Saturday, January 21, 2012

SNGF - Do Some Random Research

1. Go to The Random Name Generator and click the red “Generate Name” button at the top of the screen (more than once if you want).  Pick one of the names you see.


2. Go to Ancestry.com and enter your generated name in the search box on the main search page. [Randy's add: If you don't have Ancestry.com, go to https://www.familysearch.org/ and do it there - it's free.]


3. From the results, your research target will be the first census result for your generated name.


4. Using whatever online resources are at your disposal, see what else you can discover about your random person and write about it. It can be a formal report complete with footnotes, or just a “research story” about what you tried, problems you overcame, or success you had. Maybe you want to create a research plan for practice. 

1. From the generator, I got Kristina Parks, but that didn't turn up any results. So I tried again and I got Melva Tucker.

2&3. According to the 1930 US Census, Melva Tucker was black, born about 1910 living in Congaree, Lexington, South Carolina. She was 20 years old, living with just her mother, Mainda Tucker, who was 59 at the time.

4. After searching Ancestry and Family Search, I couldn't find any other information on her. All I found was the 1930 census.

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