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Scott Shepherd
06-23-2012, 9:28 PM
Several years ago some information was giving to me by a relative. I never spent much time looking at it. About a year ago, I signed up for Ancestry.com for about a month. I felt like it was a waste of money. My concern was it was $30 a month or something and it never ended in the expense, so I cancelled it. I just bought a family tree program and it's tied into some free search stuff, and I started filling it all in and working through the documents I have. So far it's going well and I'm really enjoying it.

I honestly don't know anything about researching family history. I do know that I have a family tree that took us back to a castle in England, a castle at which I have personally visited when I worked there.

In looking at that documentation now, I see that they just picked off one relative in the chain and followed them back to that place. Now, as I look at all the 100's of other relatives on the list, I wondered how the heck someone just randomly picked that relative to trace.

I can now see how complex this can all become. With so many relatives and then their children, it gets a bit overwhelming and I'm wondering how you deal with it. How do you handle that? Surely you can't research every single relative, their spouses, their spouses parents and families, etc. If you did that, you'd be following 1000's of people, I'd guess. How do you handle that?

Also, it seems like most all the sites basically just give you census information. I'm really baffled by the census data. Is it often really, really, really wrong?

An example, I have a relative named Robert M ----------. In the 1910 and 1920 census, I seem him and his wife, and children, all the way they should be. But in the 1940 census, it shows the head of the household as Charles T ----------, with the same wife name, the same people living in the house. No one is the family has any knowledge of him being anything but Robert M. When I look at the handwritten census, it's clear as it can be, it's handwritten Charles T.

Stuff like that is really confusing to me and I'm not sure how to process it. Just discount it as a mistake or did something odd happen that I need to look into?

It's all really quite interesting and fun, but I don't know anyone that's every done it, so I'm not sure if I'm doing the right things or fumbling along the hard way.

Any suggestions?

Shawn Pixley
06-23-2012, 10:50 PM
Its really hard to answer your post. I have built upon some genealogy that my great aunt started. One thing to consider is that our conceptions of life spans is not terribly applicable in genealogy. People died younger. Women died in childbirth, men died of other causes. Several of my ancestry have two spouses. I wouldn't be surprised that "Robert" died and his wife remarried to support her children.

In terms of your more general question, you only need to make yourself happy. There is no defined endpoint.

Greg Peterson
06-23-2012, 11:02 PM
My mother is very active in genealogy. It has become a passion of hers. Very time consuming as you can not rely on one record source for all the information. Birth/death certificates, marriage licenses, census records, immigration rolls, city, county, state records...... you get the idea.

As you have seen yourself, sometimes the oral record doesn't match the written record. That's where more digging is required to get to the bottom of the mystery. Once that mystery is solved there is usually another one just waiting.

It's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes you just need to move on to another part of the puzzle for a while.

David G Baker
06-24-2012, 12:03 AM
It is a lot of work, is very time consuming and requires a lot of dedication but in the end it is worth the effort. Not sure how it is done but the records that the Mormons have is probably one of the better sources for gathering information. I do know that I do not have the patience.

phil harold
06-24-2012, 1:46 AM
I have had good luck with the surname forum at http://boards.ancestry.com/
make sure you use an email that you will have forever and always check
I have people contact me every couple years...
found a lost cousin
found a line of ancestry that went back to the 12th century
Takes time and patience, then out of the blue you get a new connection or a new census is released that helps you in your search
have fun!

Chuck Wintle
06-24-2012, 6:37 AM
I have done some genealogy work myself and have found census records can help a lot but sometimes they cab be wrong. One example, a long dead relative of mine was listed as having 5 children and then only 2 on the following census.

Keith Outten
06-24-2012, 7:14 AM
Steve,

My Father decided that he wanted to trace our family name as far back as possible when I was very young. He spent ten years but he found every one of our ancestors all the way back to Abraham Outten who arrived in the Virginia Colony in 1634. I remember endless trips to graveyards, court houses and hours upon hours looking at News Paper micro-film in the Library of Congress. We visited every living member of our family to get any information that they had, the most accurate information was recorded in their family bibles as there were no birth or death certificates until later years.

Should your search lead you to the South the difficulty will increase tenfold because the Court Houses were almost all burned to the ground during the Civil War.
.

Belinda Barfield
06-24-2012, 8:02 AM
Steve, you've asked a lot of questions. :D I became almost obsessed with family trees and histories about 8 years ago. It began to consume all of my free time and I finally stopped searching and stored all of my records. I tend not to do things half way. IMO, no, you can't trace everyone and I chose to follow my immediate line. Do you watch the TV show "Who Do You Think You Are?"

It is possible for the census listing Charles T as the HOH that he was a son of Robert M. Property laws being what they were before us women because all powerful made things a little different. I'd search for a death record for Robert M (if you haven't already). Does Robert M show up in a census after 1940?

Don't believe everything you see on ancestry websites. If a connection seems plausible and fits with your own research, then pursue and verify. My SO's mother is convinced that some 40th degree relation has traced their family tree to Constantine the Great, which is totally ludicrous.

I always find it amusing when people tell me they are descended from a famous historical figure - not that it doesn't happen, a lot. It's much like "past life regression", the person undergoing it "remembers" being someone famous. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say, "Wow, I traced my family tree and my ancestor was a stable hand muck raker for King George.", but it's possible that muck rakers weren't important enough to have births, deaths, and marriages recorded anywhere.

Bruce Pratt
06-24-2012, 8:21 AM
Try contacting the Virginia Genealogical Society in Richmond. They should be able to get you started in the right direction.

Scott Shepherd
06-24-2012, 8:22 AM
Thanks for the input, all. Fortunately, for one side of my family, I have very very good records back to the 1700's, and even some line of the family traced back into the 1400's, that that 1400 one was a great great great great aunt, and it was her spouse that seemed to trace back to their, which is why I asked how do you actually determine who to trace. To me, tracing a spouse of the bloodline doesn't accomplish much, but maybe I'm not right on that.

Keith, I was reviewing one thing last night and one of my great great great great (I just make up greats when I don't know how many it should be) was from Gloucester. He father was a minister there, so I'm sure my travels will lead me to your back yard :)

I think the thing I am enjoying about it so far is the computer side of it. I can see the entire tree, as it stands right now, visually, and I can print all sorts of reports on people, the line, etc. It's very well done. I have started uploading media to the names and people I have, so when time goes on, it'll end up being a really nice piece of work, I think. Plus I can export it all, even as PDF's, so it'll make sharing it with others easy.

For decades I always heard about the work some of our relatives had done on it, but weren't allowed a copy because it was all just "too delicate", so now I'll be able to pass it along to anyone that wants it and maybe they'll take it further.

On the Robert M vs Charles T thing, Robert had a son, Charles R, and he's listed on that very census, as a child, living in the household. It was my father's grandfather, so he remembers him and he has no knowledge of him ever being called Charles or why it would show up that way, as Robert was alive in the timeframe that the census shows.

How do you find people when they are in other states? I have some very very vague information about some originals in Kentucky. Without having to drive to Kentucky, how do you flush out leads?

Belinda Barfield
06-24-2012, 8:59 AM
How do you find people when they are in other states? I have some very very vague information about some originals in Kentucky. Without having to drive to Kentucky, how do you flush out leads?

Put out a request on some of the genealogy boards. Lots of folks will offer to do a little research in their "backyard" in exchange for you doing some in yours. Particularly if you need someone to visit a cemetery, since they may already familiar with the ones in their area. You could also contact historical societies in the area and they may have information that would help.

Keith Westfall
06-24-2012, 9:48 AM
Lots of sites to look at - some free and some not.

This site has extensive information about genealogy and is free...

https://familysearch.org/

Dave Lehnert
06-24-2012, 10:01 AM
I never did much tracing of the family tree. But just wanted to point out a web site called "Find a Grave" (Dot com) People kinda adopt graveyards and will photograph and list each grave as to date of birth and death. Just all depends how much time a person puts into it to the quality of the information.
The web site is interesting to look at just for the famous graves.

phil harold
06-24-2012, 10:21 AM
I don't think I've ever heard anyone say, "Wow, I traced my family tree and my ancestor was a stable hand muck raker for King George.", but it's possible that muck rakers weren't important enough to have births, deaths, and marriages recorded anywhere.

So true the only way i was able to trace part of my line back so far was because they followed bloodlines of a knight (well actual 2 knights and one sheriff).

My wife's aunt could not even get my living family right and few others but she still added to the LDS database, so be carefull all records can be questioned

Scott Shepherd
06-24-2012, 2:24 PM
Lots of sites to look at - some free and some not.

This site has extensive information about genealogy and is free...

https://familysearch.org/

That's one I was using. To me, it seems like all those sites, this one and paid ones, are just census records which seem to be riddled with errors. Am I wrong in that? Is there a lot more information on those sites than I'm able to find?

On a side note, I hit the jackpot this morning. I had one side of our family traced back to 1700 or so, which someone else had basically already done all that work for us. I found a site in a search that showed two or three levels above him, and that search led me to a site that showed all the way back to 1450. The records on that document that went back to 1450 seem to link really well into the information I already had, so I trust that it's a fairly safe bet to tie it all together. I have some family notes from the 1700 and 1800's and they all reference people I found this morning but previous had no record of. So by finding those and seeing that they correspond with personal family notes as well as some documentation written in books in the era, I think it's a good find.

I think that ends the length of the search on that side of the family. Next steps will be for us to widen out that side of the family with all the children, all the way back to 1450, which we have, but need to enter. Then we'll need to start the other side of my family, which currently stops around 1870 in Kentucky. Not sure how to piece that one together, since they seemed to live in the wilderness at that point in history.

The goal would be to get back to 1450 with that side of the family!

I'll also contact the Virginia Genealogy office in Richmond.

Thanks again, this is quite interesting!

Roger Newby
06-24-2012, 6:31 PM
I've been doing genealogy for about 25+ years and found this place really helpful.

http://usgenweb.org/

You can go to any state and county and find lots of information depending on how much volunteers contribute to each county or state site.

Therefore, if you have stuff you are willing to share, contribute it to the Genweb Project and maybe someone else will benefit as well.

I am also very active with findagrave.com and have made almost 5000 memorials and over 2000 photos of tombstones. Once again this is all volunteer and your contributions of information help many others who are looking for family information.

These two sites are both free (a really good thing) and give me a great deal of satisfaction with my contributions of information.

Just an invite to jump in.......I sure don't get paid for this.:D

Scott Shepherd
06-24-2012, 9:33 PM
Thanks! I'll have a look at that tomorrow.

I really did hit the jackpot today. I said earlier I found great documentation, but later today, I found a load of information on the first family member to come to the USA. He was active in setting up Harvard and is easily searchable. I found he had written many books. With a little searching, I found an autobiography he had written online. Sure enough, it was him and his recollection of his relatives and travels match all the documentation I found earlier. It's really a great find, as he talks about living in England and the process of getting here.

Plus, I found a sketch of him, and traced him to helping found a church thats still open which lists him in their history. I've emailed them to see if they have any documentation on him they would be willing to share.

SSo it was a highly productive day!

Scott Shepherd
06-25-2012, 8:39 AM
Okay, from having easy days and getting through all of that, now on to the hard part, the other side of my family. I need some guidance from those that know how to do all this.

How do you go about finding people when you don't know anything but a name. For example, I have my great grandfathers name, with his middle initial. I know he was born in Kentucky and lived and died in Virginia. I have no idea who his parents were, where in Kentucky he was born, or any parents or brothers or sisters he may have had.

So when I search for his name in Kentucky, it brings up 100's of people with that name. When I see a census in Kentucky with his name on it, and it lists parents, brothers, sisters, etc, I have no way to know if that's "The" person or not, since the next census form with the same name displays parents and kids too. I just have no way to verify that any of the ones I'm looking at are the right ones.

Best I can tell, from family history, is they were in the woods, more of less. That side of the family, to the best of my knowledge, was always dirt poor and living in the woods, so there just seems to be very little to go on.

There's no one alive today that knows whether he had brothers or sisters, where he came from, etc.

How do you go about trying to solve that type of situation? I'm sure it's a very very common problem, I just don't know where to start.

Belinda Barfield
06-25-2012, 8:47 AM
Another good time to use message boards. Post what you know and see if a distant relative has the info you are looking for and is willing to share.

+1 on usgenweb - great resource!

Michael Weber
06-25-2012, 11:16 AM
Interesting thread. An Uncle who did geneology tried to trace the family back to their German/Austrian/Prussian origin but was unsuccessful
because so many records were destroyed in the two world wars. All I know is my Grandfather came to the US alone at age 12 in the late 1800's. Evidently not through New York as I can find no info on him based on the Ellis Islands records.

Bill Edwards(2)
06-25-2012, 11:27 AM
Interesting thread. An Uncle who did geneology tried to trace the family back to their German/Austrian/Prussian origin but was unsuccessful
because so many records were destroyed in the two world wars. All I know is my Grandfather came to the US alone at age 12 in the late 1800's. Evidently not through New York as I can find no info on him based on the Ellis Islands records.

The tough thong here is you can have a family name you always assumed was Irish and
if you start tracking back, find the name was changed from something that sounds more
German and someone assumed you were Irish because your great-great granfather married an Irish girl.... go figure

Dave Anderson NH
06-25-2012, 12:12 PM
I am a bit of a sloth and somewhat indolent when it comes to the family geneology. I'm fortunate in that my late uncle married a Mormon. My cousin Bob presented me with a looseleaf binder and a box containing copies of original documents and newspaper articles. I was crushed and devestated to find the black sheep of the family. One of my ancesters, a Captain Barnard of Charlottestown PEI was not only a teetotaler, but also served as a president of the local temperance society. Oh the shame.:D

Scott Shepherd
06-25-2012, 12:29 PM
I am a bit of a sloth and somewhat indolent when it comes to the family geneology. I'm fortunate in that my late uncle married a Mormon. My cousin Bob presented me with a looseleaf binder and a box containing copies of original documents and newspaper articles. I was crushed and devestated to find the black sheep of the family. One of my ancesters, a Captain Barnard of Charlottestown PEI was not only a teetotaler, but also served as a president of the local temperance society. Oh the shame.:D

I'm on the other end of that, in the Autobiography I'm reading from the first guy to come over here, he had a touch childhood and ended up being allowed to go to Cambridge in England for school (he lived nearby). After a couple years there, he went out and began drinking a lot. He spoke of one time he got so drunk he had to be carried out. He woke up the next day with no idea where he was (where they had left him), and went and laid out in a field, hoping God would take him that day for his actions. Too funny. Sounds like the typical college kid from today :)

Scott Shepherd
06-27-2012, 2:29 PM
Many thanks for the help on this thread. I've started tracing a part of the family that I had little documentation or knowledge of, outside of my grandfather. I think I've found about 3 generations past him now.

Some of the places recommended on this thread got me to places that were really helpful. In fact, I posted on one of the forums and someone had already done some research on it, from a different line in the family, but it had some of the stuff that was helpful to me already done.

I can say without a doubt, doing this online now and the power of the internet has been incredible. What could have cost a ton of money and taken years to track down, can now be done in days with little to no cost. There's still that "wanting" to go see and find things in person, and I will do, but it's nice to get all your ducks in a row prior to spending money on travel and time, rather than having to fumble through it once on site and waste a lot of time.

So thanks again!

Myk Rian
06-27-2012, 10:24 PM
We started our research with the Mormon Later Day Saints church archives. After all, that's what they do. We used their PAF program. That was 35 years ago. My sister has since kept it going, and uses ancestry.com for her research now.

Scott Shepherd
07-09-2012, 8:24 PM
Just another update on this, as maybe it will inspire someone to start on their own family. I cannot believe just how much information is available from sitting behind a computer. What surely could have taken a decade, can now be down in weeks. I said this from the beginning, someone gave me a great deal of family research, so I did have a good chunk of work done and handed to me, but since then, I have found letters family members wrote in the 1840's, all online, I've found locations and travels of people I only had names for, which is leading me to brand new searches in other states, leads I didn't even know existed 2 weeks ago.

Right now my tree has just over 500 people in it, with over 140 families. I think I made it back to my 16th great grandfather.

I am astounded, as I thought I was getting close to the "end" of my work on the tree, only to realize what I thought was the end was just the beginning. Where I see 500 people now, it's probably more like 7000-10000 people on the tree. In my 500 people work, it basically only follows one line of the family all the way through, with a few other lines followed a generation or two. So if you went back and followed each line all the way through, I can see it being 10,000 people fairly easily. They'd all be cousins, I suppose, if I'm thinking about it right.

I can say that it's been really enjoyable to search for things about people on the internet. Finding and reading documents and letters, and seeing their locations and where they lived, and how one or two would stray outside their birth area has been really interesting.

If you've ever considered starting it, I'd highly recommend it. One awesome thing is that with all the work I have now, I can pull kinship reports (any many other reports) that tell who's related to who. My parents have told me many times "I'm related to such in such, but I'm not sure how". Well, now I can click a button, print a report and see exactly how those people are related to me or anyone else in the tree.

And lastly, I can document it all and make it available to one of those people in the tree that might be searching for someone on the tree. I've already seen some old requests for people that were looking for members in my tree, and they didn't get any help. The posts are 10 years old, so I didn't reply, but it would be AWESOME to be able to just share all this information with someone else looking for it.

Bruce Pratt
07-11-2012, 8:02 AM
A word of caution, just because a "fact" is posted on a genealogy web site doesn't mean it is true. If you are really serious about your family history, you should also obtain information from primary sources, e.g., birth/marriage/death records, wills, land records, etc.

Scott Shepherd
07-11-2012, 10:01 AM
A word of caution, just because a "fact" is posted on a genealogy web site doesn't mean it is true. If you are really serious about your family history, you should also obtain information from primary sources, e.g., birth/marriage/death records, wills, land records, etc.

I agree, there seems to be quite a bit of bad information out there. I've found a number of things that were just flat wrong. I think that's why I have enjoyed doing this, it's almost like CSI, you have to really look into the details and get multiple sources to be sure the data all matches, and even then, I think you have to be suspicious of it.

Good point!

Frank Bierline
07-13-2012, 9:40 PM
I have been working on my geneology for about ten years, and have been using "Family Tree Maker" software to record everything. I have been fortunate in that I have a lot of original documentation from family members who came over from Ireland and Germany prior to 1840. A family friend who immigrated from Germany translated many of my documents (given to me by my father before he passed). Every so often while looking at documents, I have an Ahah! moment and a connection is finally made. Since I am almost 70 years old now, I have begun to prepare everything into a gift package for my son - all the documents, pictures and even the complete computer.

I am still working, so I don't have a lot of time to spend on it, and I have a granddaughter who takes up a lot of my time, but it is very interesting to work on.

Thanks for all the web sites in this topic - I have not used the 'net for much because I want to exhaust all of the papers I have before filling in any blanks.