Preparing for the Hunt
A guide written by and adapted from Who Do You Think You Are by Megan Smolenyak
As with so many activities, a little preparation can go a long way. For many, the first
instinct is to jump online, but if you can discipline yourself to do a little offline
sleuthing beforehand, you’ll ultimately go a lot further a lot faster. Investigate the
clues you’ve probably got tucked away in your attic, closets and basement and call
your older relatives (think of them as witnesses to your family history), and you’ll
avoid getting stumped or derailed early on. Here are some ideas and strategies to
help you get off to a solid start, as well as dodge common pitfalls.
Start with What You Know
It probably sounds mind-blowingly obvious to suggest that you start with what you
know, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t. With so many opportunities
for instant gratification, we’ve become accustomed to fast results and expect our
roots served up the same way. So it’s only natural that most of us embarking on a
genealogical quest will pop online and do a vanity search. Type in your name and –
poof! – instant roots, right? Another favorite point of entry is that famous ancestor
you’ve heard mention of. Your name is Boone, so you must be related to Daniel
Boone. Find his family tree online, and all you have to do is find yourself in one of
the branches. Centuries of family history will unfold before you in minutes!
The danger of jumping in with no preparation is the risk of, well, barking up the
wrong tree. It is astonishingly easy it is to assume your way into someone else’s
family tree (say, by confusing two people who happened to have the same name),
only to discover some time later that you have no connection whatsoever to that
family. Or perhaps you’ll correctly latch yourself on to someone else’s pedigree –
after all, that was definitely your grandmother in there – only to learn later that the
tree is riddled with errors elsewhere.
Go on a Treasure Hunt
Let’s say you’ve taken a few minutes to jot down what you know about your family –
maybe some names, dates and places pertaining to you and your parents, and even a
couple of your grandparents. What next?
Now’s a good time to rediscover your own home. Most of us are clueless about all
the treasures and tidbits lurking in our closets, drawers, basements and attics. Many
a genealogist has been chagrined to finally determine an elusive ancestor’s name
after a year of research, only to find this same information in a suitcase of papers
tucked into the corner of their own cellar. One of the best possible hauls? A stash of
old letters – bonus points if they still have their envelopes with precious names and
addresses! Other items to keep your eyes open for include:
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Birth, marriage and death certificates
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Newspaper clippings, including obituaries and wedding and anniversary
announcements
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•
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Naturalization and citizenship papers, including passports and visas
Religious records (e.g., baptismal, Bar Mitzvah, etc.)
Family Bible
Letters (and addressed envelopes)
Diaries and journals
Photo albums (especially photos with the name of the photography studio
imprinted or details written on back)
•
Heirlooms such as engraved items, samplers and quilts
•
Any other documents pertaining to your ancestors (e.g., military, school,
occupational, business, land, legal, etc.)
After you’re done poking through your own hiding places, you might want to see if
Mom is willing to let you have a look at hers (hint: When scavenging for pieces of
your family’s past, play the odds by starting with the women; we tend to be the
hoarders or protectors, depending on your perspective.). She could refuse, but it’s
more likely that she’ll be happy to hear of your sudden interest and let you explore a
few trunks or boxes in the attic.
Living Libraries
Once you’re done looking through Mom’s attic, you might want to sit down and talk
with her. For that matter, if you have any relatives even 20 minutes older than you,
stop reading right now and pick up the phone! These people are living libraries.
What they can tell you off the top of their heads can shave months off your research
time.
You’ll want to give some thought to your questions in advance. There are plenty of
resources to help you develop a list of likely topics and the more specific you can be,
the better. Older relatives often take the information that lives in their brains for
granted and have a tendency to assume you already know what they know. Out of
consideration, they’ll try to avoid “boring” you, so you can easily wind up missing all
sorts of genealogical gems. Here are a few sample questions to get you started:
1. Where was our family from before they came to America? If you ever met any
immigrant relatives, what did they tell you about the “old country”? Was our name
changed?
2. Who were a couple of the earliest born relatives that you’ve known? Maybe a
great- grandparent or two? What do you remember about them?
3. What family stories were shared with you by your elders when you were a
youngster? What family traditions?
4. How did you meet your husband/wife? 5. Tell me a bit about your work. What was
your first job? How did you choose the career path
you followed?
6. Were you ever in the military, and if so, can you tell me about your service?
7. Tell me about your parents and siblings.
8. Where have you traveled? Did you ever visit relatives in a place other than where
you were raised?
9. What’s your earliest memory? Your favorite memory from childhood? One or two
of the most memorable days of your life?
10. So many things change over the course of a lifetime. What’s the best change
since you were a child? The worst?
You will never regret taking the time to speak with your elders, but there’s a very
good chance you will eventually regret not doing so, so please consider a few chat
sessions early in your research process.
Chart Your Way
Before long, you’ll find yourself looking for a way to organize all the information
you’re gathering. The easiest way to do this is to create a chart that’s often referred
to as a family tree. Fortunately, you have plenty of options for doing this, including
software or online tree services like the one available at www.familysearch.org*.
They make it easy to modify your entries over time, print out useful reports, and
keep track of all the relationships (trust me, you don’t want to try to keep 3rd
cousins twice removed straight in your head).
*[Family Search (familysearch.org) is a free service that you can access by creating a
user account. If you have any questions about this site, please come to the Reference
Dept. and we can help you get set up!]
A family tree, also referred to as a pedigree, is a handy way for organizing the most
basic of genealogical information – names, dates and places. Standard practice is to
start with yourself and march back one generation at a time to your parents,
grandparents and so on. It’s also a good idea to add as many siblings as you can to
get a more complete picture. Down the road, this will help your research
considerably and make it easier to fit in the assorted cousins you’ll find along the
way. If you do this, you’ll be able to make use of family group sheets, another
convenient way of summarizing what you’ve discovered. These list a husband, wife
and children, along with their dates and places of birth, marriage and death,
spouses, and sources for this information.
While you can download family tree and family group sheet forms, all genealogy
software and most online tree services will automatically generate them for you.
Both will help you spot the gaps – missing ancestors or events – and give you a
roadmap for your beyond-the-family research.
Don’t Believe Everything You Read or Hear
We know this in everyday life, but for some reason, we seem to ignore this counsel
when it comes to genealogy. Passed down to us as precious cargo by our parents
and other elders, our family lore takes on the veneer of inviolate truth. But no
matter how sincere the intentions of the messenger, chances are that more than a
little distortion has crept in. Through a combination of misunderstanding,
forgetfulness, embellishment and deliberate twisting, they morph over the
generations. There’s virtually always a seed of truth embedded, but accepting the
entire story as fact will often throw off your research.
This is particularly true of immigrant ancestors who often didn’t know their own
birth dates. For instance, you should routinely question the names given for an
immigrant’s parents on his or her death certificate because the informant was
probably a child of the immigrant who never even met his old country grandparents.
This doesn’t mean you need to toss aside the family stories and discount everything
you find, but it does mean you should examine every piece of data with a critical eye.
To give you a head start, here’s a short list of commonly held beliefs that should
make you wary:
• Our name was changed at Ellis Island. No, it wasn’t. Your ancestor changed it
after the fact, probably Americanizing it by lopping off a couple of syllables
(Villapiano becomes Villa), translating (Weiss becomes White), dropping accents or
“extra” letters, picking an Anglo-sounding version (Lewinsky becomes Lewis), and
so forth. Ellis Island was staffed with people who spoke dozens of languages and
were mostly checking names against lists generated at the port of departure. In spite
of what you might have seen in the movies, they didn’t substitute Italian village
names for surnames or arbitrarily assign “more American” names to immigrants.
• We’re descended from a Cherokee princess. Not so much. I’m not sure why, but
with this tale, it’s always Cherokee and it’s always a princess. No one ever claims to
have a Chippewa Cree prince for an ancestor. White settlers sometimes referred to
the daughter of a chief or other Native woman of some note as a princess, but there’s
no such thing as an Indian princess. What might be true is that you have some
Native ancestry, but that claim should also be investigated.
• Three brothers came to America. One went north, one went south and one went
west. You can cut yourself a little more slack on this one because there obviously
must be some families where this is true, though the more typical pattern was for
whole families to come as a unit or chain migration – meaning the father or maybe
one brother came first, made enough money to send back for another brother or two
to join him, who then made enough money to send for still more family members.
More often than not, the north-south-west aspect is an attempt to link
geographically dispersed families of the same surname.
Again, I’m not suggesting that you ignore all those stories Grandpa told you. Even
with the ones that have grown grander over the generations, there was likely a very
real person or event that sparked the tale, so they’re definitely worth checking out.
Consider this a chance to sharpen you detective skills! Think of family lore or any
suspicious or unsupported information as a hypothesis and then try to prove or
disprove it through your research.
The Name Game
If you limit yourself to searching only records that match your exact and current
spelling, you will undoubtedly miss some of your family. This might seem fairly
obvious for complicated and multi- syllabic surnames that invite misspelling, but
this can happen even with the most simple of names.
When Bob Hope, born Leslie Townes Hope, was to be honored at Ellis Island some
years ago, there was a minor snag. He couldn’t be found in the passenger arrival
records even though it was well known he had come here in 1908. A little digging
revealed that he was there, transcribed in the searchable database as Leslie Hape. If
you look at the original record, it could easily be read as Hape. But that was all it
took to keep this future national treasure hidden from view.
Now imagine that your name is Motyczka or Menecola. Can you see where others
could get creative with it? Or even family members could opt for different spellings?
My husband had uncles who spelled their name as Smolenak and Smolenyak, and
they’re American-born brothers raised in the same household.
If you’d like to amuse yourself, you might even want to start a collection of all the
variations of your name you find over time. Be prepared to be flexible about how
your name is spelled. Incidentally, this flexibility should also be employed when
dealing with first names and old country towns of origin. John in America might
have been Johann, Janos, Jean or countless other variations originally, and if your
family hails from Abbeyfeale, Ireland, you’ll do yourself a favor to be open to
Abbeyfeall, Abbeyfeele, Abbyfeale, Abbeyfiale, Abbyfoale – you get the idea.
Surround and Conquer
It’s one aspect of Murphy’s Law that the ancestor you’re seeking will be the one
whose life was completely un-documented or whose records were destroyed in
natural disasters and fires. For this reason, it’s good practice to research not only
your direct line forebears, but also collateral lines. In other words, if you can’t find
great-grandpa, maybe you can find his brothers and sisters and use their records to
backdoor into the information you’re looking for. I find this to be especially true
when it comes to efforts to identify the birth place of an ancestor.
Maybe your great-great-grandfather, Olaf Andersson, came to America before the
place of birth was routinely provided in passenger arrival records, but his brother
Nils made the journey a decade later, and his record happily does include that
information. If you can’t find out where Josephina Miller came from in Germany,
maybe an affidavit in her brother’s Civil War pension file will furnish the missing
detail. Almost all our ancestors’ paper trails are spotty, but paying attention to
siblings and cousins can often fill your gaps.
Relatives of your ancestors are the most obvious people to research, but if you find
yourself truly stuck, it can help to think of other associates. Maybe his neighbors,
fellow parishioners, or classmates can help you get closer. It’s not at all unusual, for
instance, to discover that neighbors came from the same place in the old country or
are relatives of some sort. Our ancestors often traveled in packs of people they were
comfortable with.
Leave a Trail of Bread Crumbs
One of the admittedly less thrilling but important aspects of genealogy is citing your
sources. A source is any document, database, interview or other resource that
provides a nugget of information in your quest. Yes, I know, the very thought might
make you flash back to school days painstakingly creating footnotes and endnotes
for your papers. And the elements are more or less the same – author, title,
publication details, location and specifics. But getting into this habit early will make
you a better researcher and save you and others unnecessary effort.
You might think early on that you can remember it all – where you got this or that
bit of information – but as you add more newly found relatives to your database,
you’ll quickly realize that it’s simply not possible. One day, you’ll find yourself
staring at a great-grandfather’s date of death with no clue how you came across this
information or how reliable it might be. Did you get his death certificate, interview
his last surviving child, find it on a random website, snag his obituary, or see his
tombstone? Where did you find it and can you trust it?
Failing to cite your sources also causes you to reinvent the wheel. You could easily
find yourself ordering the same marriage record two or three times because you
didn’t record it the first time. And you’ll inevitably encounter some situations that
send you mixed signals. Three documents indicate that your immigrant ancestor
was born around 1873, but his baptism from the old country has him born in 1869.
Which is right? If you cited all your sources, you’ll be able to weigh the reliability of
each one against the others and reach a reasoned conclusion – and so will your
cousins and descendants! Think how frustrating it would be for your great-greatgrandkids to come across your database 100 years from now, but not be able to
follow your trail. Make it easy on yourself and them. Get into the sprinkling-breadcrumbs habit from the very start.
Other Online Resources
It’s truly astonishing how much of our collective past has been uploaded in recent
years, even if it represents only a tiny fraction of what might eventually be in store
for us. Chances are that you’ll be stunned as you start wading through the billions of
records that may hold pieces of your puzzle. So once you’ve scoured your home and
pestered your relatives for clues, here are some of the best free websites for finding
and discovering more about your ancestors.
LibertyEllisFoundation.org
Did you know that roughly 40% of Americans have at least one ancestor who took
their first steps in the United States at Ellis Island, and many of us have several, so
the fact that the records for this port are digitized and available online free is great
news. This database has millions of arrivals for the period 1892 (when Ellis Island
opened) through 1924 (when immigration was on the wane, partly as a result of
legislation that tightened restrictions) with an expansion up to 1957 currently
underway, so there’s a good chance you’ll be able to spot a relative or two.
Ellis Island records, especially those after 1906, can be very helpful in identifying a
place of origin in the old country. In addition, these manifests usually provide details
such as age, occupation, birth place, last residence overseas, the name and address
of a relative in the old country, the name and address of another relative (or
sometimes friend) in the U.S., and the final destination of the traveler. It can also be
an eye-opener to learn how little money your ancestor arrived with.
FamilySearch.org
FamilySearch is the online door to a cornucopia of free, family history records that
grows by millions every week. Some are browsable (meaning you can click through
and look around page by page), while others are completely searchable (meaning
you can go directly to the entry for a person of interest). A massive volunteer
transcription effort is gradually converting browsable records into searchable ones,
and a large portion of the collection is digitized. In many cases, you’ll be able to print
out, save or download a record you seek on the spot, and thanks to a friendly user
interface, you’ll find it easy to do so. For genealogists, this is a candy store!
You’ll find death certificates, probate files, state census records, and funeral home
registers – just about anything you might think of. And depending on your heritage,
you may well benefit from the international nature of the site. Looking for marriages
from the Philippines, burials in Norway, the 1895 Argentina census, or Civil
Registration indexes for Ireland? You’ve come to the right place!
Cyndi’s List
Cyndi Ingle is a rock star in the genealogical world. The reason for this is Cyndi’s
List, a collection of well over 300,000 links to online genealogical resources
organized into more than 200 categories. What started as a personal set of
bookmarks has evolved into a remarkable card catalog of everything genealogical
you could possibly think of. Whether your ancestors were Loyalists,Lutheran or
from Luxembourg, Cyndi has a category of links that will steer you exactly where
you need to go to learn more.
It’s fun to browse the topics from Clothing & Costumes to Serendipity, but the true
strength of Cyndi’s List is revealed when you find yourself asking, “Now where
would I find out about ...?” Discovering an ancestor who came from Barbados, for
instance, you’ll be delighted to find her Caribbean/West Indies section. This is a site
you’ll never outgrow, so you’ll want to bookmark it. Even the most seasoned
professionals find themselves consulting it on a frequent basis.
Chronicling America
While there are a growing number of online newspaper resources, most of them
involve a subscription fee. Chronicling America, an initiative centered on historic
American newspapers, is a happy exception. Currently, it contains millions of free,
digitized images for a selection of newspapers from 38 states for 1836-1922. But
beyond that, it also helps you track down just about every newspaper in America
dating back to 1690. Looking for 19th century newspapers from Jersey City, New
Jersey? This site can tell you exactly which seven repositories contain part or all of
the Jersey City Daily Times from 1864 to 1868.
FindaGrave.com
As the name suggests, this is a massive database of graves – mostly transcriptions,
but many with photos of actual tombstones – intended to help you find the graves of
your ancestors. All told, FindAGrave contains well over 100 million entries, content
that comes entirely from volunteers. They may add their own family members,
those buried in the cemetery near their home, military vets from across the country,
or only the notable and notorious. Everyone has their own preference, but
collectively, it adds up to one very useful site.
DeathIndexes.com
Genealogists are often accused of being more interested in the dearly departed than
the living, and I have to admit that there’s an element of truth to this assertion. But
the reality is not as morbid as it – or this website – might sound. It just happens that
those who came before us can be fascinating, and uncovering their death dates can
often be the key to opening up the rest of their lives. The death date and location
might lead you to a tombstone that gives your 3rd great-grandmother’s maiden
name or an obituary that reveals that the fellow you were named after served in the
War of 1812. Now you can pick up her trail as a child and his in military records.
When you’ll visit, you’ll see that it’s a clean, no-nonsense site. As Joe Beine, the site’s
sole administrator, explains, it’s “a directory of links to websites with online death
indexes, listed by state and county. Included are death records, death certificate
indexes, death notices & registers, obituaries, probate indexes, and cemetery &
burial records.” It’s so simple that you may be deceived, but start clicking around
and you’ll soon begin to understand the website’s popularity.
ISOGG.org
One of the most exciting developments in family history since 2000 has been the
addition of DNA to our research tool box, so you might want to consider joining the
International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG). Founded in 2005, it has over
8,000 members from roughly 60 countries – and it’s free! ISOGG is a terrific
resource for those getting their feet wet in the world of genetic genealogy (check out
the site’s “Newbies” section), as well as a playground for those who find themselves
addicted. The group is spearheaded by the tireless Katherine Hope Borges, and
offers mailing lists, speakers, success stories, videos, and even a page dedicated to
famous DNA (in case you’re curious whether you might be related to Jesse James or
the Romanovs!). Want to learn more about specific testing companies such as
Family Tree DNA or 23andMe.com? Post a query and you’ll get an earful! A smart
way to familiarize yourself with genetic genealogy is to subscribe to ISOGG’s
newsletter and browse past issues. You’ll find that they’re written in plain English
and make for enjoyable reading.
America's Wars and Conflicts
http://www.ancestry.com/wiki/index.php?title=Overview_of_Military_Records
Here is a more comprehensive look at America's Wars and Conflicts for which your
ancestor may have participated.
Colonial Wars: 1620–1774
King Philip’s War – 1675-76
King William’s War 1689-97
Queen Anne’s War – 1702-13
King George’s War – 1744-48
French and Indian War – 1754-63
Pontiac’s Rebellion – 1763
War of Independence: 1775–1783
Early National Period: 17831812
Battle of the Wabash – 1791
Battle of Fallen Timbers – 1795
Quasi-War with France – 1798-1801
Barbary Wars – 1801-1805, 1815
War of 1812: 1812-1815
Tecumseh’s War – 1811-12
Peoria War – 1813
Creek War – 1813-14
Continental Expansion: 1816–
1860
First Seminole War – 1817-1818
African Slave Trade Protocol – 1820-1861
Operations Against West Indian Pirates – 18221830s
Black Hawk War – 1832
Texas Revolution – 1835-36
Second Seminole War – 1835-36
Mexican-American War – 1846-48
Apache Wars – 1851-1900
Third Seminole War – 1855-58
Utah War - 1857
American Civil War: 1861–1865
Dakota War of 1862 (Little Crow’s War) – 1862
Colorado War – 1863-65
Sioux Indian War of 1865 (Powder River
Invasion) – 1864-65
Post-Civil War Era: 1865–1917
Bozeman War (Red Cloud’s War) – 1866-68
Black Hills War (Pine Ridge Campaign) – 189091
Spanish-American War – 1898
Philippine-American War – 1899-1913
Banana Wars – 1898-1935
The Boxer Rebellion – 1898-1901
Russian Revolution (Polar Bear Expedition) –
1918-19
Neutrality Acts – 1920-1941
World War II: 1939–1945
Cold War Era: 1945–1991
Korean War – 1950-53
Lebanon Crisis – 1958
Dominican Intervention – 1865-66
Vietnam War – 1959-1975
Tehran Hostage Rescue – 1980
Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury) – 1983
Beirut – 1983
Panama - 1989
Post-Cold War Era: 1991–2001
Desert Shield – Desert Storm – 1991
Somalia (Operation Restore Hope) – 1992-93
Kosovo Conflict – 1999
Global War On Terrorism:
2001Afghanistan – 2001
Philippines – 2002
Liberia – 2003
Iraq – 2003 -
At least some remnant exists of records for every war that the colonies and states were
involved in; but, as with other records maintained in the United States during the first
centuries of its existence, there is little uniformity of content or style in those records.
U.S. Army Center of Military History –
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.history.army.mil/html/faq/answers.html#RelativesService
How can I obtain copies of my, or my relative's, U.S. Army personnel records?
Personnel records are maintained for officers who served after 1 July 1917, and enlisted personnel in
service after November 1912 and who are no longer in service, by the National Personnel Records Center.
Information concerning the required procedures and forms is available through their website at
www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records.html. Records for individuals who
served prior to those dates are in the custody of Old Military and Civil Records Branch (NWCTB),
National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408. The National Archives can be
contacted electronically using the form at www.archives.gov/global_pages/contact_us.html
Where can I find a history of a particular Army unit?
The U.S. Army Military History Institute maintains an extensive collection of unit histories. Bibliographies
for such histories can be accessed online at MHI/AHEC's unit history bibliographies. Once a history has
been identified you can contact your local library to inquire about interlibrary loan possibilities. You may
also wish to investigate out-of-print bookdealers in your area if you wish to see about purchasing such
items.
How do I find information about what my relative did in the Army? (Trace their route of march, find
out where they served, etc.)
You should start by identifying the unit with which your relative served. If you already have that
information, then you should check for unit histories or look into the official records created by the unit
itself. If you do not know the unit to which they were assigned, then you should try and obtain a copy of
your relative's personnel records to determine that information.
Where can I find official unit records?
Operational records of United States Army organizations created prior to 1940 are in the custody of the
Military Reference Branch, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408.
Requests regarding records created during World War II and the Korean War should be addressed to the
Textual Reference Branch, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College
Park, MD 20740-6001. Operational records of United States Army units that served in Southeast Asia are
also in the custody of the Textual Reference Branch of the National Archives. You maybe able to access
additional information about these holdings from the National Archives and Records Administration
website at www.archives.gov.
Information relating to operational records created since 1954 by those United States Army organizations
that did not serve in Southeast Asia may be available through the DA Freedom of Information/Privacy Act
Office,7798 Cissna Road, Suite 205, Springfield, VA 22150-3166. You may be able to access additional
information concerning policy related to these records on the website at
http://www.rmda.belvoir.army.mil/rmdaxml/default.asp
Certain Unit Rosters and Morning Reports are also in the custody of the National Personnel Records,
information about these collections can be found at
www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records/
morning_reports_and_unit_rosters.html
Where can I find official Army photographs and motion pictures?
U.S. Army photographs and motion pictures created prior to 1988 are in the custody of the National
Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001. You
maybe able to access additional information about these holdings from the National Archives and Records
Administration website at www.archives.gov.
Official photographs and videos pertaining to the U.S. Army within the most recent eight-year period are in
the custody of the Defense Visual Information Center, 1363 Z Street Center, March Air Force Base, CA
92518-2727.
I understand that my unit received a decoration after I left it, how can I verify that information?
The Force Structure and Unit History Branch, U.S. Army Center of Military History can provide some
information on an organization's entitlement to HQDA recognized unit decorations, but the official
proponent for Army awards in the Military Awards Branch, USA Human Resources Command.
Where can I find information about medals or awards given to a family member?
How do I get replacement medals or awards for myself or a family member?
For individuals still in the Army, the Military Awards Branch, Total Army Personnel Command, is the
proponent. Information concerning procedures to request such information can be found on the Military
Awards Branch website.
For individuals no longer in the Army, requests should be directed to the National Personnel Records
Center. Information concerning procedures to request such information can be found on the website at
www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records/
awards_and_decorations.html
Where can I find information on the Cold War Certificate?
The Military Awards Branch, U.S. Army Human Resources Command has proponency for this program
within the Army . Information related to the certificate can be found at the Military Awards Branch
website.
Where can I find information on unit patches and insignia?
The proponent for all heraldic items, flags, patches, insignia,etc., is The Institute of Heraldry, 9325
Gunston Road, Room S-112, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-5579. The website for the Institute is at
www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil
I have a relative that was killed during the war and is buried overseas, where can I find information
about the cemetery and burial site?
The American Battle Monuments Commission is responsible for the maintenance of permanent American
military burial grounds in foreign countries. You can get additional information from the Commission's
website at www.abmc.gov/
How can I locate a U.S. Army veteran?
The U.S. Army Center of Military History does not maintain such information, and the release of personnel
information is strictly governed by the Privacy Act. You might find the information you are seeking by
placing an advertisement in a veterans magazine, which do have special reunion columns. Another
possibility would be to use one of the free "People Finders" search engines available through the internet.
Where can I find historical information on the other Armed Services?
The historical offices for the other services and their websites are as follows:
Naval Historical Center at http://www.history.navy.mil/
Air Force History Support Office at http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/
Air Force Historical Research Agency at http://www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/
U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center at http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/
U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office at http://www.uscg.mil/history/
Guide to Searching for Death Records
Search Tip
When you’re doing a “global search” of all the collections on Ancestry.com, think about the details
you expect to find in the records you’re seeking. Since most of the records your ancestor left were
probably created while he or she was living, we recommend leaving off a death date to find census,
birth, marriage, etc. But when you’re searching for death records, including a death date will help
you to zero in on the closest matches in death-related collections (as well as online trees, which
also often include a death date). Even if you don’t have an exact date, an educated guess can be a
huge help. Use the advanced search to specify +/- 1, 2, 5, or 10 years on either side of your estimate.
When and Where Did He Die?
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Create a timeline for your ancestor to see if you can narrow down the date and place of death.
1898 Norwalk, Connecticut, City Directory
Rommelmann Christian, cigarmaker, h Bull Run, N
1899 Norwalk, Connecticut, City Directory
Rommelmann, Christian, cigarmaker, h 45 Reynolds, E N
1900 Census, Connecticut, Fairfield Co., Norwalk, District 83, sheet 28b [image 56
of 58], lines 89-92. (taken 28 June 1900)
Street address: 563 Shore Road
Rammelmanan, Mary, Head, white, female, b. Dec. 1867, age 32, widowed, 4 children/
3 living, b. Bohemia, father bp. Bohemia, mother bp. Bohemia, immigrated in 1884,
occupation cigarmaker, unemployed 3 months census year, reads, writes and speaks
English, rents, house.
1901 Norwalk, Connecticut, City Directory
Rommelmann, Mary, widow Christian, h. 2 First av. E N [East Norwalk]
1902 Norwalk, Connecticut, City Directory
Rommelmann, Mary, widow Christian, rem. to Jersey City, NJ
Where Are They Buried?
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Timelines can help pin down where and when your ancestor died, but you’ll want to get a bit more
specific and determine where he or she was buried to obtain cemetery records. Your ancestor’s death
record is a good place to start your search. Many death records provide the name of the cemetery
in which the deceased was to be buried. Obituaries are another obvious source of burial information.
Find A Grave is an excellent resource for locating the resting place for more than 100 million souls.
If you’re not finding your ancestor’s burial location online, you may need to take your search
offline. Start your search close to where your ancestor lived and check the cemeteries nearby.
Some religious sects maintain their own burial grounds.
That said, keep in mind that your ancestor might not be buried as near to home as you’d think.
As cities grew, sometimes the dead were moved to make more room for the living.
As the cemeteries in larger cities were pushed to the outskirts and beyond city boundaries, there
was also an increased need for transportation to the cemeteries. Often spur lines were created
off railroads in the city and special funeral cars would transport the deceased and mourners to
the cemetery.
In some cases, an ancestor may have been transported to an entirely different city or state for
burial, perhaps with other family members. Since the transport of bodies was regulated because
of the fear of infectious diseases, you may be able to locate body transit records or burial permits.
Sometimes you’ll find these records within broader collections of state death records. The collection
of South Carolina, Death Records, 1821-1955, on Ancestry.com is a good example of this. Check
on the city and county municipalities as well to see what records are available.
Other Resources
If you can get your hands on a good local map for the vicinity in which you are searching, you may
find the cemeteries outlined on the map.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a very useful tool
for locating cemeteries and other features near where your ancestor lived. Click on “Search
Domestic Names,” and by entering the county name and state and selecting “cemetery” from the
“Feature Class” drop-down menu, you can see a list of cemeteries for a particular county. From
the list of results, you can click on each cemetery name for more information and to map the
location using MapQuest or other mapping tools.
You may find your ancestor’s cemetery has an online index. Ancestry.com has more than two
hundred cemetery databases among its collections, and some cemeteries are even posting their
own indexes online. Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, is a good example of this.
Genealogical societies are great when it comes to recording cemetery information. Check with
societies in the areas in which your ancestor lived to see what publications and database collections
are available beyond Ancestry.com.
Death Record Alternatives
In many places, civil death registration didn’t begin until the twentieth century. So what do you do
when there is no death certificate? Here are some alternatives:
1) Mortality Schedules. Between 1850 and 1880, federal censuses recorded names of people who
had died during the 12 months prior to the census on separate mortality schedules. Ancestry.com
has these valuable records for many states and years.
2) Coroner’s Records. Coroner’s records can often be found in county or state archives. To locate
them type “coroner’s records” or “medical examiner’s records” + the state and county of interest
into your favorite search engine. Examples of some Salt Lake County coroner’s inquest files can
be found on Ancestry.com.
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3) City Directories. If your ancestor lived in a city, directories can sometimes help you determine a
year of death. When a name that has been listed for several consecutive years suddenly disappears,
that person may have passed away. When a man died, his wife might be listed in subsequent years
as “widow” or “widow of…” Ancestry.com has city directories for hundreds of cities and years.
4) Heirlooms. You can often find death dates in or on items found at home. Look for diaries, journals,
letters, photographs, jewelry, embroidered items, etc. Many of the millions of family trees at
Ancestry.com include photographs of heirlooms like these.
5) Court Records. In the United States, court records began very early, and in other countries,
earlier still. Court records can include probate documents that name the decedent, date of death,
and heirs. When a child’s parent(s) dies, chances are good that guardianship records at the county
court will provide death information. Check Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources on
the Ancestry.com wiki for information on court records.
6) Cemetery Records. Don’t overlook details that can be found on a tombstone or in the records of
a cemetery sexton. Millions of cemetery records have been transcribed and indexed by genealogical
societies. As mentioned above, Find A Grave is a great source for finding cemeteries as well as
photographs of millions of graves.
7) Body Transit Records. Health concerns led many cities to mandate record keeping for bodies
transported through or into the city for burial. These records can sometimes be found at the local,
county, or state level.
8) Passenger Lists. Particularly in the age of sail and before there were means to preserve a body,
passengers (and crew) who died on board ships were usually buried at sea. Look for notations
next to names on the manifest. Also check the end of the manifest, where the captain sometimes
noted births and deaths on board.
9) Apprenticeship and Indentured Servant Papers. In the early years of the U.S. and in many
European countries, children were often indentured or became apprentices. Ancestry.com has a
sampling of these records for London, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Virginia. In some cases,
children were apprenticed or indentured because they had lost one or both parents, a fact the
records may mention.
10) Almshouse Records. Many counties required institutions that looked after the poor to keep
records, and many of those records include death information for residents who passed away at
the institution.
11) Hospital Records. Admittedly, most contemporary hospital records are closed to the public.
Still, some collections have ended up in archives and other repositories that you might be able to
find by typing the place where your ancestor lived and the phrase “hospital records” into a search
engine. You may turn up something like the Kansas State Historical Society’s database of burials
in the cemetery on the grounds of the Topeka State Hospital.
12) Insurance Records. Insurance records are typically found only at home, so ask around to see
if a relative has kept them for members of your family.
13) Military Records. Military records, including many found at Ancestry.com, can contain death
information. These include casualty lists and prisoner of war records, among others.
14) Genealogical and Historical Society Records. St. Louis City Death Records, 1850-1902, is
an example of an extraordinary database at Ancestry.com that was compiled by the St. Louis
Genealogical Society. They’re one of hundreds of genealogical organizations whose members
spend untold hours preserving their city or county’s history. Genealogical and historical organizations
are good sources for learning about cemeteries in an area and may even have created indexes
listing the people buried in them.
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15) Funeral Home Records. Funeral home records vary in format and content, but they can all
be valuable for determining someone’s death date. Some of these records are making their way
online. Ancestry.com is home to the Pennsylvania, Oliver H. Bair Funeral Records Indexes,
1920-1980, and the California, San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, 1895-1985. Check
genealogical and historical societies; state, county, and local libraries; and municipal archives
for possible holdings.
16) Necrologies. Many ethnic, fraternal, and religious organizations annually printed names and
death dates and sometimes full-length obituaries for their members.
17) Newspapers and Obituary Collections. The New York, Death Newspaper Extracts, 1801-1890
(Barber Collection), can be invaluable for finding information about New Yorkers and people who
died there. There are plenty of similar obituary and newspaper collections, including Historical
Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, & Death Announcements, 1851-2003.
18) Pension Records. Pension records often include death dates, particularly when a widow
is applying for the pension. Ancestry.com has military pension records from the American
Revolutionary War and an index to Civil War pensions among its collections. The Federation of
Genealogical Societies is heading up a project to digitize and make millions of pensions from the
War of 1812 available online. In addition, the National Archives and Records Administration holds
millions of pension records that have not yet been digitized.
19) Periodical Source Index (PERSI). PERSI is the largest and most widely used subject index
covering genealogy and local history periodicals written in English and French (Canada). The
collection dates from approximately 1800. Staff at the Allen County Public Library have been
compiling PERSI for more than a decade, and it currently includes over 1.7 million searchable
records and nearly 6,000 different periodicals. You can find PERSI at Ancestry.com.
20) Bible Records. Traditionally, pages in family Bibles include spaces for recording death dates
and other landmark events. Check with family members to learn whether a family Bible has passed
down any of the family lines.
21) Religious Records. Religious records often predate civil registration and often document
deaths and burials.
22) Funeral or Memorial Cards. Funeral and memorial cards have been printed since the 1800s
and were often distributed to family and friends. Check with relatives to see if any have been
passed down in scrapbooks or among family heirlooms.
23) U.S. Homes for National Veterans. Following the Civil War, a network of homes was set up
for disabled veterans. If the veteran died in the home, records noted death and burial information
and sometimes included an accounting of personal effects and to whom money was disbursed.
Records from these homes from 1866 through 1938 are available online at Ancestry.com.
24) 1890 Veterans Schedule. Though the 1890 Census perished in a fire in January 1921 in the
basement of the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C., fortunately nearly 75,000 special
schedules with the names of Union veterans and widows survived. In cases where the widow is
listed, you may find the place and date of death for the soldier. You can search these records here
on Ancestry.com.
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25) Adoption Records. While most adoption records are closed by law, you can sometimes find
information from adoption records by coupling the word “adoption” with the name of the place
where your ancestor lived. Some genealogical societies indexed old adoption records before they
were sealed from public access.