Archive through April 08, 2002

The ClubHouse: Archives: Genealogy: Archive through April 08, 2002

Twiggyish

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 01:47 pm Click here to edit this post
Genealogy is a hobby of mine. I'm curious how many of you also research your family. Have any of you found a famous relative or an interesting fact?

Neko

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 07:25 pm Click here to edit this post
I've tried to look up my genealogy and I got as far back as when we first came to Nova Scotia.
That's it.
I wish I knew more.neko

Llkoolaid

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 07:39 pm Click here to edit this post
I have tried a little, but have uncles and aunts who have done a lot. I have traced back to England, Ireland, Scotland and France. The branch that comes from Ireland, my grandfathers mother's family can be traced back to the early 1700's but I didn't do it, my uncle did. No one famous, just poor ordinary folk looking for a better life.

Myjohnhenry

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 07:42 pm Click here to edit this post
I have been working on my genealogy for awhile now....off and on and am pretty much at brick walls at the moment. Most interesting fact so far is that one line is now looking like it came from a different country than what I had been led to believe all these years. I actually find it all fascinating and work on it whenever I get a chance and am not caught up in work, current day family issues and of course following reality shows. I love reading at the various genealogy websites and magazines...and it is an interest that my dad and I share which is also nice.

Whoami

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 07:44 pm Click here to edit this post
The only famous link in our family is Fibber McGee and Molly, a popular old radio show couple. My grandmother's sister (that would be my great aunt I guess), married a man who was a relative of theirs of some sort.

My aunt researched a family tree. We had a Cherokee woman in our line somewhere. I always thought that was cool. I always tell folks, I'm 1/4 Itallian and 1/4 British (from my dad's side), and 1/4 German (my grandfather) and 1/4 "mutt" (my grandmother). It's that 1/4 mutt that is the most interesting. The Cherokee comes from there. As does whatever nationality the name Murray would come from. My grandmother's family came from Oklahoma, before it was a state.

Llkoolaid

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 07:55 pm Click here to edit this post
Murray is Scottish.

Twiggyish

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 08:07 pm Click here to edit this post
Almost all my ancestors came from Scotland, Ireland and England with one surprising line from Germany. We also have Cherokee and a few other Native American ancestors.
MJH, our German ancestor settled in North Carolina. I found this ancestor by accident and was surprised to find they also have Penn. Dutch origins.
I love genealogy. It's a lot of detective work and I love solving mysteries..LOL

Whoami:
I looked up Murray and here's what I found from the official Clan Murray family site:

http://clanmurray.org/murrayhi.html

Whoami

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 08:07 pm Click here to edit this post
Thanks Llkoolaid! I always get mixed up between Scottish and Irish for some reason! So, it's likely my grandmother's family originated from Scotland, and settled in Oklahoma!

I like to joke that Murray and Murphy sound a bit alike. We always have such odd things happen in our family (aka Murphy's law). I often wondered if they changed the name to Murray to try and shake Murphy's curse! Early settlers often did change their name from the normal family line.

edited to say: Thanks Twiggy too! You were posting the same time I was!

Twiggyish

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 08:14 pm Click here to edit this post
Neko, where have you looked for your Nova Scotia relatives? How far back did you get with them?

You're welcome Who =)

Myjohnhenry

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 08:28 pm Click here to edit this post
My lines are German (both sides of my moms family are German as far as we have gone back so far), Welsh, Irish (that was the surprise one). We have Pennsylvania Dutch too Twiggy! And the Welsh line were Quakers and one of my projects is to get more info about them and to find out why they left or were shunned. Speaking of the Quaker line....Daniel Boones parents and some older sibs I think it was signed either a marriage thing or a birth thing for one of my relatives. Also found out that teachers/educators in my family go allthe way back to a teacher in the colonies...and I am guessing probably before coming to America too since it seems to be a family thing.
I am also working on my adopted childs genealogy....now that is a challenge even though I know some of the names!!

Schoolmarm

Sunday, April 07, 2002 - 05:36 am Click here to edit this post
I've gotten my grandmother's geneology papers when she died. And a cousin on the other side of the family has done quite a bit of work. 3 out of 4 grandparents are Norwegian and I've visited the farm of my great-grandfather in Norway. We have the family tree back to Norway for all 3 of these grandparents. The other grandparent is mostly German with some English/Scottish thrown in. We almost have this line back to Germany, and the brothers who come over to America in the 1760s signed allegiance papers to King George! This family has shirt tail relations to Daniel Boone (via marriage) and Ike and Mamie Eisenhower.

My research on one-room schools was inspired by my grandmother, with a 16 year career of teaching in one-room schools. We come from a long line of teachers and farmers.

What's interesting is that I keep moving to locations that the German ancesters lived, except I skipped Elizabeton, Tennessee. So I guess that if I move again, it will be there, or Germany!! HAHA!

Neko

Sunday, April 07, 2002 - 08:00 am Click here to edit this post
Well...the full thing is that my ancestors on my mother's side (Bourque that ended up changing to Burke) came from France in 1636.
We actually have a small booklet that has all the names of my ancestors and when they were born.

Now my father's side is the harder on to follow.
My father's mother was Scottish(MacFarlane) and my father's fathr was Gaelic(Dunbar).

Whooo..fun fun to try and think of this all at 11 am in the morning.neko

Twiggyish

Sunday, April 07, 2002 - 01:00 pm Click here to edit this post
Neko, have you tried familysearch.org?

Marm, that is great that you visited that Norway town. Someday, I will go to Scotland to visit where some of my ancestors originated. One ancestor, Alexander Bain, left in the 1700's.

Bookworm

Sunday, April 07, 2002 - 01:51 pm Click here to edit this post
While I was pregnant I worked on some geneology, but haven't done anything with it since Wiggle was born. Anyway, I am related to Buffalo Bill Cody through my maternal grandmother. My maternal grandmother's family is researched back to 1798 and is published in a book. There were a lot of interesting stories in there. I will include the two neatest ones here.

There was a couple that had 16 children over a span of 28 years. There was only one set of twins in this family; all the rest were single births. All survived not only into adulthood but until their parent's golden wedding anniversary in 1947. All of their children gathered together for their parents' anniversary and that was the only time they were all together at once.

Another ancestor, who died in the early 1900s, believed she was a witch. She never married and forsaw many things. She also distrusted automobiles. Before she died she said she did not want to be taken to her grave in an automated hearse, but insisted on a horse driven hearse. On the day of her funeral only an automated hearse could be found so she was taken to the cemetary in it. However the engine in the hearse stopped at the gates of the cemetary and could not be restarted. After many failed attempts to restart the engine, this ancestor's coffin was carried to her grave on foot. Following her burial, the hearse started with no problem.

What do you use to research? So far I have only used family members and that book. I did find Ancestry.com that had several links on it, but I didn't get very far with it. I did find Social Security Death Index which gives you access to some information (Birth/Death Dates, Address, etc) on those family members that drew Social Security and have died. However that is pretty limited (one or two generations of US citizens). Are there any other websites or suggestions that are helpful to you?

Myjohnhenry

Sunday, April 07, 2002 - 02:18 pm Click here to edit this post
Book...the one Twiggy mentioned above is one of the best http://www.familysearch.org
I also use rootsweb.com and and cyndislist.com for both information and links to hundreds of other places.
I have lots more bookmarked.

There are also some great tutorials/getting started webpages and email lists (both ones that come like once a month and can'tbe posted to as well as interactive ones).

Schoolmarm

Monday, April 08, 2002 - 02:19 am Click here to edit this post
Even though I'm not Mormon, I've used their Family Research Centers. They have incredible information on file and on disc. Geneology is very important in their religion, so they have lots of resources.

Bookie, if you ever get up to Des Moines, stop at the LDS church in West Des Moines. They have a great little research room. It's by Valley West Mall, not too far off of I-235.

I also go to state historical societies and the county historical societies in the counties of residence.

Thanks for the websites. I think I see my next obsession, now that my dissertation is winding down!

Twiggyish

Monday, April 08, 2002 - 05:38 am Click here to edit this post
Yes, the Mormons do keep excellent records for genealogy research. I also use familytreemaker.com

Every so often, I find relatives researching at the same time. One person was researching my paternal biological grandparents. It turned out he was a first cousin. It's nice to find cousins, as they usually can fill in missing names. I found another cousin who remembered my grandfather's family. He had an extensive database of information. It was great finding him!

Bookie, now there's an interesting person (the witch).. It sounds like she got her way in the end.

Rissa

Monday, April 08, 2002 - 06:54 am Click here to edit this post
Wow ! This had come up a year ago and at that time I think only 2 other people copped to being genealogy addicts.:) Nice to see the amount growing. LOL I have been working on our genealogy for about 5 years now, took it over from my dad when he became too ill to concentrate on it. He had been doing it for 20 years !! But of course the computer has changed everything as far as tracking down information, locating address', etc. My Mom was born in Austria and my dad's family is a 50/50 split. HIS dad was from Norway, his mother from Belgium. My favorite paternal ancestor is Jean Baptiste Noel Gavroy, my 3rd Ggrandfather who single handedly defended a castle near St. Remy, Belgium from french soliers until help arrived. He was just a farmer but when he heard the French were coming and knew that the nearby castle was kept empty in summers, he sent his family to safety and parked himself in that empty castle with his one rifle. Now the castle has a statue, etc of him and even a book has been written on the event. So KEWL! LOL

I am also working on my hubby's ancestry, he moved to Canada from England in the late 1960's, so his ancestry (so far) is all in Norfolk and London. He has one Ggrandmother who was born in a London workhouse which is making for some fascinating reading. He also had a Ggrandfather who was a member of the Tower Hamlet's group, who was fighting for better working conditions for the massses. He ended up embezzling a tonne of money from them (he was their accountant) and then soon after met with a quite grisly death. It's our one criminal in the family, so we are quite fond of him. heehee

PS. I know there are lots of sites out there that offer lookups but I have the following at home and would be happy to check out information for this bomis group if anyone wants:
1)The complete 1880 US census
2)The Complete British census for 1881(included England, Scotland, Wales, Chanel Islands and Isle of Man)
3)1851 census for Norfolk, Warwickshire and Devon.

Just give me as much info. you have about the person or family you want looked up. Included names, place and approx ages.

And for NEKO, have you seen this site? http://www.rootsweb.com/~canwgw/e-index.html I have never researched in the maritimes so I don't know what databases they have online.

Twiggyish

Monday, April 08, 2002 - 07:14 am Click here to edit this post
Rissa, I have a brick wall on one relative. I've looked for years and cannot find her family.

If you don't mind, could you look up a name for me. I'll email you with her information. I have her year of birth and marriage record. Also, I have the county and state (Lincoln Cty. TN) where she lived.

Rissa

Monday, April 08, 2002 - 07:18 am Click here to edit this post
More than happy Twiggy. I have the Tennessee Cd in and ready to roll. :)

Whoami

Monday, April 08, 2002 - 11:09 am Click here to edit this post
What if, all you have is a name, and an approximate age? My mom/dad divorced when I was 3 (41 years ago), and I never saw him again. I don't even know when his birthday is, just that he was 5 years older than mom. Don't even know if he is alive, or if he re-married, and if I have half-siblings out there somewhere! Hmm, seems like I do remember Mom saying he'd been married before, and had a kid before me that he'd never seen too.

Rissa

Monday, April 08, 2002 - 11:28 am Click here to edit this post
Whaomi,

Is it an uncommon surname? If he has passed away then you might have luck finding him on the SSDI:
<http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/vital/ssdi/main.htm> I think California also has up to date death records as well.

I would start by pumping family members for info. Someone must know if he had sisters/brothers or his parents names or what state he was born in. If you know your parents marriage info. then you could apply for their marriage cert. this would be easy for you because it's your parents.. privacy laws would not apply. The marriage cert. will give you your grandfather's name. Some of the ones I have from the USA make note of where the bride and groom were from as well and notes their ages.

Whoami

Monday, April 08, 2002 - 12:14 pm Click here to edit this post
Well, I just asked Mom a few questions (until she started getting ticked off, she doesn't much like talking about him I guess).

I know his mother's name, and his dad's (though we aren't sure of the spelling). And that they were from Massachusettes.

I looked him up on the link you provided, and came up with no search results. When I first got online about 4 years ago, I did a White Pages search, and came up with someone with his first, middle, last name in Glendale, CA. But it doesn't come up now.

How does one go about applying for a copy of the marriage cert? I don't know the exact date of their wedding, but I can guess the month. One of the "family stories" is that I was conceived on thier wedding night, and was two months premature. I caused a few raised eyebrows with my mom's father, being born only seven months after they were married!

Rissa

Monday, April 08, 2002 - 12:50 pm Click here to edit this post
Whaomi,

Try this site: <http://www.usgenweb.org/statelinkstext.html> which is a list of US states. Click on the one where your parents married (you mentioned your dad was from Mass. but it didn't read like they were married there) and it will bring you to that state's genealogy page. I haven't researched in more than 4-5 US states but they should all have information for obtaining vital events records (birth, marriage, death). If you can't find it, let me know what state or city they were married in and I will dig up the information for you.

The SSDI is only missing the last year at most so if your dad isn't listed, then chances are real good he is still alive. I have never heard complaints about the SSDI missing information.

The other thing you might want to try is to go to:<http://www.familyhistory.com/main.asp> and locate the forum for your dad's surname. This is one of the biggest online lists for genealogy research and I often see people posting for people still alive that they are trying to track down as well as ancestors.

Also... if you can get your mom to narrow down the location to a specific town or city in Mass. and you are really gung-ho about locating him, then you could try cold-calling people with the same surname in that area. Could be cousins, etc. that could put you on the right track.

Twiggyish

Monday, April 08, 2002 - 01:21 pm Click here to edit this post
Also, try a google.com search. I can well understand your need to know, as I looked up my biological father, too.