Hello Members, I need some help from you long time researchers and you research experts please. So many of you have family lines back to 1700s even 1600s. Well I have a problem. How is it that you are able to get the wife and children names of these families before they were put on census if you are unable to find their death or anything else on them. I can see how easy research is 1850 and on as all the family and where they are from are put on the census, but how do you get the wife and children names befor 1850. I would welcome all the help I can get. Thank you, Barbara [email protected]

Hi Barbara, The first step that I personally use is to take the 1850 Census which gives names of children and start backtracking. The 1840 Census gives ages, compare that to the children you can in 1850. Such as if you have a Thomas who is 12 in 1850, then in 1840 Thomas would have been a male child 0-2. I do this for all the children listed in 1850. Next is to find a will, probate, land transaction, family bibles, ect. which may give names of children or extended family. From there I try to sort out all probable births, deaths, marriages. You may find that in 1830 Thomas' family had 8 children but in later census only 5, try to determine the ages that are missing by the 1850 census. After that try to determine any children that were old enough to be married by that time and check the 1850 census for that/those child/children. Most of the time in that era families lived in close proximty. Hope these suggestions help some. Rose __________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - Make it your home page! http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

Hi, Barbara, One item that helps immensely is finding a will which lists their wife and children's names. Another is when they give/sell land to their children, sometimes it mentions the relationship. If you are really, really blessed you might find a family Bible. Sometimes oral tradition is all you have to go on or church records. Best of luck in your research. Janni Smith Salés ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara Smith" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 3:06 AM Subject: [WILLIAMS] Need some teaching help! > > > Hello Members, > I need some help from you long time researchers and you research experts > please. > So many of you have family lines back to 1700s even 1600s. Well I have a > problem. How is it that you are able to get the wife and children names of > these families before they were put on census if you are unable to find > their death or anything else on them. > I can see how easy research is 1850 and on as all the family and where > they are from are put on the census, but how do you get the wife and > children names befor 1850. > I would welcome all the help I can get. > Thank you, > Barbara > [email protected] > > > ==== WILLIAMS Mailing List ==== > List web page: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/surname/w/williams.html > Genealogy Links - http://www2.netdoor.com/~cch/GEN-links.htm > > ============================== > Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the > last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx > >

Barbara, That's actually an easy question. You look for wills, deeds, court records of all levels, marriage records of the couple, as well as some of the children which sometimes listed the parents names, death or birth records of the children or spouse, almost any kind of legal record one can think of. Also, look for old newspapers that may contain articles about the family, possibly even obituaries. There are many places online that offer such records, depending on the area, as well as the good old fashioned method of going to the County Courthouses, State Libraries which sometimes holds collections of family records for their areas as well as archived records, and of course the State Archives for whatever state you are researching, some of them have many many kinds of records for various counties in their area, and it is well worth your time to see what's there. A good primer about how to do research can be found at: http://www.familysearch.org/ Check out their links under "Get Started With Family History". Deloris Williams ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara Smith" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 3:06 AM Subject: [WILLIAMS] Need some teaching help! > > > Hello Members, > I need some help from you long time researchers and you research experts > please. > So many of you have family lines back to 1700s even 1600s. Well I have a > problem. How is it that you are able to get the wife and children names of > these families before they were put on census if you are unable to find > their death or anything else on them. > I can see how easy research is 1850 and on as all the family and where > they are from are put on the census, but how do you get the wife and > children names befor 1850. > I would welcome all the help I can get. > Thank you, > Barbara > [email protected]