Internet Finds: PrivateEye.com

This evening, while perusing the Ancestry Magazine archives, I found an interesting article which cited some sites I hadn't heard of. I visited one, and while it was interesting, the second site cited proved to be a stalkers delight! PrivateEyes.com, while a little frightening how much they know about people, actually gave me a lot of information and filled several gaping holes in my family tree. My grandfather on my father's side had two sisters that my father only vaguely remembered. Since my grandfather wasn't really around for much of my father's life and died several years ago (and with him died the last close relative of my father's paternal line) it seemed like we'd never know what happened to I. and M. (my grandfather's sisters). My father had remembered the ladies married names though and that one of them had gone to California, so that was something. I'd hunted for them on sites before but never had much luck. Tonight, after being on PrivateEye.com for less than an hour I had not only located one of the sisters but I was fairly sure about the other. I., it turns out, did indeed marry a Mr. V. and lived in California, Northridge to be precise. It also lists her as living in Brooklyn along with some possible relatives. Taking this information, I went back to Ancestry and plugged in their names. Eventually I ended up in the California Birth Index database and hunted for possible children (since Northridge is in Los Angeles co., I looked there) and sure enough, there were four children last name V. with their mother's maiden name matching I.'s and to top it off, the first born was a Jr. so I knew for sure that this was the son of I. and her husband! As for M., I'm not so sure, but the info I found offered lots of possibilities. I knew from my father that M. married a Mr. F. and that they lived in Adrian, Michigan. Going on to PrivateEye.com I looked for M., but no luck. So, I typed in her husband and a gentleman matching his name was indeed listed in Adrian, but not much beyond his name was provided so I could be wrong about his connection with M. There was a couple matching M. and her husband living in Richmond, Michigan, but since I don't know if they ever lived there, I'm doubtful about this hit. In any case, I certainly have a better idea of what happened to them beyond the 1930 census (when they were young children). While PrivateEye.com is a pay site, a lot of information can be found for free, I definitely recommend checking it out!

Note: Relatives that I have no death info on appear only with their initial(s), like M. and I. above.