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What is your current goal? What line are you focusing on? Are you creating a one-name study or trying to break down a brick wall to go further back in a line?

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My current goal in genealogy is to become a member of the DAR through my g. g. g. g. g. grandfather Martin Graves. I have requested a copy of the original application on Martin Graves, as he has already been established as serving in the American Revolution. Would love to hear about your goals...
I have an Great Granduncle that was killed in the Civil War. Someone sent me an e-mail about getting him registered but the e-mail got lost when my system crashed. I have no idea where to begin with this. Any suggestions?

Mike Orr
I like to say that my ultimate goal is to find that I'm actually related to someone who was already a friend of mine. It's only partly tongue-in-cheek. I would be fun to call or e-mail one of my friends and start off with a hearty "Hi Cuz!"

More realistically, I have a few. The one thing they all have in common is wanting to get back to "the old country" eventually.

First, I want to find my Swedish cousins. Both of my paternal grandfather's parents were Swedish immigrants (about 1891), and family legend is that they left at least one child behind who became a university professor. Allegedly, he communicated by letter with the family over here. These letters (and the family Bible) may or may not be in the possession of my father's eldest sister in Michigan, who has dementia (possibly Alzheimer's) and denies it. Without those documents, I don't even know where in Sweden to begin, or have birth dates for my grandfather's parents and siblings.

Second, I want to break down my Kentucky Cox brick wall. My great-great grandfather Robert M. Cox was born in Kentucky (prob. c. 1814), married in Adair County in 1838, lived in Green County in 1840, and died in Sangamon County, Illinois in 1892. His wife's sister married a Samuel R. Cox, a few years younger than Robert, in Adair County in 1839, and that family eventually moved to Macoupin County, Illinois. Both families had sons named John, James, and William, although I realize they're common names. I think Robert & Samuel were brothers, but since I have never discovered the names of either man's parents, I really don't know. That's what I want to find out, and then take it back to the immigrant ancestor(s).

Then there's Mahala Golden Carman. She was born c. 1785 in New York (possibly Dutchess County), married Jacob Carman (also of Dutchess County), had at least 5 children, including my great-great-great grandmother, Rachel, and the family migrated from NY to Pennsylvania, eventually settling in Sangamon County (where Rachel's granddaughter married Robert Cox's son). I know nothing of Mahala Golden's family. Since she would be my mtDNA contributor, I'd especially like to be able to take her line farther back.

Then there's the McDues of Ireland, the mystery of Jonathan Wade, and Mary Jane Parker of Michigan or Ohio whose parents were apparently from New York...

I remember when I started a few years ago and my husband predicted that I'd run out of family to discover in about a year. HAH!
My problem is that I have too many goals at once... but I would say that my #1 would be to find out what my grandmother's real name was.

You see, even my grandmother didn't know. Her mother died when she was a baby, and the birth records for her birth location and year (Carlstadt, New Jersey in 1890) were destroyed by a fire. Her father and older brothers always just called her "Belle."
I recently found the 1900 census for my grandmother's family - so I now know that her name was (most likely) Isabelle. Yay!
Happy dance for you Kathleen!I understand that moment when that one little piece of info.is found.Now you can truly call her name and say"You are remembered".
That's why we talk about levels of record keeping. In 1890 NJ, for instance, birth certificates were forwarded to the State, where they were collected and where registers were made as summaries of all of them. So the State Archives is where you start.

Also, many folks filed for "delayed birth registration", using eyewitnesses and family documents, and local documents (such as school records) to verify a previous birth. These registrations became especially important when Social Security started in the 30s, and when WW2 hit America.

Then of course there are newspaper announcements for the mother's death and baby's birth, coroner's inquests, and so forth. Do you have a research log of where you have searched so far?
NO I should have kept a research log of all the places I have searched.
However my main Searches in Maryland were of people prior to 1890
Thanks for the reply.
As some of the other responders mentioned I have to many Goals working on at once.
At the moment I was entranced by the Name Jennifer EKLUND . I have been researching My Son in laws family. Steven Charles Eckland of San Francisco area. He is a descentedntof of Anders Eklund who immigrated from Sweden in the 1880's. He shows up in 1900 Census of Lincoln County Neb. as Andrew Eckland with wife Christiana Lundgren Eckland.
The lundgrens also came from Sweden in 1882
Anders Eklund is buried in the Old Sutherland (Riverview) cemetery Sutherland Lincoln County Nebraska. Also the Lundgren family of Nils Lundgren. Christiana married Arthur Danielson in about 1907. Andrew Eckland was killed in an accident in Lincoln County Nebraska in 1907 leaving Christiana with several Children. Arthur was a hired man and married the widow.
The church in Sweden that the Ecklands were in burned so the prior records were lost.

I am also researching Capt. William B. Roe who died in 1835 leaving a pregnant young widow Katherine Scott Roe, Talbot County MD
Another search is William Dunavan in Rocking ham County VA. around 1800.
Glenn,

Thank you for sharing. Eklund is my maiden name and my father-in-law had a falling out with his family so he does not like to discuss them much. With the encouragement of his two sons I am trying to get information from him about his father and grandfather to begin research on. His grandfather came from Sweden, but settled in Massachusetts. I don't know if the grandfather had any siblings and whether they immigrated and may have settled if they did. Would be interesting to find out and I hope to one day be able to get him to open up about his family without opening up old wounds.
Sounds like my Son in law's family.
they seem to be troubled about some thing but they did share enough names and places so the Census gave me lots of information and someone was kind enough to supply the Immigration data from their CD of swedish immigrants using the approximate names, and the ages and dates from the census on their immigration.
Some ot the family moved to CA so the marriage, birth and death records were informative.

My grandson Ian Charles Eckland/Eklund will know whom some of his ancestors were as the marriages in Neb and other records gave me clues and I have been in contactg with some of Maternal sides of the family whom were not always Swedish.
If I can be of any Help, Just let me know.
Glenn Dunavan in Kansas.
My husband and I both grew up with few mentions about some of our backgrounds. Also, my maternal grandfather was orphaned at age 4, so much of his history is missing, or is hearsay. Also, both my husband and I love history.

So our main goals are to gather that missing information and to place all of it into historical perspective.

We very, very new to genealogy, so perhaps our first goal is just to learn about how to proceed. I've been getting lots of great help on that goal in the various groups I've joined here at Genealogy Wise.

Sue

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