In my previous post I talked about the website that I found a wealth of Eliza J Hilts information, it lead me to the author/webmaster who directed me to an e-book he did on his Handy Ancestors. Through this site I was able to get little more information on the descendants of Eliza J Hilts. Again no documentation but names are a gold mine too.
I took one of the names, Edda Handy, granddaughter of Eliza through her only son, Milton and his wife Marie. Doing reverse genealogy can be tricky. I find that I sometimes have to print out lots of census pages and then figure out which one is my person. This is why I like Ancestry.com, I like when they give me suggestions, keep in mind these are only suggestions and some don't always pan out, but when they do. YAHOO!
So how do I do my reverse genealogy, I try to find Edda with her known parents and then see if I find any suggestions. If I find suggestions, I start looking at them. Especially for females it can be challenging because names change. I found Edda as a Warren and how do I know this might be the correct Edda, because living with her in 1940 was her Mother Marie Handy. That is all I need to confirm that this is most likely my Edda and now I have two children, Charles F and Masie Jeanett or Marie J. I have a lot more research to do on Eliza's descendants, but this at least keeps the fire going.
