Genealogy, OMG, please stop me.

[Sir Birdaholic]

With my last name being Stone, I bet I can trace mine back to the caveman!

 

[EweSheep]

I've been doing this for over 30 years and have used Ancestry.com back in 2002 and got off of it for a few years and now I m back on for my mother's side of the family.

My Dad's side traces back to the Spencer family...yep the same Spencer as Princess Diana's family, I think she is my 23rd cousin removed from her?

Perfect time to do while the snow is blowing outside of your window.

 

[Carols Clucks]

I had some fun with that, My moms side of the family is from Denmark so we already had about back to 1500

My dads....well we found my grandfathers tale of how he came to the USA was missing that he had a wife in Sweden and came through Ellis Island (his tale was much more interesting..but guessing would not have had him meet my grandmother and marry her too) But, because he/they changed the spelling of his last name in Ellis, I have hit some dead ends. My grandmother was a Meyers who was also from Sweden and ended up in Spokane (via Minnesota) But she died in the spanish flu of 1918 so I really know nothing of my dad's side of the family other than his sisters and their kids

My ex husbands, one side of the family is the Orr's Bet there are a few of you from Ohio-PA+ that are relatives. I found that a couple of kids on my sons little league teams were distant relatives. It is interesting and very fun to do on a cold snowy day.

 

[BBK]

I started back in 2000...so glad i did, a lot of my older rellies were alive back then....now, not so much.... But I decided to pick it up again b/c my younger son (16) wanted to look... We choose the monthly payment for ancestor.com site...20 bucks, can cancel any time... but we have now found out we'll need to get the World version...

On my dad's side tho...i've got pics of my GGrands father in South Africa Boar War, i think that's it... He had something to do with the hospitals and football, of all things... i have a football team pic, a pic all of them in uniforms, guns and everything... and then all in their special uniforms, with a red cross on the sleeve... very cool... but confusing...

my other GG dad goes way back.... someone took a lot of care to document things... i think i'm into the 1600's with them...

A lot harder for info on my GGmothers.... but will keep plugging...

good luck on all searches... it's additive...
melinda
anyone in canada...? that's where one on of my Ggrand father's came from...
The rest seem to be from England, and Ireland...

 

[country lady]

There is a wealth of information out there now. I found out facts, even a copy of a news article about my grandparents who died in a car/train accident. It had been sitting there since 1929 and local relatives never bothered to look for it. I've found out facts that were falsely handed down through the years. Nicknames become birth names. Two great uncles were in WWI (I have government copies) and two relatives were in a Civil War prison, one died there.

What I don't like, though, that seems to be a trend today is this "feel good" obituary listing step siblings as blood siblings. I'm only interested in facts, not embellishing or putting a pretty face on ancestors. I am interested in the life and history of ancestors, and I've learned so much about the times in which they lived. I discovered that my great, great grandfather is buried about ten miles from me, which some family members knew and are also buried there. Many women in my county died in childbirth in early years. Life was hard.

 

[hollymh]

Love it, I'm in the early 1600's myself

 

[galanie]

I quit sometime in the 1700s with my family. It's fun to do all the detective work but you have to be careful. For instance, a family member has one of my grandfather's full genealogy but they have the wrong guy. They thought his name was Ed since that's what he went by, but his first two initials are in fact E. D. and he hated his given name, Elroy Dayton. Then sometimes you get hooked up by other people's genealogies that are close, but have errors in them.

But that's what the detective work and fun are all about

 

[PhoenixAngel429]

My grandma traced our line 400 years back to Guy Fawkes and I found I am like 42nd cousin or something like that to my finacee as his ancestor was Guy's cousin.

Although I found I am only 4th generation in the US.....

 

[OldMacDonald]

You should check out Ancestryarchives.org. they have a lot of county histories and other books on CD for pretty cheap. I found a TON of information in county histories.

 

[kla37]

I think that's really cool! My mother and I want to start doing this too, but I'm putting it off because I know I'll become obsessed and I can't do that right now because gardening season is right around the corner!