Has Anyone Researched Their Ancestry / Genealogy?

[Wylie's Mom]

I have a ton of info on my paternal side since someone already did the research, however, I don't have much on the maternal side and am thinking about doing some research.

Has anyone else researched their ancestry / genealogy? If so, what sites were most helpful? Are there any free sites, or are they all pay sites like ancestry.com?

Thanks for any help!

[jp4m2]

I've always wanted to do the genetic ancestry testing. I have no clue about my ethnic origins, it would be so interesting to get this info.

[jp4m2]

As an after thought, has anyone tried the familytree.com site????

[Oddsock]

My 2 cents...not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.

I've gone back to the early 1600 on one side of the family but struggle with the side that is Jewish going back to Poland, German and Russia. Started on genes reunited, which had some very helpful people who actually helped me find my father and brother.

The site I use the most is ancestry.com, found the site the easiest to use. Found a cousin on there also. I believe the basic is free or was when I joined years ago, a couple of years ago we paid for more features/ access. Hubby said I'll get it free from now on anyway, as they've made some sort of deal with LDS and it's free for them.

Good luck with whatever site you join, try several for the most info. It's great fun, when you find someone new. Also don't just believe others on line,who've done the same work, you will find some people, make mistakes and then waste time going back with the wrong family. Check records where ever you can. Try similar sounding names. We have the name Ehrlich, it's been spelt Erlich, Erlish etc..

Before starting, it's a good idea to talk with family and get as much info as you can, especially from the elderly members. Wish I had this option, especially with family members who changed their first and last names due to the abuse they had to deal with when moving to a new country.


Also double check the records. If the records have been (can't think of the word) archived by a member of the public, check it, sometimes a name is misspelt or plain old wrong. Found this to be more of an issue when someone outside of the UK thought they knew street names,places in the UK. If you archive stick to what you know, please.

[107barney]

Yes we have! LuvTaycieGirl was a big help pulling documents from the mormon church. We did a lot from familysearch free and then went to ancestry for pay for a few things. We obtained a lot of documents through other sources like ellis island and national archives. We traced back our history. It took a while and some travel but we learneds a lot and it was very interesting. I'm pretty good at this so if you need any help just message me!

[yorkietalkjilly]

Originally Posted by Oddsock

My 2 cents...not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.

I've gone back to the early 1600 on one side of the family but struggle with the side that is Jewish going back to Poland, German and Russia. Started on genes reunited, which had some very helpful people who actually helped me find my father and brother.

The site I use the most is ancestry.com, found the site the easiest to use. Found a cousin on there also. I believe the basic is free or was when I joined years ago, a couple of years ago we paid for more features/ access. Hubby said I'll get it free from now on anyway, as they've made some sort of deal with LDS and it's free for them.

Good luck with whatever site you join, try several for the most info. It's great fun, when you find someone new. Also don't just believe others on line,who've done the same work, you will find some people, make mistakes and then waste time going back with the wrong family. Check records where ever you can. Try similar sounding names. We have the name Ehrlich, it's been spelt Erlich, Erlish etc..

Before starting, it's a good idea to talk with family and get as much info as you can, especially from the elderly members. Wish I had this option, especially with family members who changed their first and last names due to the abuse they had to deal with when moving to a new country.


Also double check the records. If the records have been (can't think of the word) archived by a member of the public, check it, sometimes a name is misspelled or plain old wrong. Found this to be more of an issue when someone outside of the UK thought they knew street names,places in the UK. If you archive stick to what you know, please.

My ex-husband has always researched his and others family genealogies as a hobby he took up from his grandfather, but he's a bit of a purist and has traveled a good bit to complete research or fully check out a reference or lead. He's even check out grouped family cemetery headstones to be sure the Christian family names, dates of birth/death are consistent to further fact-check the person he's tracking.

I remember he long ago decided that there are far too quick presumptions & improper conclusions drawn due to inadequate research, rushing to complete the investigation by genealogy services, due to the proximity/propinquity of people of same/similar Christian and/or surnames, age, appearance or occupation; and that there are many, many errors in old records, including government, church, cemetery, medical, old newspaper records, etc., due to sloppiness, abject lying in listing NOK, misspellings, a person officially or unofficially changing their name, use of aliases, poor handwriting in official documents, poor condition of the actual records, or mistakes in mixing up one name or person with another.

[capt_noonie]

All I know is my mom was adopted bc she was born as a sickly child and her birth parents abandoned her.

My dad's side, my grandparents were very wealthy when they were children. My grandmother even had started the foot binding process but she ended up taking hers off. They came to America thinking their money would be safe in China upon their return. HA!

[Wylie's Mom]

Thanks, everyone. I did come across the Ellis Island archives and may be able to find a couple things there, but I can't quite tell yet as there are sooo many records that *could* be my maternal g-g-grandfather, so we'll see. I'll try that one you suggested too, Cathy, thank you. I think in the end, it looks like I'm going to have pay ancestry.com or something...?

[107barney]

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

Thanks, everyone. I did come across the Ellis Island archives and may be able to find a couple things there, but I can't quite tell yet as there are sooo many records that *could* be my maternal g-g-grandfather, so we'll see. I'll try that one you suggested too, Cathy, thank you. I think in the end, it looks like I'm going to have pay ancestry.com or something...?

I think ancestry gives a free month.

[Harrysmum]

Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

My ex-husband has always researched his and others family genealogies as a hobby he took up from his grandfather, but he's a bit of a purist and has traveled a good bit to complete research or fully check out a reference or lead. He's even check out grouped family cemetery headstones to be sure the Christian family names, dates of birth/death are consistent to further fact-check the person he's tracking.

I remember he long ago decided that there are far too quick presumptions & improper conclusions drawn due to inadequate research, rushing to complete the investigation by genealogy services, due to the proximity/propinquity of people of same/similar Christian and/or surnames, age, appearance or occupation; and that there are many, many errors in old records, including government, church, cemetery, medical, old newspaper records, etc., due to sloppiness, abject lying in listing NOK, misspellings, a person officially or unofficially changing their name, use of aliases, poor handwriting in official documents, poor condition of the actual records, or mistakes in mixing up one name or person with another.

Totally agree, Jeanie

My father has managed (so far) to track back to the 1600's (as has Sandy) - and all of it has been within 'our own Country' - he was able to actually visit gravestones, look at church records etc. etc....

But there are many, many iffy bits - still quite a bit of guesswork - and loads of Downton Abbey bits (for instance, my dad was a high-flying aviation lawyer - and his g-g-g-g- grandmother was a scullery maid, God bless her )

Apart from that, I think he, too, started on good old ancestry.com.

[Wylie's Mom]

Originally Posted by 107barney

I think ancestry gives a free month.

Ack, it's now only 2 weeks!! Geez! Who can get much done during that short of time? Clearly, they know this and are just reelin' us in. Oh well.

Originally Posted by Harrysmum

Totally agree, Jeanie

My father has managed (so far) to track back to the 1600's (as has Sandy) - and all of it has been within 'our own Country' - he was able to actually visit gravestones, look at church records etc. etc....

But there are many, many iffy bits - still quite a bit of guesswork - and loads of Downton Abbey bits (for instance, my dad was a high-flying aviation lawyer - and his g-g-g-g- grandmother was a scullery maid, God bless her )

Apart from that, I think he, too, started on good old ancestry.com.

How interesting! I love this kind of stuff. On my Dad's side, someone in the fam did all the research decades ago, and I have a huge amount of info tracing back to pre-immigration to the US, it's so fascinating.

On my Mom's side, I'm not yet getting very far...I can only get to my Grandpa's Grandpa - who it looks like emigrated around 1884 from "Bohemia", Germany...his wife was also from Bohemia but I can't tell if she emigrated w/ him or if they found each other after immigration.

[GuinnessStout]

I have and used ancestry.com.
A lot of my dad's mothers family was already done due to our family was the founding family of the city where she was born so every 10 years they have huge events and celebrate the founding families and share their history.

[Maximo]

Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

My ex-husband has always researched his and others family genealogies as a hobby he took up from his grandfather, but he's a bit of a purist and has traveled a good bit to complete research or fully check out a reference or lead. He's even check out grouped family cemetery headstones to be sure the Christian family names, dates of birth/death are consistent to further fact-check the person he's tracking.

I remember he long ago decided that there are far too quick presumptions & improper conclusions drawn due to inadequate research, rushing to complete the investigation by genealogy services, due to the proximity/propinquity of people of same/similar Christian and/or surnames, age, appearance or occupation; and that there are many, many errors in old records, including government, church, cemetery, medical, old newspaper records, etc., due to sloppiness, abject lying in listing NOK, misspellings, a person officially or unofficially changing their name, use of aliases, poor handwriting in official documents, poor condition of the actual records, or mistakes in mixing up one name or person with another.

We have a couple of family members on both sides of my family who put together books based on their research and a lot of it was wrong, including basics about our current family. Definitely verify through official documents.

We also have the problem of family members who changed names, oral histories, and what not around WWI - WWII because of German connections, and name spelling changes when they came to the US.

We have a bunch of original documents from my dad's family going back to the Netherlands, but the translations from Dutch to English are sketchy.

[SirTeddykins]

Yep, parents did this a good 30 years ago but it may have been easier for them since they are both Cherokee and a lot of their ancestry was held by the Cherokee Nation as well as country court records.


I'm not sure how much I trust the websites. I know a few people who have used them and they all, oddly enough, come from a common ancestor from the Mayflower despite not being related. It just seems a little too coincidental. But, I'm a born skeptic, anyway!


What spurred this on for you?

[yorkietalkjilly]

Originally Posted by Maximo

We have a couple of family members on both sides of my family who put together books based on their research and a lot of it was wrong, including basics about our current family. Definitely verify through official documents.

We also have the problem of family members who changed names, oral histories, and what not around WWI - WWII because of German connections, and name spelling changes when they came to the US.

We have a bunch of original documents from my dad's family going back to the Netherlands, but the translations from Dutch to English are sketchy.

Oh - I'll bet that hurt them to find out they'd gotten books done up and it was not right - bet they were mad.

We were both shocked to learn how sketchy a lot of genealogy research is and seemingly involves hasty assumptions, presumptions, surmises, not all that much actual on-the-spot, run-down-the-last-detail, even if travel is required, real fact-checking. Aliases and changing names, changing stories, during the wars, maybe even prison time, etc., really makes the investigation hard to do unless you go to the place the person in question lived to thoroughly research everything available, rake over old records, verify it with other records, old newspapers, talk to the old folks, record keepers, ministers, funeral directors, etc., still alive, look at their family Bibles, Church records, cemetery records, etc. And you can wait on the military to verify something for two years! They don't rush anything. And that's just in this country. Overseas and with language barriers, it gets very expensive and plain old exhausting.