Geneology

[E&Cmom]

I have been intersted in looking up my ancestry and am trying to figure out to begin. I have not come up with much using just regular google. Has anyone used any of the sites like ancestry.com? Did you get good results. I have a very diverse background primarily on my Dad's side. Both my parents have now died and 3 out of 4 of my grandparents died before I was born.

I have been thinking of this for awhile and after watching " Who Do You Think You Are." I am curious again. Anyone here intersted in geneology?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I have been intersted in looking up my ancestry and am trying to figure out to begin. I have not come up with much using just regular google. Has anyone used any of the sites like ancestry.com? Did you get good results. I have a very diverse background primarily on my Dad's side. Both my parents have now died and 3 out of 4 of my grandparents died before I was born.

I have been thinking of this for awhile and after watching " Who Do You Think You Are." I am curious again. Anyone here intersted in geneology?

My mom got very heavily involved with our genealogy. I'd suggest getting in contact with all your relatives and asking them what they know. Then set up a file inputting all the info. Be aware some of that info will not "fit together". That's what you're looking to reconcile.

Ancestory.com is a good source for research. Also, if there's a Mormon temple close, you can contact them. They are very into maintaining genealogical files. Also searching vital records for places you know there were births, deaths, weddings will garner more information.

 

[Lynne M]

Ancestry.com is awesome. I've found a ton of information there, just yesterday I was looking at the passenger manifest of the ship my grandparents took from Italy to NY. I found my grandfather's father's first name, which I never knew.

I started with the AncestryDNA test, which was fascinating, and showed me a whole list of 5th cousins I never knew. I'm trying to figure out now just how I'm related to them.

To me, the biggest advantage of Ancestry is the huge number of people who have uploaded their family trees. I've been working on mine for a long time, and have been maintaining it in Reunion for Mac. I exported a GEDCOM file (standard genealogy software format) and uploaded it to Ancestry, and now it's helping me find relatives of mine who are also listed in other people's trees. Through those other trees, I've been able to fill in branches of the family that we were never able to until now, and take the family history back about 200 years farther than we were previously able to.

My mother's aunt was sort of the keeper of their family history, and she had kept very meticulous records on paper. It took me quite a while to get all that into Reunion, but it was well worth it.

 

[Geoff_M]

Ancestry is a great resource. If you have known relatives that were alive as late as 1940 you should be able to find lots of info. I have 3,600 people in my tree now. HOWEVER, I will also caution you that there's a lot of well intended but BAD information out in the family trees of other Ancestry members. It's sort of the "Wikipedia" of Genealogy sites. If you add information from the trees of others, make sure it's well sourced and that the connection is more than wishful thinking. In my family, there's one branch that I find butchered over and over again by people cut-n-pasting the wrong information in their Ancestry trees.

 

[Southernmiss]

Ancestry is great! Familysearch.org is also a good place to look. Often ancestry will have free weekends for certain records, usually close to a holiday. That can be a good way to try it out without paying for a membership.

I've been researching for the last 14 years. Have quite a bit, but still so much left to do.

Dh and I have also done the DNA test and it solidified some of the research I had done.

 

[Rhie]

I second the recommendations for Ancestry. Worth the money! If you find it too expensive for your budget, maybe split the cost with other relatives or friends. Ancestry allows multiple trees per account, so you can all build your own tree, and share a login and the cost.

I also suggest talking to relatives as well. And, head over to your local library and/or historical society. A lot of awesome stuff is online, but not everything is digitized. You can find some really awesome and random things in the archives of an actual building.

One thing I will say, double check all information. Try to get at least two sources for any fact. Sometimes people remember dates and names incorrectly. And, if you do use Ancestry, double check anything in someone else's tree against historical records. The strength of Ancestry is that it is essentially a wiki, where any person can add any thing. The weakness of Ancestry is that it is essentially, a wiki, where any person can add any thing. Its useful but definitely verify!

Good luck, and have fun!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I prefer familysearch.org over ancestry.com. Familysearch.org is free.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

I have been intersted in looking up my ancestry and am trying to figure out to begin. I have not come up with much using just regular google. Has anyone used any of the sites like ancestry.com? Did you get good results. I have a very diverse background primarily on my Dad's side. Both my parents have now died and 3 out of 4 of my grandparents died before I was born.

I have been thinking of this for awhile and after watching " Who Do You Think You Are." I am curious again. Anyone here intersted in geneology?

I like ancestry.com. I also use FamilySearch.org. The 2nd one is free, and I found quite a bit more info on there. I like to do indexing for them as a way to thank them for having it free.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Ancestry.com is great. I'd only caution you to be careful pulling from other people's sites without documentation. Early on I attended a class where the presenter said "Genealogy without documentation is mythology," and that's very true. Sometime people on Ancestry will glom onto somebody else's tree and assume that person has it correct, but they very well may not, especially if they don't have sources. For example, you can find 2 people with rather distinctive names from a particular area and assume they're the same person. That can lead you down some trails where it will be painful to backtrack.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Before you start using ancestry.com start by getting people to write down as much info as possible. People, especially the older generations have a huge amount of oral family histories, which they dont realise other family members dont know or are interested in.

My mum and my grandmother before that have been researching and compiling our family trees and genealogy for about 40 years, long before the internet.

As others have said, The Mormons have a huge wealth of genealogy information, so do Catholic Churches. You can also get copies of birth, marriage and death certs from registry offices. These have huge amounts of information. For example, we never knew the exact date orlocation of my dads parents marriage, but my mum got a copy of their marriage cert from the registry office and we eventually found out the date, church, and the witnesses, as well as information about where they were living when they got married.

You should also be able access census records. These tell stories long forgotten. On one census my mum found a child that had died but was never known about.

If any of your family came from Europe, you can trace their journey through Elis Island if they arrived when it was in operation. You can then get ships manifests and find where they boarded the ship and a whole lot of information.

Tracing your family is fascinating, best of luck

 

[mco65]

Beware, Geneology can be very addicting.

I have a paid subscription to Ancesty.com and find it invaluable. But I didn't start there. I started with my grandma, before she passed away.
Still there are sites that are free; familysearch.org is probably the best. Also local County Genweb sites can have tons of info if you know which county to look in. Also use findagrave.com. It's free and can offer up some great info.

One thing I have found that no one site can provide all I need but a healthy dose of all have been most beneficial.

 

[BadPinkTink]

just a thought, seeing as some of you are like my mum and doing alot of research, if anyone has Irish ancestors and needs help finding where to go for information, let me know.

We are in the opposite situation, we can get huge amounts of info about our Irish ancestors, but some of them went to America and thats where we get stuck and hit brick walls.

 

[Rhie]

Oh, and even if you do pay for Ancestry (which I recommend!) go to other sites as well. Ancestry has things that Family Search does not, and vice versa.

 

[MrsDuck]

I LOVE genealogy. It's one of my hobbies and it's ADDICTING!!

I have done Ancestry.com and 23&Me. Highly recommend both!

 

[tvguy]

DD. loves Ancestry.com but, at least on my father's side of the family, records just don't exist. Be prepared for surprises. DD had issues finding records that matched my Grandmother's birth year. Only when she checked boarding passenger lists in England for the Lusitania, against, the arriving passenger lists from the Lusitania arriving at Ellis Island 8 days later did she notice that my Grandmother was 10 years younger when she arrived in America than when she left England.
And my wife had a male relative in the 1870's who would move to a city, get married, have kids. then move alone 500 miles, and start all over again, without any record of a divorce.

 

[manning]

Got a library near you? Ours has Ancestry.com free to use at the library.

 

[lesliekatya]

just a thought, seeing as some of you are like my mum and doing alot of research, if anyone has Irish ancestors and needs help finding where to go for information, let me know.

We are in the opposite situation, we can get huge amounts of info about our Irish ancestors, but some of them went to America and that's where we get stuck and hit brick walls.

Me, me! I would love to be pointed in the right direction! My husband's family is Irish, but when we get to the relatives that came over, that's where we get stuck. I know the Catholic church should have records on them, but I always assumed I would have to go in person and rifle through old records.

My mom has traced her side of the family back to Eleanor of Aquitaine (hmmmm, not sure I'm buying that one, Mom), but my Dad is a dead end. Anyone with any tips on Peruvians, I'd like them too!

 

[BadPinkTink]

Me, me! I would love to be pointed in the right direction! My husband's family is Irish, but when we get to the relatives that came over, that's where we get stuck. I know the Catholic church should have records on them, but I always assumed I would have to go in person and rifle through old records.

Ok the most major thing to know about tracing Irish ancestors is that in 1921 the building that had the majority of Irish births, marriage and death certs was blown up and destroyed during our civil war.

All is not lost though, as this is your first place to start The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and their list of genealogy websites http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-websites/ You can request copies of births, marriage and death certs and they will post them to you

You can also search the 1901 and 1911 census and fragments of census from 1821 to 1851 here http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/

Another two good places are https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ and http://www.findmypast.ie/

If you get to a stage where you know an ancestor came from a specific Catholic parish and you have an approximate year of birth baptism or marriage you can write to the current Parish Priest and request a copy of their records for that person.

 

[lesliekatya]

Thank you so much BadPinkTink!

 

[E&Cmom]

Thanks for all the great info. My issues is that I don't have many relatives to ask. Both my parents are dead and my father's side was not close so even though I do know names I don't have lots of family contacts. I was the first of my family born in Canada as my parents i migrated here. I do know thr names of both sets of grandparents and such. My mom talked about her family more and I visted them growing up so that side is easier.