Looking for the parents of John Ward

Question

Born 1878 PEI Canada. I have them as William and Maryanne (Henderson) but I am not sure that is correct.

Comments

Dear Tina,

   A marriage record often has the names of the parents of the bride & groom.  What information do you have on John Ward that you feel is correct?  Is there more than a birth year and place to identify this man? With a common surname, you will want to identify a family group to look in census records.  More information here may get you a likely match.

Good luck.  -NGP

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How do you find these kinds of records? I had an Ancestry account for about a year but there was not much I could find on John Ward. I was able to get my Mom's family back to the 1600's but no luck on my Dad's side of the family.

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Dear Tina,

    I like to start with FamilySearch.org because it is online and FREE.  They have an index to each of the US and Canada censuses.  Of course, the more you know about the person you are searching, the easier it is to identify records that pertain to your individual.

For example, I went on FamilySearch.org, under menu Search > Records and entered John Ward, born 1878 in Prince Edward Island.  I searched Canada records only.  This entry in the 1911 census came up:

"Recensement du Canada de 1911," database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:27X8-QNG : 2 March 2015), John W Ward in entry for Elna Ward, 1911; citing Census, Wentworth Sub-Districts 1-15, Ontario, Canada, Library and Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario; FHL microfilm 2,418,534.

I did the same search for United States records. Several records came up, but the three main entries were 1) a birth record with a John Ward from PEI as the father, but he would have been age 15,  2) a 1910 census record which specified only Canada-English as birthplace,  3) a marriage record in Michigan but again only with Canada as birthplace.

So, you see, you must start with your most recent facts and work backward through time to ensure you follow the correct person.

Good luck!  -NGP