Some detective work needed!

hjr

I'm bogged down slightly in my family research, and thought I throw out a small plea!

I've been at the research for nearly 5 years now, so am reasonably experienced in my searching. I have an ancestry sub too, which is a great help in my research.

I managed to make contact with a distant relative last year who provided me with some great info on an extended part of my family. Sadly the info was mainly made up of first names only, so searching is proving a challenge! I begins in New york area around 1920's and works forward from there...I have the lineage going back before that, but trying to piece together some relations after that based on the new info I obtained.

I don't want to post it publicly here as these people are probably still living, but if anyone is at a loose end and feels like digging into a cul-de-sec, or providing some brief inspiration drop me a pm and I'd be eternally grateful....

shanew

I would think the 1930 and 1940 census returns would be the place to start, then maybe directories, voter registration, newspapers etc... could get difficult after that as the records would be quite recent.

hjr

Thanks Shane,

I have the family located on the 1930's and 1940's census. They were born in the early 1920's, so by 1940 they were just about 18-22ish age wise.

The problem in a sense is that its mainly girls, so tracing married names is making it difficult.

For example in one case I know that Margaret married twice, to a man called Jimmy and to a man called Kenny. I just don't know surnames. I also know that Margaret had three boys, one who died in a car accident, and two who have died from heart attacks.

Her sister jane had four kids, one who was shot dead, and another who was also killed in a car accident. Its like a film script!! I was trying to find a way to find the deceased children using the mothers details to cross reference, as I don't have a surname, but its hitting a brick wall. The relation who provided the information I have is no longer contactable so getting more info there isn't possible....

pedroeibar1

given that the dates are quite recent, along with the higher-than-usual profile deaths, I'd spend some time on newspaper archives.

hjr

Thanks Pedro,

I guess my problem is I don't have the full name of the person I'm searching, or where it happened.

In a sense I guess this is what makes Genealogy fun, trying to decrypt a mystery, either an intentional one or otherwise!

Hermy

I'm currently tracing forward into the mid 20th century for Irish who emigrated to New York and have found myself using a combination of Ancestry, Family Search and Find My Past. The Social Security indexes at Ancestry are great because the addresses provide a helpful link where there's uncertainty about a name. Find My Past is good for naturalization records some of which have lots of names and dates, and their scans are better quality than Ancestry. And good old Family Search is still throwing up records that the other two pay sites either miss or don't have.

If you'd like to PM me some details I can check Find My Past for you.

pedroeibar1

hjr wrote: »

Thanks Pedro,

I guess my problem is I don't have the full name of the person I'm searching, or where it happened.
In a sense I guess this is what makes Genealogy fun, trying to decrypt a mystery, either an intentional one or otherwise!

If I’m reading it correctly, you have the names and location of several members of the family and their place of abode in 1941. Most girls mary in their home parish. Marriage and death newspaper notices in the US often are quite detailed, and regularly give next-of-kin details – the more local the paper the more detailed the info. e.g. “the bride was attended by her sister Jane (Mrs.McX)” or “The deceased was a brother of Mrs Jane Bloggs and Miss Margaret Maiden name “
So ‘string’ words together when searching (e.g. maiden name, Margaret, Jane, brother, deceased, auto (not car!) accident, etc ) and start scrutinising the search results. These searches always take lots of time, but one lucky find – an article or obit or death notice – and you could get several more leads.