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Friday, October 23, 2009

Writing a Good Genealogy Query

Sallie's Question:
my great grandfather william myfrey spencer sometimes went by the names william and sometimes by myfrey. is there anything i can do to locate the information i want on him. sometimes my searches find nothing about him in the census. i found a copy of his death certificate, and his name was spelled william mifra.

Olive Tree Answer:
Dear Sallie - I chose your question to illustrate how important it is to provide details when writing a query. You have not given me any dates (When was William born? When did he die?), locations (did William live in USA? Canada? Germany? England? where??) or helpful details such as spouse's name, children's names.

Beyond forgetting to give me information I need to help you, you didn't tell me exactly what you want to find out! Are you looking for his birth record? His marriage record? His wife's name? His parents? Or something else?

There is help to write a good genealogy query at Good Query Bad Query

If you would like to provide me with details as outlined above, I will be happy to try to help you in your quest

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