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Archiver > BLACK > 1998-10 > 0909092402


From: Astrahan family <>
Subject: [BLACK-L] How I got started in Genealogy
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 14:40:02 -0700


About 2 years ago my 14-year-olddaughter asked me about my family. Her
father's aunt had researched her dad's family back to old Russia. Well I
knew a couple of stories about the French fur trader who married a Native
American and that we were cousins of President James Knox Polk. My mother
and I first went through my grandmother's photo album. There were pictures
of her grandmother and her sister. On the back it stated Visalia Photo.
Taking that hint I went to the Tulare Co, CA Genweb site and nosed around.
>From my grandmother's birth certificate I had her father was born in
Elmira, Solano Co, CA and her mother was born in Hopkins, Nodaway Co, MO.
I find them in the 1900 Census for Tulare Co living with his parents. I
also find their date of marriage listed on line! I also found his two
sisters marriage info! Asking for a lookup gave me my
greatgrandgrandmother's death certificate info. She was buried in Visalia
Cemetery along with my greatgrandmother's father.This too was online. From
the death certificate info I had the name of my ggggrandfather and the
maiden name of his wife. From the census data I knew they were born in VA.
I let that drop for a while and went to Solano Co Genweb. A very nice lady
looked up my greatgreatgrandparents marriage date and found several
possible deceased children for this couple. I then went to my local
library and looked up the 1860-1880 census for Solano Co. I found my
greatgreatgreatgrandparents and learned first names and dates for lots of
people. Next stop was Nodaway Co MO Genweb site and several lookups from
the nice people there. I got more marriage info. I followed leads that
lead me to Buchanan Co and Andrew Co . I found the link between CA and MO.
How did they get to CA?(Oregon Trail 1853) To make a long story short, by
answering 4 queries on Genweb sites from West Virginia to Kansas I now have
several new cousins and proved the original family stories! The daughter
of the Frency fur trapper married my ggggrandfather's younger brother. I
also proved that I am a 4th cousin, 5 times removed from the Mr. Polk.
Genweb was a great help not to mention all the nice people that did lookups!

Cheri Astrahan

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