# Have you done your family tree?



## fuzzybuddy (Apr 9, 2018)

I'm the oldest in my family. I don't know anything about my family tree. I thought about using one of those online family tree sites. I'm not sure if it's worth the money. What do you think?


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## Keesha (Apr 9, 2018)

No but I’d like to. If only out of curiousity. My parents were only children so I have no aunts or uncles and they were very reserved about discussing their family. 
But I’m also a bit scared and apprehensive about doing so.


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## Aunt Bea (Apr 9, 2018)

I wouldn't spend any money until I hit a brick wall.

Start by jotting down the information that you remember about parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc...  Interview any of their descendants that you can locate.  

You can also find some good information online without spending any money.  Start by googling names and looking for obituaries, census information, burial information, etc...


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## Robusta (Apr 9, 2018)

I have my paternal side going back to 1634 when my first ancestor came to America from Somersetshire UK.  Mine was not that hard because my family never moved much, and the one major move they made after the founding of our nation was en masse from the Boston Area to upstate NY where most of us remain today. We also are a family of record keepers. My fathers Uncle started the research, my father continued, and a cousin and I carry on.


I use Ancestry.com , mostly because that was the main one when I started digitizing our research.  A subscription will give you access to the Social Security Master Death Rolls, Census Records, Some military,etc. 
You can gather all this information on your own, but the subscription serves as a great amalgamator. Chances are unless you are of really obscure lineage, you will find a cousin that has already done much of the work that you can piggy-back onto and flesh out your branch.


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## NancyNGA (Apr 9, 2018)

A lot of information *used* to be free, but it seems like Ancestry took it over, or bought it all up, or whatever.  Find a Grave (findagrave.com) is still a good site for information.  I've started mine several times but reach a dead end around 1800 on one side of the family.  Same with the relatives who tried it. Maybe some nefarious activity went on back then.  lol


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## Falcon (Apr 9, 2018)

On my Mother's side,  One of my ancestors   was  "Hallifax;  the  Lord Mayor of London.


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## Ken N Tx (Apr 9, 2018)

I go back to 1770 and hit a brick wall plus a lot of bad information entered by who knows who! I used many free sites and census records. Most of my ancestors are buried in Blodgett Mills NY and Illinois. Illinois go back to 1800.


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## ClassicRockr (Apr 9, 2018)

Nope.........don't want to know!


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## Marie5656 (Apr 9, 2018)

*My cousin did ours, on our fathers' sides. They were brothers.  She did it before all the Ancestry sites.  Basically a lot of record searches, Ellis island records, and many emails and snail mails between here and Italy.  She did have to pay someone to help with translations, as her Italian was not good enough.  She came up with a very comprehensive geneology of the family tree.*


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## Catlady (Apr 9, 2018)

Marie5656 said:


> *My cousin did ours, on our fathers' sides. They were brothers.  She did it before all the Ancestry sites.  Basically a lot of record searches, Ellis island records, and many emails and snail mails between here and Italy.  She did have to pay someone to help with translations, as her Italian was not good enough.  She came up with a very comprehensive geneology of the family tree.*


How interesting re your cousin!  I do my genealogy in fits and starts.  I am soooo sorry I didn't do this while my parents were alive, it would have been so much easier to get info.  But, back then I didn't care and now regret it.   Most of my family are from Italy.  I managed to find the address for the courthouse in my home town in Italy and sent them money for postage with a letter in broken Italian asking for info.  They were great and sent photocopies of marriage and death certificates, now I will try to do it again for my paternal side.  Ancestry.com is a great site, but they and Ellis Island now give very limited free info, you have to pay to get in deeper.  I lost touch with my relatives in Italy.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Apr 9, 2018)

A distant relative did it on my Mother's side. My Mom contributed so much information that when the relative was all done she gave my mom a copy. Much information was lost on both sides because the records were destroyed during the war in Germany and Czechoslovakia.


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## jujube (Apr 9, 2018)

Yes I did.  And there were some branches that could have used a good pruning.


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## Catlady (Apr 12, 2018)

Keesha said:


> No but I’d like to. If only out of curiousity. My parents were only children so I have no aunts or uncles and they were very reserved about discussing their family.
> But I’m also a bit scared and apprehensive about doing so.



If you're going to do it, do it now while your parents are still alive.  Perhaps you can get your brother to do it for you.  I have read your thread and know your unfortunate situation with your parents.  I was not interested in genealogy when my parents were alive and now regret not getting facts and dates ''from the horse's mouth''.  It's so much harder and time consuming having to do it from scratch.


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## WhatInThe (Apr 14, 2018)

*privacy and security issues*

There are many issues to genealogy research and websites. They include privacy concerns, ownership of information along with accuracy issues.

https://www.medicaldaily.com/dna-an...gless-your-historical-genealogy-search-244586

https://gizmodo.com/how-dna-testing-botched-my-familys-heritage-and-probab-1820932637

https://thinkprogress.org/ancestry-...m-customers-and-their-relatives-dbafeed02b9e/

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=42856117&nid=148

Personally I don't care, don't want mine or my families privacy put as risk(this is what many don't get because when they input and/or verify third party family information they just put their privacy and security in jeopardy). Yes information is out there but there is no need to put it on a silver platter in one location. Make people work and pay for it.


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## TonyK (Apr 15, 2018)

fuzzybuddy,

Like some of your ancestors once did, take that first step and open up the pages to the fascinating story of your family history. Every family has a unique story to tell: serfdom, wars, diseases, famine, persecution, military conscription, heroism, tragedy, and immigration.

Start with google, findagrave.org, familysearch.org, and other free sources. If you are still interested then give Ancestry or another site a brief trial. Ask for a DNA kit for your birthday or for Christmas. Little by little you will add to your tree and get a better understanding of who you are and where you came from.

I was told that I was Hungarian...that was wrong. I found an embarrassing story and a sketch in a few New York City newspapers in the late 1800's about one side of my family. I learned that some of my ancestors were serfs who were not allowed to leave their town, and the males were forced to serve in the military for ten years. I discovered new cousins from my DNA testing. My wife's ancestors came over on the Mayflower, fought in the Battle of Hastings, and built an English castle. Good Luck!


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## helenbacque (Apr 15, 2018)

Yes, began working on my family's genealogy 25+ years ago and continue to work on it today.


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## Warrigal (Apr 15, 2018)

We set out on a mission to find out something about the first settler ancestors in Australia. We were stimulated by a diary written by on a voyage to Australia in 1863 by my mother's great grand father and by the bicentenary of European settlement in 1988. 

We listened to tales told by older relatives but these can be misleading and should always be checked against official records. At that time we did not have the benefit of the internet and we relied on death, marriage and birth certificates obtained for a fee from the appropriate registrars. We also visited large city libraries and pored through old newspapers recorded in the form of microfische film. Ditto for the passenger lists of ships from those times. We even went to Canberra for a few days and searched their photographic collection looking for photos of the ships that they arrived on. Black and white studies of ships at anchor were not uncommon even as far back as the 1860s. This could be done at no financial cost but it did require a lot of time to be spent. Photocopies of anything we were interested in could be purchased for a small fee.

These days, with the arrival of the internet, smart phones etc it is much easier. I was discussing with my daughter the story about an uncle of my father who was charged with murder around about the time of WW II. We knew that the charges were dropped and that he had been awarded a military medal in WW I, apparently for being a sharp shooter (sniper). I wondered why he wasn't tried and my daughter whipped out her smart phone and in no time at all she had an image of a paper from his local area with a full account of the incident and the reason why the police dropped the charges. They were satisfied that it was self defence after investigating the scene.

We have struck a couple of brick walls, notably with ancestors of Irish descent. For example, my maternal grandmother appears to have no record of her birth. Neither do her two brothers. Her marriage and death certificates are not helpful either. Unfortunately, her mother died soon after giving birth and my grand mother was raised by her mother's family and by the nuns of a religious order who ran a boarding school and a hospital in Sydney. We know that she attended the school and trained as a nurse in the hospital but when she later married my grandfather, religious differences caused her to be estranged from her family and my mother and her siblings knew nothing about her mother's birth. We think her mother was Australian born and her father was Irish but we cannot confirm this without something like a birth certificate. We have been unable to track down her baptism record.

We are no longer actively pursuing further inquiries but my advice to anyone starting out would be to be patient and see what you can piece together yourself before utilising any online services. The fun is in being able to play detective and to follow the clues until you discover the facts and some very interesting anecdotes.


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## Gary O' (Apr 15, 2018)

Yeah

A cousin did it for the rest of us

interesting stuff


name was changed from Donl when they came over (fled) from Ireland


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## Catlady (Apr 15, 2018)

Gary O' said:


> Yeah
> 
> A cousin did it for the rest of us
> 
> ...



LOL, Gary.  A long time ago I had a boyfriend of Polish ancestry.  Polish surnames can be very long and hard to spell/pronounce.  So his grandfather, when he came to this country, just shortened to the first three letters of the surname.  That would cause a headache for anyone in his family trying to do a family tree.


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## jujube (Apr 15, 2018)

PVC said:


> LOL, Gary.  A long time ago I had a boyfriend of Polish ancestry.  Polish surnames can be very long and hard to spell/pronounce.  So his grandfather, when he came to this country, just shortened to the first three letters of the surname.  That would cause a headache for anyone in his family trying to do a family tree.



A friend of mine married a Polish fellow, whose last name only had four letters. I asked him what it was short for and he said it wasn't short for anything.  Apparently only the town dwellers and well-to-do country folk had long names.  The peasants or serfs who pretty much "belonged" to the local lord had short little names.  If they needed any more identification, they added the equivalent of "of the" to their names and added the lord's family name.   So if your name was Ug, you could also be Ugofthekasminskys, whatever that would work out to in Polish.


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## seabreezy (Apr 16, 2018)

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.


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## ProsperosDaughter (Apr 16, 2018)

My uncle was obsessed with genealogy. He did extensive research for his family and for all the wives and husbands of his siblings. I did not pay specific attention; but my cousins have the info if I ever want it.


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## Seeker (Apr 16, 2018)

My husband did his on Ancestry, I built mine off his. I went as far as I could then it got into some melungeon stuff and he was makin' fun of me...Whatever...I'm just a Tennessee Hillbilly.... I'll take it and own it.


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## Ken N Tx (Apr 17, 2018)




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## Capt Lightning (Apr 17, 2018)

I think that my sister did a bit of research, but I don't know what she came up with.  I don't really care all that much - I don't think there was anyone interesting.


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## helenbacque (Apr 17, 2018)

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.


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## jujube (Apr 17, 2018)

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?


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## debbie in seattle (Apr 17, 2018)

My mom did ours.   Did a great job, except......she added her ‘opinion’ about each and every one.


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## applecruncher (Apr 17, 2018)

Nope.


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## Radrook (Apr 20, 2018)

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.


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## Sassycakes (May 2, 2018)

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.


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## jujube (May 3, 2018)

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.



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.


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## Catlady (May 3, 2018)

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.


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.


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## Lon (May 3, 2018)

Yes  Have done both sides going way back. All English, Scotch,Irish


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## Lon (Jun 19, 2018)

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.


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## Chucktin (Jun 23, 2018)

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.


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## StarSong (Jun 24, 2018)

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.


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## Colleen (Jul 16, 2018)

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


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## Catlady (Jul 16, 2018)

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



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


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## Colleen (Jul 16, 2018)

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



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.


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## Olivia (Jul 16, 2018)

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!


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## Chucktin (Jul 24, 2018)

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.


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## moviequeen1 (Jul 24, 2018)

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


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