Ancestry.com

[Suilleabhain]

I finally pulled the plug and joined Ancestry.Com, its an age thing,my brothers and siter are getting on in years and I figured soemoen has to document the family history for the next generation before we go. Anyway, I highly recommend thsi for everyone especially if you are in your later years and have a large family. What I found out is priceless.

I have my grandfather's records from his arrival in NY in 1886 from Ireland on a steam/sail ship for one. Then I find out that in the roaring 20's my aunt's slipped out of the house to star as saloon girls in silent cowboy films. I traced my uncle's family from NJ to Tn to Okla & Texas and then back to Va, NJ and Mass in the 1700's. The photos that people have pulled from the shoebox on the top shelf of the closet are unbelievable. My father played teh guitar and sax, that I knew. Found out he was in a band in the 30's. My grandmother ran a table-top still in the kitchen in the 20's. My other grandfather signed up for WWI and went back to the draft boird at 57 y/o for WWII. Another uncle lied about his age and went to France in WWI and got gassed in the trenches. Then came home and was an NYC cop in the 20's.

Soem of you guys probably have had family in this place since the first settlements.

Don't let that stuff die off with you.

[Doc]

I have been into the family genealogy for quite a few years, Taking our family history back to the late 1500's. I was contacting family members all over the world and sharing and compiling family research. It's a great hobby and a great way to establish contact with a lot of family.

Eventually I created a family book of over 90 pages and distributed hundreds of copies. The book had the complete lineage as well as old pictures of early family members and their farms and other interesting items and a bunch of articles and anything else that I thought family members might be interested in. Costs were simply postage which was very cheap at "book rates" so nobody had to spend a fortune to get a copy. Materials and copying facilities were donated by my employers with their knowledge and permission so there was no production costs.

The software that I used was "Family Treemaker", a super user friendly piece of software. It's a great way to keep things organized.

I have slowed the activity in recent years and gotten into a bunch of other hobbies so I am getting to the point where I am looking for some other younger family member to take it over. I would encourage anyone who has any interest in family history to start some research. With the internet, there is no limit as to how far you can go, and perhaps leave your family members with a present that they all will appreciate.

[Suilleabhain]

That's impressive Doc. I'm using tree-maker to build a book myself. I want to get my relatives to join in and take up some of the load but they are content to watch and read

[Doc]

That's impressive Doc. I'm using tree-maker to build a book myself. I want to get my relatives to join in and take up some of the load but they are content to watch and read

You will need the cooperation from relatives, but you may not be able to get them to get into the heavy research part. All I asked was that they fill out some forms that I had prepared. That info was only pertanent to their immediate part of the family. I got 100% cooperation when I kept it down to that level of work. However, as I expanded my searches, I did run into a lot of people who got super-enthused and did go off and dig up more branches of the family tree. That's where I made some real advances. For example, I had help in the research of the midwest branches of the family, and other research over-seas. Those people got special mention in the book and free copies where I took care of the postage.

[Suilleabhain]

Great idea Doc, wouldn't have thought of that. Thanks

[5.9cummins]

Doc

You sound about like my aunt and mom. They have our tree down to the mid-evil ages. I had relatives from Sherwood forest (my high-school social studies teacher was a Sherwood - and i am related to him). We have all the records from family in Russia, Germany, UK, Whales etc. etc. My mom and aunt use to correspond with relatives overseas. They have dug up so much info it would make your head spin (mine did). I got a feeling when my girls get older they will get the full picture from my mom.

Its pretty cool and i think i will get more involved and read up when i have the time and the girls are older. Just a little busy at the moment.

[Doc]

Doc

You sound about like my aunt and mom. They have our tree down to the mid-evil ages. I had relatives from Sherwood forest (my high-school social studies teacher was a Sherwood - and i am related to him). We have all the records from family in Russia, Germany, UK, Whales etc. etc. My mom and aunt use to correspond with relatives overseas. They have dug up so much info it would make your head spin (mine did). I got a feeling when my girls get older they will get the full picture from my mom.

Its pretty cool and i think i will get more involved and read up when i have the time and the girls are older. Just a little busy at the moment.

I've got to say that the whole activity can get mighty darn addictive. I remember when I was really involved, I would spend many late nights that often ran into the early morning hours banging away at the internet, tracking down all kinds of leads..... Just couldn't stop. It's all just a bunch of "detective" work with pretty darn satisfying results.

[sits in trees]

how well do they work with European lineage, language differances and many differant methods of record keeping. also what do they charge?

[Suilleabhain]

You can uo your subscription to get Europe, they had it on sale for $16/month recently.