How far back do you go?

[Backyard Buddies]

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Sadly, this happens waaaaay more often than it should. I have one such story where an ancestor is listed with a middle initial in a single census. A researcher who believes his ancestor to be the son of this man (not yet proven and no data to prove it other than a similar name and year of birth) had been told that HIS ancestor had a middle name that starts with the same letter as the middle initial of MY ancestor who would be the father of his ancestor if proven. This researcher then published a tree connecting his ancestor to mine and then gave MY ancestor the same middle name as he believed his ancestor had. The problem with all of this goes well beyond the fact that his ancestor isn't yet proven to this guy, but that the middle name he assigned for my ancestor exists for HIS ancestor only in a story passed down from an aunt. Actual records give his ancestor a totally different middle name. Plus, he also tried to change the spelling of HIS ancestor's name to match the spelling of MY ancestor's name.

And, that tree is out there for someone to take as fact and attach to their trees.

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And, even those can be incorrect. Your best research is research that can be proven by more than one source. In pre-drivers license/Social Security days, people didn't keep as good of records as they do now. Ages change from one census to the next. Spellings change from one record to the next. Secondary sources (like death certificates giving a date of birth) aren't as good of a source for that than a birth or christening record might be.

And, people lied. For various reasons, people changed their ages, places of birth, etc. The challenge is to sort the fact from the fiction.

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Some of my most fun comes from tracking the side lines. They really help to fill out the family story. And, it's a ton of fun meeting the new family gained by working together to trace our shared lines.

 

[EweSheep]

That is why it is so much work doing geneology and still working on it after twenty five years....not all the information is accurate either thru the LSD microfilms because my g grandmother was adopted/fostered by Canadian parents and ther ewere NO records of her in that ten year span until she came back to US to be with her family and settled here in IL. I wished I can find her documents about her foster/adoptive parents in Canada but none were found.

I had one gg aunt's sister telling me that we were related to Geo Washington and I laughed at that notion that Geo Washington didnt have any biological kids, only his wife, Martha had a couple of kids from her previous relationship. What I found out that her grandfather's name was named AFTER Geo Washington, named George Washington Cunningham....there you go, it pays to be careful how they would speak and you have to make your own researh to see if it fits the relative they are speaking of.

Dates are horrible in some websites and I take it with a grain of salt. I dont always be "dead" right on on the relatives descending to royal families but a few lines, I can see how it would be simillar by looking up some of the family websites and going to courthouses and so forth to get the actual documentations.

Be careful about getting info on relatives, some would deliberatily lie about their family, dates, whereabouts, etc. like my own grandmother and grandfather did and it really brought out skeltons out of the closet. When my own mother confronted her parents about their "lost" info, it didnt go so well and some were in complete denial and said the courthouse records are bogus.

Even they were certified and all the DOBs spouse info, etc all matched up perfectly LOL!

 

[herechickchick]

My family came to the states in 1780 but I do not know much about any before that time.

 

[willheveland]

Anybody know how expensive hiring a geneologist to trace your history would cost.Do you pay by generation???
I've done some research but because of misspellings of my last name it has become difficult. Heveland,Heviland,Havland,Havilland,but was originally Haviland.
I believe we came from Norman stock,France,then England,then came to America landing in Providence RI.Then settling in a place called Haviland Hollow in NY now called Patterson NY in Putnam County near the NY/Conn. border. Will

 

[Mac in Wisco]

They typically charge per hour of research, $10-$25 an hour, plus mileage, plus copy costs. The people I've worked with ususally specialize in reasearch in their geographic area. If you need research done in their state, they are willing to search the state archives or county courthouses for you for a fee.

 

[MissPrissy]

By the hour.

 

[HennysMom]

My side of the tree: Poland/France 1530's

Hubby's side of the tree: Czech: 1780's

(thanks Mom and Aunt Jude!)

In the process of doing a book complete with photos of who's who - I have one photo left to get on my mom's side of a grandparent (great times something...) standing next to their tee-pee in Canada, whilst cooking over an open fire.

Would love to have that photo but the cousin who has it refuses to even give a copy of it

Whadda brat...

Something else we've done is actually (when possible) gone to the graveyards and taken photos of the actual grave stones so we have names, dates, etc. for the books. We also (again where possible) went back to houses - where people were born, lived, died - we even got to go into a few even if they were owned by other people not in our family.

Was very very neat to do that and now we have photos of places like where my hubby's great great grandfather was born, along with his sons, and so on.

 

[willheveland]

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That is so sad.I have a few in my family like that.We have some really nice old pictures that only 1 person has a copy.They want to be the ones that hold the print.The sad part is,god-forbid something were to happen flood,fire,ect... that peice of history would be lost and could never be recovered. Will

 

[Chicabee19]

I was lucky -- my dad's cousin has all the large framed wall-photos and some smaller ones from several generations. She lives in Okla.

I convinced her to take photos of the photos and send them to me. They turned out great!

Here's a photo of a photo she sent me:

 

[mom'sfolly]

I agree about the LDS records on line. I've found at least three seperate listings for my great-grandfather in LDS records. Things that are wrong range from where he was born to the number of children. Most of his descendents are LDS members. I've trace parts of my family back to the mid-1700s, but its hard because I come from a long line of small families. My dad was the only child of an only surviving child, and as far as I can tell, my grandfather's father was an only child. But, there are some big family connections in Missouri and NC, but I haven't tracked them down.

Any of you related to the Branstetters of Pike County, MO? My great-grandma was from that family, which came to this country in the 1760s, but they are very hard to keep track of. They were fond of marrying their cousins and only managed about 6 or seven first names among them. The boys all seemed to be named Peter, Frederick, and James and the girls are Susannah, Elizabeth and Hannah. So when Peter B marries Susannah B and they name their kids......well it gets confusing.

My great-grandfather was from Australia, so I probably have an English convict in my family tree. The rest were from Norway, Denmark, Wales, Germany, and possibly Ireland and France.