Where can i find things about my deceased family members?

Question

i gotta find more info on my deceased family members and need help. i all ready checked ancestry and geneology. plz help!

Answer 1

have you tried rootsweb.com?  It's a free site that users add their info to, and sometimes there is even news clippings, citings from books,etc.  Also if you look in your local library, many have a genealogy section with books of DETAILED stories about past residents and families.  I recently looked up my husbands family and got stories about their lives when his ancestors came here in 1600 from Scotland :)

Answer 2

Their obituaries would help. So would the articles about their weddings in the "Society" or "Community" section of the newspaper. In both cases you'd need to find the exact dates, then go to the library and pore through old papers on microfilm.

If you get back to the 1860 - 1920 period, AND they were moderately wealthy AND they lived in the USA, you might find a one-page biography in "The Pictorial and Biographical History of {xyz} County", which would be in the county library's special collections room. P&B histories were the "Who's Who of American Appliance Salesmen" of the day; you bought in copy in advance and they printed your particulars in it.

Answer 3

Other than historical facts like census records to show where they lived in 1880 and who lived in the house, and other such records, you will not find personal information like family stories and such on the internet about anyone in your family unless they are famous.

If it is only historical type records you are looking for, keep searching ancestry.  Many times I find things when I search page by page on the scanned copies of the originals that did not come up in my search because they transcribed something wrong into their database.  Then I have to submit a correction form so they can correct their transcription of the information so others can find it.  Often these errors will be spelling of first and last names.  The first name is not as significant of a goof up as the last name.  If they get the last name right, it is easier to find the person on the census even if the first name is spelled wrong.  But if they get the last name wrong, then you have no idea how to search it.  That is why I will often search the records page by page myself.  However, if you only have the free membership and are not paying for any membership, then you cannot even get access to all the really good records, making everything I just said about searching the pages yourself useless information for you.