We just finished work for a client who came to us looking for his missing step-grandmother and her daughter, both he never knew. At first I thought this sounded more like a job for an investigator. After all, most people know their grandparents so we are more accustomed to finding people who existed hundreds of years ago, not still living! We decided to take it on and guess what, all research techniques still apply. More than ever paying attention to the slightest clue made the biggest difference.
In this case we were able to find the first marriage of the missing step-grandmother fairly easily by searching the state marriage records. The marriage record gave us the county where they were married. A road trip to the county courthouse provided us with the marriage license. The marriage license provided us with where they were living at the time of their marriage AND who stood up for them at their marriage….her sister! We then searched the 1930 census information for where they were living and with both sisters were able to find their parents. A quick search of family trees onhttp://www.ancestry.com/ provided a tree with the missing grandmother and with the administrator who is still living. Contacting the administrator provided the missing grandmother’s daughter, not one but two! We were then able to verify their existance through state birth, death and social security records. In this case the missing link was the sister of the missing step-grandmother, who stood up for her at her wedding. Who would have thought!
