Re: confusing Spencer background..NEED HELP please!

Here;s some ideas. The way to start is....find some documents. Try to get your mom's death certificate (if you don't already have it). Whoever (if not you) filled out the information for it, may have known and put down some of her parents' info- such as name/date of birth/place,etc.

If not---then next try for whoever's birth or death certificate you can get--- look for the person for whom you already know the most info about (ie-if you know your grandpa's or great- uncle's birth date/place in MO, go for that---again if you can get a death certificate first, it can give you info to LEAD you TO a birth certificate).

You contact the Court of the COUNTY that the town of birth or death was, for that person( ie-where they were of). If the info, say, for Smithson County, Missouri is not listed online, then call 1 (area code for that part of country) 555- 1212 and ask for the county court of that town. Then when reach the court ask their proceedure to lookup and send you a copy of the birth or death certificate. Cost is usually anywhere from 5 to 15 dollars a copy.

Other ways of finding out ...are once you know the town, you can also contact the local (for that county) probate court and see if they have your ancestor's WILL on file, and what the cost to copy/send IT to you would be. A Will is important as it names descendants, other siblings, sometimes refers to holdings such as land,that are traceable by land deed records,etc.

City directoriesare another great source---like telephone books before phones--- they list such things as person's name, sometimes if deceased it shows their widow's name, the person's type of employment (again, good to know as can tell you more about them by getting old company records, and or prove you have the SAMEJohn Smith as YOUR relative since OTHER John did NOT work,say, for the railroad,as yours did. City directories also tell you their work or home address, again good, so that you can then look up your ancestor in a Census and know you have the right person in the correct area of that city.

Most libraries have a reference desk librarian who will tell you(over the phone, or even online) if they have them and for what years and what cost is to lookup/copy/send info to you-if your ancestor is found in one).

Another option to extend your family tree backwards is to find one of your mom's Male SPENCER relatives---either that uncle's son, or brother's son, and have them take a y-line (male) DNA test (it's only about $100 and results in 3wks (simple swab inside of cheek for dna cells-painless). You can do this via the Spencer Historical Genealogical Society.

Their website is......www.shgs.org.....when 1st pg comes-up see top and read across left to right-- there are several catagories--and about the 5th one over it says "dna studies"--- click on that, and a page w/all the info, cost, how to, comes-up.

When you get your dna results report back it will match you ( i mean your male relative) to a particular Spencer group. Many of those folk in each group have papers about their lineage that may take your line quite a ways back, and help you connect-up to your own Spencer blood cousins!

Good luck,

Dina Spence (the Spencers are witIN my SPENCE line)