Note to self: When doing genealogy research it's a good idea to ask Dad questions *before* death.
I'm attempting to find my Birth-Father. It's not been easy and after more than 10 years of searching I have yet to find the first hint of him anywhere.
I wish I had known then what I know now and asked my Adopted-dad some questions. It's much too late now. He died in 2003.
While searching for my B-dad I've gotten sidetracked looking for family on my dad's side as I know very little about his family.
It's been a very interesting endeavor so far. I stumbled on two obits that apparently are my grandmother's mother and father. However, this opens up a situation that I don't know where to go with. Turns out my grandmother was adopted. I don't know if there are any records of this adoption or if it was simply the taking-in of an orphan. That's my next step in the search for grandmother's roots: I'll have to check to see if there *are* any adoption records for her. I wish I'd known to ask dad about some of this before he died.
The one thing that makes searching so much more difficult and very very frustrating is that the sites that have the most info and the most definititive are all pay-sites. And expensive ones at that. The documents that most often pop up in a search I have no access to unless I pay. Sigh. In the meantime I keep slogging away with links to individual family genealogy sites with the same surname I'm searching for and links to the towns and cities I can place my ancestors in.
Cemetery surveys
You mentioned cemetery canvassing to me during a couple of our road trips. How would somebody know if a cemetery is or is not already canvassed? And, where would someone volunteer such a canvas for others to benefit?
Any words from the beyond
Hints
Yeah, buy a subscription to ancestry.com if you can afford it.
I've joined mailing lists for the surnames I'm doing research on. No information from any of them yet, though a person who does have a subscription to ancestry has offered to help look for information. I've had lots of suggestions on places and ways to try. Most of them I'd already done and found nothing.
I found a site that does cemetery listings state by state. Nothing turned up there. The listings they have are not always complete and a goodly number have no links to lists of graves or the links are broken.
I do find bits of info here and there. For instance, on the Webb mailing a list a gentleman responded that Darryl Webb would have come back to Ft Dix NJ at the time he was said to have mustered out. That was the military clearinghouse for all overseas returnees at that time.
One brick at a time and I have to search high and low for each brick found.
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