Need help finding someone; Ancestry.com!?

Question

Ok my teacher gave us an assignment to research our family history, find out where we come from and make a family tree outline.. I need someone who has an ancestry.com account to look some information up for me as I cannot afford to get an account and asking my family didn't do much good.. I'll give you some info to go by.

My grandmother's name is Amelia Crandall (her maiden name is Gallo)
She was born March 8, 1925 and she died February 28th, 2008.
Her spouse is Harlan Crandall.. he was adopted (I'd like to find out who is original family was, his original last name.. if possible)
He was born August 28th, 1915 and died June 20th, 2005.

The only info I was able to get was that my grandfather was born in California.
I know my grandma has a sister Anita and I THINK their fathers name was Giuseppe.
They come from Italy.

I need more information than this so if you can find anything from what I've given you, PLEASE this would really help me out a lot.

Thank you!!! :)

Answer 1

Is this your grandfather?

Name: Harlan Crandall

Home in 1920: Westwood, Lassen, California

Age: 4

[4 4/12]

Estimated Birth Year: abt 1916

[abt 1915]

Birthplace: Arkansas

Relation to Head of House: Son

Father's name: Earl Crandall

Father's Birth Place: New York

Mother's name: Pearl Crandall

Mother's Birth Place: California

Marital Status: Single

Race: White

Sex: Male

Neighbors: View others on page

Household Members: Name Age

Earl Crandall 36

Pearl Crandall 28

Harlan Crandall 4

[4 4/12

Answer 2

Any teacher who would give a class an assignment such as this without a very long training session about how to use FREE sources to research genealogy, should be fired or at the very least reprimanded. This is not teaching you anything. You should not be expected to buy a subscription to Ancestry just to complete an assignment. Unless your school library, or a nearby public library has a subscription to Ancestry that you can use for free, this is unacceptable.



I am very serious about this. Take this answer, and the others you will likely receive about the quality of this assignment, to the principal and complain.



To find your grandfather's adoption information, you would need to go to the vital records department for the state where he was adopted and inquire about their open adoption record laws. Every state is different. You very likely will not be able to get any information. THe adoption records are often closed. Sometimes they wil provide non-identifying data but few states will provide names. You would need to order the records,(or actually your parent would) and it often takes several months.



I looked for Amelia Gallo on Family Search and found no records. Are you sure she was born in Italy?

Answer 3

What an idiot teacher you have, who knows little or nothing about family history........teaches like this should NOT be teaching and that is said by someone who is a teacher.........it could be 200 years ago when/if your family migrated and the research that correctly it cold take you several years.......which is why you assignment is so ill thought through........not you fault, it just makes me wonder ho some of these people ever get a job teaching when the know nothing about e subject they are giving out as an assignment...and how are they going to mark it.......





You start with you not websites, ask family, ask to see the records your family already have...take copy of these as proof of recordhttp://familytimeline.webs.com/recordsinyourownhome.htm this will help you get back 3-5 generations and teaches you how to research correctly, then the links page will help you look for census and passenger ship lists etc....prove as you go and family history is not a competition, it is about proving via cited records........



As far as your adoption issue goes , that is not going to be something you find out, everyone has to accept that a line comes to a natural end and for an assignment that is certainly a natural end.............

Answer 4

This looks to be your grandma. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=crandall&GSfn=amelia&GSbyrel=all&GSdy=2008&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=72392762&df=all& The military notations are interesting.



This appears to be grandpa http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=crandall&GSfn=harlan&GSbyrel=all&GSdy=2005&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=44765940&df=all& He was a WW2 veteran. A good clue for digging up other records. I couldn't locate a draft card, so I suspect he may have been a volunteer enlistee. Here's some information on WW2 records at the National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/ As a VFW he may have been a member of a lodge or VFW post where he lived that may be of assistance.



On Find A Grave, you can place a request for someone to take a photo of their tombstones which might give more information or you could contact the cemetery to see if they have a file they would be willing to share with you.



https://www.familysearch.org/ is similar to ancestry.com but the records they have are free. Ancestry.com can sometimes be accessed for free at a local library or Family History Center. Both have very good collections, but they by no means have everything. Please do make sure you refer to the records and not trees or pedigrees. These are user-submitted and not verified to be correct. Other handy resources are http://www.cyndislist.com/ and http://www.ellisisland.org/sign/index.asp?login_targ=%2Fsearch%2FshipManifest.asp%3FpID%3D100278070037&ACT=LL§ion=3



Your grandfather was born in California so his nationality was American. His birth parents may be very difficult or impossible to find due to sealed record laws. Most records will list his adopted parents as his parents.



A quick note about school projects: The purpose of this type of assignment is usually to interview your family, learn something about how your family connects to history, and communicate what you learned, not to collect volume. It's unlikely the purpose is to teach you to do research, but if it is the teacher will review proper research techniques and provide some resources. No teacher should expect every student to be able to research x number of generations. You will get more information for some ancestors that others. Many families have roadblocks that will prevent them from going back very far. You may want to ask your teacher for clarification on the expectations or resources they expect you to use.