Some suggestions on how to determine names of parents and grandparents of U.S. residents -- Aged, single, widowed or disabled persons may be found living with other family members on the microfilmed United States Federal Censuses. Sometimes a household will contain nieces and nephews or grandchildren. Family members often can be found living right next door or working as farm "servants" in neighboring households. Family groups tended to migrate from state to state together, meeting and marrying their neighbors along the way. Newly-arrived emigrants often went to live with kin who had emigrated earlier. I believe the 1900 census records date of immigration, whether alien or naturalized and if the latter, date of naturalization. Microfilmed U. S. Federal Censuses are available up to and include 1930 and were taken every ten years. Data from the lost 1890 censuses can be partially made up for by consulting old city directories. If you don't have a subscription to Ancestory.com, find out how to compute the Soundex code for your surname of interest on line, or in the Soundex book at your genealogy library, then order to view for up to six weeks a census Soundex film that covers your surname, state and census year of interest at your local LDS (Mormon) FHC. Volunteers will help you do just that. That first film you order (Soundex) will contain enough data to identify your particular family and will direct you specifically to a second census microfilm that contains the actual full information recorded by the enumerator. You will need to order both films - first the correct Soundex one, and later the Census one. For a pittance ($3.75 for each film you rent), you will acquire many new facts about your family. I have never had to wait more than 10-14 days for films I requested through my local LDS FHC to arrive at my branch. (I did have to wait much longer for microfilms I rented via ther libraries in town, however).. Photocopies can be made directly from microfilms for about a quarter a page at your local LDS FHC so that you don't have to write everything down,. The helpful volunteers will assist you with anything you need including pencils, papers, magnifying glasses, setting you up with a reader (who can request a large print magnifying type reader), physically getting film in and out of the machine, etc. LDS (Mormon) libraries are free and open to the general public and they have many films and books right on the premises. Look in the phone book under churches for locations of their temples and associated family history centers. If they determine you need something from their main respository, they will order it for you. I am not a Mormon but found the volunteers to be very helpful. You may be able to access similiar films for free at an archival library or local public library with genealogy material. Viewing these USA Federal Census films is an easy, quick, inexpensive and sure way to "jump-start" your research. You might want to take a look at various reference books on the Index Shelves of your local genealogical library. There are many odd reference books, tax books, etc.. Names of individuals found on old USA Federal Censuses in book form are divided by state and census year. Depending on what state you are interested in, they are as current as 1860, 1870, 1880, even up to 1900 in some cases. Keep in mind individuals names may be misspelled. Ordering Soundexed census films helps you get over this "misspelled" or surname variation hurdle. For example, all the Kelly and Kelley families living in a particular state in a particular census year would appear together on the Soundex film. . Circa 1900 USA county marriage applications (not to be confused with certificates) may give information on PARENTS of the bride and room. While this varies from state to state, county to county, I know for a fact that Delaware Co. IN marriage applications for that time period contain many questions answered by the couple with specifics on their parents. County marriage applications and other documents such as wills, b/m/d extracts, newspaper accounts, cemetery records, land records, court cases, etc., can be obtained for a nominal "donation" by contacting the historical society in the U. S. county in which your family lived, married, raised a family. I obtained a treasure chest of documents on my families from the Delaware County Historical Alliance, Muncie, IN. Each document gave me new information to work with. Wills and other court cases were especially valuable, as were cemetery records and death extracts for identifying members of extended family. As stated, some USA county marriage applications circa 1900 give specifics on the bride and groom (including maiden name, prior marriages, whether they ended in divorce or death of spouse, signiatures of witnesses, and may also include the names and addresses of the parents of the couple. Historical societies also publish very interesting county periodicals with an every-name index in the winter issues. I look forward to my subscriptions and have found a record of one family member on a list of former school teachers. Send away for microfilmed copies of USA newspapers to look for death notices via the free interlibrary loan program with the help of your reference librarian. Death notices contain much valuable information and reveal who in the family was still living at the time of the funeral and where they resided. Your reference librarian has books that list names of newspapers in business in particular locales during specific time periods, whether they have been microfilmed and where to send for them. When they arive you can view them right there at your own library. Be sure to check both the death notice and the obituary pages. When ordering, request copies of newspapers for the two days following the date of death. Deaths notices may appear in newspapers in the town of residence, as well as larger county newspapers and even in newspapers in locations where the deceased previously resided. If you lack a definite date of death but have a good idea of when and where, there are microfilmed death indices at genealogy and archival libraries and local LDS FHCs, divided by state and approximate 10-year increments. Data is alphabetical by surname and contain name of deceased, date of death, spouse's name, (county of death, city of death by checking code at beginning of microfilm), and individual's age at time of death. Best of all, you are given the exact number of the death certificate which you can then order. This information might be available on the Internet, as well. While the data doesn't cover recent deaths, you may find someone not located on Social Security Death Index. Social Security applications often give information including oftentimes where they lived and work circa 1936. Also give parents' names. Your family may be written up in a old USA county history book because they belong to particular agricultural, fraternal, religious, or political organizations or were early settlers. Check the ones on your library shelves, but your reference librarian can order additional books for you not found in their collection via free interlibrary loan program. You don't need exact title or author, just request a history book for that particular county. Coontact libraries in areas where your families lived. They may very well have catalogue card type files on past residents and organizations, in addition to old city directories, phone books, school year books, newspaper clippings, records from local cemeteries. The main branch of my local Spokane, WA public library has a genealogy floor with reference books and microfilms, but they also have a catalogue card file containing death announcements from old newspapers pasted onto 3 x 5 cards. These cards cover Spokane and nearby towns. They also have a Northwest Room with older reference books and a helpful and knowledgeable librarian with materials on Washington State, possibly adjoining states. She may be able to do a look-up for you. Also, ask if the library's genealogy department continues to be staffed on volunteers from the Eastern Washington Genealogy Society on Thursdays who do limited genealogy research for those unable to come to the library in person. I don't believe there is a charge. Other libraries may have similar volunteers. One of my favorite reader-friendly Soundex microfilmed set of records gives data on aliens crossing the Canadian-USA border circa 1895-1924. While called St. Albans (VT) records, they pertain to anyone crossing at ANY point along the entire border. Included with the usual record data is not only last residence, but address and name of relative in "old" country, same at intended destination, traveling companions, when last in country and color of hair, eyes, height and weight, identifying scars, etc. Best of all, they give the name of any ship, port, date involved in travel which can lead to a second microfilm of ship manifests. I found aunts and uncles on these films which are alphabetical by surname, because all the Fords for that entire time period were listed together. It wasn't difficult to spot my aunt "Pat" from information given and find she was really Winifred Rosina Ford, her nickname was "Pat" after her Irish grandfather, and "Denis" was really Harold Denis Ford. My father's record confirmed his story about the scar in his left eyebrow being the result of a shipboard mishap when he was emigrating from Liverpool. The St. Alban's record mentioned a "fresh cut over eyebrow" - Gave me goosebumps! Note, although the Soundex film says it ends in 1924, he emigrated in 1925 and his record was on the film. Jean ----- Original Message ----- From: <CMARYPATC@aol.com> To: <IRISH-AMERICAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 5:23 PM Subject: Re: [Irish-American] On what documents would parents names be given? > New > Jersey. Would he have written his parents names on any document I could try > to order? Thanks for any ideas > > > I tto would be interested in the answere to this question .. > > MaryPat > --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.716 / Virus Database: 472 - Release Date: 7/9/2004