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the ancestry.com site

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by budcrew08, Nov 7, 2008.

  1. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Found out about 5 years ago I'm related to (the assassinated) Yitzhak Rabin on my mom's side.
     
  2. Dickens Cider

    Dickens Cider New Member

    Not sure how useful it would be for me. I know my mom's side of the family, but my paternal grandfather was adopted, so I'm likely SOL.
     
  3. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    If you know your dad's name and the state he was born, you can use do a search through that state's birth index (many of which are available on Ancestry) to find out your grandparents' names, and start digging from there.

    U.S. Census records are available from 1930, on back through the 19th century, and those can really fill in the gaps (they list addresses, occupations, names of kids, sometimes emigration years, etc.)

    My uncle traced my mom's side back to the 1600s, I think, which just blows my mind. But in a couple weeks on Ancestry.com, I had my dad's side back to about the 1870s, when they came across the pond. I don't have a global subscription -- and can't read German well anyway -- so I'll need some help tracing my family back earlier than that.
     
  4. Rough Mix

    Rough Mix Guest

    Both sites linked here are good. I've used both ancestry.com and familysearch.org quite a bit.

    Here are more genealogy links from the best site for research around:

    http://www.cyndislist.com/

    State records have been very helpful to me, such as immigration, naturalization, birth and death. My maternal great-grandfather had a number of newspaper obits written about him that were also very helpful. I found those through a paid request I put in with a state historical society.

    I took my mother's side back to the 1600s. My dad's side is harder because many records were destroyed in that part of the world. One thing I found on that side was the ship passenger list showing the address where my paternal grandmother was going to after she landed at Ellis Island. She came over as an indentured servant I guess you would call it. The address is for the family who paid her way over here in return for working for them as a housekeeper in their boarding house. She told me they treated her badly.

    It's important to keep in mind while doing this that what you think you know to be true may not be. My grandparents were immigrants and changed names several times. Dates of birth and death, places they were born, dates of marriages all may be different from what you may have been told. I wanted to trace my side back for my kids, so I just kept at it. Eventually I was able to put enough pieces of the puzzle together so I could cross reference everything and it fell into place.
     
  5. Bob Crotchet

    Bob Crotchet Member

    Well, this thread is timely: I need to find information on my great-grandmother, who supposedly was a member of the Choctaw tribe, but I've never done any genealogical research. I'd be happy to pay for someone to do this, if 1) it wasn't outrageously expensive and 2) I could be sure of a reliable researcher. Or I'd do it myself if the odds were with my finding it. So, how does one find a good genealogy researcher? Or figure the odds on finding it oneself? ... And my local library does indeed have an ancestry.com subscription.
     
  6. Rough Mix

    Rough Mix Guest

    A quick search of CindisList shows several pages of Choctaw and Native American links. There are also professionnal services linked. Give it a shot yourself. It can take time, but I find it educational and interesting.
     
  7. HandsomeHarley

    HandsomeHarley Well-Known Member

    I cheated. Found a relative online who did our entire family name.

    I would like to go back and do my mother's line and both maternal grandmothers' lines, but I would probably use the one at the library.

    That said, I am related to Phyllis Diller and Truman Capote.
     
  8. pseudo

    pseudo Well-Known Member

    A follow-up to that: sometimes they weren't the ones changing the name or birthdate. If you're relying on census data or info from Ellis Island, the surname could be spelled however the person writing it down thought it should be. Same with date/place of birth. I know without a doubt where one of my great-great grandfathers lived (less than two miles from where I'm typing this right now), and exactly where to find him in the census. But if I'm to believe the three consecutive listings from 1860-1880, he was born in three different states -- including "Rodilan," which we finally figured to be a phonetic misspelling of Rhode Island, instead of some obscure foreign country -- and three different years. Just something to keep in mind. If you think you've found the right person, but something is off by a letter or two (or a year or two), don't automatically dismiss that record. Like Rough Mix says, keep at it.

    And sometimes, those "mistakes" are intentional, like the family member who discovered that his parents' marriage certificate was filed a year later than he'd been told ... and approximately two weeks after he was born.

    For something that specific, cyndislist is a good start. You might also try http://usgenweb.org/, a nationwide network of researchers committed to keeping this information free. (Yeah, if any of y'all ever need a lookup in McKean or Potter counties in Pa., give me a ring.) And checking out the Oklahoma GenWeb site brings me to Choctaw Nation. Lot of info there.

    You know how to research and report a story, right? This isn't any different. If you currently live in the same area that you'd be researching, compile as much info as you can before consulting a professional. (Most charge by the hour once you get past their base rate.) Start with your parents and get every date and place you can think of, work your way back through each preceding generation, and you may well find everything you need without going out of pocket. On the other hand, if you're on the other side of the country, then get what you can and find somebody local to take it from there.

    Good luck, and happy hunting.
     
  9. KG

    KG Active Member

    I stumbled across my grandparents on kindredkonnections.com tonight. I'm not up for a project of searching out the fam, so I'm not paying for anything right now.
     
  10. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    IIRC, my grandparents had traced our family back to the mid-1800s.

    I went on the site and got as far back as the late 1600s.
     
  11. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    My mom has traced her side of the family back to 1300s.
    European names got so corrupted, it is an educated guess at best, so when you get far enough back to find out when the family came over, it goes all to Hell.
    Dad's side came over in the early 1900s. So that's about it.
     
  12. budcrew08

    budcrew08 Active Member

    Both my parents were older when I was born, so they remember back to their grandparents and even great-grandparents in some cases. A little bit of digging with a little bit of info to start with usually is good.

    My father has also done some research as well, so he had a lot of information about birth, death, DOB, all the things the site looks for.
     
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