Genealogy Research

[Lisa]

Hope, that is amazing. She is going to be so surprised when you give her the info.

I did a little researching this week and found, my maternal grandfather's grandparents names and township in Ireland this week. It's always good to review the paperwork you have and do a little research here and there. Sometimes you find new info that wasn't posted previously.

 

[piratesmate]

I was shocked to find newspaper records too. But it's so funny, reading this stuff. Apparently, this community was quite the gossip capital. There is a gossip column, and all sorts of stuff like "so and so is in town visiting so and so" or "Mr & Mrs are visiting from nearby city to attend the fair."

I love reading the old newspapers! And they all seem to be like that - the gossip, I mean. Even the Philadelphia papers at the turn of the century had columns of "Doings" - who's here visiting, who attended what party, etc. It's especially fun reading the ones for the small towns around here, as I'm related to almost everyone in town! While I was looking for some info on the cause of death for my great-grandfather - my grandmother remembered the men going hunting; they carried him home and he died shortly after, so I wondered if maybe it was a hunting accident. My grandmother was only 4 or 5 when this happened so she didn't remember too many details. Anyway, there was nothing in that week's paper but there were stories about his uncle visiting from Atlantic City & about his cousin's buggy being wrecked when someone who was intoxicated drove another horse & buggy around the corner too fast & crashed right into it while it was tied up at the street. LOL That story really cracked me up & drew an interesting picture of life in our town at the time.

Something else you might want to remember...if your email has changed since you began your research (like when you switched from dial-up to DSL ) you might want to go back to check message boards you posted on. Just last night I found that someone had posted an answer back in Sept to something I'd written in 2002, but I was never notified because I'm not using that email. It was just dumb luck that I found it.

 

[hopemax]

Went to Grammy's for Christmas Eve. I was barely in the house when she handed me an envelope of pictures, and was in the back room pulling out a photo album. So I pulled out my binder of census forms and newspaper excerpts. She was very excited to find out what I had found.

We went through the album, although it wasn't the one she thought it was. There were still some of her grandparents, and I found out she has 2 pictures of her birth Mom and one small one of her birth Dad, and one of her paternal grandmother. I had brought an archival pen to write down names, but she was going through things so fast, and other people started coming, so I left my pen with her, for when she has time, to mark the back of the photos.

I wished I had more time to be able to go through everything. She also showed me a birthday records book she had bought for her Mom, that had a spot for every day. There were lots of relatives in there, that she had forgotten about when we were in Tahoe. And some of the records had birth years and death dates. So I have lots more stuff to stick into ancestry and see what pops out.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Congrats on the great find Hope!!! That is just great!!!!

 

[lovingthemouse]

Sorry - I didn't read through all the pages on this thread, so I am not sure if any of my information has already been mentioned. I found some great things, first at the cemetary where my grandparents are buried, then on to the local Ct Valley Historical Museum in Springfield, MA, where they have so much information right there, and more access online; then on to the EllisIsland.org site. My grandfather came over from Ireland in 1893, and I found his passage information on the ship's manifest. I did join Ancestry.com for a few months, but it can be costly.
So exciting to find all this info, I have put together a large scrapbook fo my parents and all of the info I have found over the past few years. My mother is now 97, my dad passed away in 1994 at 85, but I feel their lives will always be an integral part of me and my siblings and my children.

 

[Lisa]

I received an email from Ancestry today. They are offering a 25% discount off their membership.

 

[Lisa]

Today I went to my local Family History Center to look at four films I ordered from SLC. I was successful with all four!!!

I got six great great grandparents names on my paternal side of the father. I was so excited. I quickly updated my tree and am looking forward to doing more research.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Yeah!!! I was wondering how it went..
I'm working on some stuff but get so set off because of not spelling the names right! Good gravy.. I know! I know.. you spell it how it sounded or what you heard..but damn.. how do you spell AMERICUS LEWIS wrong?

 

[Lisa]

Oh, let's not get into how to spell names. OY! I have encountered that myself, and now skirting into various German spellings. I so don't want to start looking into certificates in German. My German isn't that good!

 

[piratesmate]

Does anyone have access to Ancestry's census records at the moment...and might have time to do me a favor?

I need help isolating which of several is the correct family & need 1930 to do that. HeritageQuest doesn't have that yet. And in 1920 there are 2 husband/wife combinations that it could be but only 1 shows up in HQ.

Anyway, I'm frustrated & would really appreciate some help with this. Please PM me if you can help & I'll give you the info.

Thanks in advance!

 

[hopemax]

I have access. What do you need?

 

[piratesmate]

Thanks Hope!

I need the 1930 for Raymond S Kriebel - his wife was Katie V. (Long story but they were Schwenkfelders and it seems there are only about a dozen surnames & the kept using the same first names too. LOL) So there is another Raymond & Katie about the same age in Montgomery County PA.

I need the one who maybe had these sons by 1930: Leroy, Williard & Merle. The only one I'm sure about is Williard & he would be about 5. Then if you can ID the right couple, I'd love to have the matching 1920 & maybe 1910 as well. It's possible they would be in one of the following townships: Hatfield, Towamencin or Worcester.

 

[tinkryansmom]

Just re-upped my ancestry.com membership also so I can help out if anyone needs. Not doing too much of my own research.

 

[MinnieAnn]

I'm so glad Lisa let me know that there was a genealogy thread. Thanks, also for the information about the conference in MA. I'd like to learn about getting the information online.

I'll enjoy reading this whole thread and learning about the research you all are doing.

I got interested in genealogy when I inherited the trunks of information my DAR-member mother had accumulated. It's such a shame that she passed away before internet research (and heritage scrapbooking) were so accessible. She was a very talented artist and would have loved combining those interests.

Anyway.. I haven't had time to get as involved with research as I'd like, but I've had a couple really fun discoveries. I've always known that most of my maternal grandmother's family is buried in a small cemetery in Arkansas. We decorated those graves every Memorial Day and Christmas since I was little.

One day I was walking through the "Buchanan" area of the cemetery writing down all the people I wanted to try to sort out later - and I "found" my great-great grandparents, W.H. and Sarah Thomas. I knew my great grandmother's maiden name was Thomas and I had seen her parents' names listed on a family tree I downloaded from familysearch.org but hadn't been able to confirm anything about them. I still need to track down documents to back it up, but the fact that they are buried within a few steps of the Buchanans is a strong indication that it's them.

Ann

 

[PrincessNancy96]

I forgot to tell you all... I put a post out on my DH's side of the family @ ancestry... I found some extended family... They are DH's great-grandma's half sisters children (from great-great grandpa's 3rd marriage)... I need to contact her w/ the info I have..and she is going to share w/ us the info she had.. She did enlight me on why the 2nd marriage didn't last long... I'm glad Great-Great Grandpa was wise enough to send her off when he found out how mean he was to his young daughter...

I need to figure out the DAR (isn't there son's too?) stuff because we also found a relative who said he would help DH file all his paper work.. I need to contact him again and get the list of papers we need to move forward...

 

[tinkryansmom]

Nan

My mom was able to prove DAR for my Grandmothers side just this summer! She worked with a local DAR chapter. Maybe you have one near you? And yes there is SAR as well.

Good luck!

 

[Lisa]

Nanc, MomK should be able to help you with that too, she is very knowledgable about DAR. DD qualifies but I won't be going thru the process.

I promised MinnieAnn that I would post the info on the New England Genealogy conference being held in March, and I will as soon as it is finalyzed. Even if you don't live in the area, I recommend signing up for it, a) it's free, and b) you will have access to all the material presented in the sessions. It is a great conference. Definitely worth seeing if your area offers it.

 

[MinnieAnn]

I want to know more about the DAR admission process, too.

I did inquire about it a few years ago and apparently when my mother became a member, all she had to prove was her relationship to my grandmother, who was already a member. Now, I have been told that I have to submit the documentation going back to the qualifying ancestor and can't just show my birth certificate listing my mother's name.

My grandmother must have submitted her documentation to show her lineage to the revolutionary ancestor and it was accepted way back when, but the notes that I found in my mother's research aren't consistent with other research I've done.

It looks to me like they may have switched brothers in one generation. I'm sure they didn't and what my grandmother submitted was accurate, but if I want to join myself, I'm going to have to sort that out and find the documentation.

I remember when I was little and my mother was the regent of her DAR chapter, we had meetings at our house. I remember one speaker who talked about the history of different flags and mother had made paper piecings of the different flags. Those things would have been so much fun to scrapbook.

 

[joyah]

Lisa
Is this the one in 2011? we've just started working more on my moms side and she spent some time in the boson archives.

What info can you tell me/us about it? I can't find a website for the 11 one yet just the 09 one.

I got lucky with DH's side it's in books back to 1434 and a new book is in progress I'm hoping it will be published before the gentleman passes he just had his 80th.

 

[Lisa]

Christy, this conference is March 2010. It is held annually.