Lost son
Steve Hayes
>Am trying to find my son whom I haven't seen since 1956. Born in June 1951.
>Last know address was California. Appears to be still alive. No SS death
>records on him.
>
>Anyone have any tips on how I can search. Have had no known luck with the
>normal free sites and understand the "Detective" software isn't much better.
>Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I run a "Genealogical Query Database", where I enter my own and otyher
people's queries, and occasionally post elections of them in forums like this.
Ten days ago I posted one in soc.gen.britain:
HAYES 1907-1997
Researcher: Steve Hayes
PO Box 7648, Pretoria, 0001 RSA
haye...@yahoo.com
HAYES, Frank Wynn. Born Johannesburg, South Africa, 19 Jul
1907; married Ella Growdon, 1933. Worked at Huletts Sugar
Refinery, Durban until 1948, then National Chemical Products,
Germiston, till 1954. Went to live in England, and may have
worked with Thomas & Taylor, consulting chemical engineers, in
1970s. May have lived with, or married, Gwynneth in 1980s, and
said to have been living in Buckinghamshire. Looking for
present whereabouts, or date and place of death.
Last updated: 11 July 1998
Frank Wynn Hayes was my father, qwhom I had not seen since 1954. A participant
in soc.genealogy.britain told me that he had died in December 1988, and gave
me enough information to order a copy of his death certificate and will. As a
result the query above is obsolete, and I am no longer looking for that
information. I have posted it simply as an illustration that such queries
work. If such queries are to be effective, they need to give as much
identifying information as possible in as short a space as possible. In this
case, it was looking for an ancestor, but one could also do such queries for
descendants.
GENEALOGICAL QUERY DATABASE
If you would like to add your own queries to the Genealogical
Query Database, you can enter your query simply by replying to
this message, and filling in the data in the form below, but
PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS THAT FOLLOW BEFORE YOU FILL IT IN!
=== Form begins - cut here ===========
GENQUER[*] Entrydate[ ] Updated[
]
Surnames[
Begin[ ] End[ ]
Place[
Source[
ResearcherName[
ResearcherAddress[ ]
E-mail[
Query[
=== Form ends - cut here ===============
When you fill in the form, write all information between the
square brackets [ and ]. PLEASE DO NOT EDIT OR ALTER THE FIELD
NAMES.
I repeat: PLEASE DO NOT ALTER OR EDIT THE FIELD NAMES!!!!
Computers are literal-minded beasts, and to them "Surnames[" and
"Surnames [" or "Surnames :" mean entirely different things. They
may seem to mean the same things to you, but they are not the
same thing to computers, so, PLEASE DO NOT ALTER OR EDIT THE
FIELD NAMES!
You may leave the Entrydate[ and Updated[ fields blank. I will
fill them in when I receive the form to ensure consistent date
formatting.
The Surnames[ field is for the surnames you are researching. It
is best to use only one surname per form, but if there are
different spellings of the name, or if the person used more than
one surname, enter them with the most important one first,
separated by a slash /.
The Begin[ and End[ fields are for the period of the search -
either the lifetime of the person, or the possible range of dates
for the event. ENTER NUMERIC YEARS ONLY - one year in the Begin[
field and one in the End[ field. NO LETTERS PLEASE! FOUR NUMERALS
ONLY PER FIELD!
The Place[ field is for the main place where the person lived, or
where they were last seen. If you enter it in the order of coun-
try, state/province/county, city/town/district, it will be
possible to sort it. ENTER ONLY ONE PLACE IN THIS FIELD. If the
person was associated with other places, mention them in the body
of the query. ENTER THE PLACE, ONE PLACE, AND NOTHING BUT THE
PLACE!
The Source[ field is for where you are entering this query, or
where it was published. For example, Source[ Family Tree
magazine, October 1996 ]. If you have entered the query on a BBS
echo, put the name of the network and the echo: Source[ Fidonet,
GENEALOGY.EUR echo ].
ResearcherName[ is for the name of the person who wants the
information (or who holds the information if you are announcing
information to share with others), and ResearcherAddress[ is for
their postal address. If the address is too long to fit on one
screen line, press <Enter> BEFORE you reach the ] right square
bracket, and continue on the next line. Where field data spans
more than one line, the field must end with a ] (except in the
Query[ field). The ] is optional if the data fits on one line.
The E-mail[ field is for an e-mail address. If you don't have
one, leave it blank. If you have more than one, you may copy the
field, thus:
E-mail[
E-mail[
as many times as is necessary. If you use a Fido-type address,
specify the network and logon name, e.g. E-mail[ Steve Hayes
5:7106/22.1 Fidonet ]
The Query[ field is for the main query. It can be several lines
long. Try to make it concise but informative. Use abbreviations
only if you are sure they will be understood - b. for born, d.
for died etc. Begin with a repeat of the main surname in upper
case, followed by a comma, and the first names of the person.
Also, if you abbreviate place names, remember that a search may
not be able to find them if the abbreviations are non-standard.
Try to make each query as specific as possible. If you are post-
ing a query, make sure you say what you are looking for - a date
or place of birth, marriage, death, names of parents, all
ancestors, all descendants or what.
If you are posting to tell others about information you have to
share, make sure it is clear just what information you have -
"descendants of John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith of Munich
(Muenchen), Bavaria, Germany" or whatever.
WHERE TO SEND IT
You may send the completed forms to me by e-mail at the following
addresses:
Steve Hayes
E-mail: haye...@yahoo.com
Fidonet: Stephen Hayes 5:7106/20
FamilyNet: Stephen Hayes 8:7903/10
CCCNet: Stephen Hayes 220:27/1
or post them addressed to me in the following Fidonet echoes:
GENEALOGY.EUR, I&UK_GENE, GENEALOGY
If you are not sure how to fill up the form, or want more
information about the database, send me a message to ask.
You may save the form as a text file, and copy it. You may then
send several queries in one message. Please use a separate form
for each query or search.
If you want a report from the database, send me a message by e-
mail to one of the above addresses, or in one of the conferences
listed above, saying briefly what you are looking for, and I'll
send you a report of what I find. It's e-mail only - no snail
mail, no web pages.
Steve Hayes
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm