Re: Looking for Information on the Topf family
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In reply to:
Looking for Information on the Topf family
Charlie Holm 4/01/08
Dear Charlie,
Try the www.familysearch.org site of the Mormon Church.I looked there and got the Social Security Death Index for Nicholas Topf b.10 June 1896, d. 1 May 1992, Social Security Number 480-16-3643, issued in Iowa.Social Security didn't start till the 1930s, so your older relatives won't be on it, nor will any living relatives.
I typed Topf and United States and Any State and got a good list of people named Topf from the 1880 census which is free on the family search site.Anyone alive in 1880 is likely to be on it, including children.If you don't know when someone was born, guess 20 to 25 years from the birth of their first child.l
If you go to www.rootsweb.com you can get the Social Security death index free and see other Topf genealogies that might include your relatives.
Your local public library may have a subscription to Ancestry or Heritage Quest or some other huge genealogy database where you can find birth marriage death, a complete set of census records from 1790 to 1930, other genealogies, ships lists, immigration records, colonial records, etc.The librarians can help you use it.The censuses after 1850 list all the members of the household and their ages and occupations.If you find someone when they are a child, you will know the parents' names, too, when you look on the census.You can buy a subscription to Ancestry online, but it's expensive.They frequently offer 2 week free trials if you want to search fast and furiously, but if you don't cancel in time, you're stuck with an expensive one year subscription.(That's how I got mine.)
Look at Iowa's state vital records site and see if they are publishing the older birth, marriage, and death records. Birth records have the parents' names, including mother's maiden name in some cases.Marriage records may have the parents' names and definitely list the bride by her maiden name.It also says where the ceremony was performed and who performed it.Death records have cause of death, mother's maiden name, date and place of death, and place of burial.Ancestry may have your state's indexes.
The Catholic Church records usually are not on databases and have to be searched manually, so you have to be able to give correct dates for whatever record you want.If you get the civil records first, you will have the correct dates, if you want to try Church records.The Church has a personnel shortage, so genealogy isn't a big priority for their search staff.They spend most of their search time on documents for immigrants and verifying marriage eligibility.
Sincerely,
Kate