Genealogy research could become addictive

[Detroitpete]

I was blessed with having a grandfather who loved genealogy and history. He once said, despite our Scandinavian last name "I think we're more celtic than than the Swedes in our family would admit to". My brother and I have been bitten by his same bug. Once we found that the first in our line to come to America was born in Scotland, I kept looking for other connections.

Here are some of the recent connectinons I've found that completely suprised me:

A great-great grandmother with the name Carruthers (Sept of Bruce clan)
Great Grandmother Hall.
Great-great-great Grandmother Hunter.
Great-great-great grandmother born in Edinburgh and her father's christening records are from St. Giles there.

Perhaps my grandfater was right. Now I can't help thinking, hmmmm..maybe I should get 3 more kilts for the Bruce, Hunter and Hall connections. Darn...3 more ;-)

[cessna152towser]

Yes, ancestry research is addictive, I started it as an only child who knew of very few living relatives, and now I have a family tree of more than 1,100 people including numerous second and third cousins all over the world whom I never knew existed and I have made contact with quite a few of them. I also discovered more family tartans I was entitled to wear, now in addition to Cunningham I also have kilts in Fraser, Hamilton, McLeod, MacKenzie and Wallace.

[Detroitpete]

I've started doing the "tree" which appears to look more like a shrub. How could I have forgotten in my previous post to also list JONES? Wales...yep, yet ANOTHER kilt to pine for.

The mind boggles.

[Derek Conley]

I need to start on this very same project. It's rather daunting.

[sathor]

I need to start on this very same project. It's rather daunting.

Ancestry.com is where I have been doing mine, I think they have a 2 week free trial for the premium version, and it's been good to me. I know more than some of my grandparents now.

[sathor]

Yes, ancestry research is addictive, I started it as an only child who knew of very few living relatives, and now I have a family tree of more than 1,100 people including numerous second and third cousins all over the world whom I never knew existed and I have made contact with quite a few of them. I also discovered more family tartans I was entitled to wear, now in addition to Cunningham I also have kilts in Fraser, Hamilton, McLeod, MacKenzie and Wallace.

I have to guess you're using Ancestry.com or similar, right? I don't think I have seen any of those names in the Scottish part of my tree, but with the numbers you gave...

[Detroitpete]

Ancestry.com has definately been a help for me, and now I'm looking for a Mac compatable gen software package. I have 3 generations that have more then 10 children per generation, so having a place to map everything would really be helpful.

Genweb and Ancestry have been very valuable in checking my records against others.

Derek--it IS kind of daunting when first begining, but its like what they say about eating an elephant--one bite at a time. I'm no where near where I know I could be in my family research, but I'm just finding one fact/individual and going to the next.

My family had a family genealogy published in 1926 that has in some ways been very helpful, yet the 'seeds' of our family prior to coming to America had always been no more than a guess.

After just 2 months interacting on gen-web sites I found the pre-cursor to the first in our family here AND found out he was from Scotland when our book surmised his family came from Sweden.

Problem is...add this to my kilt addiction and then add my highland games insanity and well, too darn bad I have to spend at least a few hours each day at work ;-)

[gilmore]

The pedigrees and group sheets on ancestry.com and the other online sites are very convenient, but when you rely on them, you are relying often on other people's work that we really don't know the integrity of (especially the LDS site.)

It has always been the case in genealogical research that bad information is passed around, but with the coming of the internet this process happens a lot faster. It really is heart breaking when you see an entire wing of your genealogical edifice come tumbling down because it was based on a foundation of incorrect assertions regarding more recent (or even more ancient) events. After it happens a few times, it become merely irritating, and one kicks oneself for taking shortcuts and not assessing information more stringently.

I have a cousin who says he never accepts anything as a fact until he can hold the original document that supports it in his hands. I think that's a very good rule of thumb.

[EagleJCS]

I've been very lucky in finding out my family's history. My Dad's family didn't talk much about family history, but I found out a few years ago via Rootsweb that my paternal line has been in the U.S since before there WAS a U.S.! (A cousin - 2nd, once removed - had done a lot of work and published his database there. I have since verified a good portion of it, and intend to continue to verify it.) I've currently put the research/verification on hold until I get a full-time job and can afford to travel to verify some of the records found online.

Going back to the mid/late 1700's makes things kinda tricky in determining whence we came before then, as some of the records have been lost/destroyed through the ensuing 3 wars (Revolutionary, 1812, Civil) and untold natural disasters (fires/floods) that have passed through Virginia. Plus, a lot of people in the area had the same name (for example, it appears there's three James Scotts and two Alexander Scotts in the same county at about the same time, only two of whom appear to be related - one of the Alexanders had a son named James). I've made the presumption, based on the family name, that we're Scottish, and can therefore wear the Scott tartan. <-- relating all this to kilts, etc.

Mom had a cousin do research on their line several years ago, so I know they came from Germany (Hessen-Darmstadt, on the France/Luxembourg border). I'll focus more on them once I've gone as far as possible with my paternal line.

In addition to the U.S. Genweb, Rootsweb and Ancestry, there's also Cyndi's List (www.cyndislist.com), which has a lot of links to research websites.

Another place to look for information in the U.S. is your state's Department of Vital Statistics (or whatever your state records department is called ). They should have birth, marriage and death certificates, plus there's the federal census records up to 1930 (those just became available a couple of years ago). If the state records don't go back far enough, try the county of residence for the person/line you're investigating. Another place to look is court records (estate settlements, property transfers, lawsuits, etc.). Get names and dates from your living family members, then start digging.

I found a lot of family birth/death/marriage certificates on microfilm in the local library's archive for the Dept of Vital Stats. Once you have the certificate numbers, getting a verified/certified copy from the state is just a matter of filling out the paperwork and sending them a check.

[Big Paul]

It's very addictive!!

The best plan of attack it go on Ebay and buy Version 16 or 17 of Family Tree Maker. It comes with one free year subscription to Ancestry.com! It's an awesome deal and great software to boot!