Genealogy, Anyone?

by Wendy, Retirement Enthusiast/Coach
(Michigan)

I've been working on my family Genealogy. I have done this for ten years now but never mentioned it here. Does anyone use Ancestry.com as I do? I've done family trees for a few friends now too. LOVE how Ancestry provides all the hints -- makes it easier than years ago. However, you DO have to look closely at everything.

I'm doing something odd on Ancestry (sounds about right for me, doing something weird again :).

I am starting with DNA matches on my mothers side and working on their trees, hoping (in time) that I will figure out where we fit in. Working with Polish surnames with many spellings leads to many walls so I am hoping my reverse logic works!

So tell me about your Genealogy efforts.
Do you use Ancestry.com?
Do you use another site?
Do you do searches the old way with paperwork and old, but trusty, methods?
Have you found significant family finds with your searches?

Comments for Genealogy, Anyone?

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Family Heritage
by: Irwin/Florida

Genealogy Efforts

So tell me about your Genealogy efforts.

Worked on it many years ago but found it to be a very time-consuming hobby. Haven’t been involved with it for at least ten or more years now.

Do you use Ancestry.com?

Thought about it, but the monthly fee sort of turned us off. Don’t know what the monthly fee is right now but it is something to think about as it would keep our minds active and give us something to look forward to doing each day. Not that we don't have a lot to do at the moment.

Do you use another site?

Haven’t thought about using any other sites. Most of my material came from hand-me-down information from an uncle who did quite a bit of research into our name before he passed several years ago.

Do you search the old way with paperwork and old, but trusty, methods?

Word of mouth and getting the much younger generation involved is one way I have done it along with going to certain libraries that specialize in family histories.

Have you found significant family finds with your search?

Like I said, it has been at least 12 or possibly 14 years since I last opened my three-ring binder to even look at where I stopped.

But you do make an interesting point, at our age, it would be nice to gather as much information as we can about our ancestors to hand down to those that follow in our footsteps.

Who knows, I may just dig out those old Heritage papers and begin working on them again.
Found a living relative through gen search
by: Carol from West Chester

I post my findings on FamilySearch. Use many different websites, have emailed various record holding places. Long story short.

My best find was this: one day long after I forgot about contacting a records holding location, I received an email with a note and a doc. It was my great grandmother and provided missing information. Through this Cindy on the West coast and I on the East coast matched up.

Cindy and I often email each other and follow on Facebook. She is a mother of 9 children and I a mother of 3 and 6 grandkids. She had the complete history of the travel by our mutual relatives across the United States.

Over the dark covid years 2020-2021, I added screen shots of the news, and wrote up information
for future relatives to read.

To me, family history is interesting, no kings or queens, lots of men driving beer wagons, though.
Geneology
by: Jane

I have done some work in the past ten years. I used Family Tree DNA, My Heritage, 23 and me and Ancestry. Ancestry is the most costly but has the most accurate percentages of ethnicity. My Heritage finds relatives in Europe because it is more used by them. Tough to go back into non English speaking countries. However, you may find other people's trees that will help you with the process.
I used to use Ancestry
by: Canada

I used to use Ancestry. I do maintain an up to date version of The Family Tree Maker. My greatest enjoyment is when I get an email inquiry and I go rabbiting around to find if we are related.

Most of the best information came from family members. I found newspaper articles in Ancestry were useful but most of my authentic research has been with microfiche resources.

I am mostly researching in the Maritimes and England.

I've reached a dead end, which I think is because someone forged a name and identity before coming to Canada! No proof, but suspicious!
A fitting end
by: Margaret From Johannesburg

When my mother was in her 90’s and was becoming aware of end-of-life, she was worried that an abusive relative from her childhood would have found grace and gone to heaven.

She was worried that because she couldn’t forgive him, she would be excluded. Death therefore was a scary business. Between a psychologist and the chaplain, we dealt with the forgiveness issue.

In the meantime I took a 3month contract from Ancestry.com and went into her background as far as I could. I got back to the year 1600, and had a list of about 40 ancestors, all from villages in the same 10 mile radius of a town in Scotland.

I then I traduced her to all the OTHER people she would meet in heaven, and she was vaguely interested. I shared it with cousins, siblings etc and found it quite fascinating.

About two years after she died, I dug out this information and then got on to "findagrave.com." I found several burial sites, and I spent two weeks in Scotland exploring all the villages and finding the graves of relatives I never knew.

The people were very helpful and friendly, and I left, feeling my mom had truly found some special family members, and that my mom was truly at home.

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