Hey guys and gals,

Anyone ever research their family tree? I am going to start researching a family tree...but I dont wanna pay a huge monthly fee. Anyone have any suggestions on websites?

 

 

..and no trees that "dont fork" jokes.

I am doing this for my newly discovered father in law.

 

Don't worrk Closer; I'm keeping my mouth shut this time.

 

And why is that?

 

I found the easiest way to trace a family tree is by getting the death certificate of the oldest member you can in your family. Once you have that you can keep going back by birth certificates which are Fedral and archived. For a small fee you can get copies of them provided you are next of kin. This is how I did it

I never really gave a family tree a thought until my great grandmother passed away. I had a copy of her death certificate to file away with the deed for the family plot. I noticed on her certificate it had her mother and fathers name and place of birth, so now I had my great-great grandparents and their place of birth. Once you have that you can keep jumping from birth certificate to birth certificate, back to death certificate when needed and so on.

It is quite interesting when you start going back. For instance I know my family is Italian, but I never realized just how Italian we were. From my mothers side of the family I am only the 4th generation born in the United States.

 

Italian? I am working on my "newly discovered father in laws" Dad. Well, that would make it my wifes Granddad, huh? Anyway, he was Italian (full blood). Heeeeeeeeeey...............Your last name wouldn't be Messina now would it?



Cool, but what sites did you use to get info on the birth certificates? All the ones I am finding are asking outrageous prices. I thought the internet was a huge galaxy of free information, and not an over priced "WAL-MART". J/K I just dont know where to look.

 

1. Get yourself a good genealogy programme to start with. Learn to use it well. But most of them are very simple.
2. Interview all the family members that are connected and record everything from dark closet secrets to the latest birth with dates, times, locations,occupation, etc.
3. If you know that the information you want is local, go to the church, cemeteries, land registrations, city hall (usually house birth, death, marriage records), contact the state department of statistics (which is also the holder of the state, and probably country census details) You can also contact many of these departments via internet. Some have on-line archives available to search
4. connect to the internet and search for free genealogy data.
Some of my suggestions are:
Later Day Saints site. Then look for genealogy links. This will get you started. Once there, you can probably start by typing in a search for your family name.
Note that this may be a pay site, but it will still give you basic info on the results.
You can also find free sites such as ancestor.com, geneanet.com, and many others.
5. BACK UP ALL YOUR FILES AND PHOTOGRAPHS ON A REMOVEABLE DIS!!!
( I speak with profound sincerity) I lost a whole year of research.

.

 

Thanks Norm

 

The best way I've found to research the family tree is to have my dad (who's a history major) do all the work. He's writing a book of my German grandpa (Opa) and his time spent during WWII in the German army and when he was a POW in France. I'd have never figured all that stuff out. He's doing my mom's side of the family as well. Interesting stuff. He's traced the German side way back to the early 1800's.

 

Possably a source of great amusment doing a family tree. The strange events our ancestors have been caught up in and the close disasters.
Some will be murdered or murders them selves. Millionairs and paupers, the miserable and the blessed, all make for an intestering research.



My grandmother did this about 20 years ago. She did both sides of her parrents and their parrents ( both sides ) etc. A huge undertaking.

She found some strange things. Airplane crashes, war deaths, heroes, knaves etc.

We are all aware of the last 150 years in our family. But she has always said she was a *******. When she passed away last year I found that familly crest and name. Did some searching and found he fought the British with some distinction back in 1772?.. Those that still have that name have a registary set up, did not go any farther or register.

Some times the search can be intresting. Some distant relative was a pretty discusting murder ( almost serial) in switzerland and was one of the last public hangings. that branch is about 120 years back.

 

Mine has been traced back all the way to Kunin, Moravia in 1715 (or so).

Google Geneology message baords, there are several free ones. Most likely someone is already working on the family tree you are trying to start. Post on all of the ones that have the same surname as you and find out. Better to expound on the research others have already done

 

Thanks guys.

I am slowly finding out that this takes a lot of patience, and that's something I DONT have a lot of. I am working at it though.

 

It can be fun. can be interesting too. My Mom and Dad were third cousins, that makes for an interesting tree. I found out in some of my research that I had two great great uncles that were in the Civil War(Texas Regiment) and later became Texas Rangers. They were given a bunch of land down near LLano as part of their compensation and I have cousins that live down there on that ranch, still. You learn a lot of interesting stuff. I found out that my name is not what I thought, it is actually Bohning. One of my ancestors came from Ireland as a kid, was orphaned. lived with some people that took him in and he just started using their last name. We had a family reunion last weekend, had fun retalking a lot of stuff.

I read last week that J.E.B. Stuart, the famous Confederate General was the great great grandson of Mary, Queen of Scots. I had never know that.

 

jamzwayne,

This is a hunt or job you might not want to do. You've had way to many "Wow, I would have never guessed that about your family history" stories lately.

I'm just waiting for the thread that says "Donnie is Sharlene's Uncle, who is brother's with Susan's daddy, who just happen's to be my Granddaddy!" Then we have to walk you through the trama of getting married to your long lost second cousin, and then hear UC say second cousins don't count and then we need to have another thread talking to UC about how wrong that is.

Sorry, couldn't help it fellas...I'm just loving this General forum this week.

Thanks,

Duke