At a dead end

blessedmomof5

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My grandmother would never talk about her parents, all she would say is that they died when she was 12, and not say how. she had no family to live with so she lived with a friend. said she lived in newport RI, had the archives there look them up and they came up with nothing like they never exsisted.
she has us all wondering how they died, they both died at the same time.
any advice you could give would be helpful. thanks
 

Salsa_1960

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Have you tried looking up your grandmother in the census records. What year was she born?

You might try checking here. There are census records and other records like marriages and birth certificates.
FamilySearch Record Search

I also have access to ancestry.com and can find more records there. If you email me with more information, I can do some searching for you.

Sandy
 
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blessedmomof5

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Have you tried looking up your grandmother in the census records. What year was she born?

You might try checking here. There are census records and other records like marriages and birth certificates.
FamilySearch Record Search

I also have access to ancestry.com and can find more records there. If you email me with more information, I can do some searching for you.

Sandy

thank you pming you now!!!:hug:
 
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blessedmomof5

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Have you tried to look for any unsolved murders in the newspaper archives? Or car crashes?

well the geneologist did a search for them in RI nothing came up
they would have died in the early 1920's
not to sure how they looked them up though....
ya know these bizarre things run through ur mind on what happened to them, fire? did she kill the family? see what i mean?
 
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Catherineanne

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well the geneologist did a search for them in RI nothing came up
they would have died in the early 1920's
not to sure how they looked them up though....
ya know these bizarre things run through ur mind on what happened to them, fire? did she kill the family? see what i mean?


Well, if it were just a couple of years before that time, this could be the cause for a sudden disappearance:

The Influenza Epidemic of 1918
 
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Catherineanne

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My grandmother would never talk about her parents, all she would say is that they died when she was 12, and not say how. she had no family to live with so she lived with a friend. said she lived in newport RI, had the archives there look them up and they came up with nothing like they never exsisted.
she has us all wondering how they died, they both died at the same time.
any advice you could give would be helpful. thanks

I assume your grandmother has died? Her death certificate should include her birth date, and from that you can get her birth certificate, and that will have the names of her parents. Then you can search for their death certificates in turn.

The possible causes for both to die at once are accident, murder or illness. The chances of the last one of these is much higher than the first two, but all are possible.

I am not sure what information US marriage records include. In the UK a marriage record includes details of the father, so that is one way to find out about her dad, and then trace her mum through him. But that assumes you can find the record, of course.

I would widen the search area as well. Include neighbouring towns. Your grandmother may have given you the wrong town, either by mistake or on purpose. It can't hurt anyone to find out the truth now, so why not carry on?
 
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blessedmomof5

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Catherineanne,
thanks for ur input. Yeah she was very adament about us not asking or trying to find out what had happened. I think had she not been that way we would not all be so inclined to want/ need to know.
Funny you said well now there is nothing stopping u, but now i do not believe in these things but when i was on the computer trying to research yrs ago, the lights flickered...LOL she was sending me messages from the grave:p

the flu info was interesting, now from what i was told they did not have all that info from when her parents were born? U know they could have lived in a whole different part of the world in which she claims

i think i need a private detective;)
 
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Catherineanne

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Catherineanne,
thanks for ur input. Yeah she was very adament about us not asking or trying to find out what had happened. I think had she not been that way we would not all be so inclined to want/ need to know.
Funny you said well now there is nothing stopping u, but now i do not believe in these things but when i was on the computer trying to research yrs ago, the lights flickered...LOL she was sending me messages from the grave:p

Maybe she was saying, 'You go, girl!!' It is all in the interpretation. :)

the flu info was interesting, now from what i was told they did not have all that info from when her parents were born? U know they could have lived in a whole different part of the world in which she claims

i think i need a private detective;)

You need a genealogist. My d works for Nick Barratt, who publishes Tracing Family History in the US (Your Family History in the UK). If you write to him, he might be able to help, or advise you where to go for further information. It does no harm to ask. I would ask my d, but I think she mostly knows UK archives and information sources; Nick may well know US ones, and if not will certainly know who you can ask. :)

Your Family History Magazine - Our Experts, Your Stories
 
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blessedmomof5

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Good, :scratch: Morning? correct? that time/day thing always throws me off

Maybe she was saying, 'You go, girl!!' It is all in the interpretation. :)
Maybe she was, but knowing her NAHHHHH, trust me she was so loving ,kind, warm, about or with everything...but THAT....one subject. yes She could be looking down from heaven with a change of heart, but you'd think she'd make it easy and come to me in a dream?:p

Thank you so much for at least a start? i think i just am a tad confused, Nick barrat lives in the us? or the UK?
i think its worth a shot.
Thank you again:hug:


You need a genealogist. My d works for Nick Barratt, who publishes Tracing Family History in the US (Your Family History in the UK). If you write to him, he might be able to help, or advise you where to go for further information. It does no harm to ask. I would ask my d, but I think she mostly knows UK archives and information sources; Nick may well know US ones, and if not will certainly know who you can ask. :)

Your Family History Magazine - Our Experts, Your Stories
 
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Catherineanne

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Good, :scratch: Morning? correct? that time/day thing always throws me off

It is easy to remember; the US will never catch us up in time, because the East Coast is always about 5 hours behind. So when you are in the morning, we are in the afternoon. Your evening is our late night. And when we get up bright eyed, you are hopefully still enjoying the sleep of the innocent and the just.

Brits invented time zones, so we originally set the time, and everyone else follows it. What fun! As one of our comics says, the Germans can't sit down to eat until we tell them it's dinner time. ^_^^_^^_^

Maybe she was, but knowing her NAHHHHH, trust me she was so loving ,kind, warm, about or with everything...but THAT....one subject. yes She could be looking down from heaven with a change of heart, but you'd think she'd make it easy and come to me in a dream?
tongue.gif

If it was that difficult for her, there must be a scandal. Dying from an accident or illness would not cause such feelings of shame. In which case, there must be an interesting story to find out.

Thank you so much for at least a start? i think i just am a tad confused, Nick barrat lives in the us? or the UK?
i think its worth a shot.

Thank you again
hug.gif

Nick lives in London, but he is very knowledgable about genealogy. If he doesn't know the answer, with any luck he will know who will. :wave:
 
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blessedmomof5

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Hi, and thanks for the reply. So from what she had told us, she was an only child. no relatives at all, that could take her in after her parents died, i believed she was between the age of 11-14? at the time. so according to my grandmother their were no relatives at all....go figure.
about the 1920-1930 census return, this is what i did, i wrote a letter to the RI state archive department, gave them all the info that i did have which was not much, but names, dates, (guesses) streets, possible jobs her father had, even her mothers maiden name.
they did some reasearch and found no eveidence they ever exesisted., i would think they did the census? they were students in training to become geneologist. who were doing the research. BTW.

Did you have any luck with the 1920 or 1930 census returns? If not, one way that sometimes works when you hit a dead end is to try and get info through an ancestor's brother or sister. Do you know if your grama had any siblings? If so, try to get their death records or newspaper obituaries.
 
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rossignol

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Churches and cemeteries keep good records. I would first search cemeteries in the area you think they may have been buried. You will find out the exact date of death and sometimes a little about the circumstance of death. Then you can go into church records as they kept record of marriages if the government didn't. Also try looking into schools they might have attended or land they might have owned.

If you get stuck call your national library and get them to help. Often they are so eager to help do the research for you if you ask them nicely and tell them your story.

Best of luck, hope this helps.
 
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blessedmomof5

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Sooo i tell you at times shes wants me to leave this alone! Just got done typing this whole long reply out, and it was long..,,,,,,, and the screeen just disappeared! Not the 1st time its happened either!!

And i dont believe things like that either to weird!!!

So gotta run be back later to REPOST. The whole thing
 
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rossignol

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Sooo i tell you at times shes wants me to leave this alone! Just got done typing this whole long reply out, and it was long..,,,,,,, and the screeen just disappeared! Not the 1st time its happened either!!

And i dont believe things like that either to weird!!!

So gotta run be back later to REPOST. The whole thing
Sorry for that erased message. Sometimes leaving things for a while is good. You may gain new perspective and ideas in the future and there may be new things on the net for you to find that aren't there now.

Good luck.
 
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blessedmomof5

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Actually thank you for responding to my reply, sometimes life gets to busy! I really wanted to respond thanks for the reminder!

So when i got intouch with the Rhode Island state archives they gave me students in training working under geneologists? Now this is going back some time so i am trying to remember exactly!
Anyway from what i can recall they had to research what info i had given them ( little) as it was and how true was it? They look it library records ,death records,
Birth,
So this is what she told us, my grandmother although she never wanted to talk about it when we, my mom, uncle ( moms brother,) aunt grandpas sister, would talk, they died when she was 13, she had no family, except my aunt did say she remembers once my grandmother saying she had and uncle who lived in nyc? Altho noone else ever heard that info!
She had to go live with a friend, when both her parents died!!

Then at age 15 she left them and took a train to brooklyn where she met my aunt, and later married my granfather!

Now i have her ss card but that she appliied for after her parents died! So not to sure if thats helpful?
I have her marriage licence, but does that really do me any good?

Everything including her last name can be a lie?

So basically where do u start? There is NOT 1 thing from her childhood!!!
 
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BlandOatmeal

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Mom of 5,

This is a seven-year-old topic, so I don't know where you stand on the family history. Let me just assemble what you have;

1. You are 49, born 1962/63. Assuming that your ggrandmother died in 1922 when your grandmother was 12, that would mean your grandmother was b. ABT 1910, and your mother was born, say, 1936 or so.

Rhode Island was experiencing a surge of immigration around 1910, from Eastern and Southern Europe. You didn't mention your ggrandparents' nationality; but if they were South or East European, you might find them in the Ellis Island records. More likely than not, their names would not be spelled the way they were passed down to you. Also, they may have LIVED in Rhode Island at one time, but not have any records there. If you haven't already done so, go to a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Family History Center near you, and actually talk with a PERSON there. I have in my own research, and found them to be very helpful. If you've tried the "free trial" subscription to Ancestry.com, you probably have learned by now that you practically have to die, in order for them to stop automatically renewing your subscription without telling you. I got off the hook by changing my bank account. They provide lots of records, but these are also available from different sources. One useful one might be the WWI Selective Service records.
 
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