View Full Version : Genealogy/ Family trees
Anyone else ever try to find the rest of their families? My wife and I are working on both of our family trees. It has been a very neat adventure so far. Almost like hunting treasure.
Every night we work on it a little. Her family is a lot worse than mine as most of her grandparents and their siblings have deceased. We had to start with little to nothing on them. We have found 6 of her great great grandparents on her moms side, and 2 great great great grandparents.
I have not done alot on my side, but knew personally 5 of my 8 great grandparents. My grandparents also have very good records for me to start with.
Anywho if anyone has any tips/tricks I would love to hear them. So far we have just used ancestory.com, familysearch.org, cemeteries that are close, and library at my university (which is absolutely useless).
RogueFactor
07-26-2010, 07:23 PM
I dont have any tips/tricks, sorry. Some in my family have done these, next time I see them I will ask. But some of the methods you are using are what I recall them doing as well.
Youre more fortunate than I. I never met any of my grandparents. Sounds like you have good genes to have known 5 of 8 great grandparents. That would be cool.
Zondo
07-26-2010, 07:37 PM
What is it that you do for the family tree? is it simply finding the relative or are you gathering a bio?
What is it that you do for the family tree? is it simply finding the relative or are you gathering a bio?
I am gathering everything I can find. Pictures, newspaper articles, birth/marriage/death certificates, cause of death, occupation, etc.
We found out yesterday from a flyer from the early 1900s that my wifes great great great grandfather was a gun maker in North Carolina. I am going to try to track down one of his rifles now.
I just think it is interesting to see where everyone came from/how they lived.
We have 3 4" binders already full of info/documentation, and are hoping to have 14-15 of them when we are finished. We are gathering as much as we can by word of mouth, but want documentation to prove as much as possible.
xero28
07-26-2010, 10:02 PM
My mom could talk to you for hours about genealogy. We're LDS (Mormon), and the Church is really big into family history. I've done a few things to find out about my ancestors, but I figured that since my mom has done so much work already I don't really need to. Kind of lazy, I know. I need to do it myself just to see where I come from for myself and learn about my own past.
Though honestly, go find a Mormon church in your area. Almost all of them have a family history center that is open during the week to the general public. You don't have to be a member of the Church. They are staffed by people who know what they are doing and should be able to help you get going. Good luck.
wetwrks
07-26-2010, 11:43 PM
My parents have been doing this. They have been using ancestry.com and have taken roadtrips to research in libraries and newspapers. You have to have a fair amount of info to start with. Some of the lines we have only gotten a few generations before there is no info available but we have gotten some clear back to 400s. You really need to look at all of it carefully as we have found some mistakes.
We found we had relatives on my dads side who fought along side William Wallace and on my moms side is Longshanks who was killed by Wallace. :glare:
Lots of Scottish, and Brittish royalty in the line.
It was suggested you should try it for a month and then see if you want or need to sign up for longer.
Zondo
07-27-2010, 03:01 AM
We found we had relatives on my dads side who fought along side William Wallace and on my moms side is Longshanks who was killed by Wallace. :glare:
that's pretty interesting...
This always sounded like a fun project, but we've always found other things we needed to do instead. I think it's still on the back burner, although this would be really good for kids to learn about world history vicariously through family research.
druid
07-27-2010, 03:32 AM
You may [or may not] believe it but the Mormons have the largest genealogical database ever created. You could try their libraries and see what you can find...
xero28
07-27-2010, 07:43 AM
You may [or may not] believe it but the Mormons have the largest genealogical database ever created. You could try their libraries and see what you can find...
Three posts up /\/\/\ ;)
You really need to look at all of it carefully as we have found some mistakes.
That has been a problem. Some of our relatives have just picked anyone from a census to be their great great whatever. I want to be 100% sure of something before I say I am related to them. Last night I was able to finally correct one of the mistakes that were made by finding a death certificate.
As for the Mormons keeping records. familysearch.org I believe is their website. I will look for a local church to try to visit I didn't realize that they kept some records at each church. I thought I read that you have to visit them in UT to see the records.
Defiantly good info tho guys. I will take any tip as crazy as it may be to get past some of the harder finds.
Currently I am stuck on one branch that ends with William Smith. All I know is that he was born before 1860. Talk about a generic name tho. I am going to put a picture of Will Smith (the actor) in the book, and see how long it takes the wife to notice.
xero28
07-27-2010, 11:37 AM
As for the Mormons keeping records. familysearch.org I believe is their website. I will look for a local church to try to visit I didn't realize that they kept some records at each church. I thought I read that you have to visit them in UT to see the records.
Yeah, most of the originals are stored in Utah, but you can request copies of the microfiche to look them up. Takes a few days to get them in I think, but they are available.
xero28
07-27-2010, 12:57 PM
Pretty interesting. I was just looking on FamilySearch.org and looked up my grandfather (my mother's father). Just out of curiosity I started looking at his pedigree chart. There is information on parts of his family going back at least 15 generations and into the early 1400's. One of them was a "Sir" (I assume he was knighted) from Scotland back in the 1700's.
I started looking at his pedigree chart.
Where did you find the option for a pedigree chart?
On another note. I found where my grandma's moms side of the family came across from Ireland. The guy that came across was a "Lord" that denounced himself.
xero28
07-27-2010, 08:44 PM
Where did you find the option for a pedigree chart?
On another note. I found where my grandma's moms side of the family came across from Ireland. The guy that came across was a "Lord" that denounced himself.
When you input the name and get a hit, click on the name. You'll then get an "individual record". On the right hand side there is a "pedigree" button that you can look up the family tree. :wthumpup:
druid
07-28-2010, 01:34 AM
Three posts up /\/\/\ ;)
gah.......missed it. Sorry
Bellicose
07-31-2010, 07:36 AM
A few people in my family have done the same thing. My grandfather claims he can trace us back to Nail of Nine Hostages, which can be traced to Adam and Eve...
But I do know the I am of Irish Royalty, a decendant of the King of Ulster (pretty much all of North Ireland and then some). My wife is a decedant of Jack Daniels, though the family has since sold off all family land and isn't associated with them anymore. My aunt is a direct decendant of both Red Cloud and Sitting Bull, two of the most famous Lakota chiefs.
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