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Posts Tagged ‘Genealogy’

Ricardo Villalobos was born in the Philippines in 1881 & died in Seattle in 1970. Anyone know more about him?

May 31st, 2011 1 comment

I’m researching his genealogy for a friend of mine. I have had trouble finding his obituary in newspaper microfilm because I don’t know the exact date that he died. Does anyone know this or where I can go to find it out. He does not show up in the Social Security Death Index, or rootsweb, or ancestry.com. Google searches typically bring up stuff about an unrelated Mexican singer of the same name.

Is there a (preferably free) place where I can access records from the censuses that the United States took in the Philippines while they were still an American colony? I’ve tried the National Archives in Washington State. They have everything else including the Panama Canal Zone, but for some reason they don’t have the Philippines even though it was a U.S. territory back then and there were at least three censuses taken by the U.S. in the early 1900s.

Ancestry.com doesn’t have the Philippine census either, nor can I find it anywhere else. Anyone know where I can find it?

Maybe yes or maybe no…You really don’t have much for sure to go on! I found this in the S.S.D.I.
Born 15 May 1882
Died Washington St
Feb 1969
Name : Mike Lobos
Unless you have something closer! I can"t believe that this guy
worked in this country for many years without a S.S. Card

Maximizing Genealogical Value of Obituaries

April 13th, 2011 No comments

Obituaries offer a wealth of information about your family. They have important facts about the deceased and important dates that you can use to piece together clues about the history of your family. Here’s how you can find details to research from obituaries.

We all think differently and we all have different ways of processing information, which makes genealogy and ancestry research very confusing. Different historians and different family members keep records in different ways so sometimes finding the facts you need to piece together a family history are elusive.

There are thousands of databases out there claiming to have the answers, but in reality if you are disorganized, those databases are only going to make the confusion worse. And to top it off repetition in names, facts and even certain dates can cause further confusion. To clear up the confusion, here is the basic guideline of what to look for in an obituary and how to keep it all organized.

Searching for Clues in Obituaries

An obituary is the final record of a person’s life, information is included that can lead you to some amazing discoveries about your family. When you look at an obituary it is important that you pinpoint those bits of information and make a note of them. First read the obituary through once or twice just to get an idea of the information included. Then underline the important pieces of information. Read it over again to make sure you underlined everything of importance. Here are the things you will want to look for in an obituary:

  • The deceased’s full name
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Date of birth
  • Date of death
  • Place or City of Residence
  • Occupation
  • Military Service
  • Church Affiliation
  • Life events
  • Awards or Accomplishments
  • Names of survivors
  • Place where funeral or memorial service is held
  • Place of internment

Maximizing the Genealogical Value of Obituaries

Once you’ve read and reread the obituary and you’ve underlined the important pieces of information, the next step is to organize the information in a way you can access later and have a complete understanding of what it is you found important. You can download forms for free that can help you research genealogical clues from obituaries at Obituarieshelp.org

The first thing to do is copy down the information point by point. Then make notes about each point.

Questions to ask yourself as you go through each point are:

  • What information does this clue provide?
  • What public or historical records exist that will provide further information?
  • Where can I find those records?

The notes you make about each point can be anything related to genealogy research:

  • Personal notes – maybe you were reminded about a conversation you had with a relative about this point.
  • Family history notes – maybe another ancestor was a member of the same organization.
  • Notes about what you’ll want to research about this information – perhaps you want to look up how long this person was a member of this organization.
  • Where records that expand on this information might exist – make notes as to where you can find the answers to your questions.

Other notes might include tidbits of information from:

  • Phone book
  • City business directory
  • Internet
  • Church directory
  • School databases

Taking the time to go through obituaries carefully can go a long way to helping you find clues to your family history and connecting you to your ancestors and relatives. Names, places, and dates are just the starting point. There is so much to learn from obituaries, but you have to read between the lines. Not all the information will be there ready for you to see, you’ll have to do a little digging and a little research. Making notes and keeping your notes organized will help you get the information you are looking for.

Melanie Walters

Where to Find Obituaries Online

March 22nd, 2011 6 comments

Many people are confused about where to find obituaries online. More and more newspapers are no longer publishing them. People are left wondering where to find recent newspaper obituaries as well as old obituaries archives.

What is an Obituary?

An obituary is a notice that announces the death of someone with a description of the person’s life and list of family members. An obituary is a valuable tool for genealogists and family tree researchers because it contains clues about the deceased and the deceased’s family. The obituary is often written by the funeral home or mortuary, but many people choose to write an obituary for their loved one that is published in the newspaper and included in the funeral program.

Online Obituary Search

Genealogists prefer online obituary search for family tree and ancestry search when they have no previous knowledge of the deceased. If they don’t know where to begin, the large databases available online can help to narrow the search down to specific geographic locations or archives. You can find what you need, but it will take some time. Many obituaries and death notices from state vital records have not been uploaded online yet so you may have to continue your search through traditional means, including libraries, city archives, and public records.

Online Obituaries Search of databases

If you are researching obituaries for genealogy and family tree research, a good place to start your search for obituaries is on the Internet. There are several free and commercial databases where you can find death records and newspaper obituaries. Most of the commercial databases have reasonable fees that cover costs of security, and reliability.

Where to begin your search for Newspaper Obituaries Online?

Even though obituaries seem to be disappearing from your local newspaper, the best place to start your online obituary research is in Newspaper Obituaries. Many newspapers publish obituaries online but not in their paper editions. They have online databases of recent, current and archived obituaries. In some cases you have to have a membership, but most of them are free, you just have to sign up.

Free Databases of Old Archived Obituaries

There are several databases out there dedicated to keeping genealogy free. They are hard to find and are often not the first place people look. They are archived newspaper obituaries and death notices, and old newspaper obituaries, and old obituaries archives. Many of these archives are free to search and have been accumulating data for years. If you have a little bit of information about where to look and the family name you’ll have access to a huge free database.

What you need for searching Newspaper Obituaries Online?

You will have the most success if you know a bit of information about the person or people you are researching. Online searches can bring up thousands of search results if you enter information that is too vague or incomplete. This will make your job much more time consuming to have to go through all these records to find the one that you need. If it’s possible, before you start your search find as much of the following as you can:

  • Last Name
  • First Name
  • City and state where deceased lived
  • Birth Year

Free Archive Obituaries and Death Notices and Ancestry Search Advice

Many public records and obituaries databases charge a fee to search their archives. You have to buy a membership that lasts for a certain length of time. But the same information is often available for free; you just have to know where to look for it. To sort through some of the confusion, start your search at ObituariesHelp.org. This website offers advice and help identifying what you are looking for and if you really need to purchase a membership or if you can find the obituaries you need for free.

Melanie Walters

is there anywhere on here that you can view public records free?

March 24th, 2010 2 comments

when i go to the sites that say it is free to view public records, it always asks for a credit card number. The link will say its free but its not. Is there any where on here that it is actually free to search AND view public records….death, birth, marriage…….any help will be appreciated… thanks

The LDS church does NOT maintain records of living persons.. they have a huge collection of historical records. There are also many different definitions of what a public record might be (marriage? credit? death?). ALL of these things will be independent and located in different places, with different rules of accessibility.
If you are wanting to research your ancestry.. the best thing to learn is how to be explicit in terms of what it is that you want. A death record for a person who died in 1988 in Michigan can be completely different from a marriage record from the 1870s in Alabama.
A general rule is that records relating to living persons are going to normally have restrictions. You may find marriage records (current) at the courthouse locally.. a birth record for a baby in the last century (broadly speaking) will only be accessible to the parents or person concerned. The law will be different for various states.. different counties will have varying records posted (free) on a www.usgenweb.com site.
Almost everything you do in genealogy will involve looking at the INDIVIDUAL person, defining the locality and time frame, then going for the SPECIFIC piece of information that you want.

Looking for Information on Patty M. Casort Collins?

February 22nd, 2010 1 comment

I recently discovered that my father had been married previous to his marriage to my mother to a women named Patricia (Patty) M. Casort. They were married in 1983 and she died shortly afterwards of cancer. All I know is that she was born around 1961 and lived in Colorado up until she met my father, was married in El Paso, TX, and moved with him to Albuquerque, NM, and Los Angeles, California. I have only been able to find the record of their marriage, no birth or death records. I have looked through every genealogy and records website I can find or think of. If you have any information or idea I would be very thankful.

If you cannot find a record of her death, are you absolutely sure she died?
There are 3 Patricia Collins in the SSDI who were born in 1961, but they all died recently.
Can you ask your dad for more info?

Finding Free Death Records Online

December 27th, 2009 4 comments

Are you looking for information on finding free death records online? There are many different reasons why you might want to look for free death records. A very popular reason many people choose for doing this is to find out more about their family history. They may search to do a family tree or to track their genealogy.

Whatever the reasons you have for finding free death records online, it’s important to understand that this can be done quicker and easier than ever before. You can find important vital records such as the death history of someone or a family from the Internet. In the past, it wouldn’t have been so easy to track down these death records.

If you know where the person died, you could go to the local government in that state or records-keeping courthouse to public records on the person. This will typically be the most accurate method of finding death records and in the past, this was pretty much the only method. That is not true anymore today.

Now if you have a computer with an Internet connection, you can begin finding free death records of almost anyone to have ever died in the United States. Laws dictate that these records must be filed and kept in regards to deaths of people in this country. The records are also available to the public if you know how and where to look for them. Only in rare cases are the death records sealed by the courts, sometimes for the protection of the family.

The exact amount of information listed in the death record may vary depending on the state. There is also different information that you will find depending on which service you use to get the death record. Some databases will only give you a certain amount of information for free and then you will need to pay a fee of some sort to obtain the rest of the information in the report.

So what are some things you can find in this death record? Usually you will get the date of death, date of birth, obituary/death notice, cemetery location, records of spouses, records of other family members, cause of death, death certificate, funeral records, genealogy database and more. The best part is that you can often get all of this information for free online and in just a short amount of time. All you need to know is the name and state of the person you are looking for.

If you don’t know the state of death, you can always search nationwide but if multiple results come up, it might be more difficult to narrow down which ones are the right ones for you without having more information. The more info you have, the better but you can still do a search with no more than a name.

Internet databases are now becoming the most common method of searching for these types of public records. They are quick, easy and accurate and all can be found from your home computer with ease.

Rose Quadee
http://www.articlesbase.com/relationships-articles/finding-free-death-records-online-695679.html