Community Chat

[gidgetgh]

On 6/2/2014 sylviahomeatlast said: one of my sisters does family research--on her own not on a website

I wouldn't even know how to start doing that. I live in Georgia and my family- both sides- were from northern states.

[Linders Back]

On 6/3/2014 gidgetgoeshawaiian said:

On 6/2/2014 sylviahomeatlast said: one of my sisters does family research--on her own not on a website

I wouldn't even know how to start doing that. I live in Georgia and my family- both sides- were from northern states.

The website is not just for finding the information, it's for compiling and organizing it.

I started doing my genealogical research BEFORE all this stuff was available on the internet. I used to travel between the New England historic and genealogical Society in Boston, the Mormon archives in Weston, Mass, and the State Archives in Boston.

You say your family is from "Northern States". If you mean New England, there is a wealth of info online free. Start with what you do know, and then just "google" a name, dates of birth death, state etc. and a lot of stuff might show up. Many town histories are online at Google Books as are "Vital Records for many Massachusetts cities and towns from 1630 to 1850 which list Births, Deaths, and Marriages.

Googling a name will show if they are online at Find-A-Grave and that can lead to other ancestors names and info in the same cemetery. If you know where an ancestor died, google cemeteries in that town or area as many of the transcripts of burials are online. Or just call the cemeteries. That's how I finally broke a brick wall in my tree: had two possible choices for GGRandfather as 2 men with same name were born same year in same town, but when I checked on my Grandmother's grave she was in a plot with her parents and siblings so I then knew which was the right man and from then moving backward was easy.

Many organizational charts are also available online. If you are interested I will go up to my computer and send you some links.