Have you done your family tree?

Public libraries in many cities have a 'genealogy room' that is staffed by library employees and local volunteers who will assist in research. Most have an Ancestry.com (or something similar) account for use by patrons as well as other research material such as copies of old local newspapers and self published family histories.

The rooms are for research only, not for lending and use is free to the general public. All I ever visited were staffed by genealogy enthusiasts anxious to help. If you're interested in doing research and have the time to invest, this is an inexpensive way to get started. Go prepared to take notes - pencil and paper or laptop.

I found that even very small libraries often had a genealogy corner and they welcomed out-of-towners working on family history. Another good resource is the local historical society in the area where your ancestors lived. Many have research material and one-off items of a local nature.
 

In quite a few good-sized cities, there is a genealogy center run by the local Mormon church. The centers are open to anyone, free of charge except for a modest fee for copying (which is quite often waived). I got started on my genealogy search at the main center in Salt Lake City. I spent a whole day there, assisted by a helper who was assigned to me for as long as I needed him. I quickly hit a brick wall, though, and it wasn't until I met up with a second-cousin who I didn't even know about who turned out to be a prolific researcher and set me in the right direction.

I had gone to the tiny mountain town where my grandfather was born to comb through the cemetery. Not finding the graves I was looking for, I asked the man cutting the grass who was in charge of the cemetery. He directed me to the Town Clerk.

We raced over to the town hall to see her. She said "Hmmm, somebody was in here a couple of weeks ago looking for the same graves." She started pawing through the stuff on her desk and then dumped her wastebasket out on the floor and pawed through the contents. "Aha!" she said, "here's the post-it note with his name and telephone number!" She wouldn't give me the number but called and left a message for me on his voicemail, asking him to call me. Within an hour, I got the call and he was racing to town to meet us at the cemetery.

His all-consuming hobby is researching our family and going all over the south visiting cemeteries and courthouses for information. Boy, did he set me on the straight and narrow and gave me many year's worth of information and copies of document. He also directed me to other cousins all over the country, many of which I have since met or at least corresponded with.

The funny thing is that it appears that he and the Spousal Equivalent are distantly related through their mothers' lines. Small world, isn't it?
 
My parents having been second cousins narrows my family tree very quickly. Used to take great interest a long time ago. But as people began dropping around me like flies and the so called family behaved like my worse enemies, I sort of lost interest.
 
I am lucky that a cousin on my Dad's side did all the family ancestry. I cracked up when I read it and found out Jimmy Kimmel is a relative. My Husbands brother did all of their family's ancestry..I really wish one of my cousins would do my Mom's family.I have at least 40 cousins but no one has done it yet.
 
seabreezy said:
I've been doing my husband's family tree for a few years through Ancestry's website and also findagrave. I hit a brick wall a year ago with his great grandfather and can't seem to get anywhere. He came here from Ireland in the 1800's and I have most of the information AFTER he got here, but I just can't find anything about him before he left Ireland. It's so frustrating! It's fascinating work but oh boy is it time consuming, before I realize it i've been searching for hours, lol.
Click to expand...

Consider that he may have changed his last name at the time. That's what always had me batting my head against a brick wall for the longest time.....an unexplained name change. Once I found that out, things fell back into place again.
 
seabreezy said:
I've been doing my husband's family tree for a few years through Ancestry's website and also findagrave. I hit a brick wall a year ago with his great grandfather and can't seem to get anywhere. He came here from Ireland in the 1800's and I have most of the information AFTER he got here, but I just can't find anything about him before he left Ireland. It's so frustrating! It's fascinating work but oh boy is it time consuming, before I realize it i've been searching for hours, lol.
Click to expand...
Most of my family is from Italy. I got some info by writing to the office in my hometown, they sent me copies of birth and marriage of my grandmother. You could try doing that, won't hurt. I just sent them $20 for postage in cash. I assumed the recipient would just pocket the cash and never reply, so I was very impressed when I received the photocopies.
 
MY surname is TANNER and my roots on both sides are English going several centuries back. Ancestors settled in what is now upstate New York in the 17th century.
 
I've worked on mine off and on (mostly off) going on 20 years or more.
Interviewing my mother and her siblings I saw there was an "unmentionable" subject there.

Turned out Mom married a divorced man in 1943. Plus they had a first child that, somewhat conviently, died at birth.

Today all of that really wouldn't be "that bad". Especially the divorce. But that was then, in a Catholic immigrant family and WW2 influenced a lot of things.

Sad really to think of your own family as narrow minded and parochial like that.

If you're willing to put in the effort you can certainly gain a unique perspective on people you still love.
 
There can be differences between parents of record and parents of biology, particularly when you go back a couple of generations. Ancestry.com results can be surprising and illuminating.

The genealogical trees reported in family Bibles are not always truthful.

Don't ask me how I know this.
 
I was adopted when I was 3 yo, and have found bits and pieces on my bio mother's side. I have no clue who my bio father was. Michigan's records are sealed and I can't access them. I'm sure my bio father is listed as "Unknown". I did find out through Ancestry about my bio mother and located 3 step-siblings in Michigan. We went there a few years back and met with their aunt first and she told me a lot about my bio mother. She wasn't very nice and her kids (my step-siblings) were something else.

When we left their house, my husband told me my bio mother did me a favor by giving me up. I think he's right. Sometimes it's better NOT to know :(
 
Colleen said:
When we left their house, my husband told me my bio mother did me a favor by giving me up. I think he's right. Sometimes it's better NOT to know :(
Click to expand...

I disagree. I think you're better off having found out, this way you had your closure and no longer wonder about and pine for your birth family. I hope your adopted family was good to you and you were happy with them
 
PVC said:
I disagree. I think you're better off having found out, this way you had your closure and no longer wonder about and pine for your birth family. I hope your adopted family was good to you and you were happy with them
Click to expand...

Yes...I see your point. I never "pined" or wondered too much about my "real" mother (or family).....I guess I just never really thought much about it. My adopted mother would not tell me anything. She said she didn't want me to be hurt. I appreciate that protective spirit she had. She knew my bio mother (they worked together during the war) and knew her reputation. I didn't realize until I was much older just how protective she was of me.....some things were good, other's not so good, but in this she was right.
 
Yes, with a genealogy website, but only because my cousin was doing a family history of our Jewish side of the family where some were killed in Nazi concentration camps and some escaped to England or to the U.S. There was one particular person that my cousin really wanted to find and I found that woman's sister on Google and that was from a genealogy website (which I'll keep nameless) and from there with the help of the site's assistant, we found that woman who had escaped to the U.S. with her husband to New York. That was on the ship's manifest.

Personally, I wasn't interested and still am not interested in a geaneolgy, but I learned some things. Be very careful to read the fine print about that data about how your family tree is going to be used and who owns it. Can you delete? I read someone's communication to the site how he was suing the website because they would not let him delete the info. Also, just remember about how many institutions use your mother's maiden name for security purpose. Well, on a family tree, your mother's maiden name is going to show up.

As far as having your DNA tested, just be sure that only you are going to own that info. Do you really want someone you don't know or possibly don't want to know showing up at your doorstep? I sure don't. I have briefly thought about having the my DNA test because my family in Austria have always believed and rumored among themselves that my dad wasn't really my dad because he's of Japanese heritage and I looked totally Caucasian and exactly like my mom. I wanted to prove to them that they were wrong. In fact, one day in Vienna I took my cousin to meet the uncle (my mom's brother who had a dispute with my mom) that she had never met. We met in a cafe and while there he opened his wallet and showed me "my father", a Caucasian male.

I'm afraid that I disappointed him by not having a reaction except for just shaking my head no, and then continuing our conversation and then going out for a meal and beers. It actually turned out to be good time and I eventually confronted my cousin about saying nothing about it, and finally the truth came out how they thought about that all those years until I turned 50 and stood up for myself and my mother!
 
As to DNA testing something has crossed my mind.

My father died when I was 2 so I never knew him. But Genealogy turned up the fact that he had been married early and had a son, a half brother, we never met. 1940s so BIG scandal. No church wedding for mom, etc. Not a problem for me nor the subject if this string.

Subject - in the years 1920-ish to 1940s (when my father and mother got together) it's quite possible Dad may have sired other children by other women. Maybe.

It occurred to me that it might be interesting (in an academic sense!) to have a blind DNA list where indiviguals could register to see if they matched with others.

Yes I can see the can of worms that could open! But I'm of an age that I not sure I care any more.
 
My mom's cousin's husband, was our family genealogist so I do know where my ancestors came from. He found out we are related to Benedict Arnold.
Both my parents relatives came from New England,New Hampshire{dad} and Salem Mass{mom}
On my dad's side we are related to Sam Adams{,NOT THE BEER LOL!} who was Pres John Adams' cousin
My mother's side we are related to Col. Nathaniel Rochester,which the city of Rochester,NY is named for Sue
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top