How to find out someones mothers maiden name

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To begin receiving the free weekly newsletter please take a moment to check your email and confirm your subscription. I just found a great Aunt who was born in Italy as Grazia Frontiera. She came to the US as a five year old and began her new life. She eventually got married to Gerlomo Ciarimitaro and they had seven children before She lost her husband and four of her children by the census influenza outbreak of and one was a few days old in In she became a Catholic nun. In Grazia died and was interred at a Catholic cemetery near my home.

I knew she was at the cemetery but in some attempts have never been able to find her. Finally I ask the clerk at the cemetery to look for her religious name Sister Rita Lena.

Bingo found the answer and visited my great Aunt. I also told her life history on facebook the next day through what I had found out about her through censuses, marriage certificates, birth certificate, death notices and certificates. You can learn a lot about someone you have never met by their records.

Keep searching. If you want to read that account of her life you can find it on my facebook page. Just found links to the little known Federal Censu. He was not my direct ancestor but the much younger brother. I love following all those siblings now for more family clues. I think it is related to Daughters of the American Revolution. It has wives listed by maiden name. Chancery records are also a good source for making family connections.

Many court cases involved land disputes around the estate of a deceased man and contain an amazing amount of family information. If courthouse access is impossible, check the local newspapers for the time period, if they exist, as the cases sometimes required notices be published. These records also include a surprising to me, at least number of divorce and bastardy cases.

I have not got our fathers Birth Surname, he left home as a young man and had no further contact with his family. On his accidental death aged 48 we discovered he had called himself by another identity Eric Clarence William Mulford the same as the author of Hopalong Cassidy fame, since Our mother only ever new him by this alias name, met him in Auckland, New Zealand and married the following year. We have done Y-DNA tests but no repeated common surname has come to light apart from what we were led to believe, that is he was of Irish Descent Any suggestions please of what to do now?

My grandfather visited us and kept us kids in stitches with some of his stories. Like he went to Mars every spring and spoke Martian to us. And he told why his ancestors left the Outer Hebrides for Canada in the Laird had converted to Protestantism and started a school where the Roman Catholic kids had meat forced down their throats on Fridays.

The Laird stood at the crossroads with his yellow cane and forced his Catholic tenants toward the Prot.

I was a young teen the last time I saw Grandpa; my younger siblings remember none of this. Should I try to make something of those memories? On two trips to Scotland in the ss, though not to the Outer Hebrides, I talked with anyone I could find who might know something. No, they all said. There were neither clearances or religious problems in that area at that time.

Notifications

Looking for info on a different Scottish ancestor in a different Canadian province, I found a mention in a book — maybe it was true? I happened to meet a man from Inverness who made business trips out there — he promised to ask around. He found a man who hand-wrote out the whole story for me in Gaelic and said the only error in my account was that it was a yellow stick, not a yellow cane! In the census, I learned that the family were Gaelic speakers.

ADVICE: If you have a story you want to check out, first write down exactly what you remember of it before discussing it with others.

I had a lady with a maiden name according to other family researchers ; however, I looked and looked and could find nothing on her at all…. So, using his name, I searched a county marriage book. With correct maiden name everything else just fell into place. I have found persons mom because the same reason.

I have one ancestor with an middle name that is a surname but in this case have not been able to find any connection. Might be honoring a friend. Thanks for including the warnings along with the possibilities. One can never be too careful in connecting individuals to a family tree, especially when given and surnames are common and repetitive within communities or origin and extended families.

I have found maiden names on the marriage records of their children, or on Social Security Card applications, which might also show if a woman has been married multiple times. I was wondering if you have had any luck finding marriage records in Iowa? The surrounding counties seem no better. I found the maiden name of my 2nd great-grandmother in an unusual way… my great-grandmother was born in and her mother died in Her father sent several of his children to live with relatives, then remarried and had more children — all before the census.

I found some of the older children who had appeared in the census in the census living with 3 families that all shared the same surname.

I used that as my clue and, sure enough, was able to confirm they were maternal relatives, finding marriage records for parents. Looking at it again with more experienced eyes helped me to realize the true nature of their connection. No maiden name. There listed was the information I was looking for. Also, check the witnesses on deeds and other documents.

Quite often the wife is represented by the second witness. Also, read the biographies of all members of the family. Many times I have found the maiden name in a biography of a brother-in-law because it mentions his wife the sister of your ancestor and her parents. He had lived most of his life in another part of the country, and I knew nothing about him.

I duly recorded what info I found. I have used all of these ideas. Make a note of all the female names who are on the same page and then find the husband on the next census. When my great grandmother remarried after the death of her first husband, she had to put her maiden name on her new marriage license. It was exhilarating to find all those maiden names!!

Great advice! Great stuff, and I really like your emphasis on researching skeptically and reinforcing any new links. I often find trees showing as certain connections that I know from primary-source work to be false. Be very careful. The mother-in-law in the census record could be listed by the name of her second husband.