The Genealogical Researchers Desk

[Hærfest Leah]

This thread will serve as a place for all of us on the forum who actively work on our genealogy to have a place to discuss current workings, learn research tips, maybe find help :help: on a search here and there, share links and answer new researchers questions. :huh:

I thought the History section made a better spot for this thread than Family & Parenting since to me ones family tree/genealogy is all about history and Family & Parenting I think is geared more for the living side of the family. Maybe we will get lucky and this will be made into a sticky.

A couple of guide lines so as not to clutter up the thread:

#1 This is not a thread solely for posting queries on who your researching. There are lots of surname & location message boards online for that. Please keep these to a minimum but we will help on these if you are at a brick wall. :bangyourh

#2 We already have other threads for naming whose famous that your related too so do not reply here as just another one of those threads. Although we will mention well known ancestors here we are not naming them just to name them, there may be more discussion on them.

#3 There will be no arguing, rudeness or belittleing of anyone or their information whether you believe is incorrect or not. :mad: I will report you immediately, this is not a debating thread! Calm, mature discussions only.

I will be providing links here as I get the chance to help ones research and to other threads that may by on MW already pertaining to Genealogy. :chattin:

Research links resource list (http://mysticwicks.com/showpost.php?p=2876244&postcount=8)

So jump on in and lets get the ball rolling, please let us know things like (and update with new answers if/when you feel necessary)....you don't have to anser every queestion here.

How long have you been working on your genealogy?

How big is your tree?

Where do you conduct your research? i.e. online, libraries, traveling to each destination

What frustrates you about genealogy? :damnpc:

Where so far does your family hail from?

What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on?

What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?

Are you currently or are you considering making genealocial research a career?

Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?

How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break? :shaker: :collapse: :crazyman: :scream: :needcoffe

Anything else you'd like to contribute to the discussion please do.

[ap Dafydd]

Good idea.

Can I highlight an extremely good website at http://www.genuki.org.uk

It's got a host of resources from the UK and Ireland, going all the way down to local towns and parishes.

gwyn eich byd

Ffred

[ModernKnight]

How long have you been working on your genealogy?

About four years now.


How big is your tree?

It's been a while since I counted, but I think somewhere around 2000 names, including my wife's side of the family.


Where do you conduct your research? i.e. online, libraries, traveling to each destination

A lot is done online, some is simply by talking to older relatives. I've also looked through family records and I have a couple books of other people's previous research.


What frustrates you about genealogy? :damnpc:

My patrilineal side is extremely frustrating. My great-great grandfather left his family, so I have almost no information about him. To make things more difficult, there are two people with the same name in the same region, so there's no way for me to know which one is my relative.


Where so far does your family hail from?

My mom's side is Dutch and German, my dad's mother's side is German and French. My patrilineal line is thought to be English, but I've had an incredibly difficult time verifying that.


What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on?

The Bourbon dynasty.


What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?

I feel a stronger connection to history, a greater continuity between past and future. In particular, it's great when I can discover stories and trace family traits (like my wife's family's great love of education).


Are you currently or are you considering making genealocial research a career?

Nope.


Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?

Nope.


How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break? :shaker: :collapse: :crazyman: :scream: :needcoffe

I'm sad to say I take frequent breaks ... at first I made a big flurry of work, but I've kind of stalled out for lack of funds. Every few months I'll make another poke at it.


Anything else you'd like to contribute to the discussion please do.

The hardest part has been wrenching stories out of people. I want to hear about my deceased relatives before their personalities fade from memory, but it's hard to get people to sit down and write down what they remember about these people.

[Hærfest Leah]

How long have you been working on your genealogy?

Roughly 5 years


How big is your tree?

Currently over 2800 people, in some spots I'm back to the 5th century CE.


Where do you conduct your research? i.e. online, libraries, traveling to each destination

Mine is mostly all online except for the most recent generations. I obtain actual documents online and from different archives.


What frustrates you about genealogy? :damnpc:

#1 Countries like Germany and Belgium that don't have records online and if they are their in German or Flemish.

#2 When you have relatives who don't know anything about the family and could care less.


Where so far does your family hail from?

From most recent: the US and came from Belgium, Germany and England. From England back to the mainland to Normandy. Descendant from Normans, Franks, Saxons, Norsemen and some Scots.


What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on?

This week I started on my mothers, gr grandmothers Oliver line and went down a long line of Parkers that I was verifying. They connected to English royalty and brought me into the Plantagenet & Ottonian Dynasties for the 1st time who connected me back to Carolingian & Capetian Dynasties I already had.


What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?

It's told me a lot about myself and why I have felt at home in certain countries I've been to when I had previously never been there before. I feel this information is extremely important.


Are you currently or are you considering making genealogical research a career?

No


Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?

I have a membership at ancestry.com


How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break? :shaker: :collapse: :crazyman: :scream: :needcoffe

I don't get a whole lot of time in the 1st place to devote to it but when I do get the time, sometimes I come across large amounts of info, so I work on that till I feel I've reached a point where I can stop.

I can tell I need a break when I start getting grouchy every time I'm interrupted because I get so focused on my work.

I'm having to stop now because for #1 my husband is out of the country on an assignment (& we have 2 kids I'm mommy & daddy for right now) & #2 I start back to college tomorrow so I won't have any time whatsoever for a while.

[Agaliha]

How long have you been working on your genealogy?
Off and on for awhile.

How big is your tree?
Right now. Not so big.
_inabox_

Where do you conduct your research?
Talking to my grandmoth and doing some surname search online.

What frustrates you about genealogy?
Ha. Everything. :sadman:
I can't really progress. I've had to focus on my grandmother's side as my father doesn't keep in contact with his family, but my aunt on his side has all the family history and paper work. Stuff that shows were are in fact Cherokee, blood quanities and all that. If I had that then perhaps I'd be able to progress.

Where so far does your family hail from?
Mother's side: Ukraine (or Russia) and Germany. Immigrated here recently (my great-grandparents)
Father's side: America. Native American.

What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on?
Well right now I don't know my Grandfather's info. He was adopted off a Reservation which makes things tricky too. I got to get in contact with my aunt.
So I'm mostly focusing on Grandmother, whose maiden name was Shevchenko. There was talk in the family that we're somehow related to the famous Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko...so I've been trying to make connections...without any luck. I might be looking in the wrong places though.
And on my father's side we have some relatives that were in the Trail of Tears. I don't know their names though.

What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?
Well I wish I knew more than what I do. Grandma had a stroke not too long ago so I made sure to record what she remembered. I think it's important to learn where you come from, and if I ever had kids I'd love for them to know about their ancestors.

Are you currently or are you considering making genealocial research a career?
No.

Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?
No.

How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break?
Well I don't research like crazy. I mostly get frusturated at the lack of info and stuff avaliable. So I just give it up only to try again a few months later.

[Infinite Grey]

Too easy! My family loves to research our family history... in fact, the whole clan does, we have a website and everything... Chieftain (Madame Pauline 30th. Laird of Hunterston), castle and everything.
http://www.virginbiz.com/clanhunter/door/
http://www.clanhunter.com/



How long have you been working on your genealogy?


It only took me a few hours to expand on the work my Father and Grandfather had done... I love my l33t internet search skillorz


How big is your tree?

My direct line is huge! My Great Grandmother had 13 children.



Where do you conduct your research? i.e. online, libraries, traveling to each destination

all of the above.


What frustrates you about genealogy? :damnpc:

Not much


Where so far does your family hail from?
Pre-11th century, Normandy... then Scotland and Ireland for a bit... now Australia.


What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on?

On my Mother's maternal side, we have connections to a British noble family (Rex)


What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?

It's a large part of our family's culture.


Are you currently or are you considering making genealogical research a career?

Nah, I don't really give a fig about other people's family genealogy.


Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?

no


How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break? :shaker::collapse::crazyman::scream::needcoffe


Well since I'm exceedingly good at digging up info, I didn't need a break.


Anything else you'd like to contribute to the discussion please do.

Peacock is a seckhey beast!111!11

[Hærfest Leah]

Good idea.

Can I highlight an extremely good website at http://www.genuki.org.uk

It's got a host of resources from the UK and Ireland, going all the way down to local towns and parishes.

gwyn eich byd

Ffred


Good link, that is a good site. I use it.

[Hærfest Leah]

Here is a list of helpful genealogy links that I use. Listed in no particular order. I will update this list so if you want to add a really important link to it, please PM them to me and I'll add them.

Standards for Sound Genealogy Research (http://genealogy.about.com/library/blstandards-research.htm)
~ Recommended by the National Genealogical Society

Good starter and intro to research:

Genealogy 101 - How to Begin and Create a Family Tree
http://genealogy.about.com/od/make_family_tree/

Beginner’s Guide to Online Family History
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=11225

Where to Begin?
http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson1.htm

Beginners Guides, Hints & Tips
http://www.cyndislist.com/beginner.htm

Starting Genealogy and Family History Research
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/about-research.html

Also....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy
http://www.google.com/Top/Society/Genealogy/
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History/Genealogy/

Encyclopedia of Genealogy
http://www.eogen.com/

Genealogists Helping Eachother
Books We Own (http://www.rootsweb.com/~bwo/index.html)
Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com/)
Random Acts of Genealogy Kindness (http://www.raogk.org/faq-requesters.htm)

My favorite basic FREE sites that have tremendous resources:
http://www.cyndislist.com/
http://rootsweb.com/
http://www.usgenweb.org/
http://www.heritagequestonline.com/ (requires library access)
http://www.genuki.org.uk/
http://www.censusdiggins.com/index.html
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/index.shtml
http://stevemorse.org/ (One Step Webpages)

$$$$ Sites that are very useful:
http://www.ancestry.com/ (the best IMO for record access)
Caution: Community trees here are notorious for incorrect information, I see ancestry.com only good for accessing important records that are not available for free elsewhere & if your past the year 1790 the site is pretty much useless. (JustMyHumbleOpinion)
http://www.genealogy.com/index_n.html


Other FREE sites:
http://www.familysearch.org/
NOTE: Can be of good help but also notorious for incorrect information.
http://www.geneanet.org/
http://www.gencircles.com/
NOTE: So far I like Gencircles
http://www.us-census.org/states/
http://www.e-familytree.net/surnames.htm

Immigration:
http://www.immigrantships.net/ (Transcribers Guild)

1830 -1892 Immigrations to NY
http://www.castlegarden.org/

1892-1924 Immigrations to NY
http://www.ellisisland.org/default.asp

Great for royalty: I love these sites! Use them often!
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page5.asp
http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/genealogy/royal/
http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/genfam.htm
http://thepeerage.com/
http://www.burkes-peerage.net/welcome.aspx
Foundation for Medievel Genealogy (http://fmg.ac/)

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynasty
NOTE: I love wikipedia for their royalty & dynasty sections (plus other famous individuals) BUT since it is a user edited site only trust articles where sources are listed and then go check out that source.

Online Genealogy Classes:
http://genealogy.about.com/library/lessons/blintro.htm
http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/freecourses.cfm
http://genealogy.about.com/od/free_classes/


Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/)with RSS feed


Their are tons of other sites out there, this is just some of the main sites. Please refer to the starter links for many more.

I'd say that atleast half of the genealogical research now is done on the internet since it's expensive to do all that traveling. Not everyone checks out their sources and when you let them know they either don't reply or don't care that their tree is wrong. Always take info you find in someone elses tree with a grain of salt until you find more evidence to back it up. Your not always going to be able to trace every person to a paper source. This is where books and documented history come into play.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: Information found in genealogical work is not 100% accurate. Reliable sources must always be recorded and sources re-checked. My method for going back hundreds of years is obtaining all documentation for all sources possible for recent generations and noting published works the individuals are mentioned in. Then if you are lucky enough to somehow tie into a line of royalty it is easy to then follow what has been historically documented for the lineages online & in books and just keep following till they end. You may chose to stop at or continue on down mythological lines.

Also when connecting to a line of royalty please remember that information aquired prior to the 1500's is always subject to history's recordings. Many times, lines were recorded incorrectly. There are also ties made between people and particular clans for POLITICAL reasons, rather than necessarily because *it really happened*. There may be no blood relationship at all, but it sounded good in the geneaologies, and justified whatever cause the person who created it is trying to further, no one will ever know. But it's still fun to work on anyway, just approach with an open mind.

[Hærfest Leah]

I've come across information today that may be of interest.

It's called Hunting for Witches in the Family Tree

http://genealogy.about.com/od/famous_family_trees/a/witches.htm

It lists some links where you can find information on specific people accused of witchcraft to see if their in your tree. Here are a few to be of importance...

Salem Witch Trials - Documentary Archive & Transcription Project
http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/

The Associated Daughters of Early American Witches
http://www.adeaw.us

Genealogy of Witch Trial Ancestors & Families
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~witchtrialancestors/reports.html

[Hærfest Leah]

We've had a genealogy breakthrough!

Another genealogist I met online a month ago who was researching a different line for my fathers birth surname "Verheyden" said they were getting ready to go to the archives in Antwerpen Belgium and if I sent them some family info they'd do some looking up for me.

This person emailed me last night with all the information they found on my grandfathers line in Antwerpen. It took my tree back to Bef 1720's where before we only barely had to the 1860's.

I'm so thrilled, this was my biggest brick wall till now. I can't wait to enter the info into my file and start looking for additional material. Has anyone else had a breakthough lately?

[PeatBog]

I found an online Presbyterian church website resource matching someone in my Ulster-Scottish line who emigrated to North Carolina, and emailed the website's director to possibly update their records for my line since they seemed to be missing some information. I never heard back from them.

[Hærfest Leah]

Yeah I'm not suprised. There are many people I've emailed about their info I've seen online in trees and family bew sites and the emails are either returned because the acct no longer exists, no reply or they do but then they doubt the info you have.

Very few people actually care that they have errors in their tree. Ask for someones source and most the time you'll not get a reply because they don't have one or they do reply and their source is someone else's tree which is a null & void answer anyways.

[Hærfest Leah]

See post #8 near the bottom for 2 new links for Free online Genealogy classes.

[David19]

I'm not sure if this will be of any help to anyone or if you've seen it before, but I've seen this site advertised in the UK.

http://www.genesreunited.com/.

It might be of some use to people.

[Hærfest Leah]

Hey guess what I'm doing? Joining the DAR (http://www.dar.org/)!

Anyone else a member of it or the SAR (http://www.sar.org/)?

[Willow Rosette]

This might be a weird question but I have been surching for someone alive and did pretty well but since I cant get into closed adoption records Im at a loss. Does anyone have a tip on how to get those or current military records? Id like to check there as well.

Thank you!!!!

[ShaylaK]

I'll jump in here.I do a little professional genealogy from time to time.If the adoption records are sealed, you won't be able to get in to the actual records.The only adoption records I have ever been able to get in to were some older records and only because, when the state I was searching in sealed all adoption records, they did not get all the court records.Civil court records were still at the courthouse archives.
Current military records are not available to the general public.You would need the person who served request those records-if they are still living.There is information on requesting military records on the national archives website.There is also some information on the veterans administration website regarding military records.
Hope this helps a little bit!

[Willow Rosette]

Thank you unfortunately it does. With out the adoption records I dont know what last name they are going by now. Its a huge brick wall and dont know how to go about getting around it.

[Hærfest Leah]

This might be a weird question but I have been surching for someone alive and did pretty well but since I cant get into closed adoption records Im at a loss. Does anyone have a tip on how to get those or current military records? Id like to check there as well.

Thank you!!!!

Yeah you'd need to somehow get permission to get into an adoption record.

How are you related to the person whose military records you need and how old would these records be?

[Willow Rosette]

They are my brothers. It probably happened like over 20 years ago. I dont know how I would get permission to get them since they are half brothers through my father.

[Hærfest Leah]

They are my brothers. It probably happened like over 20 years ago. I dont know how I would get permission to get them since they are half brothers through my father.

Possibly these could help....

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/get-service-records.html

http://www.cyndislist.com/military.htm

I can do some more looking around for you if you like but recent records will probably be very hard or impossible to get. Are your brothers deceased? That's about the only way you may be able to get any information. I know I would not want just anyone getting ahold of my records or DD Form 214 if I'm still alive and they didn't come to me first. I'd be suing.

[Willow Rosette]

Galena looked up death records under the possible last names we have and there was nothing. The problem is in California Marriage/Divorce records arent online. Since their Mother and our father got married in Reno Nevada we got a marriage certificate for them. If we got a divorce on them and then were able to track her marriage to the next husband I could find out who he was to use his last name for them. But because I dont know who he was I cant track them. I know their mother eventually divorced the man that supposedly adopted them I tried searching for them under her maiden name (I ended up with my Mothers maiden name after her divorce) but found the names to be way to common. My grandmother thinks there is an out of state move at some point but I remember them moving to southern California. I just need to find out the name of the man she ended up marrying and I would be good. But the only name that came up was a marrieage with her maiden name before the youngest boy was born and through his birth records I know the area and believe she was still with my dad at that time. Am I ramebling out of frustration or does this make any sence?

I dont know that they are in the militart it is just a feeling I have since they are of the right age- 25 and 22. But I cant even request the 214 form with out a valid last name. UUGGGHHH

[Hærfest Leah]

Visha'sMommy,

I've sent you a PM.

[RubyRose]

How long have you been working on your genealogy? Since January 2005

How big is your tree? There's 1547 people in it so far

Where do you conduct your research? Online

What frustrates you about genealogy? Reaching a point and not being able to go any further

Where so far does your family hail from? England

What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on? I'm all over the place at present

What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life? I like knowing where I came from

Are you currently or are you considering making genealocial research a career? No

Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations? Not exactly. Although I do have a membership for genesreunited.co.uk

How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break? Every once in a while

[Sage Rainsong]

How long have you been working on your genealogy?
Here and there for a couple of years now

How big is your tree?
Not that big.


Where do you conduct your research?
Talking to family members and online.

What frustrates you about genealogy?
It's difficult to get info on my fathers side because I don't speak to him and his parents died when he was a child.


Where so far does your family hail from?

Mother's side: Italy and Ireland

Father's side: Ireland and Cape Verde (yes that makes me all exotic and stuff lol)

What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on?
I am trying to find out more about my fathers side, particularly the Cape Verdian aspect of my geneology.


What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?
It's just really nice to have a sense of history about yourself and to know where you came from.

Are you currently or are you considering making genealocial research a career?
No

Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?
No

How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break?

I have to admit that I don't research as much as I would like to begin with.

[GalenaFaolan]

How long have you been working on your genealogy?

On and off for the past couple of years

How big is your tree?

Right now 3,283 people and still adding more!

Where do you conduct your research? i.e. online, libraries, traveling to each destination

Online

What frustrates you about genealogy?

The lack of solid information in some cases. The false leads and brick walls you run into. The lack of info on my mom's side but I have more now than I thought I'd ever have so I'm not discouraged yet!

Where so far does your family hail from?

England, Ireland, Germany,Canada, Scotland and Native American Cherokee for certain. Possibly Wales, France and Holland.

What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on?

I'm working several surnames

What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?

I love finding where the numerous branches of my family came from. It gives me a sense of history and a feeling of roots. Imagining how some of them met, what it was like for their lives many years ago. It's very important to me, more so than other members of my family because I've never been close to them at all.

Are you currently or are you considering making genealocial research a career?

I'm disabled so I guess you could say this is my current career. :D Seriously though, I never thought about making it a real career.

Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?

Did have a subscription to ancestry.com, it's up tomorrow. It's been helpful with many things but rootsweb.com has been a great source too along with other sites I've found along the way.

How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break?

I take several breaks a day. I'll just read my book or watch tv. When I find myself growling and yelling at the computer because I'm not getting any info or the wrong info, it's time to stop for a bit and come back fresh and calm.

Anything else you'd like to contribute to the discussion please do.

History is fascinating, always has been to me. The fact that this history is personal just makes it all the more exciting and keeps me going day to day hoping to find someone to connect to or find a tidbit of info I didn't have before. Finding the unknown or previously unknowable is like winning the lottery! My family had lots and lots of kids in the early days!!

[Hærfest Leah]

I want to thank GalenaFaolan, Sage Rainsong and RubyRose for taking part in the questionaire. It's good to see more researchers on here.

[RubyRose]

You're welcome.

[Lorrie]

http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com/2007/04/free-credits-for-scotlandspeople-site.html


Sunday, April 15, 2007
Free Credits for ScotlandsPeople Site

The Scottish Sunday Mail is giving away to their readers 20 free credits for the ScotlandsPeople site.

1. Go to www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and click on the register button if you're a new user, or log in using your username and password if you already have an account.


2. New users will be required to complete a registration form before they can access the ScotlandsPeople site.


3. Once logged in, click on NEED MORE? on the top right hand side of the page.


4. You will be taken to a page where you should enter the voucher code sundaymail to access the great genealogy giveaway.

Labels: Scotland

[Lorrie]

How long have you been working on your genealogy?

4+ years now I think.



How big is your tree?

The branches that grow out, or the ones that only go in circles? :hahugh: , and does that include the aliens that must have come in spaceships? Some surnames are traced back to the 1600's, some are dead ends for the past few years still.




Where do you conduct your research? i.e. online, libraries, traveling to each destination

I use online information, family information, libraries, other researchers and volunteers, what ever way I can find.


What frustrates you about genealogy?

Not enough online information, and researchers that don't use documentation and post wrong information!

Where so far does your family hail from?

Ireland, England, Sweden, Scotland, Germany.



What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on?

Lately it is all I can do to keep up with the new info that my sis has found and sent to me, so all of them I guess!


What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?

I have been addicted to genealogy for a long time, I like to learn about the ancestors that came before me.


Are you currently or are you considering making genealocial research a career?

My sis ( Shaylak on here) is a professional researcher, I'll leave those headaches for her. I tried volunteer work, but got swamped with requests ( RAOGK) and my abilitly to use my feet went downhill fast about that time preventing me from getting out to the places to find info.


Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?

Usually the Muskegon County Genealogy Society, but I haven't renewed yet there.

How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break?

Due to usually being in charge of two of my live-in grandbabies, I have been able to do very little research in the past several months now. I knew to take a break when I began losing my place and losing the papers I just printed out!_inabox_ .

[Philosophia]

How long have you been working on your genealogy? For a couple of years

How big is your tree? Fairly big. I've gone right back to my great, great grandfather on my mother's side.

Where do you conduct your research? i.e. online, libraries, traveling to each destination Usually its either family members or online.

What frustrates you about genealogy? Right now, the resources and lack of money. It would be very beneficial for me to go overseas but I can't afford it right now.

Where so far does your family hail from? So far, England, Ireland, Scotland and some Wales.

What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on? Wright

What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life? Its made me understand more about my families legacy, how far it reaches, and the importance of stories, traditions, etc..

Are you currently or are you considering making genealocial research a career? No.

Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations? No.

How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break? I take a break when my head hits a brick wall which is very common. I need to step back, take a week off, and then dive back in.

[Philosophia]

Right now, I'm pissed off. My "great, great, great" grandfather's real name isn't "Wright". He ran away from home with his younger brother, was adopted by a Wright family and took on their names. I can't find any referance or clues to what his original name was. My great aunt's daughter did a research in England, Ireland and Scotland (when she visited it 3 years ago) but found nothing on his original name.

All we know is that his mother was an unmarried woman with two children who married a hard man. No records of adoption have been found and the church that was used to store it in had been demolished after a fire. My great aunt is also stuck in this spot.

[Lorrie]

Those stupid fires sure cause alot of problems, we have a few of those too! I guess I really shouldn't complain too much, wood structures made this area quite wealthy.

[Hærfest Leah]

Right now, I'm pissed off. My "great, great, great" grandfather's real name isn't "Wright". He ran away from home with his younger brother, was adopted by a Wright family and took on their names. I can't find any referance or clues to what his original name was. My great aunt's daughter did a research in England, Ireland and Scotland (when she visited it 3 years ago) but found nothing on his original name.

All we know is that his mother was an unmarried woman with two children who married a hard man. No records of adoption have been found and the church that was used to store it in had been demolished after a fire. My great aunt is also stuck in this spot.

Yep sounds like a brick wall alright.

See if you can get any ideas here:

http://www.cyndislist.com/hitbrick.htm

http://genealogy.about.com/cs/brickwall/

[RubyRose]

Brick walls suck. Right now I have several.

[ShaylaK]

How long have you been working on your genealogy?
About 12 years.

How big is your tree?
It is a big tree but not fully documented as yet.

Where do you conduct your research?
Internet, libraries, historical society archives, courthouses.

What frustrates you about genealogy?
Not getting responses in a timely manner.I hate writing out for info and then waiting months to get a response.

Where, so far, does your family hail from?
Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Germany.

What surname line or royal connection/dynasty are you currently working on?
Currently working on a brick wall family in Virginia.

What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?
I have a healthy respect for my ancestors. Some of them went to areas that were barely inhabitated and made lives for themselves and their families.I think it takes a lot of courage to up and leave everything familiar.

Are you currently or are you considering making genealogical research a career?
I have been doing professional genelaogy for over 7 years now.Took a little break when we moved to another state, but I am now getting back into it again.

Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?
I belong to the National Genelaogical Society and a couple of local groups. I am just now getting back into the Association of Professional Genealogists.

How often do you take a break from your research?
I rarely take a real break.If I get brick-walled or start getting bored, there are always other surnames to search for.

[Hærfest Leah]

Brick walls suck. Right now I have several.

My Epps line I fear will forever remain a brick wall. This is my grandfathers line, the one that passed away in Dec. I'm about to order the record for my Revolutionary ancestor in this line for the DAR and then I'm pretty much calling this line done. No researcher I've ever run into can find more info on this line. It's a bummer.

[ShaylaK]

We have a couple of those brick walls as well and they both involve two different German ancestors.Our brick wall comes about because the surname changed somewhere between Germany and the US.One we may crack eventually as we do know where that family came from in Germany and we know when they were born and when they got married.We just can't prove it because the surname is not the same.The other one is just plain dead end.We know they had to have been here for many years before we found them but they were not using the same surname earlier on.We had the same problem with a Swedish ancestor and my sister found a very nice lady in Sweden who took pity on us and helped us get info there.The surnames changed when the sons grew up and we never would have found the whole family group if this very kind lady had not helped us.I am just a big fan of all the volunteers who help people out.There are just plain things we would not have located without them.

[Lorrie]

I found this today in my daily genealogy news stuff:

http://genealogyblog.com/computer-tech/social-networking-websites/familylink-new-genealogy-collaboration-web-site-5918

brand spankin new site, not much there yet!

[Hærfest Leah]

I found this today in my daily genealogy news stuff:

http://genealogyblog.com/computer-tech/social-networking-websites/familylink-new-genealogy-collaboration-web-site-5918

brand spankin new site, not much there yet!

Thanks for the link, it looks interesting.

[Willow Rosette]

I just found out today that my Great Aunt has done a bunch of research already. So by the middle of next week I will have it on hard copy and might be able to answer my big family questions!!! YEA!!!

[_Banbha_]

Does anyone have information or resources regarding companys that do DNA geneology testing? It's something I want to give my Dad for Father's day but I'm finding all sorts of lab services on searches that cater to geneologists and I really know no one who has done this for recommendations. I haven't been able to locate a rating site that compares the services either. :)

Here are some I'm looking into:
http://www.dnaancestryproject.com/index.php
http://www.genesconnected.com/
http://www.dnaheritage.com/
http://genealogy.about.com/od/dna_testing/

[Hærfest Leah]

I just found out today that my Great Aunt has done a bunch of research already. So by the middle of next week I will have it on hard copy and might be able to answer my big family questions!!! YEA!!!

That's great, get a copy of everything you can,


Does anyone have information or resources regarding companys that do DNA geneology testing? It's something I want to give my Dad for Father's day but I'm finding all sorts of lab services on searches that cater to geneologists and I really know no one who has done this for recommendations. I haven't been able to locate a rating site that compares the services either. :)

Here are some I'm looking into:
http://www.dnaancestryproject.com/index.php
http://www.genesconnected.com/
http://www.dnaheritage.com/
http://genealogy.about.com/od/dna_testing/

I personally have never done one. Well you should have good info with the links you found. I did find this one in a search which you may already have covered.

Are DNA Tests Worth the Cost?
http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/246751.htm

and..

http://www.rootsweb.com/~wircgs/genetic_genealogy.html

I can put you in touch with a man who knows lots about it and runs DNA testing for a line in my tree. Maybe he can give you some answers and opinions on testing in general. PM me for it.

[_Banbha_]

I personally have never done one. Well you should have good info with the links you found. I did find this one in a search which you may already have covered.

Are DNA Tests Worth the Cost?
http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/246751.htm

and..

http://www.rootsweb.com/~wircgs/genetic_genealogy.html

Thank you for these articles. :) I really haven't come across much about them from nuetral sources. And yes, I found some good sites for services but when you read the fine print they don't tell you a whole lot specifically about how in depth the DNA test will go. Some of them only study as little as 10 strands to get a general idea. I had to e-mail one to find that out. They also chidded me a bit for being too scientific, lol.

There is one from Oxford U that is much more expensive and offers extras like one if your Irish to see if you're a decendent of Niall of the Nine Hostages (which tempts me and I'd actually hope not to be, the bastard, lol) and then others which compare the DNA profiles of surnames. The Motherline is interesting as well.

But all the options and services are confusing and I'm on overload about it. :awilly: I'm also wondering if some are advertising more than their offering.



I can put you in touch with a man who knows lots about it and runs DNA testing for a line in my tree. Maybe he can give you some answers and opinions on testing in general. PM me for it.

PM sent! And much appreciated! :D

[Ben Gruagach]

I participated in the National Geographic dna study (the website is https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/journey.html ) but for this particular one they really only tell you about the very distant ancestors, their general migration patterns from Africa and things like that. They say though that the more people they get to participate, the more detail they'll be able to add in over time.

The one that looks to see if you are related to Niall of the Nine Hostages in Irish lore would be neat (my mom's side of the family is from Ireland.)

[Hærfest Leah]

PM sent! And much appreciated! :D

I PMed the info to you.


I participated in the National Geographic dna study (the website is https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/journey.html ) but for this particular one they really only tell you about the very distant ancestors, their general migration patterns from Africa and things like that. They say though that the more people they get to participate, the more detail they'll be able to add in over time.

The one that looks to see if you are related to Niall of the Nine Hostages in Irish lore would be neat (my mom's side of the family is from Ireland.)


Thank you Ben for posting the link, I was looking for it to send him and couldn't find it.

[Hærfest Leah]

I wantd to add an article here on genealogists in general. I think you all will find interesting.

http://genealogy.about.com/library/tips/blprofessional.htm

Merriam-Webster defines a genealogist as:
Function: noun
: a person who traces or studies the descent of persons or families

Now there can supposedly be different types of genealogists meaning professional, certified and theres your average family researcher. I've also read before that there is no such thing as a professional genealogist. I chalk it up to your either paid or your not, that's really it. I'm not bashing those who charge but what I'm saying is that it's not necessary to be "certified" or "licensed" or anything else to be a great genealogists and there's no sense in paying someone to do the work for you.

I have not made the statement here yet but I am NOT for paying a genealogist for research. That's why I've started this section on how one can learn it for themselves. You may have to spend a little money on your research but you will not spend nearly as much as if you paid someone to do your work for you. And then you even loose the benefit of the knowledge of how it works and the adventure yourself. But paying one or not is entirely up to you. I feel that if you have a little free time and the willingness to learn then other than laziness wheres the logic in paying a lot of money for something you can get for much less and the sense on accomplishment that comes with it.

Initially when I got interested in my family tree I thought I'd maybe find what I thought was a "real" genealogist and see what they charged to work on my tree since I had no clue how to do any of the research or where to start. Then after looking around and seeing prices that were insaine, my brain kicked over and I thought "what the hell am I thinking, why don't I learn it myself" DUH right! I have never since even once regreted my decision.

[ShaylaK]

I am really sorry that you feel that way.Not everyone is able to travel to the places their ancestors lived to get their information and not all information is indexed online or available by mail.That is mostly where I come in.Many of my clients could just as easily write for the records, but after having been burned by county clerks and librarians who don't want to bother (and some of these places charge a nice chunk of change for these services) I get contacted. I keep my charges minimal and I do the job requested of me.I also did a great deal of volunteer work while I was learning how to do the work for pay.Even volunteers are out expenses such as time, gas, copies and postage which often don't get reimbursed and there are people out there who expect a volunteer to complete a major project for free.
I agree that there are some people out there charging way too much money and not doing the job they were paid to do.That is sad.Most of my clients come to me by way of referral from other people I have done work for in the past.I have one little website on yahoo and that is all the advertising I do.A lot of my work also comes from the historical society that I did volunteer work for.They often get asked to do major projects and are staffed by volunteers who don't have the time to take on a major searches.The majority of my work is by referral and that is fine.I don't make a lot of money at it and that is fine.I could choose to do so but I'd rather not.I take on the projects that I know I can really be useful for.
Please don't judge all of the people out there in one big lump.Some of us are just doing it because the service is needed and we are able to do it.If I wanted to be rich and successful, I would find another job!

[Hærfest Leah]

I am really sorry that you feel that way........Please don't judge all of the people out there in one big lump.Some of us are just doing it because the service is needed and we are able to do it.If I wanted to be rich and successful, I would find another job!

And I'm sorry you took my post the wrong way because I was not bad mouthing those that charge in order to make a job out of their work. I'm highlighting the choice to do the work ones self.

[ShaylaK]

I do have to agree with you on that point.I often get requests for things that can be so easily obtained and I cannot figure out why people think they need to pay me to do it.Vital records are the biggest.For the most part, they are available and lots are indexed online with instructions on how to obtain that record.If they are looking for a large group of, say, marriage records that would be another matter.Many county clerks put limits on the number of records they will handle in a single request.When I get a request from someone I don't know I always try to find out what they have already done.I have to do this because there are some people out there who are not even working on genealogy but want a specific record for another purpose.I charge by the hour and require that a person pay for at least two hours plus a deposit for the copies and postage up front.That does help weed out some of the problem requests.I find most people to be honest and actually working on family history but not all of them.Why pay me, say, $20 to go get a death certificate when you can write to the county office and get it for $5 plus the cost of a couple of stamps?Makes no sense to me at all.

[David19]

I'm not sure if you've seen this article yet, but it's called 'The Beginners Guide Genealogical Research' (http://www.adf.org/articles/gods-and-spirits/ancestors/beginners-genealogical-research.html).

It's from the ADF site, and I thought it was kind of cool, it also has some links at the bottom of the article to get started.

Anyway, just wanted to share it.

[Lorrie]

I haven't noticed this link mentioned, if it was, soorry_inabox_ !!!! This is the volunteer site that I used to work for before my accident knocked me out of volunteer work, it is called RAOGK, Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness. The people that volunteer here take usually one or two requests in a month to look up for people. I was getting usually 8-10 requests per week, and this is not a big town. There are a few rules to read before making a request, be sure to read, but these people are great, I have used the service myself. http://www.raogk.org/
It was through this site that I met the woman in Sweden that I was able to get some of our family info from, she had family that had immigrated to this town, and she happened to live where my family had, so we traded research! Volunteering, if you have the time, is really rewarding and you never know when you will end up meeting someone holding the keys to your brick wall! The site is set up to search for the volunteers in the place where you need info from, if there are more than one that is nice since you may have to go on a waiting list. ( this was my problem, I loved to help people over their brick walls and took all requests!!)

[Willow Rosette]

I have a quick question. In 1900 when social security numbers were issued would one have been issued in California if someone was born in Oklahoma or can I assume since it was issued in California that this person was born in California?

[Hærfest Leah]

I have a quick question. In 1900 when social security numbers were issued would one have been issued in California if someone was born in Oklahoma or can I assume since it was issued in California that this person was born in California?


To my knowledge it started abt 1935 not 1900. I don't think it necessarily means they were born there, just where it was issued. If someone was born in Oklahome they could easily have moved to Cali by 1935 and then had it isued there when soc sec came into effect.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson10.htm

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hornbeck/ss.htm

[Willow Rosette]

That is kinda what I assumed. I didnt know it came out that late but it does make sence for why she got it in California.

I have spent all night searching for any family in Oklahoma in the 1900 Census with the last name of Butcher. I finally find 2 entries and cant read them.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ok/woodward/census/1900/208b.gif
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ok/woodward/census/1900/208a.gif

Please tell me what the trick is to reading these? Im looking for a Julia. She probably wasnt on the Census since she was born in October but she had an older Sister I believe with the name Effie. I have tennitave birth places for both parents but no names. How do I read this???

[RubyRose]

My suggestion would be to print the page, see if that makes it easier to read. Maybe use a magnifying glass...

[Willow Rosette]

I hadnt thought of that. I cant print at home but if nothing else I can monday at the library.

Annest is trying that now. Thank you RubyRose I had not thought of printing it out even if I could.

[Hærfest Leah]

That is kinda what I assumed. I didnt know it came out that late but it does make sence for why she got it in California.

I have spent all night searching for any family in Oklahoma in the 1900 Census with the last name of Butcher. I finally find 2 entries and cant read them.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ok/woodward/census/1900/208b.gif
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ok/woodward/census/1900/208a.gif

Please tell me what the trick is to reading these? Im looking for a Julia. She probably wasnt on the Census since she was born in October but she had an older Sister I believe with the name Effie. I have tennitave birth places for both parents but no names. How do I read this???


What are the birthdates of the individuals your looking for. Also do you have an idea of the county they are from? It's easier if you save the picture to your cpu and open in it. I use Microsoft Office picture viewer so it zooms in quite well. Is Effie the only sibling Julia has?

My search on ancestry turns up 1 result for an Effie Butcher in OK in the 1900 census. Age 4.


Name: Effie Butcher
Home in 1900: Duke, Greer, Oklahoma
Age: 4
Estimated birth year: abt 1896
Birthplace: Texas
Relationship to head-of-house: Daughter
Father's name: Christopher C
Mother's name: Mary A
Race: White
Occupation: View image
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members: Name Age
Christopher C Butcher 32
Mary A Butcher 24
Effie Butcher 4
Orbie L Butcher 3
James E Butcher 1

Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Duke, Greer, Oklahoma; Roll: T623 1337; Page: 18A; Enumeration District: 82.

Tips for Reading Early American Handwriting
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=796

Tips for Reading Early American Handwriting
When people first start researching their ancestry they often begin by searching home sources, indexes, computer databases, and printed sources in order to determine what others may have researched on their pedigree. Today, this “survey phase” of genealogy extends to searching the Internet, as well as compact discs [genealogies, periodical indexes, census indexes, vital records, etc., on CD-ROM]. While there are many resources available for researching in the home, it doesn't take long for beginning researchers to realize that they need to search original records—in courthouses, libraries, archives, and historical societies, and copies of originals on microfilm, microfiche, and CD-ROM. Such records include census schedules, church registers, wills and other probate records, land records, military records, court records, tax lists, passenger lists, journals, and so forth. It is at this stage that researchers often realize that many older records are handwritten in an antiquated script that is often difficult to read. Knowing how to read and interpret old records is an important aspect of the genealogical research process.
While the ability to read the script contained in these old records comes from experience, or by attending lectures and workshops at conferences, there are things a beginner should know. Following are some tips for reading early American handwriting, such as a researcher might find in early colonial government or civic records. For more instruction, those who are just beginning their study of old handwriting (known as paleography) should also study the examples on the Internet site Deciphering Old Handwriting, by Sabina J. Murray www.firstct.com/fv/oldhand.html . See especially the old style (initial) “s,” common abbreviations, and numbers. Examples of letter formations can be found at Old Handwriting Samples www.rootsweb.com/~ote/writing.htm .


Keep a good quality magnifying glass with you when you go to a library, courthouse, or archives. You shouldn’t anticipate that there will be one you can use.
Study more recent handwriting and work backward toward the seventeenth century.
When reading old records, you should compare letters and words that you can read with those that are more difficult to read in the same document.
Most records used by genealogists have dates and were kept chronologically; therefore, look for months of the year and compare the letters in the months with the words you are having difficulty reading.
Common phrases were often used and repeated in some records, such as wills and deeds. You can study common phrases to learn the handwriting style of the scribe.
Personal names and place names (localities) were often misspelled. You should use a gazetteer, map, or local history to help identify the correct spelling of place names (such as a city, town, or township). Scribes often abbreviated words, such as Abr. for Abraham. Writing was often done phonetically (the way the word sounded).
Do not try to read the document too fast—transcribe and evaluate it carefully. And remember, always evaluate the evidence and cite your sources!
Bibliography
Cyndi’s List: Handwriting & Script
www.cyndislist.com/handwrit.htm

[Willow Rosette]

**Seapearls you are wonderfull so please dont take what Im about to say the wrong way.


WTF???? I spent hours last night comming through all of Oklahoma counties and townships. I mean hours and hours and hours literally looking at everysingle one of those damn things. And then you find it like that.............. GGGGGGGGGGRRRRRR there must be something I am missing that will make this all make sence to me.

The only reason Im looking for Effie is because Julia wasnt born yet and I dont have the parents names. The only thing I have is that Julia was born in Oklahoma and Effie was born in Texas, well I have more on Julia but Im trying to move past her. And I have that their mother was born in Texas and their father in Missouri. Galena found that for me and in all the hours I searched last night I never ever found anything 1) to actually tie Effie to Julia and 2) saying anything about their parents. All I have is what Galena found but I really really wanted to be able to say I found this myself and I know this frome here..............

OK Ill shut up now I just had to get that off my chest.

[Hærfest Leah]

**Seapearls you are wonderfull so please dont take what Im about to say the wrong way.


WTF???? I spent hours last night comming through all of Oklahoma counties and townships. I mean hours and hours and hours literally looking at everysingle one of those damn things. And then you find it like that.............. GGGGGGGGGGRRRRRR there must be something I am missing that will make this all make sence to me.

The only reason Im looking for Effie is because Julia wasnt born yet and I dont have the parents names. The only thing I have is that Julia was born in Oklahoma and Effie was born in Texas, well I have more on Julia but Im trying to move past her. And I have that their mother was born in Texas and their father in Missouri. Galena found that for me and in all the hours I searched last night I never ever found anything 1) to actually tie Effie to Julia and 2) saying anything about their parents. All I have is what Galena found but I really really wanted to be able to say I found this myself and I know this frome here..............

OK Ill shut up now I just had to get that off my chest.

Haha no offense taken. I completely understand your frustration. I just went on ancestry.com and typed some info in for the 1900 census and it searches the database and send you back the results.

Now your going to want to shoot me. I just searched the 1910 census for you with the info I know, parants birth places and such added in I think I got a direct hit. What's your email address I'll send you the census? But this means the Effie I found for you last night was the wrong one.

1910 United States Federal Census
about Julia Butcher
Name: Julia Butcher
Age in 1910: 9
Estimated birth year: abt 1901
Birthplace: Texas
Relation to Head of House: Daughter
Father's name: Elle
Father's Birth Place: Texas
Mother's name: Addie
Mother's Birth Place: Missouri
Home in 1910: Justice, Andrews, Texas
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Gender: Female
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members: Name Age
Elle Butcher 41
Addie Butcher 34
Effie Butcher 14
Orrie Butcher 12
James Butcher 11
Julia Butcher 9
Joseph Butcher 7
Robert Butcher 25

Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice, Andrews, Texas; Roll: T624_1527; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 1; Image: 681.

See it's easiest to look for a census that both girls are listed in together. So since Julia probably wasn't in the 1900 you go to the 1910. But according to this census she wasn't born in Oklahoma.

[Willow Rosette]

LOL I went from hating the Census Records to thinking they are fun to read LMAO

[ShaylaK]

The ancestry site is one of my most valued internet sites.I am especially fond of the census database and the military databases.Anyone who is getting serious about genealogy just about has to subscribe to this site.The whole thing can cost a pretty penny but they do offer reductions from time to time which, while I still think is too much, it is at least worth the price.I started subscribing to this site shortly after it started up and it only cost me $50 a year for everything.
The big thing with the census is that they have indexed all the census records and that is such a time saver.Not that you don't come across someone who isn't indexed where they should be and may still have to search page by page.No database is perfect or complete.The military databases are really great as well.When I started out, I had very little knowledge of my family history and no one to tell me much about it.The databases really helped me put a few pieces together.
Another thing I learned along the way is to network with people you meet who are also researching even if it is not the same line as yours.While I was doing all the volunteer work, I made a lot of friends and by doing favors for them, I got favors in return.You just never know where your family line is going to take you and these friends may be willing to trade services and help you get information you need!

[Willow Rosette]

My Mom didnt bring back my information 8O She said it was this thick (indicating with her fingers) and she didnt want to bring back my Grandparents only copy. GGRRRRR Its not like Im asking for a dozen people. Just 1! She could have answered my questions over the phone. 8O GGRRRR I have beeen so excited to get it and now it is still a million miles away.:rant:

[Hærfest Leah]

My Mom didnt bring back my information 8O She said it was this thick (indicating with her fingers) and she didnt want to bring back my Grandparents only copy. GGRRRRR Its not like Im asking for a dozen people. Just 1! She could have answered my questions over the phone. 8O GGRRRR I have beeen so excited to get it and now it is still a million miles away.:rant:

Oh geesh, I hate it when family makes excuses not to divy up the info. I agree she could have made you 1 copy, that's all it takes.

I had a similar problem at first with my family too except mine was that no one knew jack. And I can't figure our why, whay did they not seem to care. Why did no one bother to record anything about the family. All it did was piss me off enough to decide to teach myself how to do the research and then I gathered what tiny amount of info they did have and went from there. Since then I've blown them all away with all I know on the family.

I'm currently still waiting on my mother to pick up my grandparents birth certificates from my grandmother so I can send coies to the DAR. It's taking those two forever to do a few simple steps. Take them out, give them to mom. All mom has to do is drive home, scan and hit send to email them to me. But no I've been waiting on these for about 3 weeks now.

[Willow Rosette]

Im going to try and email my Grandma about it. I dont have my Aunts phone/email to ask her. Uuuggghhh I am just sooo upset I have been telling her since before they left how much I wanted to find this info. One minute of looking at the book or making a copy of one page is NOT to much to ask since I know they were out and about town anyway. _wedgie_ _wedgie_

[Willow Rosette]

I talked to my Grandma today...she gave me the email address to the Great Aunt that did the research....YEA!!!! I have emailed her already. So as long as she remembers me (Havent seen her since I was young) I should be able to have the informations soon. :boing: :boing: :boing: :boing: :boing: :boing:

[Hærfest Leah]

I talked to my Grandma today...she gave me the email address to the Great Aunt that did the research....YEA!!!! I have emailed her already. So as long as she remembers me (Havent seen her since I was young) I should be able to have the informations soon. :boing: :boing: :boing: :boing: :boing: :boing:

Good I hope you are able to get something from her.

[Willow Rosette]

Good I hope you are able to get something from her.

I got an email tonight from my Great Aunt and although she has all this info it isnt saved to anything computer related, just made into a big book LOL and one id in Utah and one is in Idaho. BUT she said she would do her best to answer my questions YEA!!!! So I sent her my questions and since I hadnt gotten very far there werent to many. YEA!!!!! Im sooo excited.

[Hærfest Leah]

I got an email tonight from my Great Aunt and although she has all this info it isnt saved to anything computer related, just made into a big book LOL and one id in Utah and one is in Idaho. BUT she said she would do her best to answer my questions YEA!!!! So I sent her my questions and since I hadnt gotten very far there werent to many. YEA!!!!! Im sooo excited.

Good, I hope she gives you some good information. I uncovered a hard to find census today that I'd been looking for. Made my day. I needed it for my DAR package.

[Agaliha]

How long have you been working on your genealogy?
Off and on for awhile.

How big is your tree?
Right now. Not so big.
_inabox_

Where do you conduct your research?
Talking to my grandmoth and doing some surname search online.

What frustrates you about genealogy?
Ha. Everything. :sadman:
I can't really progress. I've had to focus on my grandmother's side as my father doesn't keep in contact with his family, but my aunt on his side has all the family history and paper work. Stuff that shows were are in fact Cherokee, blood quanities and all that. If I had that then perhaps I'd be able to progress.

Where so far does your family hail from?
Mother's side: Ukraine (or Russia) and Germany. Immigrated here recently (my great-grandparents)
Father's side: America. Native American.

What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on?
Well right now I don't know my Grandfather's info. He was adopted off a Reservation which makes things tricky too. I got to get in contact with my aunt.
So I'm mostly focusing on Grandmother, whose maiden name was Shevchenko. There was talk in the family that we're somehow related to the famous Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko...so I've been trying to make connections...without any luck. I might be looking in the wrong places though.
And on my father's side we have some relatives that were in the Trail of Tears. I don't know their names though.

What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?
Well I wish I knew more than what I do. Grandma had a stroke not too long ago so I made sure to record what she remembered. I think it's important to learn where you come from, and if I ever had kids I'd love for them to know about their ancestors.

Are you currently or are you considering making genealocial research a career?
No.

Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?
No.

How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break?
Well I don't research like crazy. I mostly get frusturated at the lack of info and stuff avaliable. So I just give it up only to try again a few months later.
[/quote]

I don't want to reanswer everything, but I have uncovered a lot of stuff recently!
From: Some questions related to German ancestry (http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?t=154574)

Recently I started to really look into my genealogy and to my suprise I found tons of documents and information about my mother's ancestors. Well her paternal side (maternal and paternal lines). I knew they were German, but I didn't know any details. I came to find out they came from the Alsace region of France and moved to Speier, Ukraine after the manifesto of Catherine the Great. There's documents of my great-great-great-grandfather living in the town in the late 1800s and where they came from (Wingen, Alsace, France). I thought perhaps they mingled with the fellow Ukrainians, but I guess the German founded towns (like Speier) were basically all German in every aspect. My great-great-grandfather Peter Zent came over to American in 1903 to North Dakota (Jacob, my g-grandfather was a child). My grandfather (Leo) is one of Jacob's kids. I can trace their lineage all the way to the late 1600s. My mom's paternal maternal line is also German, but I don't have as much details yet. And to my SUPRISE my dad's mother is also of German orgin-- I thought she was Native American! So that means all of our NA comes from my dad's father. Weird, as he was always told she was NA. So I came to realized German heritage is by far the most in my family. My mom's materal line is probably Slavic as the little I uncovered seem to indicate that.


So yeah. Pretty awesome.

To reanswer some:
Do you belong to any genealogical or historical societies or organizations?
Ancestry.com
How often do you take breaks from your research? We all know it can make us nuts without breaks. Can you tell when you need a break?
I was obsessed. I didn't sleep once I found pay dirt :lol:
How big is your tree?
Immediate is pretty small, distant is big!

[ShaylaK]

My husband has decided he wants to join the Indian tribe his mother's family was part of.What a headache that is turning out to be.I found an outline for doing that kind of research on the state website.At some point, you have to locate an ancestor on the Indian roll.

The sticking point to this is that I have tracked the specific people who were known to be Indian on the census and the census has all of them listed as "white"!No one in his family knows who may have been listed on the rolls and the census is not going help give me a clue.Since Michigan did not actually have a reservation for Indians but did have clusters living in specific areas, I guess I am going to have to take the census info as to where these people lived and check the Indian rolls for those areas and try to find one of them listed on it.

Guess I am going to have to check out some resources and see how those rolls were organized.This is a very new challenge for me.Haven't had the chance to work with Indian lineage before.More new skills to learn!

[Willow Rosette]

:boing: :boing: Success!! :boing: :boing: Success!!


I got all my information today and it verified everything. Ok there wasnt that much to verify but still.... YEA!!! Seapearls I sent you a PM with it all. Im sooooo excited.:cheers:

[Hærfest Leah]

The sticking point to this is that I have tracked the specific people who were known to be Indian on the census and the census has all of them listed as "white"!No one in his family knows who may have been listed on the rolls and the census is not going help give me a clue.

I have the same thing with my melungeon "Epps" line, the older the census they were listed as free persons of color and are found on "free african american" and "negro and mulatto" lists. And then by the 1850 census they were listed as Mulatto and later abt 1880 listed as white. This from what I've read is a common pattern in the way melungeons showed up in census. Then I have Olivers that were supposedly Cherokee and some full blooded but I have to "find" it.

Once my fathers Belgian/German bloodline was introduced theres no trace of melungeon in my looks. (see profile picture)


:boing: :boing: Success!! :boing: :boing: Success!!


I got all my information today and it verified everything. Ok there wasnt that much to verify but still.... YEA!!! Seapearls I sent you a PM with it all. Im sooooo excited.:cheers:

I got your PM, I'm glad the research I did for you turned out to be correct.

[Willow Rosette]

What is melungeon??

[Hærfest Leah]

What is melungeon??

If you can read this entire page it gives a great description of Melungeons.

http://www.melungeon.org/?BISKIT=3758162214&CONTEXT=cat&cat=10005

My mothers side of the family is from Grainger, Hamblen, Hancock and Hawkins Counties in east TN, plus North Carolina and Virginia. Hancock Co is mentioned on this page.

[ShaylaK]

We lived in Knoxville TN for a few years and heard quite a lot about the melungeons while we were living there.It was mostly newspaper reports about some new study being done to try to figure out who they were and how they originated.Seemed to be getting quite a lot of attention at the time but had the impression this was a group of people who wanted to be left alone.I had never heard of them before we moved there but I was just fascinated with some of the studies and findings they were reporting at the time.

I did see a few references in some old books I was reading at the time.I had Quaker ancestors who lived in North Carolina and Tennessee and was searching some of the really old books about the history of the area.The impression I got from those books was that, back in the early history of the state, the melungeons were pretty much considered a figment of someone's imagination.As the area was becoming more heavily explored there were more reports about these isolated groups existing in the hills. I am guessing someone finally got curious enough to seriously check out these stories and found out the stories were true.Then the theories stated about who they were and how they got there.And then they started getting a lot of unwanted attention.Guess they could not stay hidden forever!

[ShaylaK]

I have been busy working on the Indian lineage and I have got to tell you, this gets so complicated.Think I am going to use this project as part of my portfolio for my certification.

Michigan has no real Indian reservations. There were pockets of communities where they tended to live. There were treaties that were, of course, not honored and there were lawsuits to get the monies promised the various known tribes. Successful lawsuits resulted in Indian rolls being created in order to determine how much money was paid out to each family and which tribe each family claiming belonged to.

There are about 22 rolls of microfilm that contains these Indian rolls taken starting in 1870. Most of the current tribes want anyone now claiming Indian lineage to locate a family they descended from on one of these rolls taken no later than 1908.

I have now gone through the 1870 Federal census and every census since in order to determine where each family member was living when each of the Indian census rolls were completed. The idea of going through 22 rolls of microfilm really seemed overwhelming.I decided to check out some further sources and found that indexes to these rolls have been published in books that I can actually get to without traveling too far. There are three books considered to be the most complete indexes. One is available through interlibrary loan, one is at a local library just a few miles away and the third book is available at a library a little further away but still not that far.What a relief that was!The index lists the surnames and given names plus the roll and page number!I will still need to get to the nearest library that has the film, but I will not have to hunt and search through roll after roll of film to find what I need.

[ShaylaK]

Family search .org upgraded their search capability last week. When you pull up a record in the IGI and find the batch number towards the bottom of the page highlighted, you can click on the batch number and it brings up the complete index register for that particular time period.

My sister and I have had a holiday this weekend working with the new search feature.We have a line in Scotland, the McGregors that we have had quite a time finding info on.It is a common surname but we knew where our immigrant ancestor had been born so we had that much to work with.We also found that at least one of his brothers had immigrated to the US so we could limit our parent search to families that had sons by the same first names.With the new search capability, we have now located the marriages and children of the other siblings and we are now very certain that the assumed parents are correct.We also located some potential siblings for the father and mother that we will be searching for next.

The new feature allows you to scroll through the register index and locate other persons with the same surname who were christened or married during the same period of time in the same place.It looks like we may have broken through at least two brick walls so far and we did it online instead of having to order the microfilm for the register index, wait for it to arrive and then get over to the Family History Center when they are open and view all the microfilm.

If you have not been to the family search site for a while, I strongly suggest you go back and try it now.Word is there are some more major works going on that are going to allow researchers to access microfilmed original records.I expect that is going to take quite a while to launch but I am really looking forward to it.Rumor has it that the first launch will be the the microfilmed original records for the Revolutionary War pension records!

[Lorrie]

On my computer, the batch number stuff isn't hi-lighted, I just hit on it to see what it brings up. I am finding some real gems in there!!

[Hærfest Leah]

I'm not even seeing a batch number on the few records I've looked up.

[Lorrie]

Those are member contributed records then. The ones that have batch numbers are taken from original documents such as parish registers. Often these are just in the IGI- which is supposed to be the real deal stuff.

[Ben Gruagach]

Cool news for geneaology researchers in the USA -- Ancestry.com is putting military records going back to 1600 on the web (http://www.abc4.com/content/specials/as_seen_on/story.aspx?content_id=682e9901-b181-4c87-ac87-67e8bdd59055) and to make it all the more exciting, it will be free until June 6 2007.

[Hærfest Leah]

Cool news for geneaology researchers in the USA -- Ancestry.com is putting military records going back to 1600 on the web (http://www.abc4.com/content/specials/as_seen_on/story.aspx?content_id=682e9901-b181-4c87-ac87-67e8bdd59055) and to make it all the more exciting, it will be free until June 6 2007.


Yes "Over 90 million U.S. Military names" added, I got their update email yesterday about their newly added records. This also includes additional Revolutionary War and Civil War records that were not previously online, maybe I can find a few of these relatives military records now.

[ShaylaK]

I got the update too. I am hoping it involves some new information that we can use as well.

On the family search site, the new search capability is just for the IGI-so far. I also discovered that the new search capability works best for the European records. I have pulled up batch records for US records and those appear to be batched differently. A christening record I pulled up and then went to the batch brought me to a mishmashed list of christenings from all over the US and appear to be LDS member submitted records not specific to a specific place.

I had quite a lot of good luck searching for our McGrigors in Fifeshire Scotland as clicking on the batch number gave us the index for all births/christenings for a specific time period so we could search for all children born and/or christened there for that time period and located records for all McGrigors/McGregors baptizing children at the same time as ours. I think Lorrie did get some useful info on our Springers in OH.Looks like she finally figured out where Stony Run NY is and we think we found our ancestor Springer widow (who was, unfortunately, listed as Mrs. Springer on the 1850 census).

My computer is highlighting the batch numbers so I can tell when there is an index available but several people are telling me they don't get the highlights.I have no idea why.

[omar]

Can this be used to track kinfolk in Wales? Is there a link?

[Hærfest Leah]

Can this be used to track kinfolk in Wales? Is there a link?

What exactly are you trying to track?

[Lorrie]

I am about 98% sure this Mrs Springer is one and the same, just have to find some sort of documentation now. I am considering sending money down for an hour of research from their genealogy society. They have very little on their site, they would rather make money off of the records. This woman has given me fits for years now! It is so exciting to finally see something this frustrating pay off. I also have a theory on the dead hubby/father, that he wasn't alone and possibly his brother also died and left a wife which would be the other Springer in that 1850 census, I found a marriage record for the daughter of these ones. I have a record for both of the Mary Springers ( one is sister and one is niece). This is what makes it all worthwhile.:boing: :boing: :boing: :boing: :boing: :boing:

[omar]

What exactly are you trying to track?

My family name. I thought thats what this was all about?

[Hærfest Leah]

My family name. I thought thats what this was all about?

Right, do you know for sure that your family is from Wales or is that just where the surname meaning says it's from? There can be several lineages for one surname and they may not be related.

This is the link being spoken about.

http://www.familysearch.org/

[Hærfest Leah]

I'm not sure when exactly this happend but I just noticed and so if anyone else hadn't looked either....

in Americn dollars:

The prices were....
Monthly $29.95 U.S. Deluxe
Monthly $34.95 World Deluxe

And is now...

Monthly $19.95 U.S. Deluxe
Monthly $29.95 World Deluxe

The yearly subscriptions are still. ..(But that's even lower than what they were 2 years ago if I remember correctly.)

yearly $155.40 U.S. Deluxe
yearly $299.40 World Deluxe

[ShaylaK]

I got an annual subscription for the US records for $99.95 in January. They have been running specials every few weeks since last fall. I had been subscribing to ancestry for years and then it just got too expensive to keep, so I dropped it for a couple of years. I still got newsletters from them and when they offered the special, I jumped back in. Still can't afford to get the world record collection, much to my dismay, but I know a few people who do subscribe and they are really great about looking up info for me.

[omar]

Right, do you know for sure that your family is from Wales or is that just where the surname meaning says it's from? There can be several lineages for one surname and they may not be related.

This is the link being spoken about.

http://www.familysearch.org/

Yes! My sister traced are tree back to Wales,but dad had said we were Welch. Dad new a few words of Welch or what ever its called? It was these papers that sissy got that told that the name in Welch ment Hun which was a real shock. I found one family coat of arms from Wales my sister found one on the net that is older from Brittany in France,with the Cross of St. Andrew. There is an Abby outside of Bordauxe, France by that name. So I will have to look there too. In Brittany they speak Breton & French. Both coat of arms has the bear on them because we of the bear clan.

[Maggie]

Right, do you know for sure that your family is from Wales or is that just where the surname meaning says it's from? There can be several lineages for one surname and they may not be related.

This is the link being spoken about.

http://www.familysearch.org/

Absolutely fer certain shure. One of my great grandmothers is a Bowen from Wales (Nantyglo) and when working on this one I have to be really careful just which ones I look at. Not to mention the fact she married a Newton--which is like a John Smith in the UK.

[Hærfest Leah]

Yes! My sister traced are tree back to Wales,but dad had said we were Welch. Dad new a few words of Welch or what ever its called? It was these papers that sissy got that told that the name in Welch ment Hun which was a real shock. I found one family coat of arms from Wales my sister found one on the net that is older from Brittany in France,with the Cross of St. Andrew. There is an Abby outside of Bordauxe, France by that name. So I will have to look there too. In Brittany they speak Breton & French. Both coat of arms has the bear on them because we of the bear clan.

So your saying the surname is Welch? You can find the surname meaning here on this excellent new site. One of my husbands gr grandmothers was a Welch.

http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?name=welch

Ok now.....coat of arms...there isn't really a such of thing for surnames. See below articles...

http://genealogy.about.com/library/tips/blcoatofarms.htm

http://www.progenealogists.com/coatofarms.htm

Also.......

5 Family History Scams to Avoid
http://genealogy.about.com/od/basics/ss/scams_5.htm

[Hærfest Leah]

A link for those interested in a genealogy blog.

http://genealogymagazine.blogspot.com/

[ShaylaK]

Does anyone here subscribe to Everton's World Vital Records Collection? I got a notice that they are offering a 2 year subscription for $49.95. I am just wondering if it is worth the money (as cheap as it is I still don't want to spend for something that has little new information to offer as I already have ancestry) but I don't know of anyone who actually subscribes.Anyone?

[Hærfest Leah]

This site? http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/

I've never used it, I get most of my stuff on Ancestry.com

[Ben Gruagach]

Has anyone checked out http://www.myheritage.com/ at all? Is it any good? It looks pretty slick but I wondered if it was of any real use for genealogy research.

[Hærfest Leah]

Has anyone checked out http://www.myheritage.com/ at all? Is it any good? It looks pretty slick but I wondered if it was of any real use for genealogy research.

I previously did not have an account on this site till I just went to register so I could check it out and saw I already had one apparently, with a gold membership since 28 May. I had to have the password emailed to me. Oh they just got a few nasty emails. I cannot find an option anywhere to even remove my tree that I did not upload or delete my own account! I am f***ing livid!

On the forum I found you have to contact support to have your account removed. From what I saw on the site, it hangs up a lot and it's not that snazy a site. There isn't even a help section, just a few FAQ's you really have to search for.

[ShaylaK]

My biggest pet peeve is when you do all the work to get a really well documented family tree online and then find these other websites that have not only placed your info on their site, but are selling it either as a pay to view or on CD's.I don't mind sharing any info I have with anyone who asks but I do have a major problem with these places that take the info and make money off of it.I don't get paid anything for it.Lets face it, I put it out there to share and to, hopefully, network with other people researching the same family groups.I didn't put it out there to be sold.That is just plain wrong!

[Hærfest Leah]

Yes I know what you mean but there's nothing people can do about it but not list their notes and sources.

Myheritage.com has removed my tree from their site and say they have no clue how the account got open plus my tree uploaded to it if I didn't do it and no one here did it. They sent me a free download of their newest software, apparently that's supposed to make me happy or something. I am still waiting on them to completely close out and delete the account.

[moonmorgan]

How did I miss this thread before! Thanks for bringing it to my attention in the newsletter.

How long have you been working on your genealogy? How big is your tree?
On and off for 4 or 5 years. I do a little and then stop for a long time so my tree isn't very big. I don't even have all my grandparents.

Where do you conduct your research? i.e. online, libraries, traveling to each destination? What frustrates you about genealogy?
I do mostly online and talking to family members because I have no spare money to travel or request copies of documents. This is also what frustrates me. I can't get anywhere without money. Also being Canadian limits the online resources. Another big problem is that most of my mom's family is dead or doesn't talk to us and my maternal grandfather was adopted. Also my husband's grandfather was also adopted. (I'm working on his too.)

Where so far does your family hail from? What surname line or royal connections/dynasty are you currently working on?
Um, Russian Jews on my dads side and Polish and American on my mom's side. Surnames I'm working on are MacKeand, Garber, Bailey and Blair.

What do you feel you've gained from learning about your family history, how important is it in your life?
I think it's important to understand where you come from. I love hearing stories of what life was like way back when too and it's much more interesting when it's something that actually happened to your family, not just to someone else. It's very important to me but I just don't seem to have the resources I need to do much.

[Hærfest Leah]

How did I miss this thread before! Thanks for bringing it to my attention in the newsletter.

Glad you saw it and welcome to the thread. If you need any help let me know and I'll try to help. I'd have responded sooner but I've not been on the forum much this holiday week.

[ShaylaK]

For anyone interested, World Vital Records is now offering a 7 day free trial and I am going to try it out and see what they have.I will let you know what they have and whether or not it is worth the money they are charging for their annual subscriptions.

Supposedly, the 7 day offer does not require a credit card or anything that automatically bills your account at the end of the trial offer so there is no obligation.We'll see.

[Hærfest Leah]

Thanks, I'm signed up for my free week and your right no card required. I hope I can find something on here. I'm all for freebies.

[ShaylaK]

I don't know about you, but I am not all that impressed with the site right now.Yesterday, it was slow and kept getting stuck so I was getting more than a little frustrated with it.Most of the hits I did get ended up being pretty much what I get on ancestry.That being said, I only subscribe to the US records and I did get some British and Canadian hits that were useful.I'll keep working with it for the trial period and see.

[Hærfest Leah]

I don't know about you, but I am not all that impressed with the site right now. Yesterday, it was slow and kept getting stuck so I was getting more than a little frustrated with it.Most of the hits I did get ended up being pretty much what I get on ancestry.That being said, I only subscribe to the US records and I did get some British and Canadian hits that were useful.I'll keep working with it for the trial period and see.


I had never used this site before and sought this a perfect opportunity to see what they have. I'm not impressed, they say they have tons of records but in my opinion the majority of those records are on slim time frames and locations not of much interest or use to anyone. It's like the free census web sites, they only have certain census records and their not of any major locations. I've found nothing useful to me so far of what I've searched.

[Lorrie]

And they want people to PAY for it???????:yayah:

[ShaylaK]

I tried it again yesterday.No better.Yeah, they want about $50 for a two year subscription.The problem I noticed is that a lot of the hits I get are just indexes and you still have to find a way to get the original record which is available-guess where-ancestry.I am telling you, everything leads back to ancestry.com and I am no longer complaining about what they charge.

I did get a few hits for books that might be of interest, but when I tried Lauterberg, I got a bunch of hits for books on the geographical area and not the surname.That happens a lot.

I don't plan to subscribe to the site.I'll get what I can off the trial period and that will be it.Free is free and I'll use it while I have it but I'm not expecting to get anything new out of it!

[Hærfest Leah]

My email to World Vital Records since the 1st email they sent was asking how my free trial is going:

How is my free trial going? Poorly

I had never used World Vital Records before and thought this my chance to check it out. My opinion of the site is not high, Ancestry.com still has this site beat by an extreme long shot. Most of all these databases and records are of places and short time periods of no use to most researchers and even when you find something, a scan of the actual record is still not there.

Also, I checked in my account settings not to be contacted by email for products, info, newsletters or anythng and I'm getting emails from World Vital Records containing this type of stuff daily. That is NOT in any way good business.

A few other genealogists I know are also trying the 7 day free trial too and all are agreed that the site is not very good at all. I will not be signing up for a paying account and will not be recommending this site to others.

[ShaylaK]

I'm with you.I try to spend a little time every day searching the site and there is nothing there I can use.I had hoped, that since it is supposedly associated with Everton's, it might actually be useful.I am so disappointed.I won't be subscribing to it.I'll stay with ancestry.I have said it before and I will say it again.All research goes back to the ancestry site in the end.There is just no getting around it.

[Hærfest Leah]

The guy Brad from World Vital Records replied to my email thismorning saying he's sorry I couldn't find anythign on the site ang he'd remove me from the mailing list. That was all he wrote.

I do agree with you, all other sites go back to ancestry, they have a monopoly going. Although I've heard of other people having problems with ancestry, I've never had a one and when I've called service has always been excellent so I back them until then.

[Lorrie]

The bad part is often it takes them a few weeks to remove you from their list, but any place they have already sold your info to won't be removing you. I ran into this because I was stupid enough to try doing surveys. What a mess. my yahoo mail is still not straightened out from it. One of the places I don't even have an account with, and cannot get my name removed from their list unless I first get a membership. My junk mail used to get a few a week, now it is around a hundred a day. I have to go in and empty it a few times a day, just from the places they had sold my name to.

[ShaylaK]

I have never had any serious problems with ancestry-once I figured out how to do the searches.

As a side note for those residing in the state of Michigan-the state library has chosen to part ways with ancestry as their state wide program and will be using Heritage Quest effective October 1st. The advantages they cited for the change include the fact that, with Heritage Quest, library patrons statewide will be able to access the site from their homes. The ancestry program was only available at a local library that was part of the state system.According to the newsletter, ancestry will still be available at any library that wants to retain it.

I have never used Heritage Quest and don't know much about it, but come October 1st, I will be finding out.I really love free stuff!

[Lorrie]

I have never had any serious problems with ancestry-once I figured out how to do the searches.

As a side note for those residing in the state of Michigan-the state library has chosen to part ways with ancestry as their state wide program and will be using Heritage Quest effective October 1st. The advantages they cited for the change include the fact that, with Heritage Quest, library patrons statewide will be able to access the site from their homes. The ancestry program was only available at a local library that was part of the state system.According to the newsletter, ancestry will still be available at any library that wants to retain it.

I have never used Heritage Quest and don't know much about it, but come October 1st, I will be finding out.I really love free stuff!



I remember when I was first looking stuff up for you at the library, I had to use Heritage Quest for the Seastrands census because Ancestry didn't have that year available at that time. I think you know which year I mean, I cannot remember it right now ( dad just pissed me off again, imagine that, so I am not thinking real clear) it seemed like it was a little easier to use, but there was something I didn't like about it, I hadn't used any of them yet at that time though, so it may have just been because I had no idea what I was doing!

[Hærfest Leah]

I have never used Heritage Quest and don't know much about it, but come October 1st, I will be finding out.I really love free stuff!

I have never had the ability to use Heritage Quest and here on Guam I have no access to it in any way, shape or form. Even my college library doesn't have access to it. I'm trying to find someone with access who can look up a few pension records for me.

[Lorrie]

Hehehehehehe, maybe we will be able to help you with that in a few more months!!:fpraise:

[GalenaFaolan]

I use Heritage Quest from my home comp through the library and have been using it for a few months since I was unable to re-up my ancestry subscription. I like it pretty well. I have been able to find a census for everyone I've looked up. The only thing that ticks me off is they don't have the 1930 census'. I only found a listing for 1930 for about 5 people of the thousands, literally, I have done thus far. They also don't have 1830-1850 which ticks me off to no end.

You can search Revolutionary War for a name. There is only 18 states though to look in. For example, Virginia is on the list as is Kentucky. Those 2 states are important to me. I put in Tinsley, Virginia and got 10 names. All 10 are those in my family. For Golding there are 12 pages of images relating to his pension and the process to get it. Affidavits from those who knew him. It's fantastic!!!! OMG!! I have history for 10 members now that I have never found anywhere else.

You can search books for people, places and publications. Then there is the PERSI to be searched for People, Places, How To's and Periodicals. The last thing is to search Freedman's Bank. That is to search for individuals in Freedman's Bank (1865-1874), which was founded to serve African Americans.

So, it does help and since I can't go to the library to use the ancestry site there I make do. :) If anyone needs me to look up someone or someone's for them, I'd be glad to do it for you. I have plenty of time on my hands and love to help people. Just send me a PM with what you need to find so we don't go clogging up the board here. :D

[Hærfest Leah]

Galena, I'll contact you for some look ups I need. Thanks

[ShaylaK]

It sounds like Heritage Quest is going to provide us with some info we have not had access to. That is going to be very useful.My local library has no genealogy related anything but we do have interlibrary loan, so I can get anything that circulates (which is not much) from other libraries.The problem with that is the fact that most libraries do not circulate genealogy related material.On the plus side-I can find out which libraries have a particular book I am looking for and I can visit that library and find the info.We have to go to the county library to access their genealogy room and that is not always convenient.Anything I can get online from home makes me a very happy camper.

Note to Lorrie-why do you let dad get to you like that?

[Lorrie]

It sounds like Heritage Quest is going to provide us with some info we have not had access to. That is going to be very useful.My local library has no genealogy related anything but we do have interlibrary loan, so I can get anything that circulates (which is not much) from other libraries.The problem with that is the fact that most libraries do not circulate genealogy related material.On the plus side-I can find out which libraries have a particular book I am looking for and I can visit that library and find the info.We have to go to the county library to access their genealogy room and that is not always convenient.Anything I can get online from home makes me a very happy camper.

Note to Lorrie-why do you let dad get to you like that?


This one was aimed at Ry as well, I tend to go off when it is against my kids or grandbabies. Only a few months ago I had to put up with him telling me several times that my only hope is for one of them to die because I am killing them, and it is best if he dies. I finally got mad and told him that if things get that bad, I will just commit suicide and no one will have to worry about anything, and had to quit going anyplace with him, I just waited for the van to get fixed ( which was the problem, mom told me they would help with the cost since it is transportation for the babies.) How did we get through our home lives without actually going through with suicide, anyways? _inabox_That man just never stops!

[GalenaFaolan]

It sounds like Heritage Quest is going to provide us with some info we have not had access to. That is going to be very useful.My local library has no genealogy related anything but we do have interlibrary loan, so I can get anything that circulates (which is not much) from other libraries.The problem with that is the fact that most libraries do not circulate genealogy related material.On the plus side-I can find out which libraries have a particular book I am looking for and I can visit that library and find the info.We have to go to the county library to access their genealogy room and that is not always convenient.Anything I can get online from home makes me a very happy camper.


I have found it really useful and am very happy that it's free as well. :D All the genealogical info in my town is housed at the main library and it is HUGE!!! They have reams of info that is being updated and added to all the time. They don't circulate any reference or genealogical material either.

I'm very happy with our libraries here. I feel it's one of the best around but then they always have been. Our town has forever placed a high value on the library and the contents of it. I feel very lucky to live here and have access to so much.

[David19]

I'd like to learn more about my ancestors, but I have no idea exactly where to start with all this, are there any good sites that'd you'd recommend for beginners in learning more about your genealogy and family tree?.

[Hærfest Leah]

I'd like to learn more about my ancestors, but I have no idea exactly where to start with all this, are there any good sites that'd you'd recommend for beginners in learning more about your genealogy and family tree?.


You will find beginner links here: ( I have a few more links I will update this page soon)

http://mysticwicks.com/showpost.php?p=2876244&postcount=8

Also, in the next issue of MWM I've done a how to beginner genealogy article.

PM me if you need help.

[David19]

You will find beginner links here: ( I have a few more links I will update this page soon)

http://mysticwicks.com/showpost.php?p=2876244&postcount=8

Also, in the next issue of MWM I've done a how to beginner genealogy article.

PM me if you need help.

Cool, thanks for the link and I'll look forward to that artice.

[Lorrie]

Back when I began researching, there wasn't much online, now there are so many, almost too many. Some sites are really good, some useless, and it can take forever to check out each one of them, new ones appear every day. You look at the hundreds of sites and wonder, which one will the info that I need be in? I wish there could somehow be one huge search engine you could enter some info into and get the results from all of them. I don't hesitate to enter a name into google search and browse what comes up. Of course, sometimes there are many pages, but I have found some really great tidbits of info this way! It is good to do on a day when you are just sitting at the computer at a standstill and just need someplace to try to find something new. I have firefox and use it's search box, I can enter the name, then use all different search engines one at a time. Usually they will all give the same links, but other times gold is found.

[GalenaFaolan]

I've done that too Lorrie. I went to a search engine and typed in just a last name and another time typed in a specific name of a family member. I found a lot of stuff and was able to add even more info to what I had. Most of what I found were personal websites of others doing their family tree and a family member or more had married into my family or vice versa and even found some highly interesting historical information on the Tinsley branch of my family. They held some very prominent offices in government way back when.

The best bits I found yet are Thomas Jefferson and Robert E Lee in my family tree. :D That was way cool! Distantly related, but related nonetheless! LOL

[Hærfest Leah]

I have just updated the links post. A few new sites I didn't have on there and more specific beginner pages.

http://mysticwicks.com/showpost.php?p=2876244&postcount=8

[ShaylaK]

I actually found a newspaper notice for my great-grandfather's second marriage by doing just a general search engine search. He was stationed at a base in OH and it was mentioned in the base newspaper.You just never know what you are going to find when you are playing around the internet with nothing better to do!

I have been back working on my husband's family history as we finally received his grandmother's birth certificate (no small feat due to the current rules in MI for birth records). Unfortunately, it was a delayed certificate so most of the info on there was recorded over 60 years after she was born.Looks like she had to get it in order to get her social security.I did get another variation of her mother's maiden name, but did manage to find her mother and her mother's family on the census using that name.Various records we had up until now had her maiden name as Berman or Besman, but her birth record and her death record both had her maiden name as Beman.Still could not find anything, but I did find info on her and her father as Beeman and Beaman.I actually found info on the LDS site and once I determined that info did relate to the group I was looking for, I was able to locate further info off ancestry.I just get so ecstatic when I finally crash through a brick wall.This family group has been a big brick wall for several years as no one still living had accurate info and I hit dead ends everywhere I went with what info I was given.

[Lorrie]

I have been that way with the Springer line, I am constantly thinking, what haven't I searched for, what am I forgetting, all that good stuff. I keep thinking of bits and pieces that I didn't look for, have to run back out to the computer amid cries of protest( literally) from the grandbabies! I have noticed on more than one census, the father is said to have been from New Jersey, which may connect back to the Stoney Run thing, if it actually was some sort of nic-name for that area. I have about 4 generations where we had a brick wall for many years. All the info was right in front of us, but we didn't have the info to connect it together. Oh, there WAS a George Springer on the 1830 census in New Jersey, looked like husband, wife and one male child- which could be an older sibling that died, or maybe our George didn't list his correct age, who knows. The ages are about right for the oldest male and for the female. It would be nice if the stuff we are waiting on from Delaware County, Ohio shows some more names or some good info. It seems the man Sara Springer married was from town pioneers, so maybe a nice juicy obit was written for her. Hope, hope,hope.:boing::boing::boing:. My garden is suffering from the break through, it is getting sadly neglected. Who knows, maybe it will do better from a bit of neglect as long as I keep the water sprinkling over it every few days! Back to the thrill of the chase!!!:wave:, getting withdrawls. And more ideas.

[Hærfest Leah]

New link added to links post.....

Encyclopedia of Genealogy
http://www.eogen.com/

[Lorrie]

Oh, wow, genealogy wiki!!!!!! Awesome!!!!!:fpraise:

[Hærfest Leah]

What genealogy software do you use and how often do you update it? What are your opinions of the brands you have tried?

I got my 1st software in 2005, so it was Family Tree Maker 2005. I really like it and am just now about to upgrade to a new one. I'm trying to decide whether I want to stick with FTM or try a different brand like Legacy. FTM is very good, it's so simple to use.

I found this page for Genealogy Software Review:

Here's their 2007 report.
http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

Here's reviews on about.com:

http://genealogy.about.com/od/software_reviews/

[ShaylaK]

I can't remember which software program I used at first but I know if kind of filled up fast.I had the Family Treemaker (it was one of the first ones they produced)and I really liked it quite a lot but I did end up handing that one over to my sister.If I recall, sourcing info was really easy on that one because it provided guidelines and examples every time you added a source.Right now, I am still using the PAF which I don't like so much but I have been using it for a few years now and am getting pretty used to it.Not fond of it though.Not as easy to use as they claim it is.Since it is geared towards LDS events, it does not necessarily fit my needs all of the time.

The program I have wanted for some time now is the Pro genealogy program but it is more money than I have had to spend and the PAF is free, so guess which program I will be using for now?

[Lorrie]

I did WHAT WHEN?????????? In my e-mail today:


Dear FamilyLink beta members,

We are so thrilled that you have signed up and tested out FamilyLink.com (http://familylink.com/). You are among the few who are helping lay the foundation for the biggest genealogy network in the world. In the early stages of FamilyLink there were many errors and things that we needed to work out. Today, we still have errors and bugs we are working on, but we are getting there. You have been so patient, thank you! In several weeks we will be doing another big update to our site. Adding a tree tool and others features. Our goal is connect genealogist from around the world and have you work together to build your family history. We want to make sure that we are on track with what you want. Could you please take five minutes out of your day today and tell us 10 things you expect to be able to do on FamilyLink. We want to make sure that FamilyLink delivers you all the tools and ways for you to connect with genealogist whom you can help and who can help you. Please send your 10 things you expect from FamilyLink to: support@familylink.com


Things I expect to do when on FamilyLink:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Thank you,

Jason McGowan
Product Manager, FamilyLink


My computer is joining sites without my knowing it?????:yayah:

[Hærfest Leah]

Lorrie, That's sound like me and myheritage account I had without knowing it.

[Hærfest Leah]

I can't remember which software program I used at first but I know if kind of filled up fast.I had the Family Treemaker (it was one of the first ones they produced)and I really liked it quite a lot but I did end up handing that one over to my sister.If I recall, sourcing info was really easy on that one because it provided guidelines and examples every time you added a source.Right now, I am still using the PAF which I don't like so much but I have been using it for a few years now and am getting pretty used to it.Not fond of it though.Not as easy to use as they claim it is.Since it is geared towards LDS events, it does not necessarily fit my needs all of the time.

The program I have wanted for some time now is the Pro genealogy program but it is more money than I have had to spend and the PAF is free, so guess which program I will be using for now?

Yeah I've heard PAF isn't that great. You know you can go download the beta version of the FTM 2008 that's coming out this month. I've downloaded it to check it out till 24 Aug. It's nicer than my FTM 2005 already.

http://beta.familytreemaker.com/

You can pre order it for a discounted price. ($29.95)

You can do the same with the Legacy 6.0 program.

http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/

They say the Master Genealogist program is supposed to be good but complicated and twice the price. I'm dowloading the different trials to check them out and see what I like best. But overall, I like something simple with an appealing layout. Oh did I say cheap. lol

[ModernKnight]

I'm poor, so I use the free version of Legacy. It works well enough for me, although I wish it were set up better to specify sources.

[Lorrie]

Lorrie, That's sound like me and myheritage account I had without knowing it.



Ya know, that was my first thought when I saw it???:yayah: these places must be getting info from cookies or something from other genealogy places or something!
I went to the Farmers Market yesterday to find my favorite homemade soap( rose sandelwood) I never found my soap there but there was a booth with the local genealogy society! The woman running it took a few minutes to recognize me, then commented on how long it has been since I was in the library!_inabox_ I explained to her what has gone on over the past year, and that now I am tied to my grandbabies 24/7. I let her know we are interested in submitting family to the new book they are working on. It was kinda funny, the other woman was new to the society, so this woman explained to her all about how I got into genealogy, looking stuff up for Shaylak, and how Shaylak is in a family home that has been in our family forever! Now most people, this isn't what they would remember about a person, but when it comes to genealogists, it is the memorable stuff!:hehehehe:

[ShaylaK]

The family link is something I signed up for a couple of months ago but never went back to it as there was never anything on it of interest.

The problem I always see with genealogy programs is that there is constantly something new or upgraded, which is why I stick with the PAF as it is totally free-after all, you get what you pay for, right?

The ProGenealogist was, at one time, considered the golf standard but I had also heard it was not for everyone.Doing some professional genealogy, it appealed to me as you could do multiple groups.It has kind of gone the way of most of the others.

I also like to keep it simple.I like to get my info on, get it sourced and move on to the next ancestor.The FTM had multiple media options that I don't have with the PAF.Since I also subscribe to ancestry, I put a family tree on there but only sourced it with whatever ancestry located.Added nothing else.I have had a few hits from people working on the same families, but also get hits from people who aren't, but think they are.

[Hærfest Leah]

I have had a few hits from people working on the same families, but also get hits from people who aren't, but think they are.

I just wanted to say that these people make me want to _taparoo_ Aaaak I hate these idiots who don't bother to look for verifying proof for anything. Ok I'm done now.

[Hærfest Leah]

Back on the subjest of compairing software, I found this compairing Legacy vs FTM, although it's on the Legacy site. But if you've never used Legacy it tells you the feature differences.

http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyVsFTW.asp

[Hærfest Leah]

Heads up all another 7 day free trial! I've never used this site so I'm game.

Footnotes has 7 day free trials for all of their original documents. Even their paying all access subscribtion is $7.95 monthly and $59.95 annually. They look to have a lot of unique documents on there. (govt and military) It says they have a partnership with the National Archives.

http://www.footnote.com/

Their blog:
http://blog.footnote.com/

[Hærfest Leah]

Genealogy Freebies

http://www.searchforancestors.com/genealogyfreebies.html

[Élistariel]

I need to go back and read this thread. I just feel the need to share this little story with you all. Sorry it's a bit long, but I promise (hope) it's amusing at least. :bigredblu

For years I have been looking for the name of my greatgrandfather's mother. I know his father was Ace Smith. Yes, Smith, the most common surname. My g.grandpa's name? James. I searched all through the Georgia census records, which due to mistranscriptions and the fact that my ancestor was a Smith, wasn't easy. But hey, it was free. (I used to could access ancestry.com via my hometown library website.)

Anyhow, a little while ago I finally decided to break down and buy a death certificate for James. Death certificates typically have the names of the deceased's parents. I was hoping his mother's name would be on there.
So I filled out my request and sent the $10 check on it's way to the vital records office.

About a week or so later, I got the death certificate. :woot:
Sure enough, on it was:
Father - Ace Smith (aha! So Ace really was his name.)
Mother - ? (That's right, a question mark. Son of a ....! )
Well there went $10 down the drain I thought. Then I got to reading the rest of it...

Cause of death: Subdural hematoma, caused by cerebral contusion.
Describe how injury occured: Horse struck patient's head with it's head.

My friend/roomie was with me when I got it. Upon learning this, she started laughing and said.
"Mr. Ed killed your greatgrandfather!"
Horrible as that sounds, it was rather funny.

I may not have gotten the answer to the question I had, but I did get my $10's worth that's for sure.

I still have hope for finding his mother's name. James had a brother, Walter. I plan to request a death certificate for him at a later date, through the state as I don't know what county he died in, but I have birth and death dates for him.

[GalenaFaolan]

"Mr. Ed killed your greatgrandfather!"

8O :lol: :yayah: That is toooooo good!! You did get your money's worth to get the death cert. Too bad it wasn't as easy to just have that name you need on there. I wish you lots of luck that it'll pop up somewhere so you can go forward over the hump.

[Élistariel]

8O :lol: :yayah: That is toooooo good!! You did get your money's worth to get the death cert. Too bad it wasn't as easy to just have that name you need on there. I wish you lots of luck that it'll pop up somewhere so you can go forward over the hump.

Thanks. I'm hoping the date I have for his brother's death is correct. If it's not on his, then I'm pretty much SOL. Unless.... I wonder how far back Georgia marriage records go....

As a side note, I'm making a scrapbook. It's not your typical scrapbook. I don't have the attention span for that. No, this one is either going to be a sort of "Black Sheep" family scrapbook. The kind that gets hidden when kids come over. :D
Most families try to hide their secrets.
I'm plastering mine in a pretty little scrapbook. :woot:

[Lorrie]

See if they have a marriage record, that might also have the info. Also see if the library has old newspapers, and a possible obit. Oh, and here is a link you may use if needed: http://www.raogk.com/ I did volunteer work here a few years back until my injuries kept me from getting around much anymore. They are wonderful people and can be a huge help!!!( Rootsweb has their digests, you can ask questions on there too, and mailing lists)

[ShaylaK]

Marriage records and land records almost always go back to the beginning of the formation of any county.Problem is that there was not a lot of information recorded on a marriage record early on.Then again, if it happened to be a state where marriage bonds were issued or posted, one or more of the male members of either the groom or bride's family may have signed and paid for the bond to be issued.I have noticed that a lot depends on the county as well.Some counties kept registers and recorded ages, names of parents, witnesses and residences and other counties simply recorded the name of the bride and groom and who did the ceremony.
When asking for a marriage record, be sure and ask for any other information from the register.The license copy they send will only list whatever they currently put on a license unless you ask for a copy of the app or the marriage register info.If nothing else, the record should provide the name of the person who performed the marriage ceremony and sometimes you get lucky with that info.Sometimes there are justice of the peace or church records available that might have more information.

[Élistariel]

Thanks, that was actually the first thing I got. It just had their names and dates.
Yeah, that was helpful.
:lol:
They got married in 1916 or 1919, or something like that. I don't recall the exact date right now.

[Lorrie]

HATE when that happens!!!:yayah:

[Lorrie]

I have been having quite an interesting time with this site that I had in my e-mail the other day, want to share it:


http://www.gendisasters.com/

It covers things such as floods, tornado's, train wrecks, and you search by state.

[Hærfest Leah]

See if they have a marriage record, that might also have the info. Also see if the library has old newspapers, and a possible obit. Oh, and here is a link you may use if needed: http://www.raogk.com/ I did volunteer work here a few years back until my injuries kept me from getting around much anymore. They are wonderful people and can be a huge help!!!( Rootsweb has their digests, you can ask questions on there too, and mailing lists)

I don't have much success with RAOGK, 90 percent of the time, noone ever replies back.

[ShaylaK]

I am going to have to go hunting some old newspapers as the marriage record I recently received did not provide the info I needed.I found a marriage record for Daniel Willfred Tripp and Millie Besman.Marriage record did have his parents but not hers.On top of that, I am positive that the bride was Nellie Beeman.Now I have to go hunting for something to prove that Millie is actually Nellie and then find out who her parents were-a fact I am pretty sure I know but now need to prove it somehow.Hate it when I am absolutely certain of something and cannot find a source that proves it.If I can find a way to resolve this issue, I have one big brick wall tumbling down.At the moment, I am taking it down brick by brick.

[Élistariel]

Good luck with that. My mother's maiden name is Smith, and my father's side is like trying to talk to a brick wall, trust me I know about genealogical brick walls. :lol:

Right now I'm waiting for some death certificates for 4 people who might be the siblings of my 3rd great grandmother, Hattie Freeman. I got her death certificate, hoping her mom, Esther's surname would be on it, but apparently Hattie didn't even die in the county I thought she did. (Fudge nutters)
I did mtDNA testing and I want to go back down my maternal line as far as I can. :D Well that and I wanna see just how far back my maternal line was born in North Carolina.
Check out this list of birth-states.
Me - Louisiana (my parents were in the navy)
Mom - NC
Grandma - NC
Hattie - NC
Lucy - NC
Harriet - NC
Esther - NC
Esther's mom - NC (thank you census records. Her father was b. in VA)

Oh and from what my mom tells me, check this out. (Yes I am indeed easily amused.)
Me - brown hair, green eyes
Mom - Same
Grandma - Same
Hattie - Same
Sheesh.

Oh and one more thing. I :heart: this little thing I made. It's my direct maternal line.
Lucy - Hattie - Grandma - Mom - Me

[ShaylaK]

In my family, it is red hair.We have lots of redheads and I am always looking for any possibilities to explain why it is almost a dominant gene in my dad's family.On my dad's side, we have one immigrant from Scotland and we kind of left that as the reason for the red hair on that side.Then his mother-my grandmother- just happened to mention in the course of a conversation that her grandfather-who had immigrated from Sweden-had red hair.On my mom's side, we have immigrants from Ireland and there is some heavy Irish Quaker ancestry way back when, but no one can remember anyone with red hair even though the way the gene pool works, both of my parents would have to be carrying that gene for red hair.My parents both have black hair but all three daughters are redheads and my daughter and one of my two nieces is a redhead.I will unravel that mystery some day!

[Élistariel]

Sounds like fun. There are several redheads on my mom's side too. My mom had red hair as a baby, but soon turned to brown.

As for my family's green eyes, it seems to be dark green. Very dark.
1. My mom's maternal grandparents had blue and green eyes. She told me some of their children, her aunts and uncles had brown eyes. Isn't that genetically impossible? (Or at least highly improbable)
2. On my mom's geneva convention id card thing for the navy it has her eye color as brown.
3. I recently found an id card from when I was like, 9 and it has my eye color as brown.
4. Once while on a bus in school I was talking to my former step brother. Somehow we got to eye color and I said I had green eyes. He looks up and says, "No, you're eyes are brown." No, they're green. Brown, green, brown, green. That went on for a while. Then he goes, "Yeah, well I'm color blind." :fishsmack:
5. When I went to get a new driver's license when I moved I actually had to argue the guy at the DMV down to put GRN on my new license. Despite the fact that my old one had green on it.

Here's my eye in different lights. Makes me wonder how correct my information on my ancestors' eye colors is.

[Hærfest Leah]

Good luck with that. My mother's maiden name is Smith, and my father's side is like trying to talk to a brick wall, trust me I know about genealogical brick walls. :lol:

Right now I'm waiting for some death certificates for 4 people who might be the siblings of my 3rd great grandmother, Hattie Freeman.

I ordered 7 death certificates on Tuesday, they are supposed to be emailed to me. I'm still waiting, they've found atleast 4 of them so far.

If anyone needs any from TN and SC here's the place at only $4 a pop. The people seem very nice too.

http://www.tndeathcertificates.com/

I like your little picture strip, I may do one too since I have the 5 pictures for my maternal line.

[Élistariel]

Ooh that reminds me. If you're ordering certificates (death, marriage, birth - if you can) try asking for uncertified copies. They're far cheaper. Rowan county in North Carolina offers uncertified copies for 50 cents. I sent them a check for 50 cents, they didn't find who I was looking for and sent my check back.
I now love Rowan county. :lol:

I mailed a request for my grandfather's parent's marriage. In around 1940. I'm hoping that won't be too recent. See, he was adopted and finally got his actual birth certificate and it had his parents names on it. I'm hoping the person I found with his father's name in the census. If they do send it, then I can get his mother's maiden name.

[Hærfest Leah]

Well out of the 7 I had searched, only 4 were found. The family for the other 3 just never had a death cert filed. I'm happy but the 3 that are missing were important ones.

[Hærfest Leah]

If anyone hasn't ever been on this site, make sure you check out the free genealogy online classes at BYU.

http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/freecourses.cfm

[ShaylaK]

One of my two sisters has what they have always referred to as "Irish eyes" and hers can be brown or green depending on the light and what she is wearing.Not real sure where that eye color came from as just about everyone else has blue eyes in our family.
I am going to try to locate a death cert for this Nellie Beeman as soon as I can figure out when she died.I have never seen her or her husband on any census as an adult but one of her daughters was born in 1905 and one was born in 1912 and her husband's WWI draft registration signed in 1918 lists the contact person as someone other than his wife.I am guessing she must have died in between those dates and he may have died not long after the draft registration.The registration exempts him due to "very poor health".There was a third daughter and the only possible candidate I have for that third child was born in 1909.I have never located any of these people on a census after 1900 but he registered for the draft in the same county that the marriage was recorded in so I am guessing they were always there.I am waiting for the death cert for the one daughter I located and hoping that they listed her place of birth in 1912.Due to MI law, cannot get that birth certs as these births occurred less than 100 years ago and no direct descent.Have to make do with whatever else I can find on them.
My husband's cousin just called to let us know that my husband's uncle died yesterday.This is really weird.My father-in-law died a year ago on the 26th of the same thing-undiagnosed lung cancer.They have now both died within days of the diagnosis.Is this weird or what?

[Lorrie]

I don't have much success with RAOGK, 90 percent of the time, noone ever replies back.


That might be why I got so swamped by requests! The volunteers are supposed to only be required to do a lookup or two every few weeks, can't remember what exactly it was, but I was the newest here for this county so I was last on the list, I would get up to 6 requests a week!!! I was swamped ! I didn't know how to say no, either. I would just contact back ( we were required to respond within a few days of the request one way or the other, so someone wasn't doing things correctly there!) and let them know how many were ahead of them, and give an estimate on how long it would take to get to theirs. I never charged anything, I did the look-ups when I was already there for my own information. I also kept their info in a folder so if I ran across any info later I could get it to them. I had alot of fun doing the volunteer work, I even met a contact that way, her family immigrated to here, and our Swedish family was from where she was! We traded info with each other for several months until she went on vacation at the time of that tsunami, I never heard from her again.

[Élistariel]

I traced my first name today. I was named after my "grandfather's" mother. (She's of no blood relation to me.)
It goes
Abby (me)
Abbie Z-e-l-m-a B. (1899 - 1975), named after her grandmother
Abigail Collette (not sure of dates) named after her grandmother
Abagil Leonard (1775 - 1857)

Abagil could have been named after greatgrandparent, but I'm missing some surnames.

:woot:

[Hærfest Leah]

I traced my first name today. I was named after my "grandfather's" mother. (She's of no blood relation to me.)
It goes
Abby (me)
Abbie Zelma Baity (1899 - 1975), named after her grandmother
Abigail Collette (not sure of dates) named after her grandmother
Abagil Leonard (1775 - 1857)

Abagil could have been named after greatgrandparent, but I'm missing some surnames.

:woot:

Congratulations!:boing:

[ShaylaK]

I am now following up another lead in the quest to locate part of my husband's family.I got the death cert for his grandmother's sister and it confirmed that the two females in question did have the same parents.I then sent an email to the local library where this sister last lived to see if I could get a copy of the obit.This very nice gentleman sent a note back and said it would be no cost to get the copy.I am going to send a small donation to that library.After all, it pays to make friends with people who do nice things for you.You just never know when you can either do them a favor in return or might need a very big favor from them later.At any rate, I received the copy of the obit and it says the sister's maiden name was Tripp-Cox.That sent me scrambling back to the census rolls and sure enough, there was this sister listed as an adopted daughter of a Cox family!Now I have never located any of the three girls, much less their parents on any census.Now I think I know why.According to info I received, the mother died a month after the youngest daughter was born.These girls would only have been ages 7, 4 and 1 month old at that time.It now looks like they may have been either adopted out or were assigned legal guardians to care for them and it is just possible that these girls appear in the census under the names of whoever was caring for them.I swear that locating the people in this family is the biggest puzzle I have ever had to work on.Little bits and pieces here and there but I think I am finally starting to fit those little pieces together.I just love a really good challenge!

[Hærfest Leah]

I've been doing lots of research these 2 weeks I've had off school, I've accomplished a lot. I have a problem tho, can anyone else think of how to prove a relationship for an adopted son to his real parents if no adoption record exists? They just didn't do one because it was within to family. This is for my father, his birth certificate has no parents names at all on it and his baptism record has his adopted parents names, which were his aunt and uncle. We the family all know who his real parents are and he still talks to one of his real brothers. But I want to be able to prove the relationship to his real parents, how could I? They are both deceased, all 4 parents real and adopted are deceased. My real grandmothers obit doesn't mention him and I don't have my grandfathers, I doubt it does either though. I need to try to get it anyways.

Either way his mothers line is the same line genetically, I can't prove his birth mothers relationship to him with documentation but one of her sisters is his adobted mother and I can prove that relationship. It's the male genetic line that would look uncertain without documentation. Make sense?

I've just about given up on trying to prove the relationship because I don't think it's possible, but I keep coming back to it.

[Lorrie]

I'm sure you already looked, but maybe a death record?

[Hærfest Leah]

I'm sure you already looked, but maybe a death record?

Both birth parents died in 1980 and those aren't released yet. I assume my aunt Marie is the one who probably signed both certificates anyways, she's the eldest child.

I'm trying to make a rule for myself that when I'm in a school semester I cannot even think of genealogy unless all current homework is finished. I'm bad about putting off homework and doing genealogy instead. Then I get stressed thinking "I've still got all this homework to do". I'm horrible aren't I. _whistle_

[ShaylaK]

That is kind of the same boat I am in.I think the sisters had people who were just guardians and were never adopted legally, even though it appears they were using the surnames of the families they lived with.I am going to check, but I am pretty sure there was probably nothing filed at the local courthouse. I did get the names of the actual parents on one delayed birth certificate (can't check on the others due to MI laws on birth records), one of the marriage records, two of the death certificates and two of the obits did at least mention the natural parents surname.We did have another situation in our family where the grandson was taken in by the mother and stepfather of the child's mother and was raised as their son.Various obits for all of the people involved in this were just as varied.He was listed as the son, the grandson, the stepson, the stepbrother, the brother-it all depended on whose obit it was.Can't really establish any proveable relationship other than most everyone in the family knew what the situation was and that is how we know.But we just know it, can't really prove it with any documentation.Birth records are off limits in this state until they are 110 years old -except for some very restrictive exceptions.Had a three year fight with one county over it.According to the law, if the person whose birth record you want is deceased and you can provide the date and place of death, you are not required to meet the restriction rules on records less than 110 years old.I sent the marriage record, the death certificate, the obit, and a copy of my drivers license and they still refused to send it, despite the fact that this person had already been dead thirty years.They wanted me to send documentation proving lineage up to this person.But the law says you do not need to be a direct line heir to get that record if the person is deceased.I complained to my local state reps office about this law.In my opinion, counties requiring someone to send all this documentation is asking you to provide information that could result in identity theft and supposedly, this law restricting these records is supposed to help avoid identity theft.Does this make any sense at all?
Okay. I am over my rant on Michigan laws restricting access to birth records.Makes me mad every time I think about it!

[Lorrie]

I just read a rather disturbing e-mail from rootsweb, I will try to sort out what post goes where and paste it on here, it made me sick!(This is off of one of the mailing lists that I subscribe to.)



Message: 1
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 09:11:45 -0700
From: "Jean" <richjean@nethere.com>
Subject: Re: [INDELAWA] Genealogy Heated Debate
To: <indelawa@rootsweb.com>
Message-ID: <001a01c7ed7b$f60a02c0$2e995545@YOUR3148D5A58A>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

For heaven sake do not remove from on line pages. How else can others
starting out find you?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pamm Garber" <in_genealogist@yahoo.com>
To: <indelawa@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 6:28 PM
Subject: Re: [INDELAWA] Genealogy Heated Debate


> So how do we fight back, short of removing our work from online
pages,
> assuming that we can? If it weren't for those of us who do the
individual
> research, places like Ancestry would have very little to offer. We
need to
> find a method that works, then each of us unite together with other
> genealogists, historical societies and smaller groups to stand
against the
> monopolies! Genealogy should be FREE access to anyone who is
researching
> and not made to pay for access to things that are already public
record.
> I know that I had asked for them to merge 2 accounts of mine (free
access,
> but one had a mistaken password) and they would not do it. So if I
sign
> out, I may not be able to sign back in. Also I know of others who
have
> filed complaints with them and nothing was done about the situations.
So
> again, how do we fight back?
> Pamm
> IN_Genealogist
>
> Gina Richardson <richardson69@comcast.net> wrote: Hello everyone,
>
> I figured I would give you all a hot topic to read about over the
Labor
> Day weekend.
>
> There has been a heated discussion on the USGenWeb Project email
lists and
> other not for profit Genealogy Groups about Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/). I wanted
to
> pass the information along to you in case you were not aware of the
issue.
> I think all who are researching their history should know what is
going on
> and be able to voice their opinion to Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/).
>
> It seems that Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) went through the internet searching and
> spidering websites and cached pages that had to do with Genealogy.
Cached
> as in stored copies of the websites on their server. They removed
the
> headers and footers and put their Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) header on the pages
and
> then offered the database to their pay per view members. When the
headers
> and footers were stripped it removed the information about who
created the
> pages and the copywrite or any way to contact the person who supplied
the
> information.
>
> They didn't ask permission to copy the pages and they took pages that
were
> from not for profit groups who work and spend their own time and
money to
> provide free websites for researchers and put it on a pay site. It
was
> not a list of links to the actual sites but a copy of it.
>
> Another reason it is bothering the Genealogy groups that were cached
is
> that they have been buying out all the other companies. They now own
> Rootsweb (who sponsors most of the USGenWeb) , Genealogy.com (http://genealogy.com/), Family
Tree
> Maker, and others. The concern is that our free sites will be made
pay per
> view.
>
> It caused an uproar and now they have pulled the database from the
pay
> site and made it free. Their reason for copying the pages was to
> "preserve" the pages for the future. I can see some reasoning to
this, if
> a page is created and the creator removes it or passes away, the page
is
> no longer available, but the cached page would still be there for
future
> researchers.
>
> It is on the free side of the site but you must still register and
create
> a name and password to access it. That is a problem to some people
too,
> you shouldn't have to register and give personal information to view
a
> site that was created for free viewing. Ancestry spamming and
selling
> your information to third parties after you register is another topic
that
> is in question.
>
> Personally my first reaction to this was.....
> Ancestry smacks their logo and copywrite on all their images and has
a
> whole page on their site about copywrites and lawsuits if you
reproduce
> their pages and then they went and did the same thing to all the
smaller
> organizations and then tried to make a buck off of it.
>
> The links below will take you to the different articles about the
whole
> ordeal if you would like to read more about what is happening. You
can
> also do a search for articles, I typed in "Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) cached pages"
and
> came up with several hits.
>
> I think it is important for all of us to keep up on issues that may
affect
> the way we research not only with these different websites but with
laws
> that pertain to public records and who has the right to access them.
>
> http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=1785
>
> http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/
>
> http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/255997.htm
>
>
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/08/internet-biog-1.html
>
> I hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day!
> Gina Richardson
> INGenWeb County Coordinator
> Delaware County IN http://www.rootsweb.com/~indelawa/ (http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Eindelawa/)
> Randolph County IN http://www.rootsweb.com/~inrandol/ (http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Einrandol/)
> Rootsweb Admin. Inrandol@rootsweb.com
> Rootsweb Admin. Indelawa@rootsweb.com
>
> -------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
> INDELAWA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the

> quotes in the subject and the body of the message
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see
what's
> on, when.
>
> -------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
> INDELAWA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the



Message: 2
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 09:11:17 -0700
From: "Jean" <richjean@nethere.com>
Subject: Re: [INDELAWA] Genealogy Heated Debate
To: <indelawa@rootsweb.com>
Message-ID: <001701c7ed7b$e4fc9fb0$2e995545@YOUR3148D5A58A>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

Let me know what you all decide per this rootsweb site and I will go
along
also. I have been doing genealogy for over 30 years and have been
hearing
complaints from other people just lately about Ancestry and how they
drop
things they have or want more money or something. They also have been
limiting what the librarys have on their ancestry sites. Jean
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pamm Garber" <in_genealogist@yahoo.com>
To: <indelawa@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 6:28 PM
Subject: Re: [INDELAWA] Genealogy Heated Debate


> So how do we fight back, short of removing our work from online
pages,
> assuming that we can? If it weren't for those of us who do the
individual
> research, places like Ancestry would have very little to offer. We
need to
> find a method that works, then each of us unite together with other
> genealogists, historical societies and smaller groups to stand
against the
> monopolies! Genealogy should be FREE access to anyone who is
researching
> and not made to pay for access to things that are already public
record.
> I know that I had asked for them to merge 2 accounts of mine (free
access,
> but one had a mistaken password) and they would not do it. So if I
sign
> out, I may not be able to sign back in. Also I know of others who
have
> filed complaints with them and nothing was done about the situations.
So
> again, how do we fight back?
> Pamm
> IN_Genealogist
>
> Gina Richardson <richardson69@comcast.net> wrote: Hello everyone,
>
> I figured I would give you all a hot topic to read about over the
Labor
> Day weekend.
>
> There has been a heated discussion on the USGenWeb Project email
lists and
> other not for profit Genealogy Groups about Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/). I wanted
to
> pass the information along to you in case you were not aware of the
issue.
> I think all who are researching their history should know what is
going on
> and be able to voice their opinion to Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/).
>
> It seems that Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) went through the internet searching and
> spidering websites and cached pages that had to do with Genealogy.
Cached
> as in stored copies of the websites on their server. They removed
the
> headers and footers and put their Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) header on the pages
and
> then offered the database to their pay per view members. When the
headers
> and footers were stripped it removed the information about who
created the
> pages and the copywrite or any way to contact the person who supplied
the
> information.
>
> They didn't ask permission to copy the pages and they took pages that
were
> from not for profit groups who work and spend their own time and
money to
> provide free websites for researchers and put it on a pay site. It
was
> not a list of links to the actual sites but a copy of it.
>
> Another reason it is bothering the Genealogy groups that were cached
is
> that they have been buying out all the other companies. They now own
> Rootsweb (who sponsors most of the USGenWeb) , Genealogy.com (http://genealogy.com/), Family
Tree
> Maker, and others. The concern is that our free sites will be made
pay per
> view.
>
> It caused an uproar and now they have pulled the database from the
pay
> site and made it free. Their reason for copying the pages was to
> "preserve" the pages for the future. I can see some reasoning to
this, if
> a page is created and the creator removes it or passes away, the page
is
> no longer available, but the cached page would still be there for
future
> researchers.
>
> It is on the free side of the site but you must still register and
create
> a name and password to access it. That is a problem to some people
too,
> you shouldn't have to register and give personal information to view
a
> site that was created for free viewing. Ancestry spamming and
selling
> your information to third parties after you register is another topic
that
> is in question.
>
> Personally my first reaction to this was.....
> Ancestry smacks their logo and copywrite on all their images and has
a
> whole page on their site about copywrites and lawsuits if you
reproduce
> their pages and then they went and did the same thing to all the
smaller
> organizations and then tried to make a buck off of it.
>
> The links below will take you to the different articles about the
whole
> ordeal if you would like to read more about what is happening. You
can
> also do a search for articles, I typed in "Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) cached pages"
and
> came up with several hits.
>
> I think it is important for all of us to keep up on issues that may
affect
> the way we research not only with these different websites but with
laws
> that pertain to public records and who has the right to access them.
>
> http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=1785
>
> http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/
>
> http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/255997.htm
>
>
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/08/internet-biog-1.html
>
> I hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day!
> Gina Richardson
> INGenWeb County Coordinator
> Delaware County IN http://www.rootsweb.com/~indelawa/ (http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Eindelawa/)
> Randolph County IN http://www.rootsweb.com/~inrandol/ (http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Einrandol/)
> Rootsweb Admin. Inrandol@rootsweb.com
> Rootsweb Admin. Indelawa@rootsweb.com
>
> -------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
> INDELAWA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the

> quotes in the subject and the body of the message
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see
what's
> on, when.
>
> -------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
> INDELAWA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the


> quotes in the subject and the body of the messag> quotes in the subject and the body of the message


Message: 3
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 16:14:16 -0400
From: "June" <londonjaws@modempool.com>
Subject: Re: [INDELAWA] Genealogy Heated Debate
To: <indelawa@rootsweb.com>
Message-ID: <011301c7ed9d$dbd387b0$11190245@yourgurg0dywdc>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

Hi
Hi
I had lost all of my genealogy information a few years back when my
computer
crashed. Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) did not help me except when I paid them and I had

given them all of my information for free. So I thought that was
unfair. I
think what they are doing now is quite unfair. I do believe we need to
talk
about it or we would not know what is going on..
June
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean" <richjean@nethere.com>
To: <indelawa@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 12:11 PM
Subject: Re: [INDELAWA] Genealogy Heated Debate


> Let me know what you all decide per this rootsweb site and I will go
along
> also. I have been doing genealogy for over 30 years and have been
hearing
> complaints from other people just lately about Ancestry and how they
drop
> things they have or want more money or something. They also have been
> limiting what the librarys have on their ancestry sites. Jean
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pamm Garber" <in_genealogist@yahoo.com>
> To: <indelawa@rootsweb.com>
> Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 6:28 PM
> Subject: Re: [INDELAWA] Genealogy Heated Debate
>
>
>> So how do we fight back, short of removing our work from online
pages,
>> assuming that we can? If it weren't for those of us who do the
individual
>> research, places like Ancestry would have very little to offer. We
need
>> to
>> find a method that works, then each of us unite together with other
>> genealogists, historical societies and smaller groups to stand
against
>> the
>> monopolies! Genealogy should be FREE access to anyone who is
researching
>> and not made to pay for access to things that are already public
record.
>> I know that I had asked for them to merge 2 accounts of mine (free
>> access,
>> but one had a mistaken password) and they would not do it. So if I
sign
>> out, I may not be able to sign back in. Also I know of others who
have
>> filed complaints with them and nothing was done about the
situations. So
>> again, how do we fight back?
>> Pamm
>> IN_Genealogist
>>
>> Gina Richardson <richardson69@comcast.net> wrote: Hello everyone,
>>
>> I figured I would give you all a hot topic to read about over the
Labor
>> Day weekend.
>>
>> There has been a heated discussion on the USGenWeb Project email
lists
>> and
>> other not for profit Genealogy Groups about Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/). I wanted
to
>> pass the information along to you in case you were not aware of the
>> issue.
>> I think all who are researching their history should know what is
going
>> on
>> and be able to voice their opinion to Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/).
>>
>> It seems that Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) went through the internet searching and
>> spidering websites and cached pages that had to do with Genealogy.
>> Cached
>> as in stored copies of the websites on their server. They removed
the
>> headers and footers and put their Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) header on the pages
and
>> then offered the database to their pay per view members. When the
headers
>> and footers were stripped it removed the information about who
created
>> the
>> pages and the copywrite or any way to contact the person who
supplied the
>> information.
>>
>> They didn't ask permission to copy the pages and they took pages
that
>> were
>> from not for profit groups who work and spend their own time and
money to
>> provide free websites for researchers and put it on a pay site. It
was
>> not a list of links to the actual sites but a copy of it.
>>
>> Another reason it is bothering the Genealogy groups that were cached
is
>> that they have been buying out all the other companies. They now own
>> Rootsweb (who sponsors most of the USGenWeb) , Genealogy.com (http://genealogy.com/),
Family
>> Tree
>> Maker, and others. The concern is that our free sites will be made
pay
>> per
>> view.
>>
>> It caused an uproar and now they have pulled the database from the
pay
>> site and made it free. Their reason for copying the pages was to
>> "preserve" the pages for the future. I can see some reasoning to
this,
>> if
>> a page is created and the creator removes it or passes away, the
page is
>> no longer available, but the cached page would still be there for
future
>> researchers.
>>
>> It is on the free side of the site but you must still register and
create
>> a name and password to access it. That is a problem to some people
too,
>> you shouldn't have to register and give personal information to view
a
>> site that was created for free viewing. Ancestry spamming and
selling
>> your information to third parties after you register is another
topic
>> that
>> is in question.
>>
>> Personally my first reaction to this was.....
>> Ancestry smacks their logo and copywrite on all their images and has
a
>> whole page on their site about copywrites and lawsuits if you
reproduce
>> their pages and then they went and did the same thing to all the
smaller
>> organizations and then tried to make a buck off of it.
>>
>> The links below will take you to the different articles about the
whole
>> ordeal if you would like to read more about what is happening. You
can
>> also do a search for articles, I typed in "Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) cached
pages" and
>> came up with several hits.
>>
>> I think it is important for all of us to keep up on issues that may
>> affect
>> the way we research not only with these different websites but with
laws
>> that pertain to public records and who has the right to access them.
>>
>> http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=1785
>>
>> http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/
>>
>> http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/255997.htm
>>
>>
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/08/internet-biog-1.html
>>
>> I hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day!
>> Gina Richardson
>> INGenWeb County Coordinator
>> Delaware County IN http://www.rootsweb.com/~indelawa/ (http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Eindelawa/)
>> Randolph County IN http://www.rootsweb.com/~inrandol/ (http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Einrandol/)
>> Rootsweb Admin. Inrandol@rootsweb.com
>> Rootsweb Admin. Indelawa@rootsweb.com
>>
>> -------------------------------
>> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
>> INDELAWA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without
the
>> quotes in the subject and the body of the message
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------
>> Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see
what's
>> on, when.
>>
>> -------------------------------
>> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
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Message: 4
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 15:58:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Pamm Garber <in_genealogist@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [INDELAWA] Genealogy Heated Debate
To: indelawa@rootsweb.com
Message-ID: <264560.64955.qm@web63203.mail.re1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

We need to do something. The 1880 Census was free, but is no longer. If
you go through the listings at the bottom of the page for what is free
on Ancestry, it says the 1880 Census is free, but when you pull it up,
they want you to pay for it. I emailed them about it, and they told me
it was still free but you had to go through the channels (listing what
is free). It was not free, so yes, they lied. If we didn't d all the
work and submit it to them, what would they have to offer? It's not
right, but how do we make them understand that we will not tolerate it! I'm
in about 50 genealogy groups and many of the groups are discussing
this issue. What can we do that will take notice and not just be shoved to
the side while they ask for more money? It's hard to boycott, since
they have the majority of what we are looking for...
Pamm

June <londonjaws@modempool.com> wrote: Hi
Hi
I had lost all of my genealogy information a few years back when my
computer
crashed. Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) did not help me except when I paid them and I had

given them all of my information for free. So I thought that was
unfair. I
think what they are doing now is quite unfair. I do believe we need to
talk
about it or we would not know what is going on..
June
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean"
To:
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 12:11 PM
Subject: Re: [INDELAWA] Genealogy Heated Debate


> Let me know what you all decide per this rootsweb site and I will go
along
> also. I have been doing genealogy for over 30 years and have been
hearing
> complaints from other people just lately about Ancestry and how they
drop
> things they have or want more money or something. They also have been
> limiting what the librarys have on their ancestry sites. Jean
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pamm Garber"
> To:
> Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 6:28 PM
> Subject: Re: [INDELAWA] Genealogy Heated Debate
>
>
>> So how do we fight back, short of removing our work from online
pages,
>> assuming that we can? If it weren't for those of us who do the
individual
>> research, places like Ancestry would have very little to offer. We
need
>> to
>> find a method that works, then each of us unite together with other
>> genealogists, historical societies and smaller groups to stand
against
>> the
>> monopolies! Genealogy should be FREE access to anyone who is
researching
>> and not made to pay for access to things that are already public
record.
>> I know that I had asked for them to merge 2 accounts of mine (free
>> access,
>> but one had a mistaken password) and they would not do it. So if I
sign
>> out, I may not be able to sign back in. Also I know of others who
have
>> filed complaints with them and nothing was done about the
situations. So
>> again, how do we fight back?
>> Pamm
>> IN_Genealogist
>>
>> Gina Richardson wrote: Hello everyone,
>>
>> I figured I would give you all a hot topic to read about over the
Labor
>> Day weekend.
>>
>> There has been a heated discussion on the USGenWeb Project email
lists
>> and
>> other not for profit Genealogy Groups about Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/). I wanted
to
>> pass the information along to you in case you were not aware of the
>> issue.
>> I think all who are researching their history should know what is
going
>> on
>> and be able to voice their opinion to Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/).
>>
>> It seems that Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) went through the internet searching and
>> spidering websites and cached pages that had to do with Genealogy.
>> Cached
>> as in stored copies of the websites on their server. They removed
the
>> headers and footers and put their Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) header on the pages
and
>> then offered the database to their pay per view members. When the
headers
>> and footers were stripped it removed the information about who
created
>> the
>> pages and the copywrite or any way to contact the person who
supplied the
>> information.
>>
>> They didn't ask permission to copy the pages and they took pages
that
>> were
>> from not for profit groups who work and spend their own time and
money to
>> provide free websites for researchers and put it on a pay site. It
was
>> not a list of links to the actual sites but a copy of it.
>>
>> Another reason it is bothering the Genealogy groups that were cached
is
>> that they have been buying out all the other companies. They now own
>> Rootsweb (who sponsors most of the USGenWeb) , Genealogy.com (http://genealogy.com/),
Family
>> Tree
>> Maker, and others. The concern is that our free sites will be made
pay
>> per
>> view.
>>
>> It caused an uproar and now they have pulled the database from the
pay
>> site and made it free. Their reason for copying the pages was to
>> "preserve" the pages for the future. I can see some reasoning to
this,
>> if
>> a page is created and the creator removes it or passes away, the
page is
>> no longer available, but the cached page would still be there for
future
>> researchers.
>>
>> It is on the free side of the site but you must still register and
create
>> a name and password to access it. That is a problem to some people
too,
>> you shouldn't have to register and give personal information to view
a
>> site that was created for free viewing. Ancestry spamming and
selling
>> your information to third parties after you register is another
topic
>> that
>> is in question.
>>
>> Personally my first reaction to this was.....
>> Ancestry smacks their logo and copywrite on all their images and has
a
>> whole page on their site about copywrites and lawsuits if you
reproduce
>> their pages and then they went and did the same thing to all the
smaller
>> organizations and then tried to make a buck off of it.
>>
>> The links below will take you to the different articles about the
whole
>> ordeal if you would like to read more about what is happening. You
can
>> also do a search for articles, I typed in "Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com/) cached
pages" and
>> came up with several hits.
>>
>> I think it is important for all of us to keep up on issues that may
>> affect
>> the way we research not only with these different websites but with
laws
>> that pertain to public records and who has the right to access them.
>>
>> http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=1785
>>
>> http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/
>>
>> http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/255997.htm
>>
>>
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/08/internet-biog-1.html
>>
>> I hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day!
>> Gina Richardson
>> INGenWeb County Coordinator
>> Delaware County IN http://www.rootsweb.com/~indelawa/ (http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Eindelawa/)
>> Randolph County IN http://www.rootsweb.com/~inrandol/ (http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Einrandol/)
>> Rootsweb Admin. Inrandol@rootsweb.com
>> Rootsweb Admin. Indelawa@rootsweb.com
>>
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>> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
>> INDELAWA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without
the
>> quotes in the subject and the body of the message
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------
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what's
>> on, when.
>>
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End of INDELAWA Digest, Vol 2, Issue 132

[Élistariel]

(This is gonna be long, so I appologize in advance)

That sucks.
Ancestry actually called me once and tried to make me pay them.
Uh... no. I explained to them I signed up for the free trial and that it was apparently a mistake that they started charging me.
They appologized and I haven't paid a dime.

Until fairly recently I used my hometown's library website to get free (for me) access to ancestry.com. (Yeah, I'm evil like that) :D . Something was fubared with the site and you could get ancestry library edition from wherever you were through the library's website. They've since updated and I can't do that now. (fooey)

Thank GOODNESS I printed out those census records. :woot:
For the "record" I haven't paid anything for any of them:
Some sites I use, besides google :lol: :
http://www.gencircles.com
http://www.familysearch.org
http://www.genealogy.com

On pages such as ancestry, rootsweb, and genealogy I like to use the forums. Sometimes you luck out and can directly contact the "source" of information you want instead of having to pay the website for it.

I'm just now starting to shell out money for records. That's only because I'm using records and vital statistics to prove what I've found online.

***Something else I've learned. If you're ordering records such as death and marriage (birth if you can). I suggest ordering from the specific county if you can, and ordering uncertifed records. They're far cheaper. Usually 50 cents as opposed to $15. One county, even sent me 50 cents back when they couldn't find the record. ***

I've found three more names for my tree. Esther BROWN and Jennie (Virginia) TARR and her husband, James Julian.

Esther is my direct-maternal ancestor. I found her name via the death certificate for one of her sons. I just wish she didn't have such a common name. James and Jennie are my 4th greatgrandparents. I knew the husband was either James or George. My mom's aunt remembered him as George. (Maybe his name was James George Julian?) The wife, I thought was Abagail, because that's what was on census records that I found. My mom's aunt told me she was Jenny. I ordered the death certificate for my 3rd greatgrandfather and there the names were.

Now as for getting Virginia from Jennie...
1. There is no Jennie Tarr (in any form) in the census records, there are, however, Virgnia Tarr(s.)
2. Jennie (or Ginnie) is a nickname for Virginia. Heck, I worked with a Ginnie who was really a Virginia.
3. Their granddaughter was named Hattie Virginia, after each of her grandmothers.

I'd love to say more, but I think a skunk just sprayed outside... :collapse:

[Hærfest Leah]

Thanks Lorrie for posting this, I'm a member of rootsweb and ancestry.

[ShaylaK]

I subscribe to ancestry as well.While I don't really like having to pay good money for this,just about anything you try to search online is going to take you back to ancestry in the end.Can't access it any other way as so many counties in the US do not get the indexes online so they can be accessed for free.As I have said before, I can't travel across the country going from county to county hunting down the records.Some counties don' return the money you send when they don't have the record you are looking for.I much prefer being able to check an index and know the record is there before I send money anymore.Been burned too many times on that.

I also noted that the one lady was complaining about the 1880 census in particular.Ancestry used the LDS index to the 1880 census and agreed to allow free access to the index only.You have always had to subscribe to the census images online there in order to view the images.While I agree that ancestry is gobbling up many of the free access sites online and I am very much aware that quite a bit of the info you can get there is available elsewhere-but not online.Virginia marriage bonds are an example.You can request that a volunteer look for a particular marriage as this info has been published in book form.You can try to get the book as well, but I have a problem paying large sums of money just to find a record or two.I don't always get responses to queries regarding a possible marriage that may or may not be in the book that someone actually owns.There are some libraries that have the book, but it is not part of their circulating collection so you would need to drive over to the library to check for the info.I can get on ancestry and view the entire index online in my pajamas if I want.

While I am certain they are not altogether fair and above board, ancestry is still so much more convenient than some of the other options I would have to use to locate a record.I have gone on record before as being upset that so many of these genealogy websites cull info off the internet and get it for free and then charge money for anyone to view it.The family trees that so many people have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars doing the work and documenting only to have it end up on a website that charges to view it, or worse yet, turns them into CD's that they sell and the person doing all the work gets nothing for it is, as far as I am concerned, is stealing and I don't care for it at all.Unfortunately, we genealogists are a small group and I don't think our opinions count for much.I fully expect some of these websites are going to steal from the wrong place or person sooner or later and will get sued.

[Hærfest Leah]

So true, and for me when I'm not even in the country to drive anywhere, Ancestry and several other databases are my only option. I've heard about things people say Ancestry has done to them but I personally have never had anything but excellent service from them.

I'm currently trying out footnotes.com for a month since it was cheap and I like them. they don't have much but are growing. I tried getting Heritage Quest access from a library back home and the library director emailed me a library card number no charge. However, it's not working for Heritage Quest, something with our firewall but it's a newer program than they 2005 HQ refers to in their FAQ and we can't turn it off without uninstalling it. But it does let me gain access to a database the library has called America's Genealogy Bank. Not bad, but I have yet to find any of my family in it.

[Hærfest Leah]

And the genealogy world is buzzing over ancestry.

I just got this email from about.com's genealogy newsletter over the Ancestry thing.


from Kimberly Powell
It was an interesting week in the online genealogy world as many of the field's most active bloggers spoke out against the new Internet Biographical Database at Ancestry.com - a controversy which, ultimately, resulted in the database being taken down. At the heart of the matter lies the legality and ethics of using copyrighted content, and genealogists definitely responded forcefully!


With these links:

Cache 22 - Has Ancestry.com Gone too Far?
http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/255997.htm?nl=1

The Legality of Caching
http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/255998.htm?nl=1

[Lorrie]

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!:boing::boing::boing::boing::boing::boing:

[Élistariel]

I thought of a random piece of advice for doing a free census search on ancestry. Don't always rely on spelling. Ancestry has mistranscriptions a-plenty. Back when I had "free" access I did some research on a friend's family.
Her great(great?)grandpa was named "Linney."
The (mis)transcription? - Sinez.

How in the world do you get Sinez out of Linney?

Go by the collection of first names and relative ages of the entire family as well birthplace.

One ancestor of mine, Anderson Freeman apparently went on an aging rollercoaster.
In 1850 he was 35.
In 1860 he was 45.
In 1870 he was 77.
In 1880 he isn't there.
Yeah, I guess aging 32 years in a decade would be stressful...

I'm gonna wait until I get the results to my ancestrybydna test before I order any more certificates.
I need to control my obsession before it controls me. :D

[ShaylaK]

Finding anyone on the census can be a challenge.Some of the problems were due to the census takers themselves who were not always educated and then there are the people who do the transcriptions and indexes off the original records.I can honestly say that I truly feel for them.I got the bright idea to volunteer to transcribe a handwritten index once.I won't do that again.I could not read the writing at all.I'll leave that kind of work to people who have the patience to take it letter by letter.

I could not find my Beeman family anywhere in 1900.Why?Because they were on the census as Baumanns.My McGregors are also McGrigors.My Cannadays can be under any number of spellings and not just in census and other county records.They were Quakers and the Quaker indexes have at least a dozen variations of that name.Then we have the Ball family who showed up as Bull.Sometimes it is just not spelled right and sometimes it was not transcribed right.When all else fails, I end up going through the census roll line by line.

Ancestry is getting quite a bad rap but they keep on going.We are supposed to be getting Heritage Quest around the end of the year through our state library and I am kind of excited to see what they have.I am guessing that due to multiple problems with ancestry, many places that provide access to genealogical info are making the switch.

My biggest complaint with ancestry at the moment is their claim to be adding the Indian rolls.So far, they have not.What it looks like they have done is extracted the names off the US census rolls of those who were listed as Indian and then subdivided them by tribe or the area they were living in.Since my husband's ancestors were Indian, I was really excited about this until they started adding the info.His Indian ancestors were usually listed as white so they are not on the lists ancestry has added.If you look at the database, they are providing the same info that you found on the census to begin with. The true Indian rolls, like the Durant rolls have not been added and I am getting the feeling those rolls are not going to be added.

[Lorrie]

I could not find my Beeman family anywhere in 1900.Why?Because they were on the census as Baumanns.My McGregors are also McGrigors.My Cannadays can be under any number of spellings and not just in census and other county records.They were Quakers and the Quaker indexes have at least a dozen variations of that name.Then we have the Ball family who showed up as Bull.Sometimes it is just not spelled right and sometimes it was not transcribed right.When all else fails, I end up going through the census roll line by line.




also, they were listed at different times as MacGregor, MacGregor, too, and our Charles always had a huge difference in his ages on each census , oh, and then we have the Baers-Behr-Bars spelled every which way, Newlee's has been spelled until it didn't make any sense any more, the Minge, now there was an adventure in spellings too! Makes for a huge identity crisis. I don't know WHO I am anymore!!!!:hehehehe: It always makes one wonder WTF were they thinking????????:boing:

[Hærfest Leah]

Yes I just love butchered names. (NOT!) I have a 1900 census for my gr grandmother Carrie as a child living with her parents and the only daughter in the household was my Carrie age 8 but the census plainly says Janey age 8. Sure she has a sister Jane but she wasn't born till 1909 so it's in no way her. I think the census taker just heard and wrote down a completely wrong name but the DAR won't buy that I'm sure. Janey isn't remembered to be her middle name either although her brothers in the same census were listed by middle names.

In another census for another gr grandmother her name is Reda and I've seen it spelled Recha. I saw it spelled Readie some places (census and their marriage record) and thought it was another misspell till my grandmother confirmed that was her fathers nickname for her mother Reda. So keep cute nicknames in mind also.

[Élistariel]

My greatgrandmother Lity May has been:
Lida Mae
Lytamay
Lighty Mae
Lottie
Litty

[Lorrie]

I have one of those situations with a family that was in Ohio. The child has been listed as a daughter in one parents obit with one name, and in the other parents obit, listed as the opposite sex, and a different name. I never did figure that one out, but I think ShaylaK may have found something on it. It was quite confusing. Of course, the only contact for this part of the family we couldn't get a hold of.

[ShaylaK]

Yeah, the Newlees are hard to find.Yesterday, I found them on the 1850 census exactly where they should be.But here's the kicker-I was trying to locate them using the surname Newlie and ancestry did not bring up the one I was looking for.There was another family in the same county that was indexed as Newlie, so I pulled it up figuring maybe it was a related family and there was the man I had been looking for a few lines away.I read the name as Newlie, but whoever did the transcription off the census has him in the index as Nerole.Which would explain why I could never locate him using the transcribed indexes-even though I plainly saw it as Newlie on the census image.I just love going through the census.It is just such a challenge and I have learned through experience that transcribers may not see what I see.All the same, the hunt is the part I like best.
I do have to admit that I do get creative using the indexes on ancestry.I located my Beeman family because the wife's name was Signora.When I went to do the search on ancestry, you can do a search by first name only-which is not practical in most cases, but this is a rare first name.After all the frustration, it ended up being just too easy!

[Élistariel]

I'd like to suggest a websites, actually it's several.
Just type www.my state genealogy.com
For example, www.mynorthcarolinagenealogy.com

I just found out that the census records to the county I need to research were probably destroyed in an 1835 fire. (Son of a ...)
I'm not sure yet. I'm using Heritage Quest now (school acess) and the years I need aren't up yet.

Also, try searching for partial names on census records. I've had George as Geo, and Edward as Edw??? yes, the transcriber used question marks.

[Hærfest Leah]

I'd like to suggest a websites, actually it's several.
Just type www.my state genealogy.com
For example, www.mynorthcarolinagenealogy.com

I just found out that the census records to the county I need to research were probably destroyed in an 1835 fire. (Son of a ...)
I'm not sure yet. I'm using Heritage Quest now (school acess) and the years I need aren't up yet.

Also, try searching for partial names on census records. I've had George as Geo, and Edward as Edw??? yes, the transcriber used question marks.

I've been using that site for Tennesse Genealogy for a while now, it's pretty good.

Lucky, my school doesn't have HQ access.

[ShaylaK]

The Edwards are always a good one.Ours were either Edward or Edwin and they used both versions often.We always have to check for both names.They never appear as Ed or Eddie though.My personal favorite is Solomon.Too many vowels in that name so there are several variations that one can end up as.

My husband's cousin has started sending me pics of their family.I love the old pictures.He had a photo of their great-grandmother.Now, I cannot find a single piece of paper that proves who her parents are, but I have seen a photo of her mother.Talk about spitting image!I am absolutely certain who her parents were, but still having problems proving it.All the same, after having seen photos of both of them, I know beyond any doubt!

[Lorrie]

:boing::boing::boing: A big envelope from Delaware Ohio genealogy society in the mail today! I am waiting for my splitting headache to calm so I can sit and look through stuff, it looks like nothing good, but I do see a few new names that might add some adventure to my life. Yes, I am easily amused.

[Hærfest Leah]

My husband's cousin has started sending me pics of their family.I love the old pictures.He had a photo of their great-grandmother.Now, I cannot find a single piece of paper that proves who her parents are, but I have seen a photo of her mother.Talk about spitting image!I am absolutely certain who her parents were, but still having problems proving it.All the same, after having seen photos of both of them, I know beyond any doubt!

I had a thought, how about we each post a few of our old pictures. Post the oldest picture you own (noting the approximate date if possible) and some that are just your favorites? Tell us the stories behind them. Sounds fun. Too bad we don't have our own genealogy section, we could have a picture sharing thread. I can mention it to GEBS and see anyways if thread participants think we need one.


:boing::boing::boing: A big envelope from Delaware Ohio genealogy society in the mail today! I am waiting for my splitting headache to calm so I can sit and look through stuff, it looks like nothing good, but I do see a few new names that might add some adventure to my life. Yes, I am easily amused.

I'm curently waiting on documents from Belgium and should be getting some from an archive back home.

[Élistariel]

I'll take you up on that photo offer. This is the oldest photo I have.
I believe it was taken on or around July 10, 1916. I'll get to why I think that in a bit. This is a photo of my greatgreatgrandmother, Lucy Annie Fronnie Elizabeth McIntyre Julian. The youngest girl is my greatgrandmother, Hattie Virginia Julian. The other children are Bessie Ezora, Willie Lee (older boy) and Hubert Emmons Julian.

Now, the reasons I think it was taken on or after July 10, 1916.
1. Hattie was born on April 13, 1914 and could easily be 2 years old here.
2. Their sister, Verena died of enteritis caused by measles on that date.
3. The Julians were a poor farming family and probably wouldn't have had a photo taken "just because."
4. The clothes, this is a farming family in church clothes. I think that's corn behind them.
5. The expressions.

Fates of the people in the photo:
1. Lucy - died in 1962, I don't know what of, I haven't found her death certificate yet.
2. Hattie - married and had 8 children, died in 1976 from a heart attack.
3. Willie - married and had at least a son and a daughter. He died in March of 1938, his son was born that August.
4. Hubert - identified as Dock when I got the photo. I have no clue how he got that nickname. Married and had at least 2 daughters. He died in 1991.
5. Ezora - married and had at least 2 children. She died in 1993.

[Hærfest Leah]

I have quite a few pictures but here are some of my favorite black and white genealogy pictures. I have a few others that are paintings and drawings of much older ancestors.

In order of posting.....(scroll over each image to see the name and approximate date taken)

Caroline Roeill/Röll (Germany, New York), My 2nd gr grandmother on my fathers side. She comitted suicide by jumping out a window in 1889 in NY shortly after immigrating with her two sons because she was very ill with something she caught from one of the bodies at the funeral home she and her husband had ran in Germany.

George and Emily Hayes (Appalachia Tennessee), My 2nd gr grandparents on my mothers side. My grandmother says that George would get drunk then go jump on his mule and Emily would jump on too and off they would ride.

William Grant Stubblefield (Appalachia Tennessee), My 2nd gr grandfather on my mothers side. He loved history, knew loads on herbs and was great at swearing. I also have a picture of his wife Catherine and one of his aunts.

Louis Miller/Mueller (L.I. NY), My 2nd gr grandfather on my fathers side. He had a team of horses that he used to dig cellars with on Long Island. He lost them and everything else during the depression.

Frederick Carl/Karl (Manhattan and L.I. NY), My adopted gr grandfather on my fathres side. His father immigrated from Germany and he and his wife Dora Pabst lived in a part of New York known as Hells Kitchen. I have a picture of Dora also. I love this picture because it screams 1900 Manhattan New York.

[Lorrie]

We have some Miller/Muellers also, two families of them. On one we have Adam Miller and Barbara Kroger, (their daughters are our connection to the Bear/Baer/Bar family) they were the first family in the Shenandoah Valley. The Mueller side goes back to John Jacob Mueller, came from Germany to Augusta Virginia.

[ShaylaK]

I like the idea of the pictures, but Lorrie will have to do ours.I am not as good with the computers as she is and she scanned them all anyway.Since she is my sister, her oldest photo would be my oldest photo.I think we have a couple of them that were prior to 1890.I was surprised we had any photos like that, but my aunt had this album full of really old pictures.Fortunately, whoever put the album together did label most of the pictures.There are a couple of them that were labeled and we have no idea how they are related but we'll figure that one out eventually.That happens a lot.We got some old family photos from another cousin and we know who most of the people are.There are a couple of them that must be related to us but we haven't figured them out yet either.

[MonSno_LeeDra]

One venue you might want to check for proving relationship is the undertaker records.

My family hails from Orange County Virginia for the most part and I have found undetaker records going back to the 1920's. There has been quite a bit of info on their records that is not contained within the formal death certificate.

Some funeral homes have been performing undertaker duties for years so thier records may go back many generations. In virginia I have found the undertaker / funeral home on the death certificates.

Just another avenue to think about.

[Hærfest Leah]

One venue you might want to check for proving relationship is the undertaker records.

My family hails from Orange County Virginia for the most part and I have found undetaker records going back to the 1920's. There has been quite a bit of info on their records that is not contained within the formal death certificate.

Some funeral homes have been performing undertaker duties for years so thier records may go back many generations. In virginia I have found the undertaker / funeral home on the death certificates.

Just another avenue to think about.


I've often thought about that, I'd be looking at those too if I was back home. Unfortunately it's not an option at this time.

[Élistariel]

Undertaker records huh? I'll have to look into that.
Later this month, I plan to do two things.
1. Request the death certificate for my greatgrandfather's brother from NC. I'm just gonna chance it.

2. Order my paternal grandmother's birth certificate. I think she was born in Georgia. If not, then Florida.
I want to find more info on her father. I have his name, but it doesn't help me. I want to get my greatgrandparents marriage records, but I don't know if they were married in Georgia or Florida, and my greatgrandmother married at least 6 or 7 men. I want to order her death certificate (2004), but no one on that side will tell me what her last name was when she passed.

[GalenaFaolan]

I love old pics!! Let me pick out a few of mine too.

1st one is my GGGrandfather's nephew,Harmon C Bishop, his wife Nancy "Nan" Lawrence and their daughter Pernia.

He was a Private in Company A, 9th Infantry,Union in the Civil War. Harmon's brother 's Hagan and Milton all signed up at the same time and served together. Hagan and Milton were with the 9th but in Company K. This was taken about 1925.

Harmon fought in the battle at Shiloh and was in Reserve in the battle of Stones River near Murfreesboro,TN. Because of the horrible conditions at the time, after Stone's River his health declined rapidly. He was in the hospital for months but it didn't help him get much better. He was diagnosed with Phthisis (TB). In the early 1890's he developed a chronic condition called "Catarrh", inflammation of the air passages , a mouth and gum disease that caused his teeth to fall out one or more at a time, had chronic diarrhea and lumbago in his lower back. Despite all these health conditions, he lived to the ripe old age of 90!

2nd one is Harmon in his Civil War uniform, taken about 1861/62. He is holding a U.S. Model 1822 flintlock musket altered by adding a percussion cone in the upper barrel and modifying the lock. His jacket is a nine button state militia-type uniform with shoulder epaulets.

3rd one I think it was taken about 1900. It is Harmon's daughter Pernia, her husband Joseph Burnsides McGuire and their 4 oldest children, Willie, Lacy,George and Cora. She had 10 children altogether.

4th oneJoe and Pernia, taken in the early 1920's I think.

5th oneJoe and Pernia again, taken in the 1930's I think. Pernia died in 1945 and Joe died in 1951

[Élistariel]

1. My "Gran" and my "aunt". (Biologically my first cousins once removed). Their father died in a car crash when their mother was pregnant with my aunt.

2. My "Granny." (their mom).

3. My Granny and their dad, (the one that died in the car crash.)

*sidenote* - My gran was my mom's first cousin, but she raised her, so I was raised to believe she was my grandmother. (Just incase anyone was wondering about the quotes.) Oh and no names, they're alll still alive. :tongueout:

[Élistariel]

How do you annoy a genealogist?
two words
Courthouse Fire.

Son of a ....

[ShaylaK]

That is just so true.We actually have ancestors who came from a county in OH where there had been a courthouse fire or flood or something after they left.No marriage records, no nothing.Annoying would not be the word I would choose for it!

[Élistariel]

Another way to annoy a genealogist?
One name.
Smith.
Gee, thanks mom. :tongueout

[Hærfest Leah]

Ya know what annoys the holy bjesus out of me? People who are information and document/picture stingy. Hello people.... THIS IS A JOINT EFFORT, YOU MUST PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS!

Thats right up there with people who put a contact email on their web site etc and then it bounces when you write them. :bangyourh

[Élistariel]

Ya know what annoys the holy bjesus out of me? People who are information and document/picture stingy. Hello people.... THIS IS A JOINT EFFORT, YOU MUST PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS!

Thats right up there with people who put a contact email on their web site etc and then it bounces when you write them. :bangyourh

I second those.

Another one.
Relatives who "don't know nuthin'" or just flat out won't tell you anything. Take your pick.

Or how about this one?
Your ancestors didn't get married in the county you thought they did and the state did't start doing state records until long after they were married.
Just want I wanted a game of county hunting.

And yet one more for this post.
You know what county you want a record from, but the site is down and the only email they left bounces.

[ShaylaK]

What is annoying me the most this week is people who have family trees or information out there and you ask for a little info to see if it matches up to yours and they never respond.That has happened twice now with the same family and I am positive I have the right family.On the other end of this, I did get a response from one person and we traded info and decided that we were looking at the same family group and this nice lady happened to live close by the courthouse where the records to prove it would be.She actually went and looked for a marriage record or death record to find the one item that linked my group to hers.

I also dislike people who take info I have and then disappear.I have learned to only provide one or two small pieces of info.If they respond and add info, then I will happily provide them with anything I have, but I always check out the response first.I have been burned too many times with people who take what you have and then you never hear from them again.

My dad is one of those people who always says he doesn't know anything.It is so funny, because he is also the one who ends up with the most important clues.There is this family buried at the local cemetery and I came home with a list of the names off the tombstones and showed those to him.He got this funny look on his face, went into his room and came back with a land grant certificate signed by Ulysses S Grant that had been given to one of the people buried there after the Civil War.Another time, I found two females buried next to my great-great grandfather and I could not figure out who the other female was.I knew the one on the right side was his wife but the other one had the same first name, but it was not the name of his second wife.I went over to city hall and they gave me the maiden name of this other female.I went back to my parents and said something to my dad about it and he says-"Oh, that's so and so's first wife.She died suddenly not too long after they were married"Mystery solved by the same person who swears he knows nothing about his family!

[MonSno_LeeDra]

Here's a scenario for you.

My great aunt was married in probable Albemarle County Virginia. She married a man named Dick Harlow. Have never found anything to support this but one census record that lists her as a widow and a family story.

The story is she went to him and asked for some money (never heard what for just asked for money), Dick hands her his entire paycheck. She tells him she only needs so much and tries to give the rest back but he refuses. Tells her where he's going he wont need it. Drives off 10 minutes later dead in car wreck.

Wreck left my grandfather in traction for a year at University of Virginia Hospital and killed everyone else in both cars. Yet I can;t find so much as a copy of the accident report of story in the paper about it.

[Hærfest Leah]

Here's one I got in my email yesterday:

I asked.... I am also of the Mathis, Seale, Stubblefield lines and would like to know of
your sources for the Moses and Ezekiel Mathis/Matthews line on your website?

Their reply....Sorry, I do not know... Lost everything to Katrina.

[ShaylaK]

Newspapers did not always report all the local news.We have a fairly recent ancestor who died in a car accident-his obit says he died of the injuries-but nothing was ever in the paper about it.We also have an ancestor whose death record says she was burnt.And I do mean that is all it says-burnt.We are assuming this was a housefire of some kind (she lived in Massachusetts but this was well after any witch trials) but there was nothing in any of the local papers about it.No idea what happened to her at all.

[Élistariel]

Another way to annoy?
Marriage-happy grannies.

I want to order my grandma's birth certificate (if I can), but I don't know if she was born in Georgia or Florida.

I know she was born in 1941, and her father was an Adams. (I know her full bday and her father's first name, but in the interest of privacy I won't say.)

I also know the names of the other men my grandma's mom Martha married. (This is my dad's side btw). Thankfully most of the info is available on ancestry. Yay Florida.

Granny Martha first married a Mr. Moody around 1927, he died in 1928, when she was around 15. (Good lord...)
Here's where it gets really fun.
The next record on ancestry is of her marriage to Mr. Connolly... in 1940.
The name on ancestry lists Brazil as a surname. (Did she marry a Mr. Brazil too? idk)
My grandma, an Adams was born in 1941... in November.
Granny Martha didn't divorce Mr. Connolly until 1964.
She also married a Mr. Chancey. I don't have the date for the marriage, but they divorced in 1947.
Heeeey wait a minute....
I know I suck at math, but something's off here.

The rest of the later marriage and divorce records make chronological sense.

Bad Granny Martha! Bad!

:tongueout

She died, I think, in October of 2004, but no one knows (or will tell me) was her surname was.

[Hærfest Leah]

If you are not already aware, the newest version of Family Tree Maker came out in August 07. Well it is bombing big time and was nowhere ready for it's release. Now, that being said, researchers are passing the word around and advising oneanother that if you don't have the most recent GOOD verion of FTM which is Version 16 then you need to buy it now before they are all gone since the new 2008 verion is junk.

You can read about all this here:

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/07/family-tree-mak.html#comment-78874510

http://genealogy.about.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Family-Tree-Maker-2008-Essentials/dp/B000SQNBNE/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-1701726-7139342?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1189673195&sr=1-1

So something that I can already see happening is that now the new 08 version is out, the version 16 is now considered out of date and has gone down in price in order to get them sold. However, now that the word is being passed around to stay with the older version they will be selling like hotcakes and will soon become a hot item and we should see the prices on those left on the market go up because no one wants the newer version.

Many genealogists like to use more than 1 program because they do different things. I now use Legacy 6.0 and still have my old FTM 2005 version. Today I purchased a brand new, very discounted FTM version 16 Collectors Edition for $20 (Amazon.com Marketplace) when it originally sold for $100. So if you are going to do the same do it now before they are gone since they are no longer being made. You can the drop in pricing on Amazon.com.

[ShaylaK]

I have been doing research on my husband's ancestry, which happens to be American Indian.When you talk about multiple marriages, I had to laugh as his ancestry is so complicated.We have one grandmother who had two children by two different men, briefly married one man and had a child, had another child out of wedlock and then married his grandfather.If that was the only one that had done that, it would have been no problem, but this was almost a family tradition!I went back four more generations before I got to a female who married and had all her children by just one husband.

Now I am going back to work some more on my Quaker ancestors.I had been working on it, but the indexes got too confusing and I put it aside for a bit.I need to find the original records as well.I attended a seminar on Quaker records a few years ago but never followed up on what they said.Good thing I took really good notes.I am thinking it is time to move from the indexes to the actual records-if I can find them.I know where most of the Indiana records are kept, not so sure about the Tennessee and North Carolina ones, but have a few ideas on that.Quakers are pretty easy as they kept really good records and the indexes are detailed.I didn't even know there were real records until I took that seminar!I thought the indexes were all there was.

[Élistariel]

Here's what's annoying me now.

You find a person (in the census records.) It's the right name, the right birth year, the right place, but the wrong race.

Dang it! So close.

Unless my AncestrybyDNA test comes back as like 25% black, I don't think I've got the right person...
And considering my own grandmother has called me a vampire before I don't think that's likely to happen.

Although it's funny because I found his WWII enlistment info and he's listed as white on here. So... idk

[Hærfest Leah]

Rules of Posting Genealogy Information Online

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/09/rules-of-postin.html

[Élistariel]

Look what I found, this is so sad.
She's my second greatgrand aunt. (no blood relation to her)

[MonSno_LeeDra]

Élistariel wrote:



You find a person (in the census records.) It's the right name, the right birth year, the right place, but the wrong race


Don't rule out just because that is wrong. In my searching I have found instances where the moderator made a number of different mistakes, Specifically:

1. In transcription from the field record to offical the transcriber used blanket W's or M's or B's or MU's down the column. I've found the regesterures book that has one thing written but the actual census record copy has something different.

2. The census taker has used thier own judgement of what the race was. ie whites living in an area that had mostly blacks the whites became mulatto.

3. The census taker missed a child or children and erased the names and shiflted the rows. The supporting info not always changed with it. I have one child we always associated as a "child" only to find out later it was an erase and shift error.

4. Some where the attitude must have been when in doubt thier Black or White.

On a side note don't always rely on the name in the census records. For instance we have one family group that the tax asseror and census taker arrived at the same time. No adult was home so they asked a younger son. He told them the name was Nickels hence thats what it offically became. Unfortunately the actual name was Nicholson.

I have many occurance where the name is breeden (my family name) but the name is phonticaly spoken in areas as Braden. One family the man got so tired of telling the military it was breeden vice braden that he finally gave up and just used the Braden spelling.


For the things that erratate how about this....

Can you tell me if your releated to ????????? no dates, no areas, no children only the single name. Then get irratated if you say sorry thers not enough to go on to determine if I am or not.

[Élistariel]

I'd understand if it had the wrong race on one census, but it's on every census. I got my ancestry by DNA results back, 100% European.

[ShaylaK]

The race issue on the census records are a big issue for me as I have been doing research on my husband's Indian lineage.Now the info I have says you go to the 1870 census and find them there because the Indian rolls use that as the starting point to prove the lineage in order to join the tribe.The Durant rolls involve having located the Indians listed on that census and locating their descendents about 30 years later.All his ancestors, including the ones we absolutely know were Indian are listed as white on every single census except for one family who was listed as mulatto!And yet, one of the women who was listed as white on every census throughout her life had to be buried on the family's farm because she was an Indian and Indians were not allowed burial in the local cemetery.

[Hærfest Leah]

With my Melungeon line I have the known issue of their race changing over time. In the early 1800's their listed in census as free african americans, a few census later their listed as mulatto and in the 1900s they are now white. I know a lot of that is due to the line breeding out and now obviously I have no visible trace at all.

[Hærfest Leah]

I just came across this blog while looking for Anthrolopogy stuff for school.

http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/

I have never done any genealogy DNA testing nor do I have the money to throw at it since most companies are out of their ever lovin mind with their prices. (or they only test males)

[Hærfest Leah]

U.K. National Archives New Birth, Marriage & Deaths Now Online
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/09/uk-national-arc.html

Database
http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk/

Note: Registering will enable you to do FREE searches and to buy credits to view full records and images of the original pages, as well as using the advanced search options.

[ShaylaK]

Found a couple of people online who are working on part of my husband's line.The great part is that this one lady's husband is close to 80 years old and he personally knew some of these people.I ask questions and she asks him.Even when it comes to people that died before he was born, he still knows some great family stories about some of the people I am looking for.

[Hærfest Leah]

How is everyone's research going? I've had some free time from school this week so I've been working tons on my tree. I'm workinig back in the 1200's and it's like the song that never ends, it'll take me forever to record and source all these people. Oh well I'm in no rush. But I'm going to have to stop this week because I have midterm exams.

[Élistariel]

My research is going great. I'm in the "ordering documents" stage.
I found this kick-ass (can I say ass?) page with links to various vital records page.
One county has records from 74 on online. I don't mean vital records like births, but court. I found a dissolution of marriage thing for my grandparents on there. The whole blessed thing.
I got a marriage date and location for them off of it.
:woot:

I've also mailed off for two more records.
I'm putting together a medical-history. Looks like I stand a good chance of dying from a heart attack...

[Élistariel]

Why is it that when I take time I've set aside to look for something specific, I often come up short.... Yet when I take a few moments from working on my take-home midterm to eat lunch and mess online I find stuff.

Look at this. It's my great-grandaunts graves in some worn-down cemetery. I don't know what they died of (yet), but ten bucks says it was the same illness. I mean do the math, they died at ages 20 and 23 and only months apart.

[Ben Gruagach]

Look at this. It's my great-grandaunts graves in some worn-down cemetery. I don't know what they died of (yet), but ten bucks says it was the same illness. I mean do the math, they died at ages 20 and 23 and only months apart.

You might be right that they both died of the same thing, but it might be a bit of an overstatement to say they died just months apart. The gravestone says that Maggie died on Dec. 24 1929, and Winnie died on Aug. 6 1931. That's an 18 month gap.

[Hærfest Leah]

My grandparents on my fathers side both died in 1980, he in May and she in Aug. On my mothers side one of my sets of gr gr grandparents both died in 1914, she in May and then she in Sept.

Odd huh. But each person in the pairs died of different things.

[Élistariel]

You might be right that they both died of the same thing, but it might be a bit of an overstatement to say they died just months apart. The gravestone says that Maggie died on Dec. 24 1929, and Winnie died on Aug. 6 1931. That's an 18 month gap.

What can I say? I really suck at math. :lol:

[Ben Gruagach]

What can I say? I really suck at math. :lol:

You're not alone... we all make silly math mistakes!

It's still very possible though that they both died from similar things -- sometimes it takes a while for contagious diseases to kill someone, or if it was something else like diet or conditions (like hard winters and hard work) some people do tend to last longer than others.

It's always sad when someone dies so young though. 20 and 23 years old is barely begun to live!

[Élistariel]

You're not alone... we all make silly math mistakes!

It's still very possible though that they both died from similar things -- sometimes it takes a while for contagious diseases to kill someone, or if it was something else like diet or conditions (like hard winters and hard work) some people do tend to last longer than others.

It's always sad when someone dies so young though. 20 and 23 years old is barely begun to live!

No kidding. I want to order their death certificates, but the county I need to order from is darned impossible to find info on. They're "updating" the county site, but honestly, I think they forgot it. I tried mailing them, but it got sent back.
Dang it.
I know I could go through the state, but that costs more. (and I'm cheap).

[ShaylaK]

I think people who have been married for a very long time tend to die close together.When my father-in-law had his heart attack, my mother-in-law suffered one just a few hours later so we had them both in the hospital at the same time-but he was in the VA hospital and they wanted to move him to another hospital for the bypass surgery he needed and he wouldn't go because his wife was in another hospital and was having bypass surgery as well.We finally found a way to get both of them in the same hospital and he had bypass surgery one day and she had hers two days later.The hospital even got them a room together because it became very clear that he was worrying so much about her that it was impeding his recovery.He died just a little over a year ago and she is not doing so good.She was 16 years old when they got married so they had been married for 52 years when he died.

My research is going well.I have been in contact with a couple of people researching the same lines and am in the process of getting the info they have hoping to find clues to assist me in my research.I am in a wait and see phase right now.

My daughter says she is a walking time bomb because of what we know about the medical history in her family.We have lots of heart disease on my side and rampant skin cancer on her dad's side.Her dad and both of his sisters have been treated for the same exact skin cancer that their mother died of and his sisters had the same black mole in the same exact spot as their mother.One sister wasted no time getting to a doctor when the mole showed up and her surgery was quick and not too bad.The younger sister waited a couple of years and had extensive surgery as it had spread to some of the lymph nodes.Sometimes knowing too much is not a good thing.She stresses about it too much sometimes.Gets worried about every little spot.Yet we had an awful time convincing her that tanning was a really bad idea.We had an awful time getting her to stop!

[MonSno_LeeDra]

Change of menu somewhat but do any of you have the problem of common law marriages that transcend many generations? I have one branch that never gets married but they live together. Children always take mothers name and refuse to get marreid as it holds them to too many obligations if they do so.

Just curious.

[Hærfest Leah]

Change of menu somewhat but do any of you have the problem of common law marriages that transcend many generations? I have one branch that never gets married but they live together. Children always take mothers name and refuse to get marreid as it holds them to too many obligations if they do so.

Just curious.

No I have not had this probem, I do have several that were born out of wedlock with some the fathers being unknown completely hence taking the mothers last name.

[ShaylaK]

I have seen some of this in my husband's line but not to the extent you are describing.Several of my husband's ancestors were Native American and they sometimes had children with someone they were never legally married to and some children by someone they were legally married to.I suspect some of this was due to that fact they were Indian and not white.We have a couple of situations where there was a supposed marriage, but nothing was ever recorded via civil record.I have also seen this in the earlier Quaker records.According to the information I have, the reason the Quakers kept such excellent records is because their marriages were not recognized under civil law in many states.I would imagine there were other similar situations other than being Indian or Quaker where records may not have been recognized or recorded by a civil entity.

[MonSno_LeeDra]

I can tell you this one is driving me nuts in tracking them down. My niece married into this family, well not really married her common law husband keeps telling her they will get married but its been 6 or 7 years now and still wants to wait a bit more.

The only thing I can say is she refused to do the last name thing so all her children carry his name. But his mom, father and sister all tell him he's stupid if he does.

[Ben Gruagach]

Another interesting resource that might be worth exploring: http://www.footnote.com/

They have scans of historical documents, including court records for things like petitions for naturalization, civil war pension indices, etc.

[Élistariel]

Nothing like ordering a death certificate to help build your family medical history only to find out that you can't read the writing.
Seriously, what the fudge does this say? The only word I managed to make out is "interstitial."
Death date 1939

I've mailed another county, let's hope this time it's the right address. Georgia is turning out to be a pain in the patoot.

[Ben Gruagach]

Nothing like ordering a death certificate to help build your family medical history only to find out that you can't read the writing.
Seriously, what the fudge does this say? The only word I managed to make out is "interstitial."
Death date 1939

I've mailed another county, let's hope this time it's the right address. Georgia is turning out to be a pain in the patoot.

I'm pretty sure it says "chronic interstitial nephritis."

[Hærfest Leah]

I'm pretty sure it says "chronic interstitial nephritis."

Ditto

http://renux.dmed.ed.ac.uk/EdREN/EdRenINFObits/InterstitialLong.html

[Élistariel]

thanks :D

[ShaylaK]

The State Library of Michigan now has Heritage Quest up and running for residents of the state.Finally got around to checking it out yesterday and I am liking what I see so far.

I got a lead on my husband's Canadian Indian roots that I think is going to work out well.Someone who is on a myfamily site that I check on from time to time found a lady who has done work on the same line and she is willing to walk me through this research.I was finding it all very overwhelming since I don't speak or read French.This is a group of basically, French-Canadian Indians who came from a reservation in Canada and settled not far from the French territory around Detroit long before Michigan became a state.She was willing to just send me the info, but I really want to learn to do this myself and she is willing to guide me through it.I am going to give it a try.

[Hærfest Leah]

The State Library of Michigan now has Heritage Quest up and running for residents of the state.Finally got around to checking it out yesterday and I am liking what I see so far.

I got a lead on my husband's Canadian Indian roots that I think is going to work out well.Someone who is on a myfamily site that I check on from time to time found a lady who has done work on the same line and she is willing to walk me through this research.I was finding it all very overwhelming since I don't speak or read French.This is a group of basically, French-Canadian Indians who came from a reservation in Canada and settled not far from the French territory around Detroit long before Michigan became a state.She was willing to just send me the info, but I really want to learn to do this myself and she is willing to guide me through it.I am going to give it a try.


My husband (I work on his line too) is descendant of French-Canadian Indians also, their census actually say Dakota Territory on them for the state.

[ShaylaK]

My biggest problem with this family group is the names.They all had French names and I cannot distinguish between a family who came from France and settled in that same Canadian territory and the native family who had always been in that area.At least this lady has done work with the same exact community that eventually settled in Michigan.I am very sure I am going to need to learn some French to figure it out.Hunting through my old genealogy magazines now as I know there was an article on this.

As a side note-if anyone has any ancestors who lived in Delaware County IN-the Muncie Public Library now has courthouse scanned images online and it is free to use.They had been talking about it for ages but I could never get in to the program.It is working now and it is really great.I found one will and one estate probate record plus tons of criminal records.They also have some of the mortuary records.They still have tons of records to be scanned, but most of the criminal records are on now.Not that my ancestors were criminals, but they were called to testify or got sued for non payment of a debt or to settle a title dispute.Since the majority of my mom's family settled in that county, I found a gold mine.You can even click to a printer friendly view and print the records-for free!!!!

[MonSno_LeeDra]

Hope I can get some advice on this one.

I have a distant relative i'm trying to find out about. His name is Cecil Glynn Breeden of Iowa. Cecil was a medic assigned to Company A, 116th Infantry division which landed at Omaha beach (Dog Green) in WWII. Cecil is believed to be 1 of 2 survivors from the LCA that brough them ashore. Company A as a battle unit was wiped out on landing. Over 150 men landed on the beach, 100 were dead in the first minutes of the battle. The remainder were either wounded or lost all equipment.

Their are so few surviviors of this unit that it is nearly impossible to determine exactly what happened. A detachment of the 2nd Rangers landed next to them so part of what is known is derived from them. The Rangers lost nearly half their men on landing. The scene from the movie Saving Private Ryan where they are landing is based upon what happened at Dog Green on Omaha.

Now I can not find Cecil in the WWII draft or service records but known Cecil was a CPL on landing. Left service as a TEC. One reference I found to him was in refenence to the D Day memorials where he was talked about and had a medical field station set up in his honor.

He died in 1991. He was buried in a military cemetery in Colorado (Denver I believe). Yet he is not found in SSN death records or other records I can find.

He is listed at Ancestry under military entombments but not found in any other military records.

What intrigues me about him is that the survivors tried to get him recognized for valor and duty above and beyond the call. Yet he never received any award or recognization for his actions on the beach that day. His family never knew what he did from the few records I have found.

As I read and search I find out more about Omaha beach and what happened so its becoming a quest to find this man and record his story.

[ShaylaK]

The SSDI only lists persons who actually received some kind of benefits, so not every death is going to show up on that.Has anyone tried to get service records from St Louis?They keep the military personnel records for the most current wars there and copies of those records can be obtained by a family member for a fee.Did he belong to any of the veterans groups?They may have some clues.What kind of records does the cemetery keep?They can't be buried as a veteran without some kind of approved proof.The VA handles most of that.Other than that, I can't think of any place else off hand that might have clues for you.National archives might be another option, but that information would mostly be regarding the company and the battle itself.I am not sure how detailed those records might be as I have never tried them.Not much help I'm afraid.Maybe someone else here has some experience searching for WWII records?

[Hærfest Leah]

MonSno_LeeDra, Sorry I didn't respond earlier. I have been busy with school. ShylaK gave you some good info, have you tried all the resources on Cyndi's List for WII?

http://www.cyndislist.com/worldwar2.htm

About.com has a section on WWII also.

http://genealogy.about.com/od/wwii/index.htm

[ShaylaK]

I have absolutely no experience with WWII records as the ancestors I have who might have served were exempt or not the right age at that time.Have not had a reason to get in to those records.It is kind of an odd quirk as there are family members who served for just about every other major war or at least had to register for a draft.Just not that one.

[Hærfest Leah]

That's pretty much the same with me, in my family those who were in WWII were two of my grandmothers brothers, both were in the Army. One died in the 60's and one in the 70's. Another of her brothers, my uncle Jr, is still alive and he was in the Navy in WWII. He kept telling us we were going to hate Guam before we came and my mom kept telling him it's changed since he was last here. lol My grandfathers brother James was a Purple Heart recipient from WWII. (both died in 2006, bless their hearts)

[ShaylaK]

Found another clue we had been having trouble figuring out.My grandmother and most of her family always said that her grandmother was buried under the wrong name.This woman had been married and had three kids, but her husband was a bit of a wanderer.My grandmother and her family have always insisted that she never divorced this guy but had been living with a man in Grand Rapids.She died of breast cancer in 1942 and was buried as the wife of the guy she had supposedly been just living with.Her first husband came back several years later and said it was not right that she had been buried under that name as he had never divorced her.I kept thinking that just because he never divorced her did not mean that she had not divorced him.She did, after all, have a pretty good case for abandonment.I found the marriage record for the second husband-finally.Going to get a copy of that marriage record.It looks like she must have divorced her first husband prior to at least 1915, possibly earlier.She was still married to the first husband in 1904, when her father died.The marriage record is in a book covering the time period of 1913-1915.At least I now have some idea of the time period I need to be checking for that divorce!

[Hærfest Leah]

ShaylaK, Sounds like you found some good info, great job hunting it down. I didn't do any research last week and won't be able to this week because I'm swamped with school work.

I did just thismorning find out what the name was finally of the ancestor my step-mother 'n law is related to...get this.....

Hanged at the Salem Witch Trials
Mary Easty ~ 22 Sept 1692

I will be doing a future MWM article on researching witches. A new area for me so it should be interesting trying to gather information on how to research it.

[ShaylaK]

We have no witches in our family history even though my dad's line goes back very early on in Massachusetts.We do have an incident where one of our ancestors accused someone of being a witch, however.My daughter keeps saying we need to go back to where that happened and apologize for that one!

[Hærfest Leah]

We have no witches in our family history even though my dad's line goes back very early on in Massachusetts.We do have an incident where one of our ancestors accused someone of being a witch, however.My daughter keeps saying we need to go back to where that happened and apologize for that one!


I have none as far as I know, although I saw some Parkers on the Salem Memorial page and I have Parkers in my tree. I need to look in on that.