Sunday, April 20, 2014

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do Some Random Research

A little belated, but nonetheless, let's have some Ancestry fun!

1) Go to The Random Name Generator and click the red “Generate Name” button at the top of the screen. You can pick any random name that is generated in successive tries if you don't like or don't want to research the first name generated.

2. Go to Ancestry.com and enter your generated name in the search box on the main search page. If you don't have Ancestry.com, go to http://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.


From the random generator, I got Courtney Vaughn (how ironic).

I then went to Ancestry and found the 1930 census for Courtney L. Vaughn. He (surprising actually, I thought it was a she), was a 20 year old white male born about 1910 in Georgia. He was married to Gladis M. Vaughn a 19 year old who was born about 1911 in Georgia. They had a new baby girl named Peggy G. Vaughn a 4 month old who was born in 1930 in Georgia. Living in Brewers, Newton, Georgia, Courtney was a farmer.

I kept searching for Courtney and found him in the 1920 census. He was 10 at the time, still living in Georgia with his grandparents, William (61) and Silavanna Ivy (52). Living with them was Dessa (25), Wilbur (16), and Courtney's mother Amanda (32). It looks like she's a widow and is living with her parents and siblings. Dessa's a teacher and William is a farmer.

I finally found his death certificate. He died in Georgia on March 10, 1980.

After searching Family Search and Ancestry, the results stop there.
I'm sure if I kept searching for his grandparents and parents, I'd find more. I have a feeling there's a lot more on this family.
xx Courtney

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