Anyone doing genealogy research?

I've been doing research for about 25 years. Even though you don't immediately know anyone who would be interested in the research, don't throw it out. As I have found things, I always made a hard copy. You go back to a website a year or more later, and, oh my, 404 file not found.

You can get a free trial membership to Ancestry. It's about ten days or two weeks as I recall. You have to give credit card information to get it, so it's important to remember to cancel before the trial expires. Look for your grandparents or great grandparents and see who else is researching your family. I have exchanged copies of photos and documents with a 'cousin' I found that way. Her great grandmother was the youngest sister of my great great grandfather. You may find someone who would be delighted to have your research.

There is also familysearch.org It is a totally free site, run by the LDS church. You don't need to be LDS to use it. I'm sure there is an LDS church somewhere near you. Almost all of them have a research center, and the temples all have a much larger research center. If you can't find any other place to re-home your research, they might take it or have an idea where it could go.

MM

Inputting it all online can be time-consuming, but many folks like to know what other people found. The LDS one is really good to put your research into, because it's free.

My cousin on my dad's side is crazy about it and has that side of the family completed researched, complete with stories. Pretty cool

My mom's side is the Native American side, and that just hits a wall at a certain point. One of my ancestors was brought to the area as a bride and had extremely common names. And "Indian Territory" isn't a lot of help as a birthplace back then But I found good stuff for her offspring, so it's OK if I never find out much about her/our older relatives, I guess.

What kind of records do you have? The heartbreaking truth is that much of what once took ages to gather from archives and libraries in the past is now available with a few clicks online. Census records, many vital records, city directories, school yearbooks--I used to spend hours in a library trying to hunt down an unindexed census record that would take literally seconds to find today. You can get an idea of what's online with a free trial at Ancestry and a little time spent poking around familysearch.org.

But if you have anything that's unique or hasn't yet been pulled out of archives and digitized--yeah, definitely find a cousin who's into genealogy and let them have it. If you're not sure, let them sort it out.

Years ago I connected with a 2nd or 3rd cousin through a genealogy message board, and he sent me a big file of stuff that still isn't online, like church records and the police report from a family member murdered back in the '30s. And my father-in-law has given me copies of some hand-written genealogies from now-dead family members who knew the people they were documenting. That kind of stuff is invaluable, and should be shared if you can--along with family letters, photos, diaries, newspaper clippings (newspapers are getting more accessible online, but still a long way to go), oral histories, school records. Anything that is unique or at least not digitized yet. Again, if you're not sure, track down a cousin and send them the whole box. Chances are, you'll make their day.

Rootsweb is another free genealogy site. You could also do a search online for "[your family name] genealogy" and find others who are researching your family (or have included your branch) and would love to take the papers you have.

I've got my stuff online at my own site, but I also keep a tree at Family Search, with some of my difficult-to-track people. It's so addictive...

cmhbob said:

I've got my stuff online at my own site, but I also keep a tree at Family Search, with some of my difficult-to-track people. It's so addictive...

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Oh, yeah. I've been working on my and my husband's combined tree for years, and just love the quirky stuff that turns up. This week while filling in some side branches I've discovered a man who sired 22 children--the first was born in 1857 and the last in 1918 when he was ~82. Also a girl who married, at age 12, a 17-year-old widower. A constable who got the bright idea to make his prisoner dance the Highland fling at gunpoint--let's just say that did not end well for him. So many stories!

I've had a subscription to Ancestry.com for a while but my interest comes and goes so it's about time to cancel it again. I have found some depressing things. I feel sorry for the ancestors who have their life summed up by a less-than-stellar record and that's all their descendants will know about them.

I have a distant cousin who was killed in the Ohio Penitentiary Fire in 1930, as well as one who died in the 1937 Ohio Floods.

Family history can be fun. Especially if you remember these people are all long since dead.

There was always a mystery around my Dad's mother's father. My grandmother (who died when I was 5) evidently never spoke of him. But the story was that he went to Mexico and never came back, reason unknown. I have since found out that my great grandmother divorced him in 1906, for basically being a ne'er do well and scoundrel. There is still the story in family circles on the net that he died in Mexico in 1906. Except I found him registering for the draft in 1918. And I know it's the right one because his older brother registered the same day in the same place. I guess 'died in Mexico' sounded better than 'she divorced him'. That is the last trace of him I've found so far.

The other mystery was my Mom's father. He died when Mom was only 5, and I had always heard that he died from being shot. Sometime in the late 70s I asked her, how did he get shot? Was he a bootlegger, did he run with Bonnie & Clyde, what? She didn't know and said she would ask her mother. There was a romantic and fanciful story that was imparted by Grandma. After Grandma died my cousin and I were together. She asked if I knew how Grandpa Bill died, and I repeated the story that came from Grandma. The whole time I'm telling it, she's shaking her head back and forth in a 'no' manner. She had a copy of his death certificate and it said "shot his self". So at a later time she asked Grandma's older sister. Seems he committed suicide. He had tuberculosis of the spine and couldn't deal with the pain any longer. And later I found out there were at least two other highly romanticized versions of his death that Grandma had told.

MM

Divorces were funny things, history-wise. I've found several relatives who were supposedly "widowed", yet their spouses were found in the same town, county, or state, alive and well. Then I discovered the term "grass widow" for women who were divorced. Nobody questioned the use of widow/widower.

shadowwalker said:

Divorces were funny things, history-wise. I've found several relatives who were supposedly "widowed", yet their spouses were found in the same town, county, or state, alive and well.

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I've discovered this too, especially in census records. One of my great-great-grandmothers divorced my great-great-grandfather after he was severely injured in a work-related accident and was no longer able to support his wife and five children. She didn't remarry until more than 25 years later, and he never remarried. In most of the subsequent census records, both were listed as "widowed."

I am 1/8 Irish. My great grandmother vanished from the face of the Earth when her two sons were 5 and 3 years of age. Not a big % of my bloodline, but I'd still like to know what happened to her. My grandfather swore up and down his entire life that it was of no interest to him. Until he got sick and his end was near and then he wanted to know, and that's an understatement. For us Ellis Island descendants I think it can be very difficult, am I wrong? Got an Italian line that leads to Naples and Potenza and a Lebanese line that goes to Beirut and a mountain village in the North. Somehow I came across a recent voting record in that village, and my last name, which is very uncommon in The States, is not so at all in this little village. Half the town has my last name. I find this stuff fascinating but never put any effort into it.

Maybe I should.

Ellis Island can be a gold mine or a nightmare for researchers. Far too often, it was the intake official who determined what the person/family's surname would be, and it all depended on whether or not they were listening or could properly pronounce the actual last name.

Also, don't forget the many other ports of entry, including through Canada. A lot of families think their ancestors just automatically went through Ellis Island when, in fact, they entered through Boston or some other port.

shadowwalker said:

Ellis Island can be a gold mine or a nightmare for researchers. Far too often, it was the intake official who determined what the person/family's surname would be, and it all depended on whether or not they were listening or could properly pronounce the actual last name.

Also, don't forget the many other ports of entry, including through Canada. A lot of families think their ancestors just automatically went through Ellis Island when, in fact, they entered through Boston or some other port.

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Interesting. I was always told they came in through Ellis Island on both sides, and one side stayed in Lower Manhattan for a generation, but you're right, I'm not 100% sure. Had some interesting people that I know about on that side. They came from a moneyed and higher education background. Lawyers, a couple professors, a couple whose kids ended up with a symphony (one made Ripley's for playing the piano with his toes) One college professor threw in the towel and went back.

All of mine were here before Ellis Island *was* Ellis Island, except two. And they were from Quebec. The most recent other than the Quebecois was in about 1860, and from Alsace-Lorraine, which at that time was part of Germany. But hubby's people on both sides came through Ellis in the 20s.

MM