Community Chat

[Roni18]

I have had a membership for many years now.  I have discovered so much there.  It has been well worth it for me.   One word of caution is that you must do your own research as many of the trees do contain errors.  

I would reccomend doing a trial membership to find out if you would like it.  

[Roni18]

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@lilypadfrog wrote:

I am a recent addict of this site.  If I remember correctly, when you do a dna kit, they give you a short membership.  I have now found my husband paternal  line back to 1340.  Its amazing how much information is on this site.  I am now working on his maternal line then will do mine.  One thing I noticed is that you have to decide how much you want to do.  A hundred or so years ago, having 8+ children was normal.  But you then have to follow each sibling who may in turn have many children and their wives.  I am only following the main bloodline, but my distant cousin is doing it all.  She has over 59,000 in her tree while I have about 500.  I will of course have more once I complete husbands maternal line, then do both the paternal / maternal side of mine.

This can be very addictive.  I often spend 3 or 4 hours a day doing this.  My membership now includes other countries so that makes it more interesting.

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@lilypadfrog  I understand what your saying.  I should probably have been more limited on my line when I started!  However, on one of my lines there were several famililes of the same name in the same area and I had to put them all down in order to sort them all out.  Turns out I was somehow related to all of them!  Another family had many sons who all named their children the same names.  It took me a long time to figure out who was who.  Ancestry's trees really came in handy here.  I have also been able to find members of my direct line by tracking some of their siblings when I couldn't find them in other ways.  Still it can end up being overwhelming!

[Roni18]

If anyone is interested in doing the DNA test it is on sale for $69 until the 14th.  

[janz]

@Roni18

Another thing...make sure you document everything as some people are more obsessed with adding to their tree than being correct.  I have had several people accept online entries if the name was the same and in the state where ancestors lived or they "found" incorrect information online and they accepted it as fact.  I will keep notes on persons who "may" be related but unless I have a document or proof the person does not go into my tree.  Documents can be actual records, birth, marriage, death, obituary listing relatives, burial records, church records, census records, service or draft records, land records, wills, etc., but without documentation it is not proven.  This is especially important the further back you go as records are sometimes hard to find and names were common and the same names were used constantly throughout families.  Three things to keep in mind....document, document, document.   

[janz]

Roni18

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@Roni18 wrote:

However, on one of my lines there were several famililes of the same name in the same area and I had to put them all down in order to sort them all out.  Turns out I was somehow related to all of them!  Another family had many sons who all named their children the same names.  It took me a long time to figure out who was who.  Ancestry's trees really came in handy here.  

@Roni18

Oh my gosh!  I thought I was the only one who had an ancestor name all his sons the same...13 of them all named George.  Thankfully they went by middle names after a while, guess they got confused too.  It was traditional then to keep names in the family.  On my son's paternal side he is related to Davy Crockett and there were three brothers who all named their sons after each other.  What a mess and they all lived in the same county in Tennessee.  

[Roni18]

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@janz wrote:

Roni18

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@Roni18 wrote:

However, on one of my lines there were several famililes of the same name in the same area and I had to put them all down in order to sort them all out.  Turns out I was somehow related to all of them!  Another family had many sons who all named their children the same names.  It took me a long time to figure out who was who.  Ancestry's trees really came in handy here.  

@Roni18

Oh my gosh!  I thought I was the only one who had an ancestor name all his sons the same...13 of them all named George.  Thankfully they went by middle names after a while, guess they got confused too.  It was traditional then to keep names in the family.  On my son's paternal side he is related to Davy Crockett and there were three brothers who all named their sons after each other.  What a mess and they all lived in the same county in Tennessee.  

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@janz  Yes, this family all named their daughters Sallie after their mother and they were all about the same age living in the same town so it was super confusing to work out.  I was able to find some marriage records with the father's name to help me. Speaking of Davy Crockett I found that one of my ancestors was listed very close to his name in the 1820 census.  Finding things like that are what makes genealogy fun to me!  

[Roni18]

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@janz wrote:

@Roni18

Another thing...make sure you document everything as some people are more obsessed with adding to their tree than being correct.  I have had several people accept online entries if the name was the same and in the state where ancestors lived or they "found" incorrect information online and they accepted it as fact.  I will keep notes on persons who "may" be related but unless I have a document or proof the person does not go into my tree.  Documents can be actual records, birth, marriage, death, obituary listing relatives, burial records, church records, census records, service or draft records, land records, wills, etc., but without documentation it is not proven.  This is especially important the further back you go as records are sometimes hard to find and names were common and the same names were used constantly throughout families.  Three things to keep in mind....document, document, document.   

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@janzYes, too many people just find someone of the same name and stick it on their tree as if they were the only person in the whole country with that name!  I saw that just this week.  I was looking at a DNA match's tree and saw some new names I didn't recognize.  On closer inspection, they had just found someone of the same name (and even about 4 states away) and claimed it was this man, giving him totally new parents and siblings!

[janz]

@Roni18

That is too funny.  I contacted a guy online to ask where he found the information on an ancestor as it was evident we were related from great great grandparents and I ask for any documentation he had.  He said he didn't know but found it online.  I figured as it wasn't true.  

It's exciting and fascinating and I love it.  I didn't even know my grandmother's name or anything about her until I started genealogy as she was never mentioned for some reason.  The census is your friend as there is so much information that can lead you to other discoveries.  If I wasn't so adamant about documentation I could trace my dad's side back to around 400 A.D. but I won't accept it beyond a certain point because I can't prove it yet.  I have found ship records bringing the first settler in 1764 who served in the Revolutionary War (twice) and Civil War veterans, with their military records from NARA.  It's the best hobby imaginable!

[sommertime]

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@Roni18 wrote:

I have had a membership for many years now.  I have discovered so much there.  It has been well worth it for me.   One word of caution is that you must do your own research as many of the trees do contain errors.  

I would reccomend doing a trial membership to find out if you would like it.  

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Yes, many people just seem to cut and paste others info without checking out and documenting their research before adding it to their tree.

[Yardlie]

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@ALRATIBA wrote:

I've been a member for years.  It's expensive, but I think it's well worth it.  Over the years, I've "met" several distant cousins whose families still live in Europe.  Just recently (August) ... another cousin who lives in Florida.

Ancestry interfaces with the Family Tree Maker software so if you update one, it automatically updates the other.  

You might want to look into Familysearch.Org.  It's free.  

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@ALRATIBA ... I use Familysearch.org quite often when scouring the internet for my research. I have found a few close cousins also while doing my research. I've been in phone contact with one. My mother was her mother's maid-of-honor at her wedding in 1941. They are both still alive and spoke on the phone. What a happy reunion!