Finding Your Relatives Is Hard!

[Virgo10]

I'm just starting to look back into my family. Our local library offers Ancestry.com for free so I've been going down there about once a week to see what I can find.

On my father's side I've been able to find people back to around 1840, the year my great-grandmother was born. I haven't started on my mother's side yet.

It's challenging but fun. When you finally locate names and dates, it's really cool!

Anyone else ever do this and how far back did you go?

 

[Crankyshank]

I'm having a heck of a time locating my family. I've been doing both sides. As soon as I hit a wall, I switch over to another branch. Luckily I was able to find someone that did a ton of research on my Maternal Great - Grandmother's Mother's side. All the way to 1540.

I'm probably going to need to drive to Maine for some access to records. Just a head's up - if anyone here is of French Canadian or Italian descent, check your local Sons of Italy or Franco American center. They normally have all official records of immigrants and their descendants.

 

[juligrl]

Oh my goodness yes we have done this and love doing it, it's like a game anymore!

On my mom's side, one of my great aunts has been doing this practically forever and has our roots traced all the way back to pre-revolutionary war America.
Of all things the hardest to find information about has been my grandma's (still living) father. She was not raised with him and really didn't have a relationship with him so she's not much help on the matter. We know he was born on Christmas day and came to America from Scotland. Beyond that we don't really know.
It is always exciting though when we make a find!

 

[hlbtimes2]

Have you check with the Family Library at the Later Day Saint (Mormon) church? The have an awsome ancestory program. Its available to the public, not just church members.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

I've managed to get a bit...on my grandmother's side, since I grew up with her and she grew up with her grandparents (mother's parents), she knew quite a bit. I've gotten back to the mid-1800s Scotland there. With her father's side of the family, not quite as far - I know about his parents, so we're talking 1870s, but I'm not sure where they were from. My grandfather's father disappeared right after my grandfather was born, so we've lost that entire line, but I think I may have found him - I need to order the death certificate. But on Grandpa's mother's side - I've been able to get back to 1830s Germany.

Nothing on my father's side. We hadn't spoken since 1988 and my father has since died. All I know is that his mother was from England and his father's father was from Hungary.

But it's a lot of fun! I enjoy it, too.

 

[Jenn]

Unfortunately, I will never be able to do this. I kid you not, my mother's maiden name is Jones and my father's family is Smith. I don't think I could ever attempt to narrow that down.

 

[MzDiz]

My mother's cousin was just showing us his research the other night. He got their side of the family all the way back to 1616. He even put tombstones on the graves of a few of our relatives. Two of them being my great-great-great-great grandmother and her young son that died at the age of two.

 

[Chicago526]

I've always wanted to. Not sure how far I'll get. Dad's family came over from Germany when his mother was 12, so we already know the family roots in the US, I'd have to be able to search records in Germany.

My mom's father's family could be tough too, her grandfather was adopted off of one of those orphan trains from out east. They'd load up orphans from crowded orphanages in cities like New York and send the west to place that had lots of childless couples but no orphans to adopt. He got adopted into a family with 4 girls and no boys. We just learned this a few years ago, and we aren't sure if there were any adoption records kept, this would have been in the 1890's we think, and for all we know they just handed the kids to the new parents and that was that!

 

[RSoxFan]

I haven't been to lucky either. I just found someone who says he has lots of info on my great grandfather's ancestors, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I don't think I'll ever be able to trace my dad's side. Their name was changed at Ellis Island. We're the only ones in the country with this last name. I have no idea what the original last name was because, unfortunately, most of the family was lost at Auschwitz.

 

[Virgo10]

Unfortunately, I will never be able to do this. I kid you not, my mother's maiden name is Jones and my father's family is Smith. I don't think I could ever attempt to narrow that down.

Hey, my paternal great-grandfather's name was Smith. It was Americanized from the German Schmidt. Maybe we're related.

 

[agnes!]

Various family members & myself have my maternal grandfather's line traced back to (at least) Colonial America. One of my great great great great great grandfathers moved from Virginia to Pennsylvania, was an early settler in Western Pennsylvania & is considered a 'Patriot' by the DAR. I am still trying to find out some details about his life(where exactly they lived in Stafford County Virginia, where their children were born) & my ggggggrandmother's first family(three children by her first husband). Many Virginia counties suffered great losses of court/legal documents during the Civil War/War Between the States - Stafford was one of the hardest hit apparently.

On my maternal grandmother's side we have two Rev War veterans, plus one of my great great great great great grandmothers on that side crops up in folktales from Western Maryland/Southwestern Pennsylvania.

My paternal ancestors aren't as detailed in the research I know of, but there is some ancestry done back to the 1800/1700s. Supposedly we were caught stealing apples from a Welsh earls orchard & given a choice of prison or being deported to America.
We chose America. .

On my DH's side, my MIL was a member of DAR, so our DD could be a member at least four times over.

agnes!

 

[ElizK]

I find geneology absolutely fascinating! My great-aunt has one part of our family tree going clear back to the 900's (there are some French aristocrats... easy to track that part). But on my dad's side of the family nothing at all can be found out about my great-grandfather's family. It's as if he just appeared on the day he married my great-grandmother. The person doing the research suggested jokingly that he had to change his name after he stole some horses. (she was kidding...)

 

[Teejay32]

This is my paternal grandmother's hobby. She's traced our lineage to people in Nova Scotia and Ireland in the 1600s.

 

[pigletz]

I've been working on my family's history off and on for about ten years. I've gotten back to the 1620's in some cases. I agree that it's like a game. When I get stuck I just switch to another part of the family. One thing that I recently started doing was researching family members that aren't directly related to me like my g g g grandparent's brothers and sisters. I've found that sometimes I find information on their parents that wasn't there for other people. I had been searching forever for the maiden name of my g g g grandmother and finally found it on records for my g g grandfather's sister. My mom's side is proving very difficult though. She was adopted and had found her mother who wouldn't tell her who her father was. I can only get to my mom's grandparents.

 

[spazzyjazzy]

I don't think I'll ever be able to trace my dad's side. Their name was changed at Ellis Island. We're the only ones in the country with this last name. I have no idea what the original last name was because, unfortunately, most of the family was lost at Auschwitz.

I remember watching a show on HBO or one of the Encore channels where a lady contacted someone in Germany that had records of the people that were in Auschwitz. I believe that it was at the museum there. You may want to check around. I have learned that some last names were not changed to drastically when people entered into Ellis Island.

I would like to know about my ancestors. I have names on my mom's side back to my great grandfather and on my dad's side just to my grandfather and grandmother.
My mother-in-law was adopted and her parents had her records sealed but, she has been wanting to find her birth parents or information about them.

 

[Crankyshank]

One thing that I recently started doing was researching family members that aren't directly related to me like my g g g grandparent's brothers and sisters. I've found that sometimes I find information on their parents that wasn't there for other people. I had been searching forever for the maiden name of my g g g grandmother and finally found it on records for my g g grandfather's sister.

That's how I was able to trace my Maternal GG Grandmother to 1540. One of the descendants of her sister did the work and I just happened to plug in that name on ancestry.com and found the info. And there's a huge genealogy project attached to one of my ancestors (who was one of the founders of Acadia).

 

[LaurieG]

I also have taken this up as a hobby. I have been working at it on and off for the last few years. It is fustrating, It is fasinating and also addicting! I also get stuck somewhere and then move on to something else. I am just gettting started and have a LONG way to go. I did find a 3rd cousin that I never knew exisited and he had done alot of the research already so we are in the process of putting our "branches" together.
Part of my probelm is not being satisfied with names and dates and trying to dig up as many details as I can about them which I have found most of the time to be next to impossiable, sure does keep me busy though!

 

[goodeats]

My mom is a huge genealogy buff. She loves it. On one line she's gone back to the Mayflower.

I know she goes to local Latterday Church libraries because they have a lot of genalogy records (they go back in history to 'save' their relatives I think). Anyway, my mom is practically an atheist but they welcome her with open arms.

 

[olena]

LOL! I thought you were seeking long-lost, living relatives. The easy answer to finding them is to win a mega-lottery. They will find you!


I did a family search for a project in college. I ran into too many burned down courthouses, which really put a damper on things.