How can I find info on my dad's mom?

[frogmarch]

All the information that my cousins (our dads were brothers) and I have on our paternal grandmother is her maiden name, her married name, and that she was born in 1894 in Missouri.

When I was a child, my birth mother's sister, who lived in England, told me that my dad had once asked her to place flowers on his mother's grave, which she told me she had gladly done. My aunt said that my dad's mom was buried in the cemetery that inspired Thomas Gray's famous poem, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." The problem is that there are at least five different church cemeteries in England that claim to be the "Elegy" churchyard. Another problem is that my aunt is now 100 years old and unable to to remember much of anything.

When I told my cousins that our paternal grandmother was buried in England, they were surprised. They knew she'd died when our dads were young children, but none of my cousins knew she'd apparently died in England. Our dads were never forthcoming about their family history. All we really knew is that our paternal grandfather was a lawyer in St. Louis, and that after his wife, our grandmother, died, the children were lovingly cared for by a neighbor woman.

I have written to the parishes of all five "Elegy" churches, asking how I might try to find my grandmother's name in their burial records. Only one parish responded, saying they have no record of her, but added that their records are incomplete.

What can I do now? I don't have money to subscribe to a "find my ancestors" service.

Thanks for any advice.

[Rosie1223]

1. I don't know a lot about English Records, but Missouri I do

You can see Missouri death certificates at:

http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/

This may give you some info on your family that died in St Louis that could help you get more information. I have a subscription to ancestry.com's US records. PM with info if you would like me to look up something for you.

Rosie

[frogmarch]

2. Thanks!

I appreciate the link, and also your offer to help me out a bit if necessary. :-)

[Rosie1223]

4. Glad I could help!

:hi:

[sandnsea]

3. Tons of stuff here

http://genealogyinstlouis.accessgenealogy.com/

My family has been in the St Louis area since the 1700s so I've done a lot of research on the area too. Feel free to PM if you don't find what you're looking for.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Sign up for an Ancestry.com free trial.

You'll get 14 days of use before you incur a charge. One word of caution, though: time the trial use period so that the 13th day is a weekday and cancel it a day early -- ancestry has a history of making it difficult for people to cancel by under-staffing phones, for example.

The first step after signing up is to read about the available records so that you have some understanding of what the site offers and to navigate around the site to get a feel for it.

The next step is to write down every fact you know about her --full name, birth date, marriage, death, etc. Then write down the stories, like the English burial.


Now you're ready to look for her on ancestry.com

Put in her married name, birth year and place. That should generate a 1930 census record if nothing else. Take note of all of the info about her and her husband, particularly how long they have been married and where she and her parents were born. If they were married in 1920, look at that record too.

Put her maiden name and birth year and MO into the search engine and see what shows up. This should reveal her family's 1900 and 1910 census records and with it information on her parents or guardians. If she had a common surname you may only be able to get a list of possibilities, but that's a start and using the information from the 1930 census about her parents can help you narrow done the possibilities.

The 1900 census record for her should have her full DOB. I don't know what VRs for MO are available on ancestry, but it's possible that you could find something, but if you can't having the DOB will help you find her birth it in state or church records.

Ancestry has a lot of records and you are liable to get a lot of false positives, but if you work your way through them methodically you may get a very good dossier on her.

Good luck.

[sybylla]

6. Libraries often have subscriptions to genealogy websites

Larger libraries especially. Subscriptions vary but sometimes they'll have even the European records available.

You don't have to sign up for service if you have a library handy that offers it.

[katkat]

7. late

I'm coming in late to this, but the Missouri state vital records dept. (not to be confused with web ripoff places) would probably search within 1894 for you for a fee for her birth certificate. That should have her parents' names, etc. Most states will do that.

[YesIdidmeanmeow]

8. If you are still looking for grave....

Have you tried looking at www.findagrave.com? Its free and they have tons of cemetery listings worldwide.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Try the BMD Index for England and Wales;

index of Births, Marriages and Deaths. You should be able to find out, if you know when she died, where she died; that will narrow it down a bit as it's likely she'd be buried in the same area. A lot of the BMD indices have been transcribed and are available for free (mostly, pre-1937 records can be found free). I'd recommend going here for a start: http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

with a name and death date and location you can find the General Register Office death record (death certificates in the UK don't give the place of interment, but if you know the area and it's a Church of England churchyard you may be able to contact the local diocese for further information.