Community Chat

[Yardlie]

I recently got into doing genealogy research, and I am addicted to it! I have regular ancestry.com and also use a lot of online free resources.

On my dad's side of the family, I have been able to trace back my father's family name back to the late 1500's (9 x great grandfather)! That was so much fun and very rewarding. Amazing what our ancesters went through! I got back as far as I could until they came over from England, and then I found the names of the great grandparents who came from England, but I can't get any further without European resources. Our libraries do not have Ancestry World.

On my mother's side of the family, her own mother and siblings came from Europe with their parents as young children, so I can't get back very far at all. The same is true with my mother's father and my dad's mother.

Just wondering if you have to join Ancestry World ($300/year), or are their other places that have a lot of European resources? I see little bits of information about European ancesters here and there, but not what I'm looking for. What did you use when doing your research?

Thanks so much and happy researching!

[wenfen]

Ancestry is the most inaccurate of all the geneology sites I use.  It has so many errors & has really hindered me from getting correct information.

I would highly recommend using the Mormon website, www.familysearch.org.  It's not only free, but you can also go to any Mormon church in your area & they have wonderful volunteers that can help you find whatever you need, either on their websites or at their public libraries. They will also give you assistance on where to look.  It's part of their religion for they make sure to have the most complete, accurate information available.

Other options are various ethnic websites like Jewishgen etc.  They're mostly free & have wonderful accurate information. You can also contact the various cities where your ancestors have lived to find public records.  While some you need to pay for, most are free.

Hope that helps

[Moonchilde]

@Yardlie, several times a year Ancestry will offer discounts on memberships, six month memberships, and even "free weekends."

My family on both sides mostly arrived in the US very early (Mayflower early on one side), so I hadn't ever paid for a World membership. And I let my membership lapse because I got tired of paying once I had my info. But I got an email for half off a six month membership and re-upped, and then they had a "free weekend" for UK data bases, so I used that free weekend to research the 1-2 ancestors I could trace back to England in Queen Eliz I's time.

If you keep an eye out, you can do some research on the cheap.

The Mormon Church as a huuuge database and genealogy center in Salt Lake City that is I think free to use online or in person. It has little to do with Mormons per se, they keep info on anyone and everyone.

[Plaid Pants2]

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@wenfen wrote:

Ancestry is the most inaccurate of all the geneology sites I use.  It has so many errors & has really hindered me from getting correct information.

I would highly recommend using the Mormon website, www.familysearch.org.  It's not only free, but you can also go to any Mormon church in your area & they have wonderful volunteers that can help you find whatever you need, either on their websites or at their public libraries. They will also give you assistance on where to look.  It's part of their religion for they make sure to have the most complete, accurate information available.

Other options are various ethnic websites like Jewishgen etc.  They're mostly free & have wonderful accurate information. You can also contact the various cities where your ancestors have lived to find public records.  While some you need to pay for, most are free.

Hope that helps

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@wenfen

I don't know how accurate the Mormon site is either.

I just went on there, and looked up my father.

They had him listed as DECEASED!

Uh, no, he is stil very much ALIVE, thank-you very much.

They had also listed his birth place as Saint Louis, Mo.

WRONG!!!

It's Kansas City, Mo.

So, if they can't even get that right, what else do they have wrong?

[Moonchilde]

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@Plaid Pants2 wrote:

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@wenfen wrote:

Ancestry is the most inaccurate of all the geneology sites I use.  It has so many errors & has really hindered me from getting correct information.

I would highly recommend using the Mormon website, www.familysearch.org.  It's not only free, but you can also go to any Mormon church in your area & they have wonderful volunteers that can help you find whatever you need, either on their websites or at their public libraries. They will also give you assistance on where to look.  It's part of their religion for they make sure to have the most complete, accurate information available.

Other options are various ethnic websites like Jewishgen etc.  They're mostly free & have wonderful accurate information. You can also contact the various cities where your ancestors have lived to find public records.  While some you need to pay for, most are free.

Hope that helps

---

@wenfen

 I don't know how accurate the Mormon site is either.

 I just went on there, and looked up my father.

 They had him listed as DECEASED!

 Uh, no, he is stil very much ALIVE, thank-you very much.

 They had also listed his birth place as Saint Louis, Mo.

 WRONG!!!

 It's Kansas City, Mo.

So, if they can't even get that right, what else do they have wrong?

---

I just looked up my oldest known ancestor on the site. There are at least 8-10 entries for him and they all differ very slightly in birthdate, birthplace, spouses, children - yet I can clearly see it IS the same person. But when the data comes from the 16th and 17th C it's not precise, with one single positive "that's the perfectly correct one" entry.

[Yardlie]

@wenfen ... Oh, trust me, I've discovered all the errors that are made on the various sites. I have used familysearch.org, as well as many other sites, state databases, archives.com, find-a-grave, obituary search, and library newspaper articles on microfiiche.

I've also noticed that other people who have done the same family research as I am doing on my family surname have so much inaccurate information. I am writing things on index cards until I can confirm by a couple different sites that I have the right "George"...or whoever. I think some people just copy other people's research to their family tree.

I haven't found any free records from states or cities. It seems they all want $$. I don't mind paying a few dollars now and then, but some want ridiculous prices. Who do you contact for free records, and what kind of records are free? Thanks much!

[Yardlie]

@Moonchilde ... Thanks so much for the info about the "free weekends," etc on Ancestry. I'll have to keep looking for them. My first ancestor came over on the Truelove ship in 1635.

[Yardlie]

@Plaid Pants ... It might not be an error. I have found so many relatives who had other people with the same name in different cities...born the same years. I had a terrible time untangling who was the real person I was looking for. This has happened several times in my research. Who would think that there were three John and Anna's with my father's surname, both born the same exact years, as two other couples in other parts of the country. It happens! Very confusing, but I'm trying to be diligent and don't expect it to be easy.

[Yardlie]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@Plaid Pants2 wrote:

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@wenfen wrote:

Ancestry is the most inaccurate of all the geneology sites I use.  It has so many errors & has really hindered me from getting correct information.

I would highly recommend using the Mormon website, www.familysearch.org.  It's not only free, but you can also go to any Mormon church in your area & they have wonderful volunteers that can help you find whatever you need, either on their websites or at their public libraries. They will also give you assistance on where to look.  It's part of their religion for they make sure to have the most complete, accurate information available.

Other options are various ethnic websites like Jewishgen etc.  They're mostly free & have wonderful accurate information. You can also contact the various cities where your ancestors have lived to find public records.  While some you need to pay for, most are free.

Hope that helps

---

@wenfen

 I don't know how accurate the Mormon site is either.

 I just went on there, and looked up my father.

 They had him listed as DECEASED!

 Uh, no, he is stil very much ALIVE, thank-you very much.

 They had also listed his birth place as Saint Louis, Mo.

 WRONG!!!

 It's Kansas City, Mo.

So, if they can't even get that right, what else do they have wrong?

---

I just looked up my oldest known ancestor on the site. There are at least 8-10 entries for him and they all differ very slightly in birthdate, birthplace, spouses, children - yet I can clearly see it IS the same person. But when the data comes from the 16th and 17th C it's not precise, with one single positive "that's the perfectly correct one" entry.

---

@Moonchilde ... I know what you are saying. It is confusing, and I have found that also. One site that I find helps alot is find-a-grave.com. I figure that the family who buried the person no doubt is as accurate as can be with the dates. There are usually photos of the grave, so you can see it yourself. Also, volunteers who take the photos do some research on the family and usually list the spouse, children, and parents of the deceased with dates. I don't totally trust those dates, as I have found many errors, but sometimes it is a beginning....as well as a lot of help.

[Moonchilde]

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@Yardlie wrote:

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@Plaid Pants2 wrote:

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@wenfen wrote:

Ancestry is the most inaccurate of all the geneology sites I use.  It has so many errors & has really hindered me from getting correct information.

I would highly recommend using the Mormon website, www.familysearch.org.  It's not only free, but you can also go to any Mormon church in your area & they have wonderful volunteers that can help you find whatever you need, either on their websites or at their public libraries. They will also give you assistance on where to look.  It's part of their religion for they make sure to have the most complete, accurate information available.

Other options are various ethnic websites like Jewishgen etc.  They're mostly free & have wonderful accurate information. You can also contact the various cities where your ancestors have lived to find public records.  While some you need to pay for, most are free.

Hope that helps

---

@wenfen

 I don't know how accurate the Mormon site is either.

 I just went on there, and looked up my father.

 They had him listed as DECEASED!

 Uh, no, he is stil very much ALIVE, thank-you very much.

 They had also listed his birth place as Saint Louis, Mo.

 WRONG!!!

 It's Kansas City, Mo.

So, if they can't even get that right, what else do they have wrong?

---

I just looked up my oldest known ancestor on the site. There are at least 8-10 entries for him and they all differ very slightly in birthdate, birthplace, spouses, children - yet I can clearly see it IS the same person. But when the data comes from the 16th and 17th C it's not precise, with one single positive "that's the perfectly correct one" entry.

---

@Moonchilde ... I know what you are saying. It is confusing, and I have found that also. One site that I find helps alot is find-a-grave.com. I figure that the family who buried the person no doubt is as accurate as can be with the dates. There are usually photos of the grave, so you can see it yourself. Also, volunteers who take the photos do some research on the family and usually list the spouse, children, and parents of the deceased with dates. I don't totally trust those dates, as I have found many errors, but sometimes it is a beginning....as well as a lot of help.

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@Yardlie, compounded in my ancestor's case by the fact that he was married twice and had children with both wives, his second wife was known by multiple given names, and 3+ generations of the men all had the same given name.