family trees

[pontifex]

I realize that most of ATOT's members' trees are straight lines or maybe branch once... i kid, i kid!

seriously though, how do you go about researching your family history? I'd like to know who my ancestors were.

 

[FoBoT]

i use
http://www.familysearch.org

 

[pontifex]

is that site supposed to do something or is it just like a link depository for sites that help you find this info?

Also, do you need to know a certain amount of info before starting this?

 

[FoBoT]

i linked the wrong one, i changed it, soorry

 

[CrackRabbit]

My mother is really into the whole family history thing. She has some very neat items from it, such as one of my anscestors badge and shalalie (sp) (hand carved irish nightsick) from when he was police chief in a town in New York. She also has another's discharge document from the New York state millita at the end of the civil war.

 

[dartworth]

Originally posted by: pontifex
is that site supposed to do something or is it just like a link depository for sites that help you find this info?

Also, do you need to know a certain amount of info before starting this?

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Home/Welcome/frameset_information.asp

 

[Gigantopithecus]

My patrilineage is very easy to trace since they were middle nobility in England until they got caught up in the Gunpowder Plot (it was hatched at the family castle, no joke!) & were banished to the US. Once they got to America they're a little harder to trace but the surname is very, very rare so it's not impossible (like, say, Johnson or Smith would be). I went to 'my' family's castle in 2000 & the whole tree is there, right back to 1066.

I traced my dad's mom's family back to about 1600; they emigrated to the US in the early 20th Century from Germany, and a very helpful record keeper in Bavaria helped me from I think 1621 (?) til they left for the States.

My mom's mom's family is again fairly easy because they became minor nobility in England in the late 1400s & got sent here in the middle of the 18th Century, and their surname is relatively uncommon.

My mom's dad's family is nearly impossible since they are Scandinavian, and the damn last name changes every generation. I've only been able to trace them back to the early 1800s, when my great great whatever grandfather emigrated to the US.

Public records in the US are usually pretty good; you should be able to trace your ancestors from when they got here til now with public info - if you're willing to follow the trail, since you often have to physically visit the library or records hall where they are. Records in Germany are phenomenal, if you have German ancestors. I had good luck with written & then email correspondence with a record keeper there. Dunno 'bout other countries.

 

[FoBoT]

this is my maternal grandfathers lineage

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/search/...d=5003529&familyid=3604840&frompage=99

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
this is my maternal grandfathers lineage

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/search/...d=5003529&familyid=3604840&frompage=99

thats cool. how much work did you have to put into it? can I find this info with just my grandparent's names?

 

[FoBoT]

my grandmother did all the work, she spent many years finding all the information and compiling it, i get the benefit without all the hard work

i don't know of an easy way unless you can find something someone else from your family, like a cousin, 2nd cousin or long lost uncle has already done

 

[tasmanian]

www.ellisisland.org

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: tasmanian
www.ellisisland.org

unfortunately stuff like that doesn't help because i don't have that info to begin with. i would assume you need to know the name of the person who came over.