Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
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- Advanced Levergunner
- Posts: 5670
- Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:13 pm
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Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
A couple of weeks ago I found out the National Archives opened up an office not far from me with access to genealogy websites so I grabbed some information Mom put together before she passed and went down there this morning to see what I could saw. There's 13 stations with access to Ancestry.com, Heritage Quest and Footnote, microfilm readers and printers to print out whatever you run across. All for free, gratis, nada, zip, zilch, zero.
The first problem I hit was the info I'd brought. It had names and a few dates but it was mainly family medical info. That'll teach me to trust what I thought I remembered.
Second, I've never done this before. I was expecting to fill in what I could of the offered fields and get results like "These are possible matches for relatives" and be into the family history back to the 1800s (I'm only looking at Mom's side ATM). Well, to quote a sample used in a song by The Crystal Method: "Naw, it don't work like that!".
With their full maiden names, married names, spouse names and birthdates I couldn't find anything on my Grandmother or Great-Garandmother. I even started with my own name just to practice and found very little other than I was born (as opposed to being hatched ).
Can anyone who has used Ancestry, etc provide any pointers or advice? Once my maternal Grandparents and Great Aunt pass I'll be out of resources for that side of the family since my Grandparents outlived both of their kids and most of the rest of that side of the family never bothered to compile any of this info before.
Thanks!
BTW, I did find and print the quarterly muster rolls for my Grandfathers light cruiser in WWII. I also found an error in my Mother's birth records. Let's just say my Grandmother was mighty surprised to find out she'd given birth in a county roughly 350 miles South of where my Mother was born... It looks like the county code was incorrectly entered (at State level)?
The first problem I hit was the info I'd brought. It had names and a few dates but it was mainly family medical info. That'll teach me to trust what I thought I remembered.
Second, I've never done this before. I was expecting to fill in what I could of the offered fields and get results like "These are possible matches for relatives" and be into the family history back to the 1800s (I'm only looking at Mom's side ATM). Well, to quote a sample used in a song by The Crystal Method: "Naw, it don't work like that!".
With their full maiden names, married names, spouse names and birthdates I couldn't find anything on my Grandmother or Great-Garandmother. I even started with my own name just to practice and found very little other than I was born (as opposed to being hatched ).
Can anyone who has used Ancestry, etc provide any pointers or advice? Once my maternal Grandparents and Great Aunt pass I'll be out of resources for that side of the family since my Grandparents outlived both of their kids and most of the rest of that side of the family never bothered to compile any of this info before.
Thanks!
BTW, I did find and print the quarterly muster rolls for my Grandfathers light cruiser in WWII. I also found an error in my Mother's birth records. Let's just say my Grandmother was mighty surprised to find out she'd given birth in a county roughly 350 miles South of where my Mother was born... It looks like the county code was incorrectly entered (at State level)?
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.
-Mark Twain
Proverbs 3:5; Philippians 4:13
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This running with the Joneses boy
Just ain't where it's at
-Mark Twain
Proverbs 3:5; Philippians 4:13
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This running with the Joneses boy
Just ain't where it's at
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- Advanced Levergunner
- Posts: 2268
- Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 5:23 pm
Re: OT: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
Drop me an e-mail with specifics. I'll get you started and then some. I love the solving the mysteries!
Sincerely,
Hobie
"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend." Robert Louis Stevenson
Hobie
"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend." Robert Louis Stevenson
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
Tracing family lineage can take up all your free time. It is fun and exciting. Misspellings and typographical errors always throw you a curve. Then, older records get REAL sketchy. There can be multiple spellings of an original surname.
Have you got access to any old family Bibles? Many have ancestry recorded.
Good luck on your quest!
Have you got access to any old family Bibles? Many have ancestry recorded.
Good luck on your quest!
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
Wife & I got hooked. Spent a FORTUNE in parking meter fees outside Burton Historical Collection of Detroit Public Library. It was so neat when someone would find someone they were looking for -- they would just burst out in glee. This library starts you on city directories. Not hard to find your grandparents, you sometimes recognize their address or occupation.
I got all the way back to France. Local priest here was interested in that stuff & kept church records and published his work --Fr. Christian Dennison's History of the French Families of the Detroit River Region.
Good luck.
I got all the way back to France. Local priest here was interested in that stuff & kept church records and published his work --Fr. Christian Dennison's History of the French Families of the Detroit River Region.
Good luck.
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- Advanced Levergunner
- Posts: 2268
- Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 5:23 pm
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
I found one ancester that came over on the mayflower. It`s fun! Then again, you just might also find out something you dont want to know!
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- Advanced Levergunner
- Posts: 5670
- Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:13 pm
- Location: DeeDee Snavely's Used Guns and Weapons
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
Thanks Hobie, I'll drop you a line tomorrow when I get a few minutes.
My wife's family found that out. Somewhere back on her Father's side IIRC was a relative who killed a man under suspicious circumstances in the 1920s or early 1930s. There wasn't even a question of arrest since the man he killed was, shall we say, much darker than him. The relative who provided the information brought at least one newspaper article from the time to corroborate the story.Booger Bill wrote:Then again, you just might also find out something you dont want to know!
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.
-Mark Twain
Proverbs 3:5; Philippians 4:13
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This running with the Joneses boy
Just ain't where it's at
-Mark Twain
Proverbs 3:5; Philippians 4:13
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This running with the Joneses boy
Just ain't where it's at
- Old Time Hunter
- Advanced Levergunner
- Posts: 2388
- Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:18 am
- Location: Wisconsin
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
Thank fully my Ma's side of the family is from Canada and they have a wealth of "free" information available, used to be more, but Ancestory.com paid someone off and now charges for it.
For anyone that cares, if you think any of your relatives arrived prior to Ellis Island ('92 or so) check out the site for Castle Garden (1832-1892).
For anyone that cares, if you think any of your relatives arrived prior to Ellis Island ('92 or so) check out the site for Castle Garden (1832-1892).
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
A friend of mine was looking a lot of that stuff up he got a lot of help from the LDS Church. I think he said they have a web site just for that.
If you're gonna be stupid ya gotta be tough-
Isiah 55:8&9
It's easier to fool people than it is to convince them they have been fooled.
Isiah 55:8&9
It's easier to fool people than it is to convince them they have been fooled.
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
Yep. My Dad has been doing it for years and has traced our family back to something like 1730. But it is difficult, with many false paths, names that don't match, etc. Just approach like a detective story and try to corroborate information from three different sources.Gary wrote:Tracing family lineage can take up all your free time. It is fun and exciting. Misspellings and typographical errors always throw you a curve. Then, older records get REAL sketchy. There can be multiple spellings of an original surname.
Have you got access to any old family Bibles? Many have ancestry recorded.
Good luck on your quest!
"From birth 'til death...we travel between the eternities." -- Print Ritter in Broken Trail
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
Yes they do. Every couple of years our State Historical Society has a big exhibit at one of the fairgrounds. Towns and groups from all over participate. The LDS people have a large exhibit there every time the Historical Society exhibit is held, they are very helpful in getting you started. One of the people in my town was a member of a nearby LDS church (no offense intended if it goes by another name) and I asked him for some additional insight as to how to start looking up family history. One day I went over to that church, and found several people in there doing different projects. They didn't try to push any religion on me, and were very glad to provide me with info on how to get started. It turns out that doing genealogy is part of their religion. One guy told me that his wife did most of it for his family, and she'd already collected 100,000 names. He said anyone who goes looking up family histories will be very surprised and what they will find out. Those LDS folks are nice people, and are real experts at how to trace family histories.Rusty wrote:A friend of mine was looking a lot of that stuff up he got a lot of help from the LDS Church. I think he said they have a web site just for that.
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
I'd like to try that too. My Dad did a search in the 50s but on his side of the family the records died out in the Kentucky hills and my mother's side went back three or four generations to an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. But I'd really like to know more about my mother's family. Her father was an honest-to-God cowboy and also broke horses for a living, and spet a lot of time around Cut and Shoot, Texas. My mother's grandmother (?) was a 4'-6" full blooded Cherokee. I'd really like to have these family "stories" confirmed...
Mike
Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit...
I've learned how to stand on my own two knees...
Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit...
I've learned how to stand on my own two knees...
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
I heard Obama had same trouble. Plugged in his own information and couldn't find any birth history, at least in a country that keeps such records.
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
True, on my mothers side we have a relative who was sent by Brigham Young as a Dr. to southern UT. and from that same family was one of the members of Butch Casidy's wild bunch, he was arrested and tried in ID. and died in an asylum in WY. Personily I find it all interesting, it is what makes us who we are!!!Booger Bill wrote:I found one ancester that came over on the mayflower. It`s fun! Then again, you just might also find out something you dont want to know!
Terry
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- Advanced Levergunner
- Posts: 2268
- Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 5:23 pm
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
We moved here to utah in 2005. I met a old woman that told me she had a friend that was butch cassidys kid sister. Told me where butchs house was out of circleville etc. I know where it is. No marker or anything. I suppose people would jump the fence for souvineers if it was posted as such.
We arent mormon but my wifes stepmother is john doyle lee`s gr,gr, grand daughter. Lee was the only one exicuted for the mountain meadows massicure where the mormon battalion from here in cedar city whipped out a wagon train of 120+ people on 09-11-1857. The first 9-11. They saved 16 kids under 8 years old as they thought they wouldnt remember the details of the event and adopted them out and sent some back to familys back east where the wagon train started.
Strickly by chance my wifes daughter (my stepdaughter) got married last year to a decendant of one of those orphans! So you might say if they have any kids, the kid would have a ancester on each side of that terrible event. My gr,gr, gr, gr grandpappy killed my other gr, gr, gr, gr, grandpappy!
We arent mormon but my wifes stepmother is john doyle lee`s gr,gr, grand daughter. Lee was the only one exicuted for the mountain meadows massicure where the mormon battalion from here in cedar city whipped out a wagon train of 120+ people on 09-11-1857. The first 9-11. They saved 16 kids under 8 years old as they thought they wouldnt remember the details of the event and adopted them out and sent some back to familys back east where the wagon train started.
Strickly by chance my wifes daughter (my stepdaughter) got married last year to a decendant of one of those orphans! So you might say if they have any kids, the kid would have a ancester on each side of that terrible event. My gr,gr, gr, gr grandpappy killed my other gr, gr, gr, gr, grandpappy!
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
I'm in the same situation. I have ancestry back a few generations from living relatives, but I've always been interested in seeing how far back I can go. I'd like to know when my family got here, where they settled, and where we went from there. I know in the big scheme of things it doesn't really matter, but I'm a history nut, and I'm pretty sure my family was among the earliest to settle here. I don't know if I am a direct descendent of the earliest settlers of my namesake, or if my direct ancestors came later, but it would be cool to find out.
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen" - Samuel Adams
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
Take stuff posted on the internet with a grain of salt. Some is OK but I've found from personal experience that it is often incorrect. Sometimes you luck onto some good info. But confirm before you take it as gospel.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
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- Advanced Levergunner
- Posts: 5670
- Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:13 pm
- Location: DeeDee Snavely's Used Guns and Weapons
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
*rimshot*Marlin32 wrote:I heard Obama had same trouble. Plugged in his own information and couldn't find any birth history, at least in a country that keeps such records.
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.
-Mark Twain
Proverbs 3:5; Philippians 4:13
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This running with the Joneses boy
Just ain't where it's at
-Mark Twain
Proverbs 3:5; Philippians 4:13
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This running with the Joneses boy
Just ain't where it's at
Re: Stuck my toe in the genealogy pool...HELP!
Some OLD churches keep birth records for its congregations. That is where some missing pieces of my family history were found. (Dutch reformed Church, N.Y.) Then, cemeteries were located for those people. Online, there were photos of the grave markers. It was found that other relatives were buried in the same area of the cemetery and more piece fell into place.
My nephew has traced our lineage back through the American Revolution, to the Mayflower, to 1535 Appleby, England.
My nephew has traced our lineage back through the American Revolution, to the Mayflower, to 1535 Appleby, England.