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.

First steps in family history

I was born Diane Lois Otte on November 4, 1952, in the small town of Enumclaw, King County, Washington. I am the second of seven children of David Grant Otte. I am not going to spend a lot of time in this blog on my mother, siblings, children, or grandchildren since they are all living and creating their own legacies.

Shirley Jean Vetter (now Bliss)

Daryl Butcher Gordon (was Daryl Gordon Butcher)

The first step today in researching your family history is to create an account at www.familysearch.org. This is an absolutely free site available to anyone. Along with family histories that have been stored there over the years, there are over 1.3 billion records that have been extracted and placed into a database for easy searching. https://familysearch.org/indexing/. Every day, new names are added to the database. I have found many of my records there. Other sites are available as well, and I will show you some of these as we get started.

For now, go to https://familysearch.org/register/ and create an account. Then, set up your family tree with the information that you currently know. Most people know their father's and mother's names; most people can guess the birth year of their parents. For example, I was born in 1952. My father had a daughter from a previous marriage who is 10 years older than me, so I would guess that my father was 35 when I was born. That would make him born in 1917 -- which is exactly right! I know that my father had a brother 14 years older than him, so I would estimate his father was 40 when my dad was born, or about 1877. This turns out to be a good estimate.

Tomorrow, we will look at my father and the information I found about him from the US Census.

In the beginning...

I started my journey with genealogy when I was 15 years old. I was able to earn a "badge" for completing my four-generation chart, and asked my parents what they knew. My father knew almost nothing about his family; my mother found two family group sheets that has been completed by her parents some time after my family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in March of 1958, and before my grandfather died in December of 1960.

In the 45+ years since this humble beginning, I have researched my family back to the 16th century, and farther back in a few cases. My story isn't unique -- I never had any rich or famous ancestors, and no immediate family members helping me in my work.

Today, I am a Family History Library Director, who helps people every week to find their own ancestors. Why is this so important to me, or you, or anyone? A recent article in the Ensign noted that oral history fades after just three generations: http://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/magazines/ensign-august-2015/2015-08-00-ensign-eng.pdf. An article in the New York Times explains that knowing our history makes our families stronger: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html?_r=0

What is the difference between genealogy and family history? Genealogy is "just the facts"; the names, dates, and places for our ancestors. Family history includes stories -- things we have learned or heard from our ancestors.

My goal for this blog is to publish my family history, a bit at a time. While doing this, I will also explain the many resources available today for ANYONE to find their own family history.

I dedicate this blog to my grandchildren: Tyler, Avery, Harper, Emery, and Luke, and hope they find joy and happiness in learning of the awesome genetic legacy that has come together to make each of them unique.