Community Chat

[lilypadfrog]

I have been doing it for years but am now at the stopping place.  I went back pretty far, 1358, but ran into some difficulty with an adoption, and 2 teenage brothers becoming deckhands for their passage to America.  I couldn't find any of their ancesters.  I found the birth father for the adoption but not the birth mother.  I now keep my tree private on Ancestry because people would use my information to fill in their blank  whether it was correct or not.  And, no one ever listened when I tried to correct with documents.  I may go back again later this year to look some more.  Documents and information is always being added to Ancestry

[ThinkingOutLoud]

There are many ways to work on your family history. Besides research, you can scan and upload photos, write and upload life sketches, interview relatives about their lives and/or what they remember about their parents/grandparents, etc. Also, research is never done as documents continue to be made available.

As mentioned, FamilySearch is free (anyone is welcome - just create an account) and they have a lot of resources. Also, before you pay for any subscription site, you can visit a family history center in your area (when things are back to normal) and access the subscription sites for free (ancestry, myheritage, findmypast, newspapers, fold3, etc).

One thing I did a couple years ago was go through my tree and identify all those who've served in the military. It was eye opening! I then put something together and shared it with my family. The info was a suprise to them as well and was appreciated.

[Tshirtgal]

I have a ton of information, and luckily, photos going back over 100 years.  I am 66 and decided now is the time to share it all. What good is all this info in a box in my closet.   I have created a Blurb book which has a chapter for each person: a bio and statistics on each and scanned photos from young to old.  I believe all my family should have access and this is the best way to do it.  Anyone who is interested can buy their book on line.  My cousins and their children love it and it is preserved for all.

[ALRATIBA]

My mother started it in the mid 1980s.  I inherited the project in about 1995 when it became difficult for her to continue the library research. 

I spent every Satruday for years in either the NY public library microfilm room or at the LDS Family History Center reading microfilm.  I'm still doing research, but now on my computer.  I have about 50 ring binders with print-outs of microfilm copies of  church records amd public records.

Before Ancestry - there was Rootsweb.  Then genealogy software.  I'm still using Family Tree Maker linked to Ancestry.

My Ancestry tree now has 3,538 entries.

With the DNA testing in recent years - a couple of times a month I get a message from someone who has DNA  matches and have found so many "new" cousins, and re-established relationship with a cousin I hadn'd seen in about 20 years.  She's now passing her files down to her children.  My files will go to my youngest nephew.

Over the years, I've been in contact with "cousins" in Germany, Austria, Ireland, France, Belgium and all around the U.S.   

[esmerelda]

I'd be happy to read a compilation of what a family member discovers, but I don't have enough interest to do the work. 

[AuntG]

---

@Sooner wrote:

I tried it, and found out I'm not really interested in it.  But seems a lot of people really enjoy doing it. 

---

DITTO @Sooner 

[Toppers3]

---

@esmerelda wrote:

I'd be happy to read a compilation of what a family member discovers, but I don't have enough interest to do the work. 

---

It can be very time-consuming.

The fun part of it can be finding family records and documents, and looking at them. 

I was mostly interested in finding out information regarding my Dad's side of the family, and when I went to look into it, some of my cousins on that side of the family had already been working on it long before me.

These were actually my Dad's first cousins, and I have been in touch with them, so that has been a happy result of doing family research. 

They have already done a lot of the ground work for the family history on that side of my family, so I give them a lot of credit for being so dedicated and for putting so much time and effort into it. 

[jeanlake]

I haven't seen commercials lately but glad hubs and I checked into it. Hubs found a state senator uncle and author aunt. This predominately Irish guy is also a small percentage pacific islander -- how did that happen? We're thinking penal colony. All the talk throughout generations about being German -- my family had zilch. Instead it was Scandinavian and Finland for the light blue eyes. My mom's olive skin and dark, wavy hair? Bingo -- Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Middle Eastern, Russian Jew. So.... dna was an eye opener for hubs & I and grown children loved our results. It can be interesting       

[Q4u]

I am utterly fascinated by genetics, family trees, etc.  My Dad did a lot of research many years ago and compiled an impressive amount of data, all without a computer.  I would be interested in learning more but do not want to be part of a Database.....   

[PA Mom-mom]

@qualitygal  Family history is built into our family, as it is with most Mennonite families. We carry our histories with us along with recipes, stoneware, hymnals and furniture. My DH is an armature historian, and i'm moderately interested. We know that his Mom's ancestors and my Mom's ancestors came to America from the same town in Switzerland 300 years ago. No wonder we look alike! Hahahaha!