Posts Tagged ‘Birth certificate’

Sorting Saturday ~ Who’s My Daddy?

Posted: July 28, 2012 in cornett, Family, research
Tags: , ,
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information hydrant

information hydrant (Photo credit: Will Lion)

Sorting through documents, scanning, saving them to my hard drive on my laptop, and importing them into Family Tree Maker 2012 has helped me keep track of what I have and don’t have. Also, I have created a back up disc just in case my laptop decides it doesn’t want to operate anymore. This is very important to me because I had another laptop two years ago where the motherboard fried. All information was lost! Photos, college papers I had written, my resumé, my artwork, and many other important documents that I had saved over time. All GONE! Irretrievable.

Lately, I have been seeking information on my father, Billy Edward Cornett, and have discovered that he has become a brick wall of sorts. Not knowing him as a daughter should, my parents divorced when I was very young, I am finding that I don’t even know the details as to where he was born! After creating a research plan for my father, I hadn’t realized that I was lacking this particular information. Granted, I know that he was born in the state of Virginia in 1944 but that is all I know. I am lacking the information of the county, city and even the hospital in which he was born at. How do I request a birth record based only on this little bit of information I have of him? Where is his paper trail?

 

I have all the other documents I need, except this one little piece of paper that could tell me so much more! Frustrated doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings on this lack of data on my own father, no less. I am a family historian and genealogy buff, I should be able to find this piece of evidence at least. I have written emails to family members and no one seems to have a copy of his birth certificate or even know where this document could be; they don’t know who might even have it, if anyone even does. Dead end #1. I have searched for him on the Family Search web site. Dead end #2. I have searched Archives.com and nothing but census records and an SSDI reference. Dead end #3. I feel like I am overlooking something that is staring me right in the face!

 

My next step would be to contact the Virginia Vital Records office to see what information I can get about his birth. Since I am his next of kin I should have no problem ordering his birth certificate through them. This will have to wait until Monday morning as they are closed right now. Being on Hawaii time, I am 6 hours behind the east coast.

 

These are the documents I have on him to date:

 

  1. Death Record
  2. Obituary
  3. Marriage Certificate
  4. Marriage Certificate Receipt (Ha! My parents only paid $5 back in 1971)

So today, I ask myself, “Who’s My Daddy?”

 

 

 

A Family History- More Than Just Names and Dates

Posted: June 13, 2011 in addiction, family tree branches, famine and war, Genealogy, history, Uncategorized, Where do I come from
Tags: , , ,
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Rizinus-Blatt

Rizinus-Blatt (Photo credit: flöschen)

So you have been searching your ancestry and getting your family tree in order. You have names. You have dates. So you might be thinking, these are just a bunch of names, birth dates, and that’s about the gist of it. Well, think again. 

When I was younger, I used to think of genealogy as a pretty boring topic and it kind of ran neck and neck with ancient history. Blah blah…boring! But now that I’ve grown up, had children of my own, I want to know who my family was and where they came from. Now, I have become so thoroughly involved in the research behind it, that it’s become more personal to me. Not just a pet project, but something much more. It’s almost like an addiction; I just can’t get enough! As the title of this blog states, it’s definitely more than just names and dates! They were real people living real lives.

By focusing on just one person on the branch of my tree, it’s almost as if I am trying to know that person on a more personal level. I am trying to learn who this person really was, not just by name but by their lifestyles too. What were they like? Would I like them even if they weren’t a member of my family? What did they do for a living and how did they survive in times of famine and war?

Before the Internet even came into everyone’s homes, it was much harder to do research on our ancestors. Today, in this digital age, we are able to send information all over the world in just minutes. There are literally hundreds of web sites on genealogy to help us in our searches. Some require membership fees, yet others do not. We don’t have to leave our homes to request copies of birth certificates or look at census records, as we can do this online through our computers. Even though the internet is a great resource tool to use, we can still use the older methods of actually talking to our elders, other family members to get this information. We don’t have to rely on just the internet and a few key phrases to get the results we are looking for, but it does help. 

Another idea for you to consider, would be to obtain a copy of an ancestors birth certificate. All you need is the name of said person, their parents name and the date of birth; it shouldn’t be an act of Congress to get this information. Just contact the counties Vital Records and Statistics office. Also, you could join a genealogical society in the state where your family has originated from. This may help you and keep your headaches to a minimum!