cid said
@Amateur In reading your situation, and I can somewhat relate, I think maybe this might help.

If your area has a local newspaper, even a local newspaper app, try putting an ad in the classifieds stating you are lookimg for someone to teach you fiddle. There could be someone out in a driveable distance from you who knows how to play and would want to teach it. I would not go too far for this because you don’t exactly know who this person is. I would also not go to the first few by myself. I would also make sure others knew the name address and phone number of the person you and your friend are going to. Might be extreme, but that is me. Maybe you could have a friend go everytime anyway because that person could help you remember what was taught, and be able to understand the hold and bowing to make sure you have it right. That is one avenue.

Here is another avenue. Is there a local college nearby? Maybe you could put an ad on their bulletin board. Maybe (s)he could even arrange with the college to be able to use an empty room?  I actually have a college student for my cello instructor. He is through the music store and I go there. He is really good. Pays attention to my playing form and intonation and does not just sit there playing with me.

Personally, I would not use Craigslist. 

I don’t know how far along you are, but Essential Elements for Strings is a great series and you could do it without a teacher. Suzuki is not as good and really needs a Suzuki trained instructor. 

I have Essential Elements for Strings for my violin, viola and cello. It advances nicely. Not sure if you would want to start with book 1 or book 2, because I don’t know how far along you are. The third book is a technique book and is really advanced. Following this series, you would be moving forward with an organized learning process and advance on when you are ready, But, what is really cool is that they are online interactive. You get a code on the inside of each book cover. You create an account and register your book or books. All the violin, fiddle, would be one account. If you later took up viola and used that series, you would create an account for that instrument. Oodles of info is available there, you can have it play each song and exercise, and you can play along. You can choose an accompaniment instrument if you want. I think you can change the default tempo of the song, you can record yourself(I have not done that). It is a nice series that has a lot of instruction. 

Hope all of this helps.  

I agree about Essential Elements. I used a combination of Essential Elements for technical instruction and Suzuki for supplemental repertoire when I started out self-teaching.

The Doflein method is excellent, but moves too fast at the very beginning; consider switching to it after you're familiar with all the basic techniques.

Also, if you're stuck teaching yourself, seriously consider buying Simon Fischer's The Violin Lesson and/or Basics. They're not really method books, but they're excellent reference books that contain exercises and explanations for virtually every aspect of playing violin.