After I was finally able to find the parents of my paternal grandmother’s mother (Fannie Dennis), I quickly hit another brick wall in that line at her mother. According to the earliest record I could find for her mother Mariah (Herod) Dennis (an 1880 US Census record after she was already married), she was born about 1860, which means that she should show up in the 1870 census with her parents.… Read more “Breaking through a brick wall 2”

A brick wall ancestor is one whose parentage is partially or completely unknown. My paternal grandmother’s mother was one such ancestor for me. On my father’s side I’d otherwise had plenty of success finding ancestors; it’s my mother’s side where I keep hitting brick walls only a few generations removed from me.… Read more “Breaking through a brick wall”