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How do you find family that you've never met? - Peaches A - 11-09-2012 05:00 PM
My husband's father and mother is deceased. He met his father when he was 3 and he never knew his father's side of the family. All he know is that his father comes from Milwaukee. I believe that family
history is important,especially when children and health is involved.
- LilyRose - 11-09-2012 05:09 PM
Start with the birth certificate, then any toher public records you can find.
- Stella B - 11-09-2012 05:09 PM
Win the lottery
- ashley - 11-09-2012 05:09 PM
If you know when and where your husband's father died, you can look for his obituary. Obituaries often list survivors: children, grandchildren, and sometimes siblings. It may also mention the name of the funeral home that handled the arrangements; if you call them, they may be able to put you in contact with some of the family members. Another option is to search for their names on some of the social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, or on some of the people-finding websites such as:
http://anywho.com/
http://www.zabasearch.com/
If you're not sure when or where your husband's father died, you can try searching for his name in the Social Security Death Index. This will give you his name, birthdate, death date, and last known residence. If he has a real common name, you can use the advanced search and enter some additional info to help narrow it down:
http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
If you're lucky, you may find the obituary online. Check the local newspaper's website; some have an archive of obituaries, although most take them down after 30 days, 6 months or a year. Sites like Ancestry.com and Newsbank have have a huge collection of obituaries, mostly from the last 10-15 years. If you don't want to pay the subscription fee, you can post the name here and someone with a subscription will look it up for you. Some obituaries have been posted to various free genealogy websites, and you might be able to pull it up through a google search. Try searching a few different ways:
"John Smith" obituary 1982
"Smith, John" obituary Milwaukee
If you can't find it online... the library in the city/county where his father lived will likely have the local newspapers on microfilm. If it's too far to visit in person, perhaps the librarian will look it up for you, or direct you to a local researcher who will do it for a small fee. Or you can visit the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness site and see if there's a volunteer in that location who will look up obits:
http://raogk.org/
Hope this helps some! Good luck!