Family Tree???

[kaylajr]

Have you ever done yours??

any advice on where to start

DH would like to trace his but
there isn't much family left to help


any ideas???

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Have you ever done yours??

any advice on where to start

DH would like to trace his but
there isn't much family left to help


any ideas???

Kayla,

We are still working on ours.. DD start ours for a 4-H project and my mom, myself and my dd have worked many hours, days, weeks on it... We skipped exhibiting this year at the fair so we can get more info..
First have Dh write down all that he remembers.. than go to ancestry.com or rootsweb.com and type in the name of a family member (deceased) and that will help pull up names...than if he can verify which one is his.. you'll want to document as much as you can too.. We have found long-long lost cousins that we meet once when younger and now have exchanged emails with them because they live all over the country. We also meet through posting information at ancestry.com our 2nd cousins from one branch of our family. Come to find out they lived down the street from immediate family members of another branch of the family. I could go on for days.. PM if you have any other questions... I'd be happy to help where I can..

So far we have traced back 8+ generations...

 

[piratesmate]

I've worked on mine off & on for about 6 years now. I did use Ancestry.com a lot when I wasn't able to leave the house - but they are quite expensive!! The same people seem to run RootsWeb, which is free - they just don't have the same resources. The message boards though are great! You can often get help from others either researching the same names, or even get RAKs from people in the area. Don't forget to check out GenForums too: http://genforum.genealogy.com/my/

I used Ancestry to look up census records - they were really helpful also. It's tough when you're looking in a city, but most of my relatives lived out here on farms so that made it easier. You just have to remember that the dates & spelling of the names isn't always accurate. But it was helpful in finding correct families, their children, etc. In certain years immigration info was recorded and military service was noted as well as birth month & year, how long someone was married, etc. I guess what I'm saying is that the census records served as a starting point for other avenues of research, such as military records, deeds, wills, etc.

If you can get out, we've found that the county archives are very helpful! Ours has marriage certificates, wills & deeds right there. There are a few birth & death records from before the state required them in 1906.

The first thing to do, though, is to talk to any & all of your older relatives while you can. I've found that the best way to do it is to look through old photos with them...when you just ask questions the answer is usually "Oh I don't remember" or "I never knew". But when you have pictures as a reminder you'd be surprised at what comes out in general conversation! You might want to take a tape recorder along instead of trying to write down what you find out & taking notes seems to distract as well. Besides, it's great to have the sound of their voice for the future!

All the old stories I remember being told as a child have really helped in the serach as well. Not having those stories has made working on DH's lines rather difficult!

 

[lewdyan1]

Nice to see you Deb, it's been awhile!

 

[PrincessMommyof2]

I've been working on my family tree for about 7 years now. It's an off and on process, like piratesmate says. It is so fun to find someone and frustrating to come to a dead end. I love it, though. This year, ancestry dot com had a two weeks for free special, so my sister and I got a couple of new leads. I remember Martha Stewart had an article about it a few years back, with tips and how to display them. I bought the fan chart and love it.

 

[Queenie]

I tried the Ancestry free trial thing a few weeks ago, we got so much info out of it that mum paid for a year's membership so I could do more research. I'm back to the 1700's on my dad's line, very early 1800's on mum's side. Of course in the UK our records are totally different to yours I'd guess. It'd be fascinating to know if any of you guys had traced your families back to the UK. I'd be happy to give you info on the places if I know anything.

We did find some interesting people including a cotton mill owner who was richer than Bill Gates is now in his day (sadly none of that money has come my way!) Something kinda creepy came out too. My family comes from a town called Stockport and has been there for a few generations. In the last 100 years, only 3 of us have ever moved away from Stockport; me, my sister and my uncle. Turns out that even though we all moved to completely different places for different reasons, all three of us have moved within 5 miles of different villages where our family came from, up to hundreds of years ago!

 

[MissBubbles]

I have been doing my family tree off and on for a few years now. Some of my favorites are www.cyndislist.com - a great listing of websites and links; www.familysearch.org - operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Even if your family is not affilitated with the church, they have an extensive listing of family tree data.

Good luck!

 

[Quinn222]

I have done mine. The way to begin is as close to yourself as possible. Get the death, marriage and birth records of yourself and your parents. Using information on those documents then requests the same documents for your grandparents. Ask all family members for copies of any family documents that they might have, including and especially any bibles (births, deaths and weddings were often recorded in them.)
Interview the oldest members of your family ASAP. Do not wait! Ask them about growing up, where they lived, where they were born, what they remember about family members. Etc.
Follow the paper trail backwards and keep records of any mail requests for documents that you might have received. If you are Catholic, church records will be a great help to you. If you live near a Family History Library (Church of Latter Day Saints) that's a great place to go. They are super helpful and you do not have to be a member of the church.
If you find other family trees on the internet that seem to relate to yours only take this as a possible lead and not as fact! There is a ton of bad research out there. Follow everything up by getting the source material yourself.
If you know where family members are buried then cemetery visits and records can be a great help. I knew where one member of my family was buried, I had the deed. He was buried in 1832.
I knew from a bible who other members of his family were but not when they died or where. I called the cememtery to get his burial record and the man on the other end of the phone asked me if I wanted the records for the 'rest of hte people' too. I think I started to shake I was so excited! I asked him, "What other people?" and it turned out eight other people were buried in the same plot without headstones. Had I not called I would never have found this very helpful information, which confirmed for me that a person I had suspected was his wife, was, in fact, his wife. It gave me the link I need to take me back to the Mayflower.

 

[Queenie]

That's great! My mum just picked up the birth certificate for her maternal grandma today, that was very interesting. We knew that she had lived with people other than her parents from a very young age so we finally got the parent's names. Turns out the dad was dead when the birth was registered (about a month after the birth) and the mum couldn't write, we know this as she registered the birth and there was just a mark instead of a signature.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Hey Queenie,
We are from England on DH's side and mine. My great grandfather is from York and DH traced his family to Kent. If we can pair up 1 father and 1 child we will have dates going back to the 1500's. Apparently we are Cobbs but there were 2 families by the same name in Kent. Looks like they might have been Knights Templar, when they came here they became the Free Masons. I guess the castle they used to live in in Kent is still there. And they were friends with Chaucer. Very cool!

The one family that is ours came to the US and settled in Georgia and now have a whole county named after them.

We're trying to figure out how much it would cost to go to Europe form about a month next summer. We would go to Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium, and Denmark. I'll keep you posted!!

Kayla, Ancestry is the one I use and they are starting to include basic service records from all the wars. We just found my uncle who died in Europe during WWII and a great grandfather from the civil war. The biggest thing is patience especially when looking at census records. Between the handwriting and getting names wrong it can be challenging. Sometimes the family would give nicknames that wouldn't match the birth name and some would have 2-3 children with the same name especially if the first one died.

Good luck and let us know what you find!

 

[piratesmate]

Buffy's response about the difficulty of reading the census records reminded me of a tip someone gave me a long time ago. Take a piece of transparent plastic that is tinted yellow & place it over the image on your computer screen. You'd be surprised at the difference it can make when viewing images where the writing is too light or where the background is too dark (no contrast)! It really helped!

Oh - and I carried my piece with me when I'd go to the historical society & county archives too. Some of the microfilms can be pretty bad to read as well.