Help with grandfather (deceased)
My parents divorced when I was young and I'm not in touch with either of them. I'm trying to trace my family history quite honestly because I'd like to leave the US so I'm trying to find my lineage to see if thats any sort of option. That, and since I don't stay in touch with my parents or siblings maybe it would be nice to have some extended family to reach out to.
My maternal grandparents were fairly easy to sort out but I'm having a lot more trouble with my dads side. I will state again: they are deceased to my knowledge. I know my grandmothers maiden name was howison and my grandfathers name was makinson. I was hoping I could track down their marriage certificate but its possible they never married at all. In my research I found that my grandmother had 10 different names, so... I dunno what to make of that. I only vaguely remember her. She died when I was 10 and the last time I saw her was probably before I started kindergarten. I found a record for someone with my grandfathers name but its tough because the associated names I'm not familiar with since I don't know any of his family history. My hope was a marriage certificate so that hopefully I could glean some info about my grandfather from there so I can confirm whether the records I see in family search are him.
Whats my best move forward? I think I found her SSN. I have no idea where they would have married. Either oregon or california would be my guess. Probably sometime in the years before 1953. Anything else I can do to zero in on his records? I know I'm not giving much to go off of. I wasn't able to find either of their graves or any obituary records.
My searches have been within familysearch and a little on google. Not sure if I should link what I've got? Mostly unsure about the source with my grandma's SSN.
Any help would be appreciated.