DIFFERENT NAMES

How many names can a person have?.....

In genealogy that could be a lot of areas that need to be explained. So lets get started. Birth records are the start of it all. It gives the name of hospital or home of where the baby was born. The babies given name, race, date of birth, city, township and state. If the baby was male or female, or twins. (Birth order of the twins.) Parents names along with the maidan name of the mother. The parents age, resident, race, occupation, and where they were born. With the mother they want to know how many children she has given birth to. Midwives have been around since time begin. My great grand mother was a midwife. And she would have her grandkids fill out the birth certificates. My mother told me that they did not always know how to spell the names and they recorded the name as they sounded. Census taker also recorded the names how they sounded, not all Census taker could spell well. So when you are searching look at all of the possibilities that the name could be spelled.

Josephine- Jossie

Mary- Marie

Henrietta- Hattie

Elizabeth- Liz

Beth- Elizabeth

Alexander- Ellie

Odie- Odee

Elaine- Ellin

Lucinda- Lucy

THE FEMALE LINE

We don't always start with the female line because it is hard to trace. Somewhere between the ages of 14 to 16 years of age you can find the family member still living at home with her family. After that, for the most part she it gone....Not unless you know who she had married. 

When we start researching genealogy we are excited about all of the information that we find. Somethings we know about, and somethings are a complete shock to us.  We search countless records. Anything or something that will give us a clue as to what has happened to the female in the family. The females that do not get married are easier to find, but for those that marry, it is much more difficult. So what is the answer? 

Obituaries.

Find the historian in the family and ask if they have any obituaries of family members, if they do, this is your starting point. These pieces of paper will have who the females in the family married.

Social Security Records

Once you have this information, the next area to search is the social security records. The record that you want is the application record. On this record you will find the person full name, birth, and parents names. If the mother was married more than one time, all of her married names will be on the social security records.

Death Certificates

These record will then lead you to death certificates. You will find the same information with additional information such as, age, what state parents are born in, full name of spouse, mothers maiden name.

PASSING THE TORCH

One of the most important things in ones life is family. When it comes to genealogy you always find out who are the family historians. These are the people in the family that people don't pay a lot of attention to. There importance is not realized until we need them. They know everything, and if they don't, they know where to go to get the information. Family historians are very patient people, they gather information that no one else wants. They get excited about old newspapers, bibles, obituaries, cemeteries, etc.

I have know two members in my family that were great at this job. Gert, and my Aunt Voicey. In other cultures they would be called story tellers. These are the ones that can go back to the beginning of the family line and bring it to the present. They where passionate about their quest, and could look at a family member and tell you who their parents are. They will be missed. The information that they have passed onto us is invaluable.