Your Grandpa's FAN Club

Did you know that each of your ancestors had a FAN club? No, they weren't rock stars. FAN is an acronym created by Elizabeth Shown Mills to remind us to research beyond the direct ancestor. If you're new to research, this many be a new concept for you. 

Recently I was reminded that not everyone has heard of the FAN club. So here's a brief overview of a recent research project that needed the FAN club approach.

FAN stands for:

• Friends or Family
• Acquaintances
• Neighbors

It's always good to expand your research to family members, but getting past a brick wall may mean expanding even further, including researching surnames and communities.

My sister-in-law, Mary, and I worked on her family history research a couple of years ago in preparation for her family reunion. We quickly ran into a difficult ancestor. His WWI draft card told us that he was from a village in Sonora, Mexico, having been born in late 1877. Since he was from a Catholic family, we were sure we would find a baptismal record naming his parents and that we would be able to trace several generations in the church records. 

It was not that easy. There was a gap in the baptismal records right where we expected to find his baptism. His Arizona civil marriage record didn't help, nor did his death certificate. The Catholic church where he was married had closed. There was no time to pursue the church records before the reunion.

Fast forward to 2019. At her family reunion, Mary had acquired a couple of helpful items. She now had a photo of her ancestor with his brothers and had the names of those brothers. She also had a copy of a 1932 letter from a brother to her ancestor. That letter included the names of the brother's wife and daughter and information about the death of an uncle of the same surname. It also had the village name where the brother was living.

With that information, we were able to locate the brother in the 1930 Mexico census. We found the brother's civil marriage record, which named his deceased parents. His 1874 baptismal record also was easy to find, but had a slightly different mother's name. The record showed he was the first child of the marriage.

For the uncle, we found a civil marriage record naming his deceased father and his living mother, with her age. 

Mary's ancestor and his two brothers

From quickly finding just those few records, we identified two new generations of male ancestors. The families will require further research, as it is certainly possible for brothers to have different mothers. DNA matching may also assist Mary to validate the mothers, though that will not be simple in this endogamous community.

There is obviously more research to be done by Mary and her family now that they have names and dates to start from. The surname being common in the village, they may even want to do a surname study to better understand all the relationships.

Remember the FAN club when you have a challenge. There are many web sites and blogs that elaborate on the strategy of using your ancestor's FAN club to break down brick walls.