The marriage certificate didn't have the parents name on it? The one I have for my gggrandfather does.

Try searching for an obit. that will tell you who his parents are.

 

Many states did have their own census. From the census info you now have, find where the parents were born, then look in that state's prior census records.

 

I had the same problem...hit a wall around 1800-ish.

What got me was that I actually found a LOT living relatives but they weren't interested in any contact at all beyong the howdy-do's. I mean, why would one research their family tree if they weren't interested in any sort of contact? I understand the concerns about communicating with a stranger on the internet, but if one is actively SEEKING a relative and finds one, you'd think they'd at least go a small step beyond "oh, hi". :hrm:

Best of luck in your search.

 

A lot is going to depend upon which state your ancestor was from and how common his name was. You should consider checking land records, tax records, military and pension records, baptism records, burial records, old newspapers - you might get lucky and find a straightforward answer from one source, but more often you have to use several together.

If you want to PM me with the information you have, I might be able to give you more specific help.

 

You can try to find him on a more recent census - that will tell what state he is from. From there go to county records and find people of the same name ( hope it isn't smith). Trace each of those families forward and see if they lived in places that cross with your family. Or, trace to where he died and look for obituaries. But remember, they are only as good as the memory of the people writing them. Look for brothers and sisters also - follow their trail back and forwards. Look for neighbors on the census records - often people moved with friends. That might give you a clue.

If you have the marriage certificate, you can trace it back to the courthouse record - hope it wasn't in the south, the civil war did some major damage to county records - The courthouse record might have more information - like who married them. If they were married by a minister, he might have records.

Where did other people in their community come from? that might also give you a clue of where to look. Have you tried rootsweb? Where people post genealogy questions, etc. They might have answers for you. Also, look for family organizations online. the might help. Look for a published local history of any of the locations you can place them in. They might be mentioned. Look at land records.

It's hard when you hit a brick wall, but when you break through - it is priceless!!!
Good luck!

 

Depending upon the area where they lived at the earliest known place you may find court records for estate settlements, etc.

In my home area there is basically an index book which will show all of the names associated with the surname and what book and page further records are recorded in.
My home area is very willing to help find each listing.

If you can gain access to Heritage Quest you can use it to browse ares where they may have lived. If you know where grandpa lived then go through every page of census records for that township or other geographical area. Then with any name you have discovered you can search further for them.

I'm willing to nose around in Heritage Quest and other places for you if you care to PM names, locations, dates, etc. Anything you may have heard but cannot confirm should also be consider for checking further. A lot of my old family tradition proved to be inaccurate but reasonable close to true. Such as gold fields rather than silver fields, Montana instead of Colorado, and murder instead of robbery, but the basic story lead me to learn the proper story.

 

You could also search Ancestry's public member trees to see if anyone else has worked on that ancestor.

Some info comes easy, some is like your brick wall. Sometimes your ancestors might change the spelling of their surname, or at least it might be recorded incorrectly.

 

One option might be his death certificate if he has one. It would probably have his place of birth. That would be a good place to start looking for his parents. Make sure that the state you think they were born wasn't another state or territory before 1840. You have also received excellent information from the other posters.
Why don't you post the names and the information you have so far on this forum. I know there are a lot of genealogy hounds :gromit: on this site that would love to take a crack at finding this family of yours. blufford

 

Your lucky your are dealing with a male. I recommend looking at deeds. Sale of property and even transfer for small sums of money involve deeds. Deeds and estate papers often say "my daughter, my son". If you can get to the courthouse go through deed of the same name during the 1830's 1840's
1850's.

Also it would be helpful for us to know what state your are working with and if you are in the same state as the ancestor. If your not in the same state you need to find a volunteer in the state to help you out.

:walk:

 

Wow, it's neat that so many people are interested in my little search! The state involved is Delaware. I live close enough to travel there to do some research, but I'm not sure where to go. The people I am stuck on, are my great-great grandfather and his wife. His name was Joseph Watson Barker. Her maiden name was Ann Matilda Rathel. He was born in 1824, she was born in 1826. They married in 1844. I believe he died in 1893, although I cannot find a death record for either of them. I do not know when she died. We just discovered that he was a Civil War veteran, in the 9th Delaware Infantry. His service time is documented well. All of their offspring are known to us and accounted for. But neither I nor 2 of my cousins who have been doing research, have been able to find out who the parents are for either of them. They lived their lives in Kent County, Delaware. Our family goes very far back in time, in that area, so I feel pretty confident that they were born and raised in that area. They did state on census forms that they were both born in Delaware. I have discovered other Barker men in that area who are the right age to have been his father, but judging from the sketchy early census info, none of them had a male child of the right age, or they were the wrong race, or I was able to learn enough to eliminate them. It is the same with the few Rathels I found. From some things I have pieced together, I am starting to think that Ann's family might have been broken up, perhaps due to death of a parent. I found some Rathels who were close to her age, perhaps siblings, living with other families. So, that is our little dilemma. We have been able to trace some branches of the family all the way back to the 1600s, so it is kind of frustrating to have gotten stuck with these 2 ! Boy do I wish I could talk to some of the old folks I knew in my childhood, to see what family stories they had heard. I feel like Joseph and Ann are just waiting there patiently, for us to rediscover them. Ultimately I would love to find their burial site. I tried that Find-a-grave website, but they aren't there either.

 

Also try a bracketed google search. You'd be amazed at how much stuff is out there on the web, and indexed by google.

I do some searching every couple of months... and sometimes find a promising lead... till I start digging through their research, and realize it's research I put online ten years ago.

 

Look in "Genealogical Abstracts from Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware" there is an abstract on Google books. The whole book may give more information.

Also search Google for Barker and "Brandywine Creek"

 

I just saw this thread after posting mine about my ggf

 

Not sure if you have this item or not

 

Thanks for looking, yes I do have that marriage certificate. I have even been checking up on the witness, Thomas Minner, who co-signed it, I am guessing he might have had something to do with Ann. Did you read the whole document? I have found a couple other similar ones from the first half of the 19th century in Delaware. It seems to be saying that if the marriage did not take place, the man would owe a rather large sum of money to the state of Delaware. Strange! - guess even then the State tried to get their hand into your pockets!

 

love looking for my families past! However I too have one relative that just disappeared! I am stuck on what happened to my great grandpa...very frustrating!

 

I have even been checking up on the witness, Thomas Minner, who co-signed it, I am guessing he might have had something to do with Ann.

Did you notice on the 1850 census that the household right next door to the BARKERS is:
Sarah MINNER, age 53, female, b. Delaware
Nimrow (?) MINNER, age 18, male, occ farming, b. Delaware
Margaret RATHEL, age 18, female b. Delaware
Robert MORRIS, age 6, male, b. Delaware

Unfortunately, the census then did not list the relationship of everyone to the head of household.

Typically one of the witnesses will be a male relative of the bride. If not her father, then a step-father, brother or uncle. If this were my family and I had access to a marriage records database, I might look for a marriage record for Thomas MINNER, because one scenario that came right to my mind was that the Sarah above might be Ann's (and Margaret's) mother, widowed and married to stepfather Thomas. I would look for a marriage record for Sarah and Thomas and a death record for Thomas that occurred sometime between his signing of the marriage license in 1844 and the 1850 census. It's all speculation, but I usually follow my hunches.

If you have not already done so, sending to the National Archives to see if Joseph has a pension record might be helpful. I found my great-grandfather's parents' names in his Civil War pension file.

 

love looking for my families past! However I too have one relative that just disappeared! I am stuck on what happened to my great grandpa...very frustrating!

Post what you know and maybe some of us can have a look around.