Genealogy

The ClubHouse: Archives: Genealogy
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Archive through April 08, 2002 25   04/08 01:21pm
Archive through April 18, 2002 25   04/19 01:14pm

Rissa

Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 08:14 am Click here to edit this post
Riviere,

I have a Smith too {sigh and groan}. My only condolence is that Smith was actually the surname of her first husband, so if I can ever locate that marriage then hopefully her maiden name will be something bizarre and rare. LOL

As for online data.. a big part of that problem is that places like ancestry.com don't allow you to change your data once you upload it, or at least they didn't a few years ago when I tried. About 5 years ago I put a skeleton tree on their site, not all the info. had been confirmed but I didn't have my own website then and I wanted the surnames *out there* for people to contact me. Since then I have discovered a couple errors, nothing major but I was told that my only option was to upload another tree ... the original one would still stay on-line too though. And of course my email has changed in the last 5 years so I can't even be contacted anyway.

Twiggyish.. you want to know stubborn? Try researching Drake's. RFLOL!! No matter how often you tell them that Sir Francis Drake had NO children and that his brother had one daughter whose line also died out... they still insist they are descendants and there are literally hundreds of error-filled twisted family trees out there *proving* the link. There was one woman I located whose Drake's came from the same teeny little town where my hubby's ancestor came from. I know beyond a doubt that she is connected to my information. But she will not talk to me because according to her.. HER Drake's are direct descendants of Sir Francis' and since mine aren't we CAN'T be related. They are militant in their convictions. LOLOL

Twiggyish

Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 08:44 am Click here to edit this post
Don't get me started on ancestry.com. They billed me for membership, AFTER I cancelled. When I called, they were rude and almost didn't refund my money. (They must get a lot of refund calls, because of their automatic rollover billing.

I do use familysearch.org quite a bit, but I always keep in mind their accuracy or lack of accuracy.

Whoami, have you had any luck with your search?

Neko, my ancestor was from Elgin which was Moray (sp). I don't see it on the map, but it's somewhere on the northern coast. His last name was Bain.

Twiggyish

Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 09:09 am Click here to edit this post
Here's an unbelievable site, this woman claims to be related to everyone from Abraham (direct line) to the king of Troy, on down to most of the kings of England, and further to several presidents. Also, add in there Charlemagne. She doesn't seem to have average, common anestors, as most people listed are all related to a famous person.

http://www.ancestrees.com/

Ocean_Islands

Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 01:02 pm Click here to edit this post
I've had excellent luck with ancestry.com.

I just a week ago found my grandfather and great grandmother on the 1920 census at ancestry.com, which was pretty awesome, and I have lots of leads for other people from the same site. It's amazing to see the handwritten census documents which tell a lot about a person including their address, when they arrived in the country, and so forth.

I also found this same great grandmother on the Ellis Island website database just yesterday, and another grandmother there. These gave incredible information on where in Europe their trip originated from, who they were going to with addresses, what their occupation was, and their age.

Twiggyish

Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 01:31 pm Click here to edit this post
That's great OI. I liked ancestry's databases, I just had trouble trying to cancel.

I have another site with census records if you are interested. The handwritten ones are great, if the original copy is in good shape.
How far back did you trace?

Whoami

Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 09:35 pm Click here to edit this post
Twiggy, I admit I haven't done a lot of searching lately. Since a bonafide search seems like it will take a bit of money, I think I may need to wait until I have some! But, if I ever get enough time to sit at the computer for a while, I will try any free websites there are out there (if anyone knows of good ones, let me know, ok?).

Riviere

Friday, April 19, 2002 - 04:18 am Click here to edit this post
I'll stay with ancestry.com just for the sheer volume of databases added all the time.. BUT my trees can be seen free at gencircles.com and the rootsweb.com WorldConnect database... A ton of census info is missing or misindexed by ancestry.com, likewise for LDS census CDs, if we could find everything we need online it would be too easy!!! :)

Twiggyish

Friday, April 19, 2002 - 09:09 am Click here to edit this post
Whoami: Riviere mentioned good places. Also try:
http://www.cyndislist.com/ That is the ultimate source of genealogy websites.

Ocean_Islands

Friday, April 19, 2002 - 11:57 am Click here to edit this post
I'm only back to 1858 for my principal line but another line goes to 1700, amazingly based on research done a century ago.

Hey Twiggy thanks for the link above; thanks to you I just found one of my great-grandparent's marriage certificate!

Twiggyish

Friday, April 19, 2002 - 01:14 pm Click here to edit this post
=) I love finding treasures like that, too.
It's a connection to the past.

Riviere

Friday, April 19, 2002 - 11:38 pm Click here to edit this post
I've got some of my CT Wheeler lineage back ten generations, my "hotbed" spot for several lines was the Pike Co OH area 1810-1900, and I've got a bunch of ancestry done and ongoing re Richland & Medina & Wayne & Summit & Williams counties Ohio plus Hillsdale Co MI.. The dumbest thing: have you known folks who hoard their research like a treasure and refuse to share? My own cousin just landed a job part time at her library's genealogy dept, the irony! I met her at a reunion last yr, she's only 21, but fancies herself our Wheeler authority. She had about 5% of the work I already had as it turned out, but when I asked her if she could share anything new she was an ice cube.. My aunt Ginger thinks this is hilarious, since this cousin has no Wheeler blood anyway, talk about a well kept skeleton in the closet! Her father was the result of an affair during WW2, my Grandma and her sisters knew all about it, their bro being in the war and his wife was fooling around.. Well I said no wonder cousin Bill doesn't look like us! Could you spot a Great Dane in a litter of Poodles? And this snotty Wheeler wiz cousin is his daughter, she has no clue but I'm told Bill knows, nobody talks about it, naturally.. Can't fault her zeal, just that she doesn't share, and really just got part of the line traced to 1823. I had another cousin who visited that library on Mar 10 looking for info on one of our maternal lines, just happened my cousin was working that day, so my friendly cousin says "hey, you're Riv's cousin on the Wheeler side, right?" and boy what a cold reception she got! She told me she asked of the maternal line and all she got was a blank stare, I was ROFLMAO to hear that, since I have that line back to 1760 and wizzy still doesn't know she's related to any?? I hope she is more helpful to unrelated researchers, the way she is resentful of me & cousins I know, and her total ignorance on any of our maternal lineages..! I'd share anything that anyone asked for, even with her. Ginger told me that's ok, she calls every month asking if I sent Ginger any new stuff, so she can come over to make copies of it! Well who does she think she's fooling and why??? It's no wonder Ginger finds it hilarious, I think if I didn't see this as so pathetic I'd be amused, but I think it's childish and uncalled for.. But I have a cousin who even tops that: he was all over the Net claiming he had our O'Briens traced back to Brian Boru, think he'd share a thing? Nope.. He finally pulled his 4 generation tree offline, too, when a few of us pointed out some errors just that far back.. Cousins, ack, at least my tree has more good apples than wormy ones!!! :)

Ocean_Islands

Saturday, April 20, 2002 - 05:50 am Click here to edit this post
Maybe she knows and thinks you don't, and is afraid you'll find out. Maybe that's why she doesn't want to share her findings with you.

Lobster

Saturday, April 20, 2002 - 12:51 pm Click here to edit this post
Can anyone tell me anything about the genealogy software that's out there these days? Is it worth buying? What should I buy? I've been inspired by this discussion to research my father's family, which should be really easy since there are only one or two Sullivans in the world. LOL

Rissa

Saturday, April 20, 2002 - 02:19 pm Click here to edit this post
Lobster, I have used Family Tree Maker for about 7 years now and absolutely love it. It's very easy to use. Only drawback is that they upgrade the dang thing every year at $20 a pop. You don't HAVE to upgrade everytime, I only do it once every 2-3 years but then you feel like you are missing out on a new *toy* they have incorporated. LOL I love the charts you can print out for both ancestors and descendants and lots of rooms for notes.

Haven't used any other program so I can't compare mine to any others for you. I know there are 2 or 3 big name ones and they all have happy users. It's probably just a matter of which one you first got used to.

Ocean_Islands

Saturday, April 20, 2002 - 03:32 pm Click here to edit this post
What does Family Tree Maker do for you?

Lobster

Saturday, April 20, 2002 - 04:09 pm Click here to edit this post
Thanks, Rissa. Family Tree Maker currently has three different versions of 9.0. The only difference I can see between the $50 and $100 version is that you get a free two month subscription to World Family something or other. As far as Amazon is concerned it's the most popular. That's probably what I'll get when I finally buy something. Gotta save my pennies first.

OI, some of the genealogy websites require you to have a subscription to view databases and old records. Family Tree Maker comes with a bunch of CDs that contain these databases. It also has charts to help you keep track of your family.

Twiggyish

Saturday, April 20, 2002 - 05:12 pm Click here to edit this post
I use Family Tree Maker, too. I've got 6.0 and also had mine a few years. You can also do some research at their website: http://www.familytreemaker.com

OI, it organizes and stores your family tree databases. You can use it to upload to an online website, too. It also comes with several databases to help you with searches.