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Am I the only one who used to write off old family stories as made up, then found real proof?
When I was a kid, my grandma in El Paso used to tell us her father walked across the border in 1918 to pick cotton and never went back. I figured it was just a nice story she made up to keep us quiet at dinner. About 6 months ago I got bored and typed his name into a genealogy site, half expecting nothing. His border crossing record popped up, dated March 1918, with his age and the name of the ranch where he was headed. Then I found him in a 1920 census in a small town called Fabens, listed as a farm hand. I sat there at my kitchen table for an hour just staring at the screen. Now I record every story my mom and aunts tell me on my phone, even the ones that sound too wild to be true. I have 11 recordings saved so far. Has anyone else gone looking for proof of a family story and been shocked by what turned up?
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michaelgrant1mo ago
Did you save the actual records too or just the recordings? I'd screenshot everything and back it up somewhere, those sites sometimes change or hide stuff behind a paywall later. Also try the free ones like FamilySearch if you hit a wall, they got a ton of border and census stuff.
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