Rickey Tidwell (btidwell@swbell.net) wrote: >Who has access to census records that might could help? My grandparents >were Grover Thomas Hatley and Minnie Lee (Phillips) Hatley. They are >buried in the Oakland Cemetery. > >Where can I get information on them and their parents and where they >came from, etc? Hi, Barbara, My apologies if someone has already responded to your questions...your e-mail was in my "to do" pile, so I am going to try to help! In the Drew County cemetery book (p. 276), there is the following info. on your grandparents: Hatley, Grover T. B. May 1, 1886 D. June 6, 1954 Hatley, Minnie Lee B. Dec. 12, 1891 D. Jan. 1, 1955 wife of Grover T. Hatley Since the 1890 census burned, the place I would start looking would be the 1900 Arkansas census SOUNDEX, if you know the families were in Arkansas at that time. "Hatley" should be under the Soundex code H340, and "Phillips" should be under P412. You should be able to find a Hatley family with a son named Grover, Tom, or Thomas, about age 14 in 1900. Then you should be able to find a Phillips family with a daughter named Minnie about age 8 in 1900 (the census was usually taken in the summer, so Minnie wouldn't quite be 9 years old when the 1900 census was taken.) Finding these families will give you the parents' names and birthplaces, and it should also give you some siblings for both Grover Thomas and Minnie Lee. To find out the most complete information, you'll want to look at the actual census record, not just the Soundex. The Soundex is just an index where you can easily find families with similar-sounding names. Luckily, the Soundex record will tell you exactly where on the actual census microfilm roll to look. Hope this helps! After looking at the 1900 records, you can go forward to 1910 or 1920 and find Minnie and Grover Thomas after they get married...or you can go backwards to 1880, 1870, etc., and start tracing their parents. Your local libary or Latter-Day Saints Family History Center should be able to help you in ordering the microfilms. If you are close to a regional branch of the National Archives, you can do all the census research quickly and easily, since they store all the census rolls on-site. By the way, to get the Soundex codes for Barbara's surnames, I used the SOUNDEX calculator at: http://www.frontiernet.net/~rjacob/soundex.htm --Melissa