No "Brick Walls" For Me

Although I've been doing genealogy for a number of years, it's basically only been online research --  getting records and documents via the Internet.  I know this is why I haven't hit any brick walls yet.

In additional to using Ancestry and Family Search, I have been able to get information by calling, writing, or sending an email to places.  Below is a sample of some of the information I have received:

• The Social Security application of my maternal grandmother, Lucy Washington Brown and a paternal great aunt, Elizabeth Brown Mason through the Social Security Administration website.  Fortunately this was before the heavy redaction process that is now in place for those records.  In both instances I was able to verify where they were born and the names of their parents.

• Military service records from the National Archives (Military Personnel Records, SF-180) for my father, Willis B. Williams and two uncles, Arthur Brown and Alexander Burkette.  In each case I received letters that original records were destroyed in a fire so I had to submit another form requesting reconstructed files. 

• The land records from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a maternal great-grandfather, Samuel Brown.

• Information from the Library of Congress Chronicling America Historic Newspapers as well as free online newspapers from my ancestral home states.

• Books on the county histories provide me with insight on how my ancestors may have lived. I have also found information on specific family members. (I love Interlibrary Loan!)

• Death information and documents by contacting cemeteries and funeral homes.

• Obituaries in newspapers by contacting public libraries and historical societies.

• Death certificates from various county offices in different states.

As more and more is added to online sites, I've been able to access more genealogy information.  However, I know that I haven't even hit the tip of the iceberg in researching my family history.

I subtitled my blog Georgia and Mississippi Roots because both sets of my grandparents and their families came from those states.  So I know that before I can claim to have hit any brick wall, I must visit those states.  I have to do that reasonable exhaustive search --  which means going to state libraries, state archives, court houses, and the places where my ancestors lived.

Road trips . . .


Copyright © 2019 by Sandra Williams Bush, Ancestor Callings: Georgia and Mississippi Roots. All Rights Reserved.