David Grant Otte

My father, David Grant Otte, was born in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington on August 2, 1917. He died  on May 8, 2001, in Port Townsend, Washington. He is buried in the National Cemetery in Tahoma, King County, Washington.

My father never knew his own father -- Leonard Otte died when David was 3 months old. He knew very little about his father's life, and never even saw a picture of him until late in life. In addition, his mother died when David was 20, and left little record of her life.  How can I possibly find out anything about his ancestry with so little to do on.

It was 30 years before I found Leonard's father's name. Today, it would have take me minutes using the Internet resources available.

Let's start with FamilySearch. I put my information into my FamilySearch account, including what I know about David Otte. Today, I logged in, selected my Family Tree, and selected to view David Otte as a "person." Always work from the Person view within FamilySearch.

When I open the Person view, I see a lot of information:

Family search thinks they have found him in three different places! Click on these links to see if they are him. You would see that the first is a list of addresses from phone books; the second is his Army enlistment record (he served in India/Burma/China in World War II, and the last is his listing in the 1940 census, 

The 1940 Census gives us our first insight into his life. David was 22 years old and had been unemployed for a long time. He was living at the YMCA in Wenatchee, Washington, and working as a janitor in exchange for rent. In 1935, he was living in Tacoma, Washington.

After reviewing each hint, and either accepting or rejecting (if your ancestor has a common name, these hints might not be useful), other hints may appear.

The 1930 Census has David living with his stepfather, mother, two brothers, and a sister.

The 1920 Census has David living with his widowed mother and his two brothers. 

Maybe we can find something about his father searching another way. Next entry: Using FamilySearch.org to find records.