Just want to jump up and scream!!!!

[CountAllVotes]

:hi: everyone!

I FOUND my grandfather and my grandmother! It only took me 25+ years to do it, but I found them.

I found a date of death for my grandfather who died in Texas in 1971 and I have written for his death certificate being I am his granddaughter I have right to obtain it it seems.

I wish I knew someone in Texas that could look for his obituary (if there was one).

He was born and died in Longview, Texas which is about 1-1/2 hours away (driving) from Shreveport, Louisiana which is where my mother was born.

Anyway, all of my research finally paid off and I found him hidden away in the databases of ancestry.com under a different name that was actually his real name (the name on the my mother's birth certificate is not correct as I'd long suspected). He played games a plenty yes indeed, I found him alright and he lived to be 77 years old - the same age as my mother lived to be.

So, for those that are wondering if ancestry.com is "worth" it, my answer is YES! :D

I cannot tell you how excited I am by this "find".

My poor late mother grew up not knowing who she was and was adopted in 1925 and was never told anything about who her real parents were. She wore a huge chip on her shoulder because of not knowing who she was and I only wish I'd found her parents before she had passed away. However, the 1930 census was the key to the puzzle and it had not yet been released when she passed away unfortunately.

Anyway keep looking you guys!

Seek and ye shall find as they say!

CountAllVotes

[sybylla]

1. Congrats!

on the fabulous sleuthing. What a relief it must be to finally have some answers and a history.

Go ahead. Jump and scream! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[CountAllVotes]

2. believe me, it is a GREAT relief

It seems that neither of them had any children after the one child (my mother) was born and they were not married from what I can tell. I still haven't found out details on my grandmother due to the possible change in surname.

However, at least I now know what direction to go to look for more info. and that is Texas. :evilgrin:

I'd been told Louisiana for many years and then I found my grandmother in the 1930 census and it said she was born in Texas. I traced her back and found her family and they were in Texas at one time.

And as for my mysterious grandfather, he was a magnificent liar but I found him despite his various ages, etc.

The key was the WWI draft card. He registered and he listed the occupation - one that followed him for many years.

A traveling salesman of course! :rofl:

Anyway, now I have a whole new line to search out and it goes way back it seems (1710 I've seen mentioned) in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Connecticut and Georgia and who knows where else (yikes!). I've never been to any of these places in my life. Now I want to go and see what this part of America is like. :)

I'm beyond happy about it after so many years of not knowing who I am which is the same horrible burden my own mother carried her entire life. I too figured I'd just plain never know. Genealogy has great rewards for the serious and dedicated researcher and I am living proof of it! :party: :party: :party:

[kestrel91316]

3. Ancestry.com is GREAT!!! I recently broke through a brick wall

that went back almost 100 years - found out what happened to my g-g-grandfather. He deserted and later divorced my g-g-grandmother and 12-yr-old g-grandmother in Denver in 1900, and the only thing anybody EVER said was he "ran off with another woman". I found the divorce record (deep dark family secret) several years ago, but the guy just vanished. Some records seemed to indicate he died in Denver in the nineteen-teens, but I knew another woman was tracing him (she died before I could hook up with her) and so knew there had to be another family. Turned out he remarried in Denver, had three boys (my g-grandmother always believed she had NO siblings), and they eventually moved to Washington State where he died in the 1940s. I got all my leads from the census records on Ancestry.com, and their indexing, while flawed, eventually gave me enough clues to find them.

Turns out my g-grandmother's half brothers all died here in SoCal in the 1980s and sadly we never even knew they existed..........I would have liked to meet them and find out more about my g-g-grandfather and HIS parents.

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. You DO know someone in Texas...

who could look for an obituary for you....

ME!

Our main Dallas library has a very good genealogy section, and a very good state interest section with tons of newspaper microfilm from all over the state.

Depending on if they have Longview, I may be able to get it for you. PM me with Gramp's name and death date, and I'll try to get to the downtown library for you.

I'll try to get down next weekend. The weekend after I'll be out of town, but if I can't get it, I may be able to direct you to the correct place.

Have you tried Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness yet? They are also very good for this.

[CountAllVotes]

5. I just got the old sucker's Death Cert. yesterday

cause of death = automobile accident - he was hit by a car it seems. Boy karma really is a b*tch as this was his stated occupation on more than one occasion - that of an "automobile salesman" (a traveling salesman at the time my mother was born).

I'll PM you with the details! Thank you so much!!! :D

:kick:

[fudge stripe cookays]

6. If we're lucky, there may be

an article about the car accident as well. Longview is not that big. And larger accidents and such made for good reading. If it bleeds, it leads, as they say!

I'll let you know what I find!
:hi: fsc