If your family tree doesn't fork, you might be a redneck. - Jeff Foxworthy
Image from www.coplen.org
A few years back I did a little research on my family tree. I complied a lot of info from relatives but didn't manage to get back very far in the lineage of any of the family names I was researching from additional information I could find online. I'm hoping that now that a few years have gone by, maybe there is more out there on the web to find. My fantasy is that I'm going to bump into someone with a relative in common who has already done all the work to fill a branch of our family tree back hundreds of years and I can just "zoop zoop" slap it into my own family tree. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Heh.
DH's family is primarily from Scotland and Poland, and mine is primarily from Germany, Hungary and Poland also. The family joke on my side of the family is that we're descended from gypsies. I could kinda see that. :-) Actually, I met someone on a Tres Dias (christian 3 day weekend) whose father actually lived with and wrote a book about the gypsies, so I got the book from my library and read it, as well as looked up information online - it's really absolutely fascinating.
'Course I wouldn't mind finding out the family descended from some great Scottish Clansman either, that would be cool. (However, the Clan's downfall probably came when the warriors asked for swords and shields and the Chieftan said, "Ye Nay be Needin' That"!)
I took a little time to start searching online the other day, but there seem to be a million websites now for family history - many more than there were 4 or 5 years ago when I last was searching. I'm not even sure where to begin. It's kind of weird because I THINK researching your family history is a fairly popular hobby and I KNOW there are lots of books and software on this topic, however, I never seem to see any advertising for it. I mean, Geico, the Cavemen, the alli diet pill, Magic Putty - I see those ads all the time, where's the genealogy ads? Maybe I don't look in the right places.
Well I know some of you have done some genealogy research yourselves, so can any of you give me some good starting off points? Tips? Advice?
And for those of you that have researched their family trees, has anyone found any surprising or noteworthy relatives in their midst? Tell me! :-)
If I find out anything really cool in my family tree, I'll share too!
The end.
My grandma did a lot of the early legwork for me when I was a kid. She told me stories. I never got all the papers she wrote, but I remembered the stories.
ReplyDeleteI started just by searching out names online. GenTrees is a great site... um... can't think of anymore right now, but I intend to do a post about it soon, actually.
My advice is pick a family (ma, pa, or your husband's) and go backwards. Write things down. I use software but can't remember the name of it right now (it's late, lol). I'll send you info if you want. :)
Be prepared. Once the genealogy bug hits, it's incurable.
Well, I found out that an ancestor was part of a mutiny that resulted to the deaths of 13 heroes in my country. That was embarrassing. So I'd rather not know anything about my family anymore!
ReplyDeleteMy mom is totally hooked on researching geneology, and she uses ancestry.com, and loves it. She has gone so far back on both sides of our family, its crazy! Found out one of our grandfathers was friends with Abe Lincoln and a letter to prove it! So cool. Now she does research on all of our friends' families too.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
My husband's brother did their genealogy and found out they are related to a former US President. He also found out that they have one relative who is an American Indian. You are right, doing this is so labor intensive. He did this before the internet age, can you imagine that.
ReplyDeleteLOL at grandpa and his socks, how cute.
ReplyDeleteWe're related to Patrick Henry, the Cromwells (both my paternal gma AND gpa - that's Ireland for ya). The McQ's once owned Castle Dunluce in Ireland, till they were massacred and Teague McQ came to America shortly after the Mayflower.
My paternal gma came to America on a sister ship of the Titanic (1922).
My maternal great grandparents came to America in 1914, on separate ships and must have met in Jersey. My grandmother was from Galicia which was annihilated in one of the first WWI battles. I feel lucky to be here!
My mother's paternal side is descended from Genghis Khan. We were Tatar royalty and followed the Sunni branch of Islam. Somewhere down the line we became Jewish. Then Christian.
Charles Bronson is one as well, he's what a lot of my mom's male relatives look like!
I know your DSIL traced her geneology back to the Mayflower last Summer, so she may be able to give you advice. The family tree I have I got from my lovely cousin, Carole... ;)
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