Hi,   Thank you ever so much for all that information.  I need to print it all off and digest it?   The Louisa Dorothy Mahala Wright is definitely mine and the Iris has raised some questions.  Louisa had a daughter OSRA born 1904 and a daughter Iris born 1906   Your entry puts the Iris dying 29 January 1992 with a mother nee DANIEL and an F, WRIGHT!  Her father was a Frank Norman WRIGHT.  Surely this has to be our Iris  so it is looking as though at least one daughter went to the US.  I haven't found a marriage in the UK for Iris but will make another search now I have the name WARD.   Iris's mother Louisa was widowed in 1940 and Probate was granted to her in Manchester in 1940.  Unfortunately our census records have a hundred year closure on them so the latest one to be viewed is 1911.  Louisa must have left this country sometime after 1940.  Whether her family were already out there is an unknow factor at the moment.   I think your suggestion that I obtain death certificates would be best.  I will have to check and see if I can pay by card. In the meantime I will explore the sites you have given me.   Many, many thanks.  I really do appreciate the time you must have taken.   Regards,   Jean Spencer     ________________________________ From: the cohens <the.cohens.in.california@gmail.com> To: calosang@rootsweb.com Sent: Friday, 5 October 2012, 17:34 Subject: Re: [CALOSANG] Louisa Dorothy Mahala WRIGHT On 10/1/12, JEAN SPENCER <spen21@btinternet.com> wrote: > Hi, > > I'm new to the list living in Lancashire in the UK. Welcome.  I think you will find our vital records here to be quite different than in the UK. > A researcher searching the Chevin line found the following: Louisa Dorothy > Mahala WRIGHT 3740 Kelton  Avenue Los Angeles died 7 November 1953 - Probate > London to Arthro Charles Knight - solicitor - 27 February 1954. > > What was she doing in Los Angeles? Here is the California Death Index entry for her,  confirming a death in Los Angeles: WRIGHT  LOUISA  DOROTHYMAHAL   02/11/1880  GULICH  DANIEL  F  REST   (OTHER)  LOS ANGELES(19)   11/07/1953    73 yrs http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi There may or not be an obituary for her in the Los Angeles Times, although obituaries here tend to be rare and if she was in a different city in Los Angeles County, any obituary would be in a paper for that city instead. However, your best bet for information about her is her death certificate!  Unlike in the UK, our death certificates here include how long the deceased was in the USA as well as in California.  This information is, of course, subject to error, depending on who the informant is, but it generally fairly close if not right on the mark. The other extremely valuable piece of information in our death certificates is the address of the informant.  It could just be a hospital clerk, but it is often a family member.  And, if you are lucky, it may well be one of the children who you say fell off of the radar.  And, it includes where the deceased was buried, so that could possibly enable you to contact the cemetery. I do not know about ordering death certificates for California from England, though.  Certainly they must be purchased with US dollars. Others will know if you can use a credit card to order from Los Angeles County.  I generally prefer to order my certificates from the State of California as the watermark added, at least in my experience, is thinner and obscures less information.  But the county is faster than the state. State of California: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/birthdeathmar/Pages/CertifiedCopiesofBirthDeathRecords.aspx County of Los Angeles: http://www.lavote.net/RECORDER/BDM_Records.cfm The other thing you could possibly do is order a copy of the Letters of Administration from the Court in the UK, last I checked, it was very inexpensive.  But why on earth would someone dying in California have a probate case in London?  Maybe she was just visiting Los Angeles? > A daughter and son have also disappeared > off the radar.  Did they go to Los Angeles? > > > Osra Norman WRIGHT born 1904 in Manchester Married Leslie Percy L. Beaumont > in London 1923 and (2) Robert S. Hills in London in 1937 > Vivian George ?Norman WRIGHT born 1907 in Buckinghamshire - no further > info. I am confused by the names you provided for the children, but you can search the California Death Index for possible entries for them at the above link.  Play around with various combinations of first and last names and mother's maiden name and father's  name. There is an Iris Wright Ward, mother a Daniel,  could this be your Osra after another marriage or just a coincidence? WARD  IRIS    12/06/1905  DANIEL   WRIGHT  F  REST (OTHER)  LOS   ANGELES(19)    01/29/1992   560-26-0564  86 yrs I have not had a chance to search the 1940 census, if you think they might have come here by 1940, then that is well worth checking and it is available for free at many, many sites.  I have direct links to the various sites carrying it on the following page: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~thecohens/resources.html#1940 That death certificate is your best bet to know how to narrow your search as, at this point, you do not know precisely when any family member came to the USA. There are many passenger list collections available.  A few are free, but most for the 1900s charge.  FindMyPast has  departure lists from the UK through 1960, I am not sure how valuable those would be as some of your names are common. Ancestry.com has passenger lists for arrivals at the main ports in the USA.  Again, those cost except during special holiday promotions. The other very important source to check thoroughly is online family trees.  Even if you just checked a month or two ago, hunt again, you never know when someone may have just uploaded information you did not see before.  My favorite free source to check trees is http://wc.rootsweb.com/ but there are many more, or you can put family names in search engines.  I have lists of various free family tree sites on the Resources page mentioned above.  There also  are some people finding tools to aid in searching the web on the following page: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~thecohens/findingaids.html > I would be very grateful for any information someone might have or advice as > to where I could look for further information. Another place to search and post your own query is the Wright surname subforum at genforum.  Keep your address there current, people could find your post years from now when they start doing genealogy: http://genforum.genealogy.com/wright ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CALOSANG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message