December 10, 2014
A reader asked: “I am seeking the date of my grandfather’s death. His name was John L. Gray and died in Missoula, Montana. Can you help?”
I recently received this question—so I reached into GenealogyBank to help her find the answer.
She gave me his name and the city and state where he died, with no additional information.
Bang—first search in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI)—and John L. Gray came right up.
Using GenealogyBank, I was able to find an SSDI record that matched the information about her grandfather that she provided me. I will send the SSDI record to her to see if this is the same John L. Gray that she is looking for.
Ancestor Search Tip: Look for records created throughout a person’s life. In this case his granddaughter wanted to know his date of death. Since a person’s DOD is recorded in multiple records, target those records first.
I knew that his Date of Death would be included in his SSDI Death record, so I searched this first with the brief information I had—and the record came right up.
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I am trying to find out my maternal Grandfathers Great, Great Grandmothers name. His name is Leonard Leon Bledsoe, born October 3, 1914, died December 23, 1999. I was always told she was full blooded Cherokee Indian. I just want to know if she had an Indian name and what it was. You don’t think about asking those kind of questions when you are younger. I wish now I had ask lots of questions! Thank You, Jeania Overman
Jeania – Searching Native Americans can be challenging. You first want to confirm that she is indeed Native American. I would recommend first taking a DNA test. Once you have confirmed she was Native American, the next step would be to check the census records for your grandfather in the 1940 census to find him. Once you find him in the census you will find his family. A good site to start would be FamilySearch.org. They have U.S. census and Native American census records. Once you find your ancestors, you can search newspapers to find a wealth of information about your family.