death certificate if he is deceased.  Either should have information on his parents.  (Start with your birth certificate if you don't have any other resources).

If he was born before 1930, you could try locate him in that census.

Try posting a note on the message boards in Rootsweb.org.  They have boards for thousands of last names.  Give them as much info as you know and see if anyone can make a connection.  The folks in there are very helpful.

Answer 2

Well, for starters, gather what information you do have.

Full name, date of birth, date of death, place of birth, any and all information will help.

Don't be afraid to ask people who might have some information for you.

Try ancestry.com and click 'search' filling in the information you have.

Sometimes, searching for yourself, will yield some information about your parents (unless you were adopted). Look at your birth certificate.

Answer 3

If you dont know your dad`s date of birth and have nobody to ask, your best way of finding out would be to find your parents marriage certificate.

If you have older siblings, start from the eldest year of birth and work backwards through the marriage index.

There are a number of websites that have the index, but they do charge.  Ancestry has them, as do findmypast and familyrelatives.

I am registered with all of them, email me if you need a look up.

The marriage certificate will give you the age your parents were when they married, and from that you can work out the year they were born.

From that, look at the birth indexes. If it is after 1912, the index will include mothers maiden name.

You can then leapfrog backwards in this fashion until when civil registration started in 1837.

One word of warning, there are several websites offering to supply certificates at exortionate prices.

Never pay more than £7 for a certificate, £11 if you dont have the reference.

Any price above this is a rip off.

Good luck.

Answer 4

If any of these folks lived in the country, there will be records. If they imigrated here from across the creek, Ellis Island has logs & passenger manefests on line.