Help with genealogy

[cherrywind]

I've recently started to try to find my family's history. Unfortunately, the family on my father's side has grown very distant over the past 20 or so years. I've obtained all the information from my father that I've been able to, but besides a few birthdays he doesn't know too much. He doesn't even know his mother's birthday, where she was born, where/when she died or anything.
So, my question is, has anybody ever run into a wall researching their family history? And if you have, how did you overcome those obstacles and find the information you needed?

Thanks for the help! I'm wanting to pull my hair out I'm so frustrated! ;)

[Danustouch]

Hitting walls? YES! LOL. If you have her name though, here are some things you can try. If you know what town she was buried in, or what cemetery, visit the cemetery. It should list her birth/death dates on the gravestone. Armed with that info, you can go to the city hall of the town she died in, and get a copy of the death certificate. You can also contact the office of social security, and ask for a copy of her social security documents. This will give you info about where she was born. When you have that info, you can go to the town hall where she was born, and get her birth certificate, which should list her parents names. And places of residence. And even if you don't know her birth date, or town that she is buried in, you must have some clue about how old she was at death, or some details about where she resided. These can prove beneficial. You can look in the 1930 census, for instance, which listed everyone who lived in the US during that year. You can view this at www.ancestry.com, however, it does have a fee for membership.

Messageboards such as www.ancestry.com, Geneology.com, Rootsweb.com, and such, have been invaluable to me in my search for my family roots. Not only do they have census records, social security death indexes, family trees which other descendents by your name may have posted, but they also have messageboards listed by name, country, and even some listed by county/towns. There, you can post a query, for free, about your ancestor, with as little or as much information as you have. And browse other peoples entries, which may tie into yours. It's a bit like putting the pieces of a puzzle together, and it can be very hard work. You also will have to be very patient. I'm still getting answers to questions I posted a year ago, for instance, on some of these messageboards! Be sure to include every detail you can remember...such as ..."Lived at this address, possibly in these years, worked as...., had _______ children, was married to____
was of this religious path ________ ," etc.

That's another great resource by the way. If you can, find out what religion they were, and try to find a church, perhaps the church your father was baptized in...where she may have attended. Sometimes, confirmations, baptisms, weddings, and deaths are all kept in church files. I've found just this to be true in my research for family in Ireland.

Also..you might want to check local libraries of towns she lived in, and search their records for old newspapers. Never know..they might contain an obituary, wedding announcement, birth announcement, or even an article about your ancestors.

Feel free to PM me, with any trouble you run up against. I'd love to help. I've been doing my family tree for about two years now..and almost every day, find new information. Good luck!

Oh..one more link. The Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day saints, mission is to acquire as much geneological data about every person it can. Their website is www.familysearch.org. And they have family history libraries in many towns. If you find a record which might pertain to a relative of yours, you can go to the family research center near you, and order the microphiche to view on the premises.

[cherrywind]

Thank you so much! Those are great ideas :D.
I think I may have gotten a lead on her birthdate. My mother sent me a link to a place that searches up social security numbers.

I'll try not to bug you too much, but if I really run into a wall I know who to contact ;).
Thanks for the help.

[Theres]

i was told once by someone who had been involved with the 'ineer circle' of the Morman church that the reason they are so into geneology is that they baptize the dead!
i don't know if that's true.
by the way, does anyone know a site that might help me? my entire family is from the old world, so SS checks and census figures from the U.S aren't much good to me.

[cherrywind]

That hardly sounds very real to me. Baptizing the dead? Sounds like anti-mormon propaganda.

I've been looking at http://www.rootsweb.com. I'm pretty new to the genealogy game, so that's the only one I've found that is useful and free.

[Danustouch]

Cherrywind, you are correct in that most geneology work will cost you money, especially when done on the web. Rootsweb does do great work, but...you will probably also need to realize that submitting for certain records may cost you money. And at some point, you might find that you will have to pay for a service, if you want to go further. This happened with me. Most of my research was done via the free message boards (incidentally, geneology.com, and ancestry.com also host FREE message boards). However, it did become necessary for me to pay for a UK, Ireland database at Ancestry.com, because Irish Records are extremely hard to find. For instance, many older census records have been destroyed, and alternative records have been collected. In order to get these records any other way, you have to visit the PRONI offices and GRO offices, or..pay a researcher. Some of these places will have people do lookups for you, but it is costly, and even if they don't find anything that can help you, you still have to pay the fee.

Greenman...all of these sites, Geneology.com, Rootsweb.com, Ancestry.com, Familysearch.org, they ALL have international databases....that is how I found so much on my Irish relatives. Not only that, but if you sign up on various mailing lists, sometimes private folks are willing to do lookups for you in whatever books they may have, for free. Such as maps, or will extracts, or Blacks Book of names..etc.

One note about signing up for mailing lists. If you intend to have the digests sent to your email address..be SURE to download anti virus software (norton, or mcaffee), as lately I've found them to be riddled with viruses. As long as you have the software on your comp though..you are ok.

My best advice, would be to talk to all of your relatives, and piece together whatever information you possibly can. Get old photographs, old records, take notes while talking to relatives. You never know what might be significant in your search.

For instance, I was asking my Grandfather about his parents, and he mentioned a name of a person who used to visit the farm when he was young. We didn't know then if the people were still alive, or bore any relation to us. Wound up, they were my Great Grandmothers' neices and nephews..and they had done the family tree on that side of the family. So that has been of immense help to me.

I'll try to post some more links in a few minutes..going into my favorites file to look up some links.

[Danustouch]

Here are a few more that I've found useful.

http://www.ancestralfindings.com/

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.genealogy-geneology.net/

http://www.genealogylinks.net/

http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/

http://www.irishroots.net/

http://www.familyhistory.com/main.asp

http://www.kindredkonnections.com/

There are alot more....but Cyndi's list by far, has the BEST archive of links to geneology sites. You wouldn't believe how invaluable that can be!

Good luck in your searches! Be prepared to uncover alot of stuff you never dreamed, and..to be verrrrrrrry frustrated at times :)

[cherrywind]

WOW! Thanks for all the links! Those should be very helpful :D.

I'm prepared to spend money, but I wanted to wait as long as possible to do it because I'm a poor student ;). I suppose that time is quickly approaching where I'm going to have to face the facts, and deal out some cash though.

[Danustouch]

Also..I just realized that you are from Canada. I don't know much about the records there, and if they have Social Security records, or what year their census' were taken in. However, i found these links for you that you might find helpful.

http://www.islandnet.com/~jveinot/cghl/cghl.html

http://www.kenora.net/manitoba/links.htm

http://www.iosphere.net/~jholwell/cangene/gene.html

http://www.interment.net/can/

http://kerlins.net/bobbi/potpourri/genealogy/

http://www.genrec.net/gindex.html

http://www.genealogylinks.net/canada/

I hope these are useful to you.

There are a couple of sites on the web for Irish geneology, which give name distributions. Meaning, you type in the surname, and it gives you a distribution of names in each area. In this case...say your name was Riley, it will tell you how many Rileys were in each county in any given year, or year range. There might be something similar for Canada, which might give you a better idea of where to start your search.

Some of these links I posted above, have cemetery links, where you can browse the names in cemeteries for specific territory's and towns, etc.

Also..is there any way to obtain a copy of your Dads' birth certificate? It should list his mothers name on that, and place of birth. That would probably give you a great idea as to where to start looking, as well. At least you'll have some idea of where she was living at the time of your fathers birth.

Did your dad ever serve in the Military? Did he ever register on any Census? Did he have to put his parental info on any work applications, or school records? These are all avenues you can check into to find out more information about HIS parents.

Also..once you have the surname of his mother...try just typing in the name + geneology, and see what comes up.

For instance, I found a lot of leads simply by typing in..

Mercer + Ireland + Geneology.

Hope these give you some help!

[Theres]

thanks Danustouch!
i have gotten as much info from my relatives as i can, and so far i'm back about 100 years on their testimony. i also have unsubstantiated data back to the late 16th century, but i don't know how reliable that is.
but i'll check into those sites, and thanks again.
(i have Norton)

and cherrywind... i've always thought that was kinda weird too.

[Danustouch]

You're welcome guys! If I can be of any more help, please let me know!

Greenman..you did say you found out that part of your mom's history was Irish. I could probably fill you in on some more info regarding Irish Geneological research, if you want. Just let me know. I'm also on a couple of Irish Mailing lists, so can post a couple of queries for you.

[cherrywind]

Thanks again Danustouch!
I think I may be able to get a copy of my dad's birth certificate, and he did serve in the military, although I don't particularly like talking about anything related to that with him because he's a Viet Nam vet and is a bit sensitive about the subject (but that's a whole other story).
I believe my great grandmother is from Ireland... although my dad wasn't too sure about that. However, I better figure out information about my grandparents first before I start on my great grandparents.
I better go and bookmark all those thinks now, I think my brain is too tired to do any more searching tonight ;).

[cherrywind]

I know I said that was enough for some night, but I lied (haha) and I had to finish what I was doing, and I found my grandmother's information! Birth, death, where her SSN was issued, and where she lived right before she died!
I feel very accomplished right now :D.

[Danustouch]

Yay for you! Congrats!!!!!!!!!

[Danustouch]

Heh..I just read one of your threads in New Pagans, where you mentioned that your dad was raised in a Strict Catholic family...ya know..this might actually work in your favor in geneology research! Catholic Churches keep GREAT records. If he was baptized/confirmed..there should be alot of info you can obtain from the church !

[cherrywind]

I was thinking about that. I know they'd have to have records on a lot of my family. I've been looking this morning for a site where you can obtain/ask to obtain this info and I'm having some trouble doing it. Any suggestions on which would be the best?
(are you getting tired of me yet? ;))