Now what do I do?

[dgibby]

Was researching my paternal great-grandmother, looking for the biological father of my grandmother. No luck. Even worse, now I discover that the great-grandmother is not the person listed in all the associated family trees. Everyone I'm looking for is from Va., but am having no luck whatsoever. Any suggestions? I've checked Census records, other trees. I find her married to my grandmother's adoptive father in the census records, but she is definitely not the person listed in the other associated trees. I have her maiden name, but have been in contact with that family and she is definitely not the person from that family. I am soooo confused!

[fudge stripe cookays]

1. Sorry, your post is really confusing.

You say you were researching your great grandmother looking for the biological father of your grandmother. How?

Your first steps should always be to order the birth and death certificates for each person you're researching. Theoretically, your grandmother's birth and/or death certificate should contain both of her parents' names (and often times, it will be the mother's maiden name). I see now you say you have the maiden name, but I'm not sure exactly what it is you're looking for. Have you ordered Ggrandmother's death cert? Many times it will have a spouse's name as their survivor, or if she was a widow, it would possibly have the dead guy's name.

And you mention trees and census records and stuff. You need to clarify a bit more what you mean.

[dgibby]

2. Sorry, I guess the post is as confused as I am!

I thought I had my g.grandmother's maiden name, but realized the name I (and several other families doing research) had listed was the wrong person. My g.grandmother was married 3 times, and had children by all 3 husbands. Her 3rd husband adopted my grandmother, and I was trying to find her biological father.

So now, I don't have the bio father or the maiden name of the g.grandmother, so am temporarily at an impass as far as that line goes. I'm going to keep looking, but was really shocked to find out that the g.grandmother wasn't who we thought she was.

I'm not in Va. at the moment, so will try to find someone there who can help. What a mess! One thing about my family, we're not dull and boring!

BTW, good luck with your book, and thanks for answering my post. Hope this helps clear things up a little.