Death Records Now

I’m stuck on my great-great grandfather on my family tree. i have his birth year, his death year, his social security number, and I know he was in world war one. Ohio (his birthplace) didn’t start keeping birth records until 1908 though. is there anyway I can find out the name of his father? He was born in Ohio, but lived & died in Wisconsin. I just want to be able to find his father’s name. I don’t really care about anything else.

His SSN application, $27, should have his father’s name and his mother’s maiden name. His death certificate might have them. His marriage record might have them. The article about his wedding in the local paper’s society pages, on microfilm in the library, may have them.

You could post his name, DOB and the places he was born in and lived in (town, COUNTY, state) here and someone might find him on the census. That isn’t as good as the SSN app, but it is free. It isn’t as good because if he lived with an uncle and called him "Dad" because his parents died when he was young, he might be on the census with relation "son" instead of "nephew".

I’ve been helping a relative do some research on his family, and wee have a recording someone in his family did where his Grandmother describes having been married 4 different times between 1917-1960. Thing is, we can’t find a single marriage record for the woman. Not in any of the Indiana counties that she lived in during that period, or in St. Louis, MO where she claims on the recording that at least 3 of the marriages took place.

We have located the birth records for the children that she had with the first 2 husbands, (showing they were just barely legitimate) and census records showing her last name as having been changed to the 3rd husband’s name, plus her SS death record where she has husband #4’s last name (plus she’s buried with him)

At the time that the recording was made, I don’t think anyone believed there was any reason to question her version of events, or would have even if they thought of it. Now, many years later it is a matter of curiosity for the family and no one is left alive to really get upset about whether she was telling the truth or not.

My question is this: Is there a likely database or location where these marriage records may be stored that I’m missing? i can understand not being able to find a record of her last marriage, since neither Indiana or Illinois publishes the records for marriages that took place in the 50’s and 60’s. Plus that one some people actually remember seeing take place, so there’s no doubt it occurred. The first three marriages though we ought to be able to find, right? Is this something even worth chasing, or does it sound like maybe the marriages never actually took place?

I’m just trying to make sure that I’m not missing a resource, I’d hate to make a long trip trying to track this down in MO if the woman was simply engaging in a little revisionist’s history while she delivered her memoirs.
Shenaya- sorry, I failed to mention that she gave specific dates for the first two marriages (and divorces) and a year for the 3rd marriage and divorce. Going off of census records, draft cards and city directories in addition to the birth records of the children that she had with husbands 1 and 2, and a picture that was found of husband 3, I am certain she did in fact have relationships with all 3 men. I just haven’t been able to find any marriage records. Husband 1 married someone else shortly after she is supposed to have divorced him, husband 2 was married to someone else briefly a few years before she married him (this is the recollection of a 93 yr old niece of his) but I don’t have anything to tell me whether he was widowed, divorced or separated, and 3 was described as a playboy of sorts, I know he had a wife 3 years prior to when she would have married him, and I can’t be sure a divorce ever took place their either.
Joyce- I’m not used to giving personal info on YA, even when it isn’t mine. Sorry. The people and relevant dates in question are:

Lydia May Nolan
married James B Weir of Fountain Co IN sometime in 1916. Location unknown. Divorced 1-5-1917.
married Horace Sterling Zick of Fountain Co IN on 12-24-1918 in St Louis MO, divorced by 1922
married Thomas Larimore of Pekin, Tazewell, IL sometime in 1922 in St Louis MO, divorced 1923

Yes, I am on ancestry.com I’ve got records on these people out the wazoo, just none to explain whether all the bed hopping was done with the proper paperwork having been filed.
Maxi- actually when i started working on this (for my 3rd cousin) I had absolutely nothing but 2 iffy names and a location. My great aunt sent him to me because he wanted to find out about his father’s family and I am the only person in our family who is both interested in genealogy and familiar with the computer. His whole problem was that that side of his family was never an acceptable topic of conversation while his father was alive. So I started digging and finding records, starting with his dad and then good old grandma, then a birth record, then another birth record for another kid with a different guy. I must have 200 emails back and forth from me finding a record or having an idea and him digging up a piece of information from someone to corroborate it. I have enough records that I can put together a reasonable chronology for everyone involved, but to me, considering the time period, all the brief marriages and quick divorces that were supposedly taking place just in time

If you don’t provide names, all we can do is give generic answers. She could have been playing fast and loose with the truth, or the records simply aren’t online yet. Have you contacted the state vital records office requesting a copy of the marriage certificates? Are you using ancestry.com for your search?

http://health.mo.gov/data/vitalrecords/

So I located the marriage record on-line for my great grandparents,born in the mid 1800s.The information about their parents names and where they came from,wasn`t there.So, I need to either travel to the town where the record is,or send them $15.00 by mail.Will I get a copy of the actual record?I need brakes on my car and with gas prices so high,I thought I would write for it,but then I worry,I will get the wrong record,or the information I need won`t be there.Mich has not released all the death records and a person has to be dead for 150 years before you can obtain a birth certificate.Anyone that has been dead that long,likely was not even born here.The reason I couldn`t find it before,my great grandmother`s last name was misspelled on-line,but not on the actual record.I have gotten more information from family search,than my worthless ancestry.com subscription.
You were all very helpfull.Hard to pick a best answer.

Having read your other question, I’m going to answer parts of both in one place.

I have pretty good experience with Michigan marriage records. First, you need to know that there are different types of "marriage records". This is a generic term for anything that documents a marriage, whether it be a marriage license or certificate issued to the couple, a return book, record book, marriage bond, or register book. Each of these will have different information about the couple. In Michigan each county determines what records they keep and what information will be on them. Some counties have made frequent changes. If you get information from the record about the parents is hit and miss. In Michigan they often have place of residence, but usually do not have place of birth or places associated with the parents.

Since you are looking for a copy, I suspect you have not located the record online, but rather an index or transcription of the record. This source should give you the precise information you need to find the copy they indexed or transcribed from. If it was from Family Search you might be able to take the source code information to a Family History Center and request the microfilm. If it’s from a published genealogy book you can sometimes request an inter-library loan from your local branch library, request a photocopy of the page of interest, or check Google Books.

A few tips about ordering records from public agencies: they will not do research and they will not guess, no matter how logical or obvious. They will look for exactly what you ask them to look for. If the date range you ask for is 1 day off, if a name is spelled 1 letter off, or if your information gives them more than 1 possible record you may get a note back saying the record could not be found. This is why the indexes online are helpful. They *should* be exactly as they appear in the record. In both cases this requires that someone is able to read the handwritten record (i.e. Elmira and Elvira can get confused). When you send away to the agency they will either photocopy the information from their books, or they will transfer the information to a form and this form is considered a copy (although not always certified).

GenWebs do not provide records, they provide a place where people can post information and links to helpful resources. What the GenWeb itself provides is free, but not all of the resources they list will be.

I know that my great grandmother’s name was Kathryn Lescher and that lived in Ohio as a child. I found her in the 1910 census living with her mother whose name is listed as Mary King. I then proceeded to find a death record for a Mary Lescher who was also born in Germany, buried in Ohio and died in Michigan, which is where she was living towards the end of her life. On this death record, her father is listed as having the last name Stein. I then found a marriage record in 1902 for a Mary Stein and a Joseph Lescher in the same area of Ohio. Finally, I found a death record for a Joseph Lescher in 1907 and a marriage record for a Mrs. Mary Lescher and a John King in 1908. Given all of these records, does this all seem to fit together well enough to conclude that these are the same people and in fact my ancestors?
Sorry. John King was also in the home in 1910. I was able to find Mary in the 1900 census but she was living with her sister who she must have come to America with while her parents stayed back in Germany.
Also, her burial was in the same place as where she lived for a large portion of her life growing up.
And the 1910 census says she’s married twice to further back up the two different marriages. The only weird thing is that with the dates she would have married at about 17 years old to a man about 13-14 years older. On the other hand, John King is 13 years older than her as well, so I guess that makes it seem more believable.

Almost all of it is real clear that Mary was married 1st to Joseph, married 2nd as widow to John King, and thus her name is correct in the 1910 census.
My question might be what happened to John King? he wasn’t in the home in 1910? did she divorce him and resume using the prior Lescher name?
Whether or not the death record is your Mary is open to question, even with the last name of Stein. You would need to match up the dates to determine if it is close enough. WHERE is the Ohio burial? is it in the same location as she was raised?
I would still work to find Mary in the 1900 census, and define who the parents were. If they are buried in the same locality as the Mary whose death record you have.. it would be more evidence.

I found this marriage record on the LDS "Pilot". I spent 2 hours hunting Thomas, but he eluded me. Can anyone find him on a census, death or other record? I have Margaret in 1880 and 1900. I can’t find her in 1910, 1920 or 1930. Corrections and additions to the record in [square brackets]

Groom’s Name: Thos. Ledbetter
Groom’s Birth Date: 1881, Illinois
Bride’s Name: Maggie [Margaret Rachel] Longwell Brown
Bride’s Birth Date: 1886, [3 Sep 1876] Iowa

Marriage Date: 05 Oct 1907
Marriage Place: Avoca, Iowa
Groom’s Father’s Name: Joseph Ledbetter
Groom’s Mother’s Name: Martha Horn
Bride’s Father’s Name: Amos Brown [Amos Longwell]
Bride’s Mother’s Name: Katherine Gillann [Elizabeth Catherine Gillam]
Groom’s Marital Status: Single
Groom’s Previous Wife’s Name:
Bride’s Marital Status: Widowed
Bride’s Previous Husband’s Name: [Lawrence William Brown]

Some web sites say Margaret married
1) Lawrence William Brown b: April 26, 1874,
2) John Dersham,
3) —- Riddle

She dies in Orange County, California 14 Feb 1973, with the surname Riddle. I have her death index entry. I looked for her as Ledbetter, Dersham and Riddle in 1910 on; no luck,

In 1900 she is in Nebraska with her first husband, mis-indexed as "Torence" Brown, and their son, Myron Brown, b, 1899.

If you strike out, I could also use the Pack family crest, proof that my grandfather was 1/5th Cherokee, and a detailed breakdown of my ethnicity based on my picture. The eagle’s, ethnicity, too . . .
<wild laughter>

Thanks to you all.
====================

Tina – if they deserted or divorced, they would not be the first to lie about it. That looks like Lawrence, all right; he was in Wayne County in 1900. I should have checked. Thanks! Margaret is still a mystery.

The fact Lawrence has the child suggests that Margaert did the deserting.

Ted,
I was unable to locate Thomas Ledbetter also but something seems a bit off, in that, on the marriage record for Thomas and Maggie, it states the bride’s marital status as widowed. Now, I did locate what I thought was Lawrence Brown and his son Myron Brown in the 1920 census and Lawrence also shows his marital status as a widower. You may already be aware of this but, if not, you might want to check those records.

Name:Lawrence Brown
Home in 1920:Wayne, Wayne, Nebraska
Age:55
Estimated birth year:abt 1865
Birthplace:Iowa
Relation to Head of House:Self (Head)
Father’s Birth Place:United States of America
Mother’s Birth Place:United States of America
Marital Status:Widowed [Widow]
Race:White
Sex:Male
Home owned:Rent
Able to read:Yes
Able to Write:Yes
Neighbors:View others on page

Household Members:NameAge
Lawrence Brown 55
Myron D Brown 20
Anna M Brown 16

Anna M. Brown is Myron’s wife. I also located them in the 1930 census with children.

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.

trying to find info about my father side of the family and all I have to work with is his name.

There isn’t a central site. Birth records are usually kept hidden for privacy’s sake.

RootsWeb has death records for California, Kentucky, Texas & Maine, plus an SSDI:
http://searches.rootsweb.com/

The Brits have
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

If you can see kangaroos nibbling your roses, or say "Eh" at the end of every third sentence, you are out of luck.

Your birth certificate will tell you your father’s birth state and age at the time. His SSN application will tell you his parents’ names and his exact birth date. You can get it, but
1) It costs $27
2) He has to be dead
3) He had to have had a SSN.

If your mother and he were married and you live near the town they were living in when they married, go to the library and look through the social pages for that week. You may get lucky; if they had an article there, it will be chock full of good stuff; "The groom is the son of . . .", "Best man was his brother . . .", the bride is the daughter of . . ." and so forth. It will be free, too. If they were living in Fresno but ran away to Las Vegas to get married, there still may be a snippet in the Fresno Bee.

The county clerk may let you look at the marriage record for free, if you go into the office and prove you are related. That isn’t on-line, but I thought I’d mention it.

I’m trying to track down my family history. Mama can only tell me so much, and then it’s a dead end. All the older folks in my family are gone, and the public records at the courthouse only go so far. Mama is also ill, so she gets short-tempered if I ask her too many questions. I have to almost catch her when she’s in a reminiscent mood … and THEN I’ll have to be ready with a tape recorder, or I’ll miss a lot of what she’s got to say.

I can’t find a good online site that’ll give me anything! I can, of course, pay for the records I need just to get the names and the dates that I’m looking for … but it’ll cost me a pretty penny! Some of these records won’t be in the free archives for a few more years, since they wait 50 years after the person’s death to release them to the public for free.

If it were a simple thing like tracing one family lineage, I probably wouldn’t have much of a problem. But I’m talking centuries of scattered slaves with no Census Bureau records, as well as Native American ancestry … and I don’t even know what tribe!

It’ll be REALly interesting to find out if I’m related to a certain public figure with whom I share a last name … maybe one of his ancestors owned one of mine?

But, Alas! I don’t exactly know where to start!

Wendy provided you with some valuable advise. You will incur some expenses as she said and cyndi’s list is an invaluable resource. There is a site I recently found that will provide you with some public records for many local courthouses:
https://www.virtualgumshoe.com/resources/index.asp?CATEGORY_ID=90. Many public records for various counties are available. I’ve been able to obtain copies of actual documents (without visiting the courthouse or paying a fee) for my tree. Even my marriage record is listed on my county site!
It’s great because most public records will cost you and these are available on-line. Not every county is listed here but there are many. If you can obtain any tidbits of information from your Mama write them down. Gather up everything you can. A great site to help you begin learning how to research and organize the information you collect and gather is http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides/Family-and-Relationships/Genealogy.html?xa=1.
There are many genealogical sites that are free. One thing you should remember about the information you find that others have compiled is – you must research the historical records for yourself for accuracy. The compilers’ may have just copied what others have found. Make sure the information is correct by viewing official documents, i.e., marriage, birth, census records, etc. yourself. Here are some very good free sites:
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp FamilySearch.org is a non-profit service sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can also download free software that will help you keep your family tree organized.
http://usgenweb.org/. This site has been created by a group of volunteers that are committed to keep genealogy free and have provided a website for genealogical research in every county and state in the United States.
http://rwguide.rootsweb.ancestry.com/. RootsWeb is also a great site. It’s funded by Ancestry.com. It provides links to ton’s of additional sites as well.
http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/index.asp . Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. Genealogy Learning Center. This site has also has some great getting started tips and free downloadable charts and forms.
http://www.myheritage.com/. Is free, private and secure. You can create a web site, build and save a family tree, share photos and videos and much more.
http://www.geni.com/home. You can build your family tree and invite others to join via email and expand your tree. You can add photo’s and video’s.

I’m Searching for a Marriage between ?McCoy and Josephine Marie Hauser-Hessey She appears as Marie Josephine McCoy on her sons Robert Dickson Hessey World War One Draft Reg. She divorced Her first Husband Gerard Grant Hessey after 1910 she lived in Tacoma,Pierce County,Washington by 1918 and is married again to a ? McCoy but on the 1920 census she is listed as a Widow still living in Tacoma.Pierce co,Washington I have searched the Washington State Digital Archives she’s only listed with her first husband. No records after the 1930 census she is still living in tacoma,washington by herself I cant even find a death record for her I’m not even sure she is still in Washington I need help I’m stuck.
Josephine Marie Hauser of Marie Josephine Houser was born 1874 in Alton,Illinois
Grannytoad Frank McCoy is actually Frank Hessey apparantly her second husband adopted him and no its not him in Prison his father was born in Iowa and his mother in Illinois. But thanks for the Info.

Not sure if this will help much, but I think I found her death record in the Washington Death Index (1940-1996):

Marie McCoy, died 8 May 1944, age 72, Tacoma, cert # 718

You might consider contacting the Pierce County Genealogical Society to see if they can help you find the official marriage record:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~watpcgs/tpcgs.htm

Incidentally, my g-g-grandmother was a Houser: Sarah Catherine (1863-1925) born in DeKalb Co., Indiana, daughter of Adam. Most Houser/Hausers came from Pennsylvania. Bet we have a connection somewhere.

I am in charge of research and testing for an online consumer website (www.CompleteReviews.net). I have spent the last three months testing public record sites. At first I wondered why anyone would want to pay to access "public" records. Well, that is because of how hard it can be to get to them.

For marriage or death records, I would assume you would start with the county where the marriage or death was recorded. In most states, that responsibility falls under county government. You could start by searching the counties website (assuming they have one). The more modern ones are putting their records online. If that does not pan out, then you can contact the county records department and see what procedure they require. Usually you have to fill out request forms and in many cases there is a small processing fee (5-10 bucks).

Another option is to actually utilize a marriage or death record search site. These companies create massive databases of public information (up to 3-4 billion records) and store it in a single location so that you can easily search for the records you need. They even pay to access some records that, while public, are not accessible like cell phone records or unlisted phone numbers. If you want to go that route, the only sites I can recommend are the ones that passed our testing requirements. You can find them at http://www.completereviews.net under the categories of Marriage Records or Public Records. The cost is somewhere between $15 and $25 but it saves you a bunch of time and you get instant results.

Happy hunting!