Dear Reader: Do you think you are related to the individuals listed in this post? Please drop me a note! I love hearing from cousins and others researching my family!
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to play along with Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. Here’s this week’s task:
“1) Go to genea-blogger Ramdy Majors website (http://www.randymajors.com/).
2) Add his blog to your RSS reader, if you don’t have it already.
3) Read his blog post AncestorSearch using Google Custom Search – BETA. See the link at the top of the page that says “AncestorSearch using Google Custom Search – BETA?” Click on it.
4) Test out his Custom Google Search form to help you find online information about your ancestors, especially for their marriages.
5) Tell us about your results – was this useful? Did you find something new? How can Randy improve it?
6) If you like Randy’s Custom Search, add it to your Bookmarks or Favorites.”
Searching the first few generations back (on my mom’s side at least) didn’t net much, but that’s to be expected because not a lot of recent records are online. I did find someone else’s Family Tree Maker site, mentioning my paternal grandparents and their marriage. Otherwise, I was finding my own blog posts mentioning my ancestors’ names.
I came across an Ancestry.com message board about my Corley line, but it’s one I’ve seen and commented on before.
What’s this? I entered in my great-great-grandparents, Benjamin William Franklin Corley and Lois Wakefield, and one of the results was for a domain called “sortedbyname.com.” This site listed marriage records and pointed to original source records. For this particular couple, I was sent to the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index. However, when I searched the index for both of their names, nothing came up. When I searched just for his name, I came up with a marriage record, but with a different woman! Hmmmm… and it’s before Lois died… More work is needed here.
Incidentally, when I type in just Lois’ name, I do find the record for her and Benjamin. The reason why it didn’t show up under his name is because he was only listed by his first initials.
Returning to my mother’s line, my great-grandfather Herman Wild (Sr.)’s FindaGrave memorial came up. While it doesn’t contain a photo of his gravestone, it does include a transcript of his obituary. This includes a wealth of information including his cause of death, employment info, street address and the names of several relatives.
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