Who else is a Genealogy Nut??
Comments
-
mrsdivine, you have to for example select collection for US, New York, then a list appears with land records, wills etc. Then you select the county. Then there is a file with indexes and names. You get pointed to the file containing the records. From there you manually look through the file.
I played around for a while. I knew when my ancestor died and where which helps.
Mrsdivine,
On the page where you enter someone's name to search on, at the bottom pick find search all collections. There is a category probate and records, select that and go to select country, state even county.
0 -
About organization of records: My parents (79 and 81 now) have been studying their genealogy since the late 80's and have huge amounts of paper records. They are trying to organize and my mom has stated that she plans to keep all of the indexes and charts for us (myself and my two sisters) but donate anything from the extended family that might be of interest. The rest will be thrown away (copies, no original records). I guess there are quite a few historical societies that will take paper records, at least that's what she said.
0 -
I found a couple of post-binders at Hobby Lobby yesterday that should work. It says, "Family is of one of lifes' greatest blessings" on the cover. Clear sheets to insert the documents. This should serve for paper records. I will keep the originals and make copies to put in the binders for my kids. You can spend so much time doing this, but I am determined to get it done by C-mas as a gift for my kids. .
0 -
L love doing genealogy. I am less than thrilled by the changes in Find a Grave. Thanks for the tip on Castle Garden.
I haven't done any research in a bit and I am in the hospital with cellulitis due to my lymphedema. I kept,saying cancer is the gift that keeps on giving.
0 -
Oh dear kandy, hurry up and get rid of that cellulitis! I've often said the hospital is the worst place for a sick person (due to the risk of nosocomial infections like MRSA and clostridium difficle).
While you're waiting for the IV antibiotics to do their job, are you reading any genealogy blogs or websites?
0 -
I just did manual searches on ships leaving England for Salem, Boston area 1620 to 1640. I found one of my 10x great grandfathers but not his wife. I think sometimes the women didn't make the list. I found my grandmother and grandfather, from Mom's side, on ellis island website.
Both my grandmothers would have loved the stuff you can find on the internet.
0 -
Meow13:
My aunt looked in to it but the local chapter has no record of my great grandmother having been a member so I think we would have to prove the lineage again.
0 -
One of my lineages has been extensively researched. However, it came to a dead end when it was proven that that ancestor was never enlisted or fought. Sometimes people who have a lot of ancestors in the country in that era (1/2 for me, with another 1/4 born in England from a family with many links to the colonies), if disenrolled, can research another lineage. So if she was a member according to family tradition, it is possible she was, but later discovered to not be eligible.
0 -
wc3, I had to provide documemtation all the way back to my patriot, thank goodness for census records. Also "reclaim the records" was a great help in marriage and death index records. I spent a small fortune getting copies of birth, marriage and death records. The registrar at the chapter I joined said I needed 4 generations back birth, marriage, death but DAR website says otherwise. I love American and British history, antique collecting and preservation.
0 -
Genealogy was my passion until 2 years ago when I asked my dad to take a DNA test. Long story short he isn't my biological father. 15 years of research, countless hours of travel and memberships to various sites all down the shitter in a matter of minutes....
And then I get cancer....wonder how much stress factored into that??!!
0 -
Hi All - I am a newbie to this thread. My metastatic BC has forced me to step back from my career and slow down. But it also has given me more time to enjoy things like genealogy.
Ghostie - This happened to a friend/co-worker of mine who found out his dad was not his dad. He has been able to meet his biol dad and make friends with his half-siblings so it turned out not quite so bad as it could have. What a shock for you! Hopefully there is something good to come from it?
Our family shock has been we found out we are half Jewish...deep secret and no one still living knows anything about it. We have not located which side but suspect maybe even both sides have some in their background.
Since we had no BC history in the family, this could partly explain my previously unknown risk factor(s). Ashkenazi Jews have higher risk of mutations for BC.
Gumdoctor
0 -
Family secrets and family legends sometimes are proven or disproven. Although my lineages line up with DNA, the most important thing is family culture and values. Adoption, wrong side of the blanket, and "good Joe*", and even denied racial heritage all are interesting facts, but the most important thing is the family that raised you.
*a guy who marries a girl who may not necessarily be carrying the child he conceived, but loves her and the kid just the same.
0 -
MC Baker, Totally agree with that.
Gumdoctor
0 -
One thing I found fun was fultonhistory.com has so many newspapers and you can look through them for free. I found little pieces of family in them. For example, my 3x great grandfather won a prize at a county fair for his 2 year old bull. That and telegrams and letters saved and given to my father bring these people to life.
I find myself wondering how on Earth does someone get on a ship in 1635 come to a small community and survive on almost nothing. But they did some of my ancestors lived into their late 80s and 90s. I also wonder did any of my ancestors die from breast cancer. They probably didn't spend much time worrying. One thing that is incredibly sad is the reality of children dying young. I thank God everyday I have been spared that horrible pain. Mostly I focus on the fun things in life.
0 -
ghostie, I read your post the other day and wanted to think about what you shared before I replied. Because that is a life changing revelation, to learn after all this time the man whom you thought was your biological father was not. Since DNA testing is so easy and popular now, we hear more of these kinds of true life stories. You learned the new facts 2years ago. What kind of impact has it had on you and your family? What’s been the hardest part of learning this new information about your dad, and your family lineage? What kind of advice would you give others in your shoes, in same type circumstances? It had to be like running full speed ahead straight into a solid brick wall and crumpling. Altho I truly cannot say how it feels as it hasn’t been my experience. If you care to share any more of your story, I’d be interested to hear.
0 -
Meow, it really is impressive when you think what our ancestors survived to make it to and in the U.S.
At age 17, my paternal grandmother came the U.S. by herself from Poland in the early 1900s, spoke no English, had 2 bucks to her name. She got married and had six sons and lived to the ripe age of 102. My maternal grandfather came from Italy around the same time and lived to age 95. I think they had a sense of fearlessness, and a sense of adventure and a sense that they wanted something more in their life than what they thought they could get if they stayed in their native country. I don’t mean to romanticize it, because the hardships and struggles were real, and it was mostly about surviving. Perhaps because they were young, they didn’t take time to process what could go wrong.
0 -
Divine, I think you are spot on about the "fearlessness" of the immigrants at a young age. Remembering when I was 20 yrs old, I may have done something similar. My Grandfather was 20 yrs old when he came from Germany in 1923. He left his entire family and had a cousin in the States that 'sponsored" him. He settled in Chicago where he later met my Grandmother. I would love to read a diary of the 11 day journey across the Atlantic. I guess they didn't know what they didn't know!:)
0 -
My grandfather came to the States from England. He had an uncle and cousins in a small town in South Dakota. He did not like the rigid social class lines in England. His immediate family had alcohol problems. The South Dakota family apparently did not. A sister came over to visit, but ended up staying. She was difficult, just like his mother. However we talk today about how difficult our grandmother was. But a dowry can make a big difference in the life of a poor tailor. What I am saying is that it was a gamble for all of them, but a smaller gamble for some.
0 -
MCB, where in Wisconsin are you? I was born in Madison and have family in and around that area.
0 -
Forty miles from LaCrosse. Staying close to the Mississippi is essential for my sanity. Although I haven't seen Lake Michigan for years and years, I need to visit over there.
0 -
I found my 11x great grandfather was summoned under a jury in 1650, one case so and so was "disguised with drink", too funny I am still laughing. I didn't realize the Puritans actually drank wine. A couple were whipped because child born 28 weeks after couple was married. Oh heavens!
0 -
The last two episodes of Finding Your Roots (season 5 on PBS) are finally on the air.
I took a break from active research for a couple months because my mother-in-law passed away at age 92 with dementia. She had mastectomies 20 years ago but didn’t die of BC. Anyway, neither of her daughters wanted the items in her curio cabinet so we took everything. Realizing that a few pieces might have family history value, I’ve been busy looking those up on line. Now that she is gone, there is no one to tell us whether china marked Prussia or Silesia might have been wedding presents given to her parents...
All that to say, if you know of stuff that may be heirlooms, get the info on it now before memories fade and are lost forever!
0 -
- DivineMrsM.....sorry I seem to have missed your questions! Well better later than never...... My initial reaction to finding out I had been working on someone else's genealogy was shock. I was stunned and then angry. it seems in a persons life there would be any number of appropriate moment to say hey, we have something to tell you....I am 60 ....and no one ever said a word. I had a troubled relationship with my mom and she passed before I found out.... I believe she would have denied everything and my dad would have protected her, like he had their entire lives together..... And now a couple years in...well it still ticks me off that I had to start over on my genealogy after 15 years of work. Rather than my family emigrating from England to the northern States my heritage is Scottish/Irish and emigrants to the southern states. It is what is. On the bright side I have found out that I have two half sisters. I have spoken to one who is on FB and she has taken a DNA test (results pending). The other sister has not been located yet
- My relationship has not changed with my father.....he is still my dad and always will be. I have found out that my bio day was an alcoholic, as was my mother. Growing up with one alcoholic was awful, two would have been unbearable....So I am grateful to whatever higher power seemed to watching out for me....
My advice regarding DNA tests would be to take one with your eyes wide open. You don't know what you will find out and you might not like the results you get.....
0 -
ghostie, as the saying goes, your life had a real twist of fate! One thing that strikes me is that your dad agreed to have a dna test. Surely he was aware that you would learn this family secret.
I just finished reading a very good book where, like you, a best selling author learned through dna testing that her dad wasn’t her biological father. She wasn’t expecting it, either! Like you say, eyes wide open! The book is called “Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Love” by Dani Shapiro; it’s well written and tells how she pieced together her life story after receiving the startling dna news. I mention it in case you’d be interested in reading an account that you might find similar in some ways to your own experience. Thanks for sharing more of your story.
Vin, my condolences on the passing of your MIL
0 -
Time to bump this topic back onto the first page again, this time with a Find A Grave observation. Since my treatment is making me anemic, when feeling fatigued, I will lie down and transcribe a few photos for them using my iPad. The interface is not the best so I only choose simple tombstones, not the ones with lots of text.
Anyway, so far this month I have seen numbers peak in the 1000s. When you upload cemetery pics, you get a week to transfer the info or create a memorial page. After that, they open the files for anyone to process. There must be lots of people helping out because after only a few days, the # waiting for attention drops to zero!
I have also decided to collect my relatives, especially those who have no direct descendants to pop up and claim them. Most of the time I get a quick response but there are some people who must let their communications go into a spam or junk mailbox and never look at them. Not sure yet what I will do about that little problem...
0 -
vinrph, from what I have been told some folks on Find a Grave simp!y do not want to share! Kinda antithetical to the reason for having the website.
0 -
I have one findagrave member I tried to contact for years and nothing. I told findagrave and they just said he was still active. He has made a memorial for my ggg grandmother in the wrong cemetery I supplied the grave photo but he never responded.
Also findagrave took my father's memorial I made and merged it with one a total stranger made. Luckily the lady transferred ownership to me.
Some people have hundreds of thousands of memorials they "manage" it is ridiculous. I have 35 and would like to claim more of my relatives. I could write much more detailed biographies.
Oh well, gripe gripe gripe.
0 -
I have been researching my family history for nearly 30 years, used to take a roll of quarters to the downtown library and call up big books from the stacks! When the internet was finally available, it has truly sped the process. I have a findagrave account and stay on top of memorials I manage. When someone requests to take over because it's their family I always give it to them. I usually do not have any problems having my corrections added, but sometimes they are ignored. There are duplicates sometimes, and inaccuracies like everything else, but it's a great tool. FamilySearch.org is also great. My kids used to joke about our family vacations because they would always include at least one cemetery search. My dad used to tell us that his uncle just disappeared, and no one knew what happened to him. Well, was he surprised when I finally found his death certificate, and my grandfather was the informant - but according to my dad they were not told the truth, quite a mystery. In fact my dad had three cousins he never knew he had, and it took me awhile but I finally tracked them all down - two had died previously, and by the time I located the third, it was a month after he died. Disappointed for sure. I used to use FamilyTreeMaker but now I use Legacy which is okay, still getting used to it. Have had dna done at 23andme and Ancestry, nothing surprising though, still very, very white (14 ancestors on the Mayflower...)
0 -
FB, funny, I just clicked off a genealogy site and clicked on bc.org to find a new posting here! And I haven’t done internet family research in months due to life. You share a lot of nice tips. Not sure what Legacy is but will check it out. Also did dna and no surprises for me either. I, too, like FamilySearch. Nice that you could find some info on your husband’s uncle, even tho things don’t always work out on a timely basis. We simply didn’t have these internet sources back in the day. Oh my and you have Mayflower ancestors! How cool.
My happy find what learning my son’s great great great great great grandfather was a Revolutioner. Meaning he served in the Revolutionary War. I found his headstone on Find A Grave. Large, prominent, beautiful obelisk headstone with “Revolutioner” engraved in large print at the top. That’s how I found out. I figured it meant he served in that war and yes, he did. I don’t think my husband’s mom—its her ancestor— or his siblings knew. Or surely they’d have bragged about it. The cemetery is 2 hours from here and we’ll hopefully take a trip soon to get photos with dh and ds at the headstone.
0 -
I uncovered a DAR-eligible ancestor, and was going to join. Then BC happened, and I gave up on it. Got my dog, and now my goal is to have him certified as a therapy dog. I am Catholic, and I think DAR's history would make me a bit uncomfortable.
On my father's side, I am 1/4 German, 1/8 Irish, we have very little information about that, but because of her, I am Catholic, and that must say a lot. 1/8 old line New Englander, but no Mayflower.
On my mother's side, 1/4 English (cousin over there has done extensive work to way back). I am 1/8 New Amsterdam descendant with extensive information in those lines, some came over on the first ship, the Half-Moon, and where I qualify for DAR. Another 1/8 something-- I think Canadian given some of my DNA matches.
Like you, with 3/8 old line American ancestry, I expected something non-white. Nope, pure western European.
I have so many other things to do now that it is only a passing interest for me. I have found out why I am who I am, and why my family acted as they did. That is enough.
0
