Genealogy Friday: 7 Ways to Find lost children in Genealogy Records

Where or where has the missing child gone?  This is often a question when searching for children of a core group.

So how do you find them?

  1. Search obituaries—do the parents or siblings obituaries give any hints to a married last name or locationresearch
  2. Search death certificates—death certificates list the parents’ names and a maiden name for women. These are great for providing clues.  I found an aunt this way.  No one knew what happened but by broadening the search and putting in her maiden name in the keyword area, I was able to find her death certificate.
  3. Look at cluster genealogy—searching larger clusters in the family nucleus or in the area. Last week I shared about intermarrying and how that led to finding the missing daughters.  Did you have families that intermarried with one another?
  4. Check Family Bibles—often marriages are listed in the family bible.
  5. Check marriage certificates—marriage licenses will provide you with the name of who the family member married.
  6. Search land records—did the father deed or sell land to his daughter and her husband.
  7. Search family histories—older published family histories may lend a clue of who they married or where they moved. From there you can search census records for more information.

How have you found missing children in genealogy records?

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