Miscellaneous Monday

A year ago I treated myself to a subscription to Ancestry.com. On some of my family lines, I got to the point that in order to go back any further I needed to, as the saying goes, to “jump the pond”. With that in mind, a few months ago, I upgraded my account to the full access subscription. I now have access to the records in the database from all over the world. 

Shortly after upgrading my sub, I talked my Canadian friend, Sharon, into letting me research her family. We both were then sidetracked by other interests. This past week, however, we returned to the researching fun. 

What a lot of fun it is! Perhaps it is the researcher in me, but every time I find a new link, I get excited. It doesn’t matter if that person is related to me; when I discover information or people I didn’t previously know, my internal self does a happy dance. 

Alright. I may have been known to do fist pumps and exclaim aloud on occasion. 

Grandma Ethel's birth record

 It doesn’t take much information for me to get started. A few names, dates and locations are all that is needed to start on the path to more. Like with my friend Sharon. She didn’t have much to give me at first. She told me her parents’ names and dates, and those of her grandparents, but she wasn’t certain of some of the info. For example, she thought her grandma Ethel was born in Russia. With a little searching, I found a birth record for someone with the same name who was born in Ontario, Canada. She fit the other criteria: parents born in Russia, family was Jewish, and born around the right time. After asking her father about it, Sharon informed me that I had the right person! 

It is amazing to me. After 23 years (that’s nearly 2/3 of my life!) of doing genealogy, I am still as excited by the work as I was when my friend Jessica’s mother first introduced me to the field.

Miscellaneous Monday - Family History Searching 101 - Continuing the Search

You have your list of names, places and dates and you’ve collected some of the family stories. Now what?

As I mentioned in a previous posting, your local library or genealogical society can be a great help. Perhaps you can’t get there just yet. What can you do?

Go online!

Some states have vital records – birth, marriage and death records – available to view online. The years may be limited for a variety of reasons – loss of records, to help prevent identity theft – but you can still gather a lot of great information.

Look for the Social Security Death Index. You can often find birth and death dates by searching the SSDI.

Check your library’s online databases. Some databases can be used from outside the library. If there is a genealogy or newspaper database, you have a wonderful resource to use.

Speaking of newspapers – many recent obituaries are now online. You can find a lot of information from an obituary. The person’s parents’ names, his birthdate and place, his death date and place, names of spouse and children (and sometimes children’s spouses and their children). Usually an obituary will list where the person worked, what school she attended and community groups in which she participated.

These are just a few of the free resources available online. There are many others that cost money. I have been doing genealogy for nearly 25 years and I started paying for a subscription for an online database only six months ago. For many years I used the database through the library. This was great…until I wanted to do more research from the comfort of my couch.

Miscellaneous Monday - Family History Searching 101 - Where to Begin

Today's miscellaneous post is about searching for your roots.  I've been working on my own family history for over 23 years.  Yes...I was a tween when I started, thanks to a friend's mom teaching me the basics. 

NOTE: I wrote this post for a content site called Bubblews, where I have also shared some of my other blog posts.

Want to know more about your family history, but aren’t sure how to begin? Here are a few tips to get started on your search.

My dad ran off to be a cowboy at a very young age.

• Write down the information that you know. Names of your parents, grandparents, spouse(s), children, siblings. Dates and locations of births, marriages, divorces, and deaths. 

• Take note of family stories. Have you always been told that your great-great-grandfather died of alcoholism in a nearby county jail? Write it down. It might be a folktale, but it could very well be the truth! 

•  Talk to other family members. They might tell you that they don’t remember or know much about the past generations. Chances are you will both be pleasantly surprised by what they remember once you start asking.

• Go to the library or local genealogy society. Many will have an expert available to help you with your search. Arrive armed with your notes and you will quickly be on your way to finding your family’s past!