genealogy tip

Unfortunately, sometimes we just can’t find that one birth record or census entry that we need. An excellent alternative to traditional sources of genealogy information is the local newspaper! While not always available, a newspaper article can be an excellent way to fill in missing pieces in an ancestor’s story.

Newspaper repositories are scattered far and wide. There are some large databases, like Newspapers.com or the British Newspaper Archive. If you have a subscription or access via library or free trial, these are a great place to start. The Library of Congress has some digitized papers online, as do many local libraries or universities. Try searching for “newspaper archive <city, county, state, or region>” in your favorite search engine.

As an example, this is the method I used to find the death information for my 4th great grandmother, Martha Crakes nee Watson. Her obituary was published in the South Bend Tribune and gave me her date and place of death.

Here at Weaving the Tapestry, we’re well-versed in looking at alternative sources to find information about hard to find ancestors. Check out what we have to offer!

We’ve worked back through John’s life to the very first moment: his birth.

I already know from his death certificate his birth date, and from his marriage record his birthplace. But for completeness, I now search for his birth record. In addition to good genealogy and sourcing practice, it’s possible that the birth record will have contradictory information from the marriage or death records that needs to be sorted out.

As before, if you aren’t already familiar with sources of birth records either to request as an eligible relative/researcher or to search what is publicly available, you can start by searching for “birth records <city, state, or country>”.

Instead of Ancestry, this time I’m on FamilySearch (an excellent free resource) in the “Michigan Births and Christenings, 1775-1995” database. My search is:

Even though this is accurate to what I’ve found in other records, the search returns no results! When this happens, it’s best to remove some information to increase the chance your search will return something. I like to start with location. Instead of Bridgeport, I will enter Saginaw (the county in which Bridgeport resides). The record I’m looking for is now the first result:

If this doesn’t work, try removing or using soundex or partial search for the last name, or giving a range to the year. Slowly expand your search to give you more results to sort through. As always, be careful for duplicate names and find some corroborating information. Sometimes this all fails, and if you have the patience you can find the record by going through scanned images page by page.

While the birth record does not give me any additional information, it does support the information I’ve already found through other sources and is a good cross check and record to add to my record of John.

I know from oral family history that John L. Siems married twice, with his first wife being my ancestor. He later married a woman with three children and had his second child, my grandfather’s younger sister.

As with death records, if you don’t know where to start you may want to begin with a search such as “marriage records <city, state, or country>”. Different regions will have different availability of records.

Luckily for me, marriage record entries (if not certificates) are available for Michigan for the dates I need. From a search of the Ancestry database “Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867-1952” I find my great grandfather’s second marriage certificate. In it, I find his mother’s maiden name Popp, that he was previously married once, and he married Maude Schmeider nee Smith and they married in Saginaw.

I don’t have a certificate for his first marriage, but the database does contain his marriage record entry with the county clerk. Again, this record has his mother’s maiden name as well as his birthplace (Bridgeport) and his wife’s name and her parents, getting me back another generation on my grandfather’s mother’s side.

Another critical piece of information that can be found in marriage records are the names of the witnesses. Sometimes these were unrelated friends, or even the minister’s family. Other times, they are siblings or cousins that can give you critical information on family links.

If you can’t find a marriage record, some sources of information include newspaper announcements and obituaries, which may state when or how long the deceased was married. Another source is census records, which may give an estimated date of marriage or, if not a column in the census, the marriage can be estimated based on when the first child was born. This is also useful to narrow down a date range when searching for the marriage records entry.

I can now add to John:

John L. Siems
b. 24 May 1895 in Bridgeport, Michigan, USA
m. 2 Sep 1922 in Saginaw, Saginaw, Michigan, USA to Gretta Tomlinson
m. 16 Aug 1930 in Saginaw, Saginaw, Michigan, USA to Maude Smith
d. 7 Aug 1979 in Saginaw, Saginaw, Michigan, USA

Need help with your family history search? Contact us at info@weavingthetapestrygenealogy.com for a free estimate!

While Weaving the Tapestry has still been active since the start of the pandemic, the state of life has made it difficult to sit down and blog. However, things have calmed down and the blog is being resurrected!

This week, our genealogy tips will focus on where to go next once you’ve found an ancestor in the census. Scroll down through earlier blog posts for how to get started and start using the census!

Let’s go back to John L. Siems, who we found in the 1930 and 1920 censuses. From the census records, I know:

• Where John lived
• The names of his siblings
• He was born around 1896 in Michigan
• His father was named John and his mother Margarete

I also know from the 1900 census that they were in Bridgeport, the same town for the 1920 and 1930 censuses too. So, my current entry for John is:

John L. Siems
b. abt. 1896 in Michigan, USA

Once I have his parents’ and siblings’ names, and from asking my relatives know his children and wives, I can fill in that information in my tree. There are three basic pieces of information we strive to find for a person, and these are:

• Birth
• Marriage
• Death

…or BMD.

Typically, it helps to start with the most recent information and work backwards. As you begin your tree, you likely already have this information from personal experience or talking to relatives. If not, it can be a bit difficult to find recent data due to privacy laws.

We’ll start with death, as this is the most recent event for the ancestor. The best source of information would be a death certificate. If you’re a qualifying relative and know where your ancestor died, you can request a death certificate directly from the city or county authority. If not, there are a number of databases that may contain the information. Try searching, “death records <city, state, or country>”.

I do not have John’s death certificate, but get his birth and death date and residence at time of death from the “Michigan, Death Index, 1971-1996” database on Ancestry. Another helpful index in the USA is the Social Security Death Index.

A couple other good sources of information are newspapers, which may have an obituary or death notice published, or headstones. A detailed obituary can give specific life details and traits of an ancestor that could not be found in a simple death certificate.

When you search, be careful for duplicate names. While John Siems may be less common than John Smith, if I didn’t already know John was living in Saginaw and died in 1979 I could have easily confused him with the Siems family that was living in Newaygo County, Michigan. Always find corroborating sources to confirm you’ve found the right headstone, death certificate, or obituary.

I can now update my entry on John Siems:

John L. Siems
b. 24 May 1895 in Michigan, USA
d. 7 Aug 1979 in Saginaw, Saginaw, Michigan, USA

Need help with your family history search? Contact us at info@weavingthetapestrygenealogy.com for a free estimate!