Saturday before I left Augusta, I visited my grandmother. She told me that my great-great-aunt Katherine lived in Decatur for a while, and she (Gran) visited Katherine there in the early 1940s. She remembered downtown Decatur and the square, and venturing into Atlanta to eat at The Varsity. I pressed her for any more details, such as where Katherine lived; but all she could remember was that she lived in “a cute little white house on a nice street,” and it was “not too far” from downtown.
So, now I am determined to find out where she lived, and photograph the house if it’s still standing (kind of like how I photographed the house where my grandmother grew up, and her elementary school).
The only info I have is her name, her husband’s name, the fact that her husband had 7 children (from a previous marriage), and that she lived in Decatur in the 40s, before moving to Florida. A Google search turned up nothing, but I didn’t really expect it to. Does anyone have any ideas of how I can track down my great-great-aunt’s whereabouts ~60 years ago? I’m thinking there must be records and such at the courthouse, but where to start…?
Other, unrelated items:
- I think my car is leaking coolant again. This after dropping a few hundred dollars on it last week for new brake pads and rotors, ghatdammit.
- Next week, I attempt taking MARTA to work. East/West line to Georgia State, then transfer to the #1 bus… here’s hoping I don’t miss the 8:15 bus.
- Chick-Fil-A fruit cups now come with strawberries. Yippee!
- Last night’s podcast party was a rousing success. Photos to come.
READ ME: Disclaimer
10 Responses to "Finding dead relatives"
Yes — I am sure there are photos of me and Alyssa laughing our asses off during Duane’s Q&A session.
The drunken sound engineer accidentally overwrote Duane’s Q&A with the PSAs/commercials. He feels really bad about that.
BOO!!! =o)
Decatur has a great historic preservation group:
http://www.decaturpreservationalliance.org
I’m sure someone there could point you in the right direction and/or help you with your research.
If you’re interested in local history in general, check out this really cool site:
http://www.atlantatimemachine.com
This site will provide hours of fun for history/architecture/planning geeks (like myself). If I were more of a computer geek, I’d know how to put those links in properly… sorry.
BTW, I really enjoy your site. I’ve been lurking for a while now (hi!).
Okay, first off, you should know that this isn’t an ad. A good place to start is always:
http://www.searchsystems.net
Go to your state, county, then look at the vital records offered. Searchsystems usually has a good listing of sites offering info for geneologists which always has old property and marriage records.
If that doesn’t work, you can just shoot me and email.
You could also look through property records at the Decatur courthouse for your grandfather or great-grandfather’s name to see where he owned property. Check online for that, by the way, because Athens-Clarke County has theirs up for all to see.
Similarly, Census Data from the time period is a great resource for locating dead relatives as well as their occupation, living conditions, etc.
You can get a free trial with Ancestry.com that will get you that information, but be sure to cancel it when you’re done or you’ll be forced to pay.
If you email me “offline”, I have an Ancestry.com account and would be happy to look up your relatives for you.
DeKalb County is not online, but they are very convenient (but this may prove to be a special case). You would need to do the research in the Clerk of Superior court’s office in the courthouse on the square. That is where they hold the deed records. Now, DeKalb is convenient is that most of their records are now kept on computer (going pretty far back) and they also have a sattelite office that is even open on saturdays in the Tom Scott building on Memorial. Now since these records are pretty far back there is a good shot they will not be on the computers there. When you go looking you want to look in the Deed record books. Today those books will have Grantor / Grantee written on the side of them with a year/date. But back then, the books were often kept together in one big huge book and were handwritten. This can be what is called a HUGE pain in the ass.
If you want some help on how to do this you can email me, and I will give you a pretty good run down.
Oh, and tax records can sometimes be helpful too.
Thanks, everyone, for the info! I haven’t found anything yet, but I plan to hit to courthouse and perhaps the Dekalb history center as soon as I have a chance. If I actually find the house, there will be photos, yes there will.