Slowly Evolving Search

[gardenmoma]

09/27

First want to say that it has been Great having this section here at the Forum as support. I have been slowly "plugging away" in the midst of all the other "stuff" I do. Some results:

• The holy cards are proving to be a valuable source of information. I use them as a base and then can verify with social security records when available. I also found archival quality pages for three-ring binders with correct size pockets for most of the holy cards at a "trading card store" at our local mall. So, thank you all for your advice and comments about this issue.
  
  
• I found a site devoted to descendants of what I hope is my maternal grandmother's line and am participating. Part of the problem is that there are about seven different spellings of the name...maybe more...see next item...
  
  
• The church where my maternal grandparents were "probably" married burned down in the 1950s and no records were left (from what my last remaining aunt tells me). So, I finally called the county court house (Sullivan County, PA) to verify their open hours and see if there was a change they might have documentation of the marriage. Not only did they, but...the clerk looked it up right then. She couldn't find either of the last names I gave to her, but fortunately hit upon another set of names which fit with my dates etc. Wow...what a mishmash whoever recorded this marriage made of the names!
  
  
• We leave on Monday (10/02) for Ohio and will take extra time to drive through PA. We will stop at the courthouse to get a copy of this marriage information and whatever else they might have documented; and at the historical society for which I have already made an appointment with another very helpful woman.
  

So...to me this is like a mystery story in which I need to slowly and carefully find and put the pieces together.

One interesting thing I found (which some of you may already realize) is that it helps to run the names you are interested in locating through a search engine every-so-often. People are constantly adding new "stuff" to the web. That is how I found the web site for my grandmother's name. The person in charge just started it...relatively speaking

GM

[nancy]

gardenmoma said:

So...to me this is like a mystery story in which I need to slowly and carefully find and put the pieces together.

Exactly!

Have a good trip, and congrats on your progress so far.

[rdywenur]

I have not been able to find any info with my family (not one bite to at least spur me on) I have given up in this area as it drives me insane and I usually have persistance. It would have been nice to start a family tree.

[suzanne]

<<<One interesting thing I found (which some of you may already realize) is that it helps to run the names you are interested in locating through a search engine every-so-often. People are constantly adding new "stuff" to the web. >>>

GM,

How true! Stuff out there is definitely being added to all the time and websites come and go. Yes, just because a source wasn't helpful when one first tried it doesn't mean it should be permanently crossed off the list.

[jimpres]

Suzanne,

Have you tried some of the lists at roots web? They have lists by Woj etc.
And continue to visit previous sites because other researchers may have uncovered information that may be valuable to you.

Jim

[scatts]

Obviously my family are not rooted in central Europe but it is relatively easy to find some interesting information on the web. When I have time I intend to trace my own family tree but generally Scattergood seems to be a very old English name with a strong Quaker tradition. Many Quaker Scattergoods sailed for the USA back in the C17th and they are still going strong:

www.scattergood.org/