Researching your Ancestry

[ColleenSwerb]

Dude. Has anyone else done this?
My husband and I are going on a huge trip this fall, and for a big part of it we're meeting my family in Ireland and exploring. My paternal grandfather was born in Ireland, so we've started digging into our ancestry to see what towns and areas we should be SURE to visit.

Ancestry.com is like CRACK to me right now. It is SO COOL to find this stuff out and find out where you came from!! I just discovered a ships manifest for my great grandfather 25 years before he actually immigranted here with my grandfather. We had no idea that happened! Even MORE amazingly, he came over to meet his sister. He had a lot of sisters, but only 3 would have been of a reasonable age to be married and come over with their husbands/family and 2 of them were presumed to have died as infants! (Irish records are a little spotty, lol!)

We're finding TONS of info on my paternal grandmothers family, including a civil war soldier! We're excited to dig into my maternal side as well, as there's a rumor in the family that we're from the line that the MacKenzie River in Canada is named after!

Anyone else looking into their ancestry, or done it already? I'm thoroughly obsessed with finding out more information about my family, it's just so COOL!! Anyone have any tips?

Paula, where are you? Don't you do this sort of stuff for a living or something?? LOL!

[newfiemountiewife]

Tony has traced ours back for years. He does it as a side hobby, and he really seems to enjoy it. I don't care for it much, I think it's neat that he found all of that info though.

[deepounds]

I've done quite a bit of research on our families, but I don't have anything going back to before they immigrated. It's a fascinating hobby that can truthfully be more time-consuming than scrapping - lol! It is really cool that you all are going to Ireland . . . no telling what long lost relatives you'll come across or tidbits you'll dig up!!

[KristinCB]

I haven't, my mom several years ago went way into our family history and it was cool how much she found out. My dad is of scottish ancestry and my mom traced it back far enough that she found out our clan in scotland were bodygaurds at the eileen donan castle which was used in the highlander movie :) There is a big family crest/plaque thing on display there..

How do you search on there? Do you need to know lots of info in order to go far back?

[NeverendingJen]

We've got between 5 and 10 generations back on both my side and DH's side of the family, fully researched. I love browsing through the new additions on ancestry every week as my MIL adds new photos and such

[emmasmommy]

one thing that totally sucks about being adopted...

[glumirk]

That's so cool! We haven't done much for ourselves, but our families have been doing a lot. When my brother went on a mission for our church in Denmark, he ended up meeting the descendents of the "other brother" who stayed in Denmark instead of immigrating, and even got a picture of himself in front of the old homestead from a similar angle to the one we had in our family history books. It's something that I definitely want to make more time for in my life, but haven't yet. Right now I'm just working on my personal history via scrapbooking and blogging. :D

Have fun!

[eranslow]

I haven't done any of the research but we know quite a bit :) (my maternal grandma did a ton of research & someone on my dad's side did too). I had a relative come over on the Mayflower (and he was actually the first colonist that was tried for murder.....yeah super proud of that one! lol). Also had family fight in the Revolutionary War. And I'm also somehow a French princess :) lol (this is all on my Dad's side).

On my Mom's side - we know when they all immigrated from Sweden - and we actually have met some extended family back in Sweden. I was lucky enough to go back to Sweden with my grandparents when I was in jr. high - met over 100 people that I was/am related too!

[Paula]

Isn't it fun? I've been doing professional research now for 18 years. I love it. I will warn you though, it is addicting.

[KateD]

Not that I believe it, but I found someone who traced my hubby family to a 13th century (I think) king in Britain, then all the way back to Adam and Eve ;)

[Paula]

Not that I believe it, but I found someone who traced my hubby family to a 13th century (I think) king in Britain, then all the way back to Adam and Eve ;)

It can be done. I've done it a few times.

[KateD]

It can be done. I've done it a few times.

I'm sure it can be done; it's just that the trees I found on Ancestry didn't seem to be terribly well researched and if I remember correctly, I had some conflicting information.

It's been a few years since I've done any research because I hit dead ends, but I'm itching to get started again.

[grcxx3]

I'm another one that's hooked.

I started researching my family (the "old fashioned way" - in libraries!) about 20 years ago when my grandmother gave me a copy of the inside pages of a family bible - with all the names, birth dates, death dates, etc starting with her g-grandparents. I had been the only one of her grandchildren who ever had any interest in all the old photographs (duh!) and so she felt I was the one who would most appreciate this information. She was right!

I've done both my family and my husband's family - back to when they came to the US (between early 1600s and early 1800s) and some families I have traced back to Europe.

It's addicting!!!

Just a note - it's easy to get carried away by all the information that is available on the internet. But be careful. Not all of it is reliable. I have found lots of erroneous information on my family - including one site that had ME dying on my wedding date!!! :confused:

So - when you find new info, look for ways to verify it (birth/marriage/death records, obituaries, census records, military records, wills, land records, etc).

[ColleenSwerb]

I'm totally addicted Paula! It's too late. I want to do Jordan's family once we're done with both sides of mine, lol. I think it would be an amazing gift for our children to know so much about where they came from.

We were REALLY hoping that my father's family bible would have more information about his father's family, but it didn't. SO sad about that. His father never talked about Ireland OR his family, so we're having a bit of a rough time putting things together from over there. But it's still fun and fascinating :)

Cielle, yes, I'm 100% looking for ways to verify information. There are several trees out there connected to mine that have lots of erroneous information in them. But, they also give me good jumping off points for things I would have otherwise had NO clue about. Such as one tree lists one of my great-grandfathers sisters as getting married in 1910, including her husband's name. We have census information from 1901 that she's on, and 1911 that she isn't on, so that year makes sense. Of course I'm having a bear of a time finding any sort of reliable marriage record for Ireland in the 1800's to try and verify that, lol. But still, it's a starting point, you know?

Paula, do you have any tips for me? Any places I should be looking for information other than Ancestry.com? We're using familysearch.org to find some stuff, but I'm wary of it as it's only transcribed information with no ability to look at actual forms myself. The Irish records are proving a bit spotty, in general, so I'd love another way to verify things if there are any.

[FeeJardine]

I'm another who is doing the family tree and for a time there was TOTALLY hooked :) I'm about to take the kids off to school so I'll be back in a bit but just wanted to find out where you were researching.

I have Scottish, English and Irish ancestry so I might be able to help you with a couple of sites.

If you have Scottish ancestry there are a lot of records available on line...such as copies of certificates etc which is amazing.



The Irish records are proving a bit spotty, in general, so I'd love another way to verify things if there are any.

And yep feel your pain here too...probably why I have focused on the scottish side as much as I have :)

Anyhoo I'll be back later...Easter Bonnet parade today :)

Fee :)

[ColleenSwerb]

Oh that's great Fee!! My paternal grandfather's side is mostly Irish with some English mixed in. So far anyway. My great-grandfather on that side raised his family in Killeshandra in Co Cavan, Ireland.
My maternal grandfather's side is definitely Scottish. That's the MacKenzie.
My maternal grandmother's side definitely has some French. Her maiden name was Lespinasse (spelling might be wrong there, lol).

The Irish is proving to be the most difficult, but we haven't looked into any of my maternal side yet. My sister has been researching my paternal grandmother's side (which is where the civil war soldier is).
My paternal grandfather died in 2005 and spoke very very little of his family. We know he had 2 sisters, and eventually they came over here as well, but originally only he came over with his parents in 1927. Supposedly his older sister went back to Ireland to run the family general store, but we don't really have a way of verifying that. We also have no idea what happened to his younger sister once she was over here. We have a naturalization record for his father, but not his mother.
We've gotten back as far as my paternal great-great-grandfather (Thomas Brady). He was born in Co Leitrim and raised his family in Killeshandra, Ireland (County Cavan). His wife was born and raised in Liverpool, England. I'm 90% sure I found evidence of their marriage in Liverpool in 1874, but ancestry doesn't have the image record online (only the "index" of it) and right now I'm not spending $40 to have them send me a copy, lol. They had 14 kids (only 7 of whom survived past the age of 4 or so), and I'm working on figuring out more on all of them at the moment. I have a name for my great (x3) grandfather (Owen Brady) and his wife (Anne Morrow), but that's mostly suspect and from other trees on ancestry.

Anyway. I'm mostly using ancestry.com to find information. Familysearch.org has proven useful in getting some dates or a few things for the Irish side (they have a births/marriages/death database for 1620-1881 that ancestry doesn't seem to have - but it's mostly useful for births or deaths, the marriages don't have a spouse's name/maiden name). Those are really the only 2 we're using right now. That, and googling random things, lol.

[ColleenSwerb]

Oh and this site was very helpful. We found our family census for both 1901 and 1911 and it helped narrow down birth years and stuff. Very interesting, it's for all of Ireland for those 2 years.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/

[my2monkeys]

I just love watching the NBC show - Who Do You Think You Are? It inspired me last year to check it out. I'm still pretty sketchy on my father's side of the family, but on my mom's father's side, we can trace both sides pretty far back... I did find it interesting that I currently live where one family first put down roots when they came to America before the Revolutionary War.

My husband's family can trace their family roots back to the first ones that came to America. It's a big list which gives me a headache to look at.

Something I did find interesting, for a time in the 1800's his family lived in the same county as my mother's family in KY before moving onto IN. I love rubbing it in that he is just as hillbilly as I am :)

[aggiefamily]

This is something I want to do soon. I can trace (thanks to my grandparents) most of my paternal side. I definitely can trace my paternal grandfather's french family. My grandparent's ranch is just a few miles from where the Bonnot family landed in Indianola, Texas. My grandparent's house (built in 1861) is a historical marker and they have a plaque on the house. The history of the house is really neat. I need to get my grandma to dictate to me for a layout.

My paternal grandmother's family is Irish. I also have some documents with the ancestry but it is not extensive.

My mom's family is not as clear. I need to do a lot of research on that side.

I don't even know where to start with my husband's family! There are many Heimann's and some even change the spelling or drop and n. They are also Czech Catholic which usually means big families. Billy's grandma is the oldest of 13.

[littlekiwi]

my grandmother is in to that big time which was a great help when it came to doing a family tree for an assignment last month

[ColleenSwerb]

I have 3 different spellings of my great-great-grandmothers maiden name right now Amanda, lol. Davitt, Devitt, and Devilt (which the L was just a mis-transcribing of the T I think).

I KNOW I'm gonna run into that problem when I start doing Jordan's side of the family too.

[NeverendingJen]

yeah, we have that problem with my married name.

My inlaws gave us the most awesome christmas present in 2009. Every grandchild got a complete family history book- copies of photos from their branch of the family, and completely geneaology trees as far back as they had them at the time. my mother-in-law and two of my great aunts-in-law are slowly adding even more info on ancestry as they get it. The photos they have found are so amazing. We've got two binders now for DH's family and i am trying to convince my family to do them as well.

[ColleenSwerb]

Omg that's awesome Jen!!
I don't know that I'll ever have photos to connect to people, which is SO sad to me.

[jessica31876]

My mom years ago paid for ours to be researched and went back to the early 1800's. My sister did it about 10 or so years ago herself. I dont have the info but my husbands family originated from Germany. His last name is Knorr. My family came from England, Germany, Ireland and Scotland. Although my mom was adopted by her mom's husband and did not discover this until she was an adult and my grandmother had already passed away so we only know who her mom is not her dad.

[mariewilcox]

I personally haven't done it but a cousin of mine researched my father's (and his father's) side of the family. He went all the way back to the early 1600s where they started in England and traced all the way up through the births of our generation (early 1960s). He had the whole thing bound into a hardcover book for anyone in the family that wanted one. It is really interesting to read through and from time to time I read through it again.

Now, my mom's side is a different story. She's been able to trace her maternal side back a bit, especially the English side (her mother's mother) but her father and his family (parents, brothers, sisters) were German Jews during WWII (in Germany). He was the only one to get out of Germany. He was the youngest (about 20 I think) and managed to escape Germany on foot and traveled into Switzerland. Then he made his way to the US via Ellis Island. The rest of his family perished in the concentration camps/gas chambers. Needless to say there have been no records to date to trace his family - many many official records of Jews were destroyed during the war.

I have always loved hearing about our family's histories and I could see myself easily getting hooked on researching - thankfully I don't have the time right now! LOL

[kscwgirl]

my mom does ours.. she loves it. I think it's very interesting and i love looking at the stuff but i don't have the patience to do it myself.

[pewtertm]

Oh goodness I was addicted to working on my family tree for several years...and then I found digiscrapping. I'd LOVE to go back to the Texas State Library in Austin...mom and I had found the land grant that her family received back in the Republic days...and in one of my moves I lost that information.

I am able to get my some of my maternal grandfather's side back to the 1500s in Devonshire; one other branch back to the 1400s in what is now Austria. I was blessed to have several relatives who had already done a LOT of work (with the paperwork YAY). One put some of his findings into a book, and then I again found that same family line in another book.

Another of my maternal grandfather's lines are native American, and we lose the paper trail pretty quickly...oh well.

And then there's my dad's side of the family...can't get past my grandparents there. They were both orphaned as children in Louisiana, and the courthouses where their records would be were destroyed in a fire.

[Paula]

Sorry I'm late replying Col, went to get my hair done. LOL

Paula, do you have any tips for me?
I would steer clear of familysearch.org. I have found a lot of conflicting information there. Ancestry is awesome because on most of it, you can see the actual records, which I like because I'm a hard copy person and like to make copies of everything I find.

I also love the little leaves that pop up when you have a hit. Don't take anyone else's family tree as word, use it as a guideline, but try and prove the information for your own benefit.

My biggest tip for you would be to keep a research log of what you've researched. That way you won't do backtracking. I have seen so many people who didn't do this, and they had researched the same people multiple times.

I wish you all the best! It is totally addicting.

[grcxx3]

Sorry I'm late replying Col, went to get my hair done. LOL


I would steer clear of familysearch.org. I have found a lot of conflicting information there. Ancestry is awesome because on most of it, you can see the actual records, which I like because I'm a hard copy person and like to make copies of everything I find.

I also love the little leaves that pop up when you have a hit. Don't take anyone else's family tree as word, use it as a guideline, but try and prove the information for your own benefit.

My biggest tip for you would be to keep a research log of what you've researched. That way you won't do backtracking. I have seen so many people who didn't do this, and they had researched the same people multiple times.

I wish you all the best! It is totally addicting.

Ditto #1 - The LDS site (familysearch.org) is a good place to start if you have no other information. But otherwise - very iffy. I have heard that they are being more particular about making sure information is correct, but there is still LOTS of bad info out there.

Ditto #2 - Watch out for those family trees. That's where I found the "fact" that I was no longer living!!!:rolleyes:

I also like to keep hard copies (or digital copies) of information I have gathered. And I keep a record of all the people who have been kind enough to send me info/photos etc. Most of the people I have "met" doing genealogy reserach have been great. A few have been incredibly stingy with info - but most are willing to share.

[FeeJardine]

Back again...:)

Before I forget...this is the Scottish site that i have used to buy digital copies of certificates etc. You basically pay a fee...7GBP and you get 30 credits to view certificates and print off if you want :)

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

The info varies a lot between the different types of records...some have a lot and others not much at all. One thing I like with these records is that sometimes seemingly trivial information will lead you to finding out more info...like an address...which leads to you checking a census...which lists children...and their parents who were living with them...it goes on. Don't discount any little bits of info...they help pad the story out and help verify the facts you already have :)

Other things I look at are (forgive me if you guys have already mentioned these...I've just skimmed over the posts before I head back out again ):

Shipping manifests...a lot of those are online and will provide names, ages, family members, point of departure, arrival etc.

Newspapers...in the State/National Archives. There are some old newspapers online...here in Australia they go back to around 1840 and are accessible online. I have found family members who were merchants, mariners because their comings and goings have been mentioned in the papers. If someone goes bankrupt you'll find lots of stuff :)

There are also Business directories and other directories (sort of like phone books) that list peoples addresses and occupations in a particular area.

Hospital records...some old records such as patient admissions are available online. Gotta love google for finding these sorts of records.

If they were in the military/police you can research a lot of stuff on that.

And if they were convicts or criminals...you can go down that road too. There are lots of convict transportation records online and also sites like this:
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
which have court proceedings in London.

School records...find out where they went to school if they did...can find siblings...parents contributions etc

Cemetary records...you don't have to actually go there...there are a lot of the old cemetaries that have online headstone transcripts and sometimes photos.

When I'm doing work on a particular family...I will gather all this information and see what fits together...how many things can be verified by several references. And sometimes...no matter how hard you try...some things just don't make sense...guess that's part of the challenge and fun of genealogy :)

One thing that helps me is to think of it in story form. So a family came to Australia...how (look up shipping)...why would they have done so (looking for gold as mentioned in the shipping)...where did they go (goldfields)...where did they live (look up census), etc Each time you try and pad out the story you will find all sorts of things and avenues of research.

For example...I found that a couple came to Australia in 1848 after getting married prior to departure. They had their baby during the 3 month voyage. I'm not good at maths but that couple were up to something before they were married (I didn't think they did that stuff back then lol)...did they leave the country because of that? Who knows but it certainly makes the story interesting :) Sometimes when you get your head stuck in dates you don't really take notice of the bits in between but when you start telling the story, stuff appears :)

Oh and another neat thing...the Scottish sometimes used a pattern in naming their children. See here:
http://www.halmyre.abel.co.uk/Family/naming.htm
You can't always go by this...but for most part my family has used this pattern to name their children. Doesn't always work but it can be used as a guide.

Also I don't worry too much about spelling of names...for example I have Keddie's in my family who have also gone by Keadie, Keddy, Kiddie and Kiddy. All the same people but due to thick accents, people being illiterate...well things just got mucked up. Plus some of these towns back in the early 1800's had only 300 people...so the chances of having four families, with the same family members, same occupations etc is virtually none existent.

Anyhoo...apparently I like to ramble...but I do love doing this stuff :)

Have fun...

Fee :)

[ColleenSwerb]

No worries at all Paula! I was down the ancestry rabbit hole anyway ;)

I totally understand. I've been using familysearch only as a starting point, and then verifying anything I find over there (or if I can't verify it, at least making a note that it's not 100% sure). I'm much more like you and need to be able to see that hard copy (or the digital copy of it anyway, lol) with my own eyes.

I also love those little ancestry leaves! Lol! I followed 2 yesterday that lead to the revelation that my great-grandfather Patrick Joseph Brady was in America in 1910 (US census - he was living in Philly). He's on both the 1901 Ireland Census, and the 1911 Ireland Census, living with his parents. But in 1911 he was 28, and it was WEIRD for him to still be at home at that age and not married, you know? So the 1910 census lead to discovering his passage here in 1902, 25 years before we ever thought he made the trip! The ancestry image was a bit tough to read but my sister found the same thing over on the Ellis Island website and we figured out that his passage was paid for by his sister, who was already living over here. We couldn't figure out why, when he came over in 1927 with his wife and my grandfather, they went to Philly. My grandfather only ever spoke of growing up in NYC. The ships manifest for 1902 says "sister was" and gives an address in NYC under the "why are you coming over/who are you going to see" column. So I think that his sister was here with her husband/family, and perhaps THEY moved to Philly for whatever reason. So then he was here and working, maybe trying to make money for the family at home, maybe trying to make a living here on his own, who knows. Then sometime between April 1910 (Us Census) and April 1911 (Irish Census) he moves back to Ireland. Family emergency perhaps? IDK. We are reasonably certain that he got married in Ireland in 1913, and then started a family which is probably why it took him so long to come back to America. Then when he DID, in 1927, they went to Philly because maybe he still had connections there, or maybe his sister still lived there, etc. Then between 1930 and 1934 they moved to NYC, which is where my grandfather remembered growing up. (We found his 1934 petition for naturalization, which was SO cool!!) It helped make his story make more sense, all from 2 tiny little leaves :) Now I'm trying to find a way to figure out WHAT sister was over here. His 2 older sisters are presumed to have died at a young age, but he had a sister only a year or so younger than he was, so it's possible she was a newlywed who came over with her husband.
Ha, you probably didn't need to read all that, LOL! I was just VERY excited by that find yesterday :)

The 1901 and 1911 Irish census' were SUPER helpful in verifying things. There are 2 trees connected to ours right now involving my great grandparents and their 14 kids. Neither have a lot of SOLID information with sources, but between the 2 of them and the census', we were able to pull together all the kids names, and at least get rough birth years. I figure if 2 trees that are clearly based on word of mouth, and then 2 census' all have things that are at least close, then I'm ok to take that as pretty solid. You know? I'm definitely just using other trees as guidelines and jumping off points. I've ignored a LOT of potential links so far and I've only been at it a few days, lol. Like I said, I very much prefer to see solid sources that can be verified.

Fee, I found an Irish site like that last night, with the credits and then being able to see the records. I need to look into it more to see if it'll be worth it for us, but good to know that you've used something similar with success. The Scottish site will be helpful for when we go and do my mom's side of the family. :)

I checked out the Ireland national archives last night and found a reference to a Kathleen doing business under "Thomas Brady and Sons". Kathleen was my grandfather's sisters name, and my Great-Great Grandfather was Thomas Brady. Supposedly Kathleen came here to live in 1927, but then went back to Ireland to run the family general store (which would have been my Grandfather's "right" to go do, but he didn't want to do it so he let Kathleen take over. Again, spotty word of mouth sort of information, but a little clue too. So I'm digging into Thomas Brady & Sons (he had 3 sons, so it would make sense that it might be our family business). I'm also trying to see if I can link this Kathleen to our family in any way, since now I have a married name to search for.

I started out with a fresh clean notebook to keep record of everything, but I've already torn out pages and made a mess of things, so I think I'm going to switch to a binder, lol. Easier to add/remove pages and such later on. I've got a word file and an excel file going as well, which is much easier to keep neat, LOL!

Thanks so much guys!! I'm having SO much fun with this (as I'm sure you can tell, lol!).

[KateD]

My biggest tip for you would be to keep a research log of what you've researched. That way you won't do backtracking. I have seen so many people who didn't do this, and they had researched the same people multiple times.

I started keeping a log after losing track of what I had done. It's been several years since I've done any research, but I know where I can pick back up since I kept the log. :)

[Paula]

Oh yea, binders are THE way to go. I put all my information in binders.

Just in case you're interested, I have binders for the research and binders for the pedigree charts.

In my research binder, I have it set up like this:
Big tab with the surname on it and then behind that, I have all the family group sheets.

Then I have smaller tabs that say sources and photos.

Behind the sources tab, I have all my research logs and then the copies of the documents that I've found.

Behind the photos tab, I have printed copies (not the originals) of any photos that I may have of that particular family.

It has really helped me to be able to conduct a more concise research because I'm not backtracking and I know what I have and I can prove what I have on my pedigree chart. =)

[ColleenSwerb]

That's awesome Paula, I like that set up. Thanks for sharing :)

Also? Your hair looks wonderful :)

[Stacey42]

My great aunt did a very thorough job on my maternal grandmothers side back in the early 80's. Got back to 1767 when my can't recall the number greats grandfather (on the maternal side) came over from Bavaria. It helped that he moved into the Ohio Valley where most of the famioly remained until my generation began moving away.

I traced my maternal grandfather's family back to Ireland (potato famine time) but no further because there are no records that I could find

My father's side of the family disowned his dad's dad for embezzling (or some other business theft) & I can get no further back than him. On my paternal grandma's side though I've got a bunch of stuff - great story people on that side - moonshiners, bootleggers,a riverboat gambler's woman (who was probably a prostitute for awhile), an Indian trader who married a native, my great grandma who had 6 husbands, 2 of whom killed themselves & she had to be locked up in a mental home when she tried to kill my dad with a knife when he was 11. She was suffering from diabetic dementia & there was no treatment then.

That branch of the family was fun to find

[junebug]

its really interesting isnt it? i have purchased any membership on ancestry yet but i'd love to. i've messed around a little bit on there though. my mom told me once on her side there are ancestors from Australia, but i haven't found proof yet. one of these days i'll have to go all out and pay the fee to really dig deep. its fascinating!

[tuneskids]

I have played around on ancestry.ca, but since I haven't paid yet, I am very limited in what I can find. I know names going back 3 generations on both sides of my family, and also my husband's (even though he is adopted, we are tracing his adoptive family roots, he has no desire to know anything about his birth parents).

I do luck out on my Dad's father's ancestry ... we have an actual family tree, although my brother has yet to get me a copy. He and I were the last ones added to it, so he really wants to expand it, at least on our branches (we have two more sisters, a cousin, and of course, I have my kids to add). Once I get a copy, I want to trace the rest of the branches to current relations.

[suze]

yeah I love to do it, but I'm not that into it lol

My mom has done her side way way way back, and shes going on my dads side. I think shes doing something for Emma. We are hoping to ask around for someone who has done Josh's side.

[ColleenSwerb]

That branch of the family was fun to find

That made me giggle Stacey! LOL!

I just think it's amazing the technology that we have today, that we are able to do stuff like this. I LOVE finding out more about where I came from. :)

[junebug]

ok i've signed up for a 14 day free trial lol. i have found a ton of my moms side, and i'm going to call her later when she gets home from work to double check some. as for my dads side i dont know any further than my grandparents. i called him and he doesn't know much; said to talk to my aunt Marcia, that she knows a lot more. but its still fun.

i found out one of my mom's dad's brothers enlisted in 1944 and then died in 1945 somewhere in germany during the war. he was only 19. how sad :( i didnt even know about that brother. i only knew of the other 2.

and so far, everyone i have found is still in Indiana, maybe Kentucky lol. i havent gotten far enough back yet to find immigration info yet.

[pewtertm]

That branch of the family was fun to find

Yep, those are the things that make it! Names are dates are fine...but they don't tell you anything about who the people really were. I love the old stories (the good and the bad).

And I'll admit when I was pregnant and we were looking at baby names, I kept being drawn to some older family names, but DH was having none of it. LOL

[ColleenSwerb]

And I'll admit when I was pregnant and we were looking at baby names, I kept being drawn to some older family names, but DH was having none of it. LOL

One of the 14 kids we found was a Winifred Josephine, and my sister is now obsessed with the name Winifred, lol.

I'm partial to Josephine, or Catherine right now myself, LOL! Jordan wants to name all our kids J's (he and his siblings are all J's). I fought it, but I might consider it if Josephine gets considered, lol.

[junebug]

my second cousin saw all the stuff i have been posting on facebook and she has some info on our family and is going to mail it to me. she has it starting in Wales in 1430 with a William Gunter and going to England from there! wow! i cant wait to get it lol.

[ColleenSwerb]

That's exciting Corey!

[Paula]

Also? Your hair looks wonderful :)

Thanks Col! I love how it turned out.

[Stacey42]

And I'll admit when I was pregnant and we were looking at baby names, I kept being drawn to some older family names, but DH was having none of it. LOL

My oldest is named after people way back in DH's family tree. His middle name is Llewellyn, which was a last name in their family for 5 generations before becoming the first name of the oldest male child for several generations including FILs older brother.

Like my MIL though, I refused to have a son who would be called Lou or Louie so it became his second name. :)

[grcxx3]

Yep, those are the things that make it! Names are dates are fine...but they don't tell you anything about who the people really were. I love the old stories (the good and the bad).

And I'll admit when I was pregnant and we were looking at baby names, I kept being drawn to some older family names, but DH was having none of it. LOL

We were also drawn to the older/family names. DH and I had decided that 1 name would be from his side, and 1 from mine. As it turns out, both boys are named after g-g-g-grandfathers. And their other names are names commonly used in our families.

Now, I'll be honest. We had to go back several generations to find decent names. Geez......I just couldn't saddle a kid with the names of our fathers and grandfathers! YUCK! And the women's names were even worse!

SOOOO glad I had 2 boys!!!!

[grcxx3]

My oldest is named after people way back in DH's family tree. His middle name is Llewellyn, which was a last name in their family for 5 generations before becoming the first name of the oldest male child for several generations including FILs older brother.

Like my MIL though, I refused to have a son who would be called Lou or Louie so it became his second name. :)


I went to school in New Orleans with a girl whose last name was Llewellyn. I think she had a brother, but he was a bit older.

Interesting, as I always thought it was an unusual name.

[Jengerbread88]

Is it expensive? I wouldn't mind doing a personal history for Zach before he's born, at least on my side of the family, if nothing else.

I have a few problems. First, do I do Zach's biological history or the history I claim? (I'm half adopted, and have no contact with my birth father's side of things).... so... would I do my mom and my dad, or my mom and my birth father, or my mom, my dad, and my birth father? Or... my brain gets all muddled.

My family has ties to John Brown (the abolitionist) and I'd love to get it documented. The one document we had about it is hand written on un-numbered paper, and scattered in two different photo boxes, out of order. I'd rather just research it myself.

Also my dad (adoptive dad) had our history traced back all the way to before we came here, to Belarus, including the boat we came on and what year. I asked for copies of the family history, but my uncle who had it died before I could get it from him, and no one else has helped me get a copy...

I just want to know if it's expensive, and if so, if it's worth it.

[Paula]

Jennifer, you can research any line you want. Most adoptive kids, whether fully or half, research both their biological and adoptive lines. If you're not interested in your biological line, go with the adoptive.

My ancestry.com subscription costs me $29.95 a month, but I have the USA and Europe subscription. I believe you can get a 14 day free trial as well.