For Any Ab'ers Based In The Usa

[mikey4444]

My Northern Irish paternal Grandfather left his wife, and my Dad and his sisters in the late 20's/ early 30's and went to live in San Francisco. He must have re-married, bigamously, as I have a copy of his death certificate, in 1975. His 2nd wife reported the death, and I have her full name and their address when the death occurred.

There is now no one left alive in my family that has any other information, so how do I go about finding out more about the old rogue ?

[Clanad]

If you can, find a copy of 1930 and 1940 California census report. The 1940 was released just a few years ago since 70 years must pass before release. The Census' reports from those years are chock full of information, including where the head of household was born, wife's name, children's name and possibly some other clues for your search.

The census described above is the U.S. National Census and is usually available with the limited time 'free' use of Ancestry.com site.

Keep in mind, however, that individual States often took their own mid-cycle census and could be available from Ancestry. Those census, while informative, sometimes don't contain the volume of information as do the National ones. The mid-cycle is usually, in this case, 1935, 1945, etc. so the 1945 California census maay be available...

[atalanta]

You could try finding out which newspapers are published in that area, and consider having an ad printed to the effect " would relatives of Fred Snooks, formerly of . . . . died . . . please get in touch with Mikey Snooks of . . . . "
I did that in order to find an old friend from abroad, and it worked.

[Clanad]

Addndum: You may find helpful information here:

http://stevemorse.org/fhl/websiteslist.php?file=weblinksunitedstates&mode=fhl

Among other links, scroll down to "Helpful Websites for California Vitals" to start your search...

Also, don't overlook http://cagenweb.com/ (California GenWeb) which is often helpful.

Keep in mind the city of San Francisco is in San Francisco County, but other Counties border the city area. Find those here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Counties_in_the_San_Francisco_Bay_Area ... Luck!

[mikey4444]

The difficulty here is that this doppleganger Californian family may have no knowledge of my grandfathers previous life ! In fact, they almost certainly don't !

I don't really want to make contact, at least not at this stage. I just want to ferret out some more info, if possible. My father, and his generation forbode any discussion of his father, as the shame of him having effectively abandoned his wife and family was so huge. They were Catholics, which made it worse.

But I shall give these links ago. I know that he was cremated, as the Death Cert. says as much. He died in the town of Salinas, about 100 miles south of SF.

[Clanad]

Salinas is in Monterey County... check these:

http://www.linkpendium.com/genealogy/USA/CA/Monterey/

BTW... it's pronounced sah-LEE-nahs if you didn't know...

[stuey]

I think that most families would be really interested and intrigued to discover that shaking the family tree would reveal some "irregularities", Mike

[mikey4444]

Stuey...Our family have known about the dirty dogs activities for as long as I have been alive ! My concern is confronting complete strangers as to their illegitimate past. I will consult with others before going too much farther.