Genealogy overoad... brain smoldering....

[Tattoo Bradley]

Wow,
So, I received some genealogy info tonight, punched it into Ancestry.com (freebie 3 day trial acct thingy) and BADA BING! My paternal Great Great Grandmother opened up a HUGE jackpot of info. Someone has already done an INCREDIBLE amount of work that had branches upon branches. I found tons of Welsh in there. Agnus Weatherly 1744, Wales. There was also a Gwyn (surname) back even further down another line. Sounds like a Gwyn tartan Cilt just entered the wish list. McBrides back to Ireland in 1750. Rowand back to Scotland. Found a direct line to some Scott blood too. Great, great stuff. Very exciting. Also found a huge stash of family from Northumberland. I knew that "check" stirred something inside me... just needed some sort of connection to add it to the wish list. Looks like I've found it. Wow. I need to go lay down.

[prairieson]

Ah, the merging of two addictions, kilts and genealogy... Good for you!

Heheh.

[Riverkilt]

Hits like that are soooo cool when they happen. What a break through.

When I found my Welsh blood I kinda figured out - oh, so that's why I worked in the mines as a youth...

But the dual addiction is a killer...for every success on the genealogy front the kilt wish list grows.

Ron

[Phil]

Found a direct line to some Scott blood too.

Bad lot the Scotts - delve too deeply there and you'll probably find they were all hanged for sheep stealing. Mind you the Bells, Armstrongs and Douglas's were just as bad. That's why they sent them lots of them to Ireland to make trouble there instead.

[Cawdorian]

Every now and then you will hit the "genealogy jackpot." I've been trying to get all of my information entered and properly referenced so I can publish it for the family. I keep finding more and more new information and the chore never seems to get finished. I'm suffering from genealogy overload too. It's fun I enjoy it.

I think I am going to stop at a certain point and publish what information I have and them begin work on revision 1. I have some family that are getting up in years, I want to get the information out to them.

[cessna152towser]

That's cool - Welsh, Irish, Scottish and Northumbrian ancestry.
I know a lot about my mother's side, going back over 300 years, but still to trace my father's ancestry.

[arrogcow]

Just remember to take anything you find on Ancestry.com with a grain of salt. My mother is doing our geneology, and doens't regard anything as real unless she has evidence in her hand. Consequently, she has found many cases where Ancestry is wrong.

Adam

[davedove]

Just remember to take anything you find on Ancestry.com with a grain of salt. My mother is doing our geneology, and doens't regard anything as real unless she has evidence in her hand. Consequently, she has found many cases where Ancestry is wrong.

Adam

I agree. These sites are a good place for direction and clues, but nothing is guaranteed unless you have documentation.

[CactusJack]

Just remember to take anything you find on Ancestry.com with a grain of salt. My mother is doing our geneology, and doens't regard anything as real unless she has evidence in her hand. Consequently, she has found many cases where Ancestry is wrong.

Adam

I agree with this also, But the best part for me was that I found a long lost cousin and have been able to connect and with her help have found that my great great gandmothers side has scottish roots to the Campbells and Blairs

[Don Patrick]

Just remember to take anything you find on Ancestry.com with a grain of salt. My mother is doing our geneology, and doens't regard anything as real unless she has evidence in her hand. Consequently, she has found many cases where Ancestry is wrong.

Adam

I agree to a certain extent. Unfortuneately, some have placed family trees with incorrect but perhaps with well intentioned information on quite a few sites including the Latter Day Saints site. But having said that, even information provided via source documents or objects can be just as faulty. Tombstones are considered a source object, but I've found those with incorrect dates and even mispelled names when compared to birth certificates. Some tombstones are not placed until years after the person's death. My Father placed my Grandmother's tombstone seventeen years after she died. The birth date he recorded for her doesn't agree with her birth certificate.

Birth Certificates can be another problem. Especially in light of delayed birth certificates. Mispelled names and incorrect information also apply here. I recently found one with an incorrect surname on it. The receipenant was apparently allowed to provide their own choice of surnames.

Census records are a really nice source document. ... but I had one ancester, where his birth State changed on each census record. Quite a few others where their birth State were random. Ages as well. Names can be commonly mispelled. Gattis was spelled Gaddis on many census records for the same person. All of the other census information matched to a 'T', including the family location. I've found Reed, spelled as Reid, Read, Reede, Rede, among other variations.

I've learned to consider all information. Looking to see how much of it matches my information, if there is sufficent matching, I embrace it on a temporary basis. ...and use it to follow leads.

I have other genealogy friends who are apauled by my approach. They require every 't' to be crossed and every 'i' to be dotted. I believe that approach is very scientific and very accurate, but also know they may fall short of their goal and may never trace their ancestors. To this day, some of them refuse to accept the Gaddis census records mentioned earlier, as Gattis census records.

One thing I've found - genealogy can be exciting and very rewarding.