Wednesday, July 22, 2020

A Maiden Name for Mazie - Using RootsMagic WebHints and Ancestry Record Hints

My third cousin twice removed Edward Elmer Rudell (1878-1952) married a woman named Mazie (1878-1955).  I have never determined Mazie's maiden surname.  One of those "round tuit" things.

I clicked on the RootsMagic Web Hints lightbulb icon but there was only Hints for Familysearch, which did not help me with this problem:

Then I tried the WebHints for Edward Rudell, and there were 21 Ancestry Hints:

I reviewed the Ancestry Hints, and near the bottom is a Hint for the Newspapers.com Obituary Index:

I clicked on that, the record summary opened, and I clicked on the Newspapers.com link to see the obituary:

This is indexed as Mazie Rudel Frttzl.  The obituary reads:

"RUDEL -- On Thursday evening, Nov. 3, 1955.  Mazie Rudel (nee Fritz), widow of Edward Rudel of 2415 Bazore St., Beechview; beloved mother of Mrs. Gertrude Hunter, Earl Rudel; sister of Mrs. Jenny Bartley, Robert and Albert Fritz; also 5 grandchildren.  Friends received at Beinhauer Mortuary, 2630 West Libert Ave.  Services on Monday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.  Friends invited."

And there it is - her maiden surname was Fritz.  This is in The Pittsburgh Press newspaper dated 5 November 1955, on page 12.

Of course, there are more records for Mazie Alice (Fritz) Rudell - a Pennsylvania death certificate and a Find A Grave memorial which provide the names of her parents.  But I didn't see them until after I saw the obituary above.  In hindsight, if I had searched for Mazie Rudell first, I would have found all of that, but I didn't.

One more little dilemma solved.  Not my ancestor, but married to a relative, and her descendants may be a DNA match to me.  There may be family members who are researching their ancestry and don't know Mazie's maiden surname.  If they Google for "Mazie Rudell" they will find this blog post.  If they see Mazie in my Ancestry tree or in FamilySearch Family Tree, they will see her maiden name.

Using the husband's name to search for a wife's maiden name works quite often.  RootsMagic makes it easy to do with the Web Hints, and Ancestry's Hints can be very useful.

If that Hint for the Newspapers.com was not on the Web Hint list, I would have clicked to see  Edward Rudell's Ancestry tree profile, and then clicked on Mazie's profile, and then searched for records for Mazie Rudell using the "Search" button on her profile.  That is the best Search a researcher can use on Ancestry, in my humble opinion.

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Disclosure:  I have a complimentary subscription to Newspapers.com and have used it extensively to find articles about my ancestral and one-name families.


Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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