Nation-wide Search for Granath Relatives

I am trying to collect and compile any information that I can find about the various Granath/Granat families in the United States.   This project started trying to figure out all the points on the life timeline of my great-grandfather, Alfred Granath and also trying to keep track of my cousins by the dozens!   There are lots of us!

A few notes about the mysteries of Alfred:

1) Aunt Ruth mentioned several times that she thought his name was either Oscar Alfred or Alfred Oscar.   I didn't ever hear her say why she thought that was the case, she did not elaborate on the statement and I'm sorry to say I didn't ask.   In my research, I have not ever found any document to support this.   Please if you have some ideas, let me know!  I do have a document that his son, Walter Edward Granath, made with his son, Patrick Ivan Granath in 1960, that clearly says, "Alfred G. Granath".    It is my speculation (without any proof whatsover!!) that if his middle initial *was* G, it might have been George, because George is a Granath family name.   At one point, I thought it might be Gene, because it, too, is found in our family, but I believe it came from another family line.)

2) His death and burial place are still unknown.   There is an "A. Granath" who is the right age, who was buried in a pauper's grave in Shreveport, Louisiana on June 14, 1913.   I have collected the death certificate, sexton's report (burial) and death notice (no obituary), published record books and city burial cards.  I have searched for hospital records, doctor records, coroner's reports, city directories, funeral home records and any kind of notice in the Colorado newspapers.   His death certificate is marked "state pauper" and "non-resident".   I have emails from the Genealogy librarian, Joe Slattery at the Shreveport Library, where he and I have talked through every other method of finding any records.  I've looked for coroner's reports at the LSU Shreveport Archives.   I have researched his cause of death.   There is no informant listed on the death certificate, other than the doctor, so who knew his name and age?  It did have "Arcadia, LA", what did that mean?   Why was he there, if this is our Alfred?   There are NO other Granaths that I have found in Louisiana at that time, although there were a few "Granat"s in New Orleans.

If you have any thoughts or want to see any of these records (or hear about the search) drop me an email.   Or I will consider a followup blog post and just post them here. :)

 THE COUNTDOWN IS ON!

I am busy preparing for Rootstech 2024 - scheduling, contact Relatives, making friendship bracelets and yes, even laundry and packing.   Once again, I am going to Salt Lake City in person and once again, I am soooooooo excited!   I have some fantastic projects that are happening at the library that I will be following up and learning about while I'm there, too, and just the excitement of "What's new?" is electric.

Now, why am I posting?   Because I want to encourage YOU to get ready for Rootstech also!   

Yes, you can attend online again this year FOR FREE!

If you are new to this, here are my suggested steps:

1) Create a free familysearch account and enter a SMALL amount of your family data.  Just you, your parents and grandparents.   Very quickly you will likely find that your people are already in the FamilyTree (this is a collaborative world tree of everyone), so I would suggest you do NOT add anyone else right now until you get the hang of it.  Its a little tricky to get everyone correctly connected, please get help with this if you are new to familysearch.

2) Once you have that done, register for Rootstech online for free:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/registration/

3) Download the phone app.

4)  Take a look at the classes available.  I HIGHLY suggest that if you can, you set aside the entire day just to watch and learn when it is live.   Almost everything is recorded to watch later if you need to, but its just so much more fun watching it broadcast live.   You can select classes and build your watch schedule online.

5) Download the syllabus for each class this week and print it so you can take notes on it.  It also gives you a good idea of what they will talk about, so you can switch to another session if its not that helpful to you.

5) Click on Relatives at Rootstech.   Tips:   Use the phone app, click on Contact to add them to your contact list so that they will stay there after Relatives is closed for the year.  Also, click on each persons relationship to you and screenshot it.   I create a spreadsheet with a tab for each ancestor, and add their contact info into it.  I'm sending a short mesage to each one, asking if they are going in person (if so I ask to meet and take a pic) and give them my email address and intro of myself and my family.  I sure hope everyone responds!   My goal this year is 100 new 'cousins' befriended!   Plus follow up with those from last year that I never heard from again LOL...

I've been watching all the social channels for podcasts and video information about it before I go.  Let me know if you watch or see anything exciting!   And send me a message through relatives if we are related, please!!!

So stay tuned for more of my Rootstech updates!!