Happy Monday! I have a happy genealogy story for you. A shout out for a new-to-me record collection, and for kind strangers.
Thursday I was preparing a class on Family History Basics. Part of the class was a demo portion within Family Tree on FamilySearch. I clicked around in my own tree and found an area that was missing sources, facts and some people. The person related to me was James W. Cheney. In the tree he had a wife name Alice G. Tinsley. Alice wasn’t jiving with the other records I was finding. I was pretty sure Alice didn’t belong with my James. But I was also sure that someone named Alice Grant did belong with James.
I did some checking in findagrave and there was an Alice Elizabeth Grant Cheney. She seemed like a pretty good potential match for the Alice belonging to my James. I did some basic searching and couldn’t find an obit. I was hoping an obit would tie up some loose ends.
This is when I thought I would try something out. I posted a help request in Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness on Facebook. I asked for help locating an obituary to match the Alice Elizabeth Grant Cheney on findagrave.
Within a few minutes a kind stranger had found the funeral home record above. This fabulous record was step one in proving that my James was not married to Alice G. Tinsley but was married to Alice Elizabeth Grant. Isn’t that record amazingly detailed? I love that the obit is at the bottom of the page! I was however a bit embarrassed that I hadn’t found this myself. Somehow I missed it. (Insert sheepish head shake here.) But a story with a happy ending nonetheless.
So – two big shot outs.
One – Hooray for the new-to-me collection, “California, San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, 1895-1985“!
Two – Hooray for kind strangers willing to help at Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness!
But also, hooray for being able to clear up the Alice confusion. I love a good puzzle. I love it even more when I solve it.
I also have found the Facebook groups to be tremendously helpful. There seems to be a group for almost any geographic or ethnic area—I am in groups for Germany, Pennsylvania, New York, Detroit,, for ancestry.com, and a few for Jewish genealogy. I can’t tell you how helpful the people in these groups have been. Glad you also found someone to help you! Good luck. (I assume you don’t think that Alice Grant married someone named Cheney before marrying your James? I’ve had that happen a few times to me–a maiden name gets lost by a first marriage before the marriage to my relative.)
Hi Amy! You are correct, I don’t think Alice Grant was married before marrying my James as she married at the age of 17 and the census indicates that her age at first marriage was 17. I don’t have her marriage record yet so I’m not 100%, but I don’t see any signs that she was married previously. Additionally, the two Alice’s have completely different parents. I think someone just mistakenly attached the wrong Alice to my James.
Yep, I have had that happen a number of times. Early on I trusted everyone’s tree, but now I know better! Good luck!
Thank you!
Cool! Now I’m thinking…hmmm who in my tree died in the San Francisco area??? Thanks for sharing that new source!
You are welcome! I have been thinking the exact same thing. 🙂