Another Question for Genealogy Peas

My aunt did all of the DAR documentation, so I have some good starting points. Mostly I just do random searches in bits and pieces. There are a few dead ends, so every now and then I will do a new Internet search. Every time I find something interesting, I print it and put it in a notebook. One of these days I'll take the time to make more sense of it all.

Why not keep it on Ancestry? You can still access it and add information to it when you don't have a subscription. I keep mine there, because it's easy. I join and quit all the time. I'll join to do some research, mainly during the winter. Then let it lapse, I can still access my tree on the site.

i do print out the sources when I have a membership. Sometimes you can't access some stuff without a membership, so I always print out infomation to add to my file when I come across it.

My grandma did DAR documentation too and it has been such a blessing!

I have done a ton of family research. I was blessed that my grandma went to a family reunion on New Zealand and came back with a bound book that had well over 500 pages in it of our relatives. It had their pictures, stories and a paragraph about each of them. That fell into my hands and I am grateful for that. I have done a lot of research for other family names.

Here are some names I have worked with:

Neave
Rutledge
Scott
Fox
Owsley ( I am stumped on this one so if anyone happens to have information I would be grateful)
Valentine

Census records are amazing and I have found out all kinds of information from those. Some information does contradict but I just go with what I feel is most accurate. Like a birth certificate will trump family records. 

I start with what I already know (from family lore, documents, letters, photo albums, etc) and then research online on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.com, JewishGen, and many other databases. I google, I contact people researching the same surnames, I learn whatever I can about the history of the communities where ancestors lived and the religions they practiced, and I pore over maps and study migration and immigration patterns. I widen my circles in every way possible. I appreciate serendipity and follow trails wherever they may lead.



As many as I can unearth! I follow both paternal and maternal lines back as far (and wide) as I can.



It's really important to research the siblings of ancestors! Often, the records for a direct ancestor don't give a birthplace or names of parents, but similar records for a sibling provide that information. Also, early on, I discovered that many of my husband's ancestors' names are in the format "John Smith" (common surname, no middle name), and there were several persons in the same geographic area with the identical name, so I HAD to sort them out. Often, too, I would find a person with the same unusual surname but no indication as to how he or she was related to the family, and I had to find the connection. This evolved into single-surname studies of some family names.



Not really. I've done a number of studies for people who are related by marriage but are not blood relatives.



Documentation is essential, but it's also important to recognize that official documents (censuses, etc) can contain mistakes. If I can find a second record that supports the first, I consider the information much more reliable. I take online family trees and postings on message boards with a grain of salt--well, really, with a whole salt shaker!--because they contain many errors and often just perpetuate the SAME errors that others have made. But even when they are of dubious value, I use them as a starting point and do my own research to confirm or disprove them. I also take "family lore" seriously but realize that information passed down from generation to generation can contain errors and distortions. As I have gained experience in genealogy, I’ve learned to trust my own instincts (although I’m always open to being corrected later if I acquire new information), so if I make my best guess, I write down the reasons for my “logical conclusions.”



This happens all the time in genealogy, and genealogists have to become comfortable with a certain level of imprecision and uncertainty. I record the multiple dates or name variations, giving the source for each variant piece of data. Sometimes, years later, I'll find definitive proof that one particular "fact" is correct, but that's rare. Otherwise, for dates, I say "circa" or use the "~" symbol, and, for names, I write all the variants with slashes between them.



When I started researching, I kept my family trees in outline form in a Word file, using footnotes (in the form of endnotes) for all the detailed information. After a few years, I considered transferring all the material to genealogy software, but it would have taken me years to enter all the info into GEDcoms, and I decided that I preferred to spend my time in other ways. Also, my endnotes contained long sections on town histories, essays and poems written by family members, and other material that would not fit neatly into any software. And I didn't think my own family would ever have enough interest to access the information in such a format. I almost never print out the entire file (I have separate ones for each side and branch of the family) because it becomes obsolete as soon as I add an update, but I've occasionally sent the electronic file (or a printout) to relatives. I don't have a genealogy web site; however, I created a web site about one particular ancestor, so that I could share information about his life and religious teachings. I do post occasionally to genealogy message boards, and I'm happy to share information about a particular family if someone requests it. I've also created scrapbooks and had them printed, so that I could share the family history and photos with my children and my sister's family. Now that I'm getting older, I do worry that much of my work may be lost to other researchers when I'm gone, so I'm again considering family tree software. But right now, life's too busy!

If a free record is available, you can link it to your tree without a subscription. Anytime I link something, I print or save so I have a paper record. Sometimes you can't access a record without a membership. But the info is still saved and nothing changes unless you change it. So everything will be available when you join again.

And if you start your tree, it still collects hints while you do not have a subscription. You can see the hint, but may not be able to see their documentation. I use other sources to check stuff like that out. Like last month, I got a notification that someone added public photos of my great-grandfather and his siblings. I haven't ever seen a photo of him. He died when my grandfather was a teenager.

I do want to stress, I keep a hard copy of my tree and documents. But having an ongoing tree at Ancestry works for me.

edit: you can add people while you don't have a membership. They never stop you from add more information to the database. 

There was a family of Owsleys where I grew up. One was a good friend of my sister's and later became my high school teacher.

Check into Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

I began with pencil and paper with my late husband's family when we became engaged.

I got the first Family Tree program, and an update a few years later - and then lost ALL of my digital info despite having it backed up 3 ways to Sunday. Life happens.

When I came across my papers in May, I immediately downloaded the newest FTM and it came with a month's sub to Ancestry.

Let me tell you.... the process is not for sissys. There's a steep learning curve to get into the brain of FTM. It will create ghost spouses and duplicate people in a heartbeat if you don't learn the way it's set to process info, and Heaven help you if you begin clicking on other member's info without learning how to NOT include all the facts that may be attached. There's nothing like checking out one of your pages at Ancestry and seeing a LONG page of crazy info you don't want there!

BUT.... if you can get past that..... it's fantastic.

I have all my stuff locked on private, and this is where I work my trees.


I was fortunate to have an excellent start, and because I'm the only one that was interested, I took the time when I was young to ask the questions and find out a lot of info from people who are long gone now. I feel an obligation to get it together and have a place the younger generation can turn to at some point, and since they are spread from one coast to the next, Ancestry will be the safest spot. (Although I do plan to print out some form of book(s) at some point.)


I began with what I knew, and immediately got hints to other trees. No surprise there, but what was shocking was how I was grilled when I commented on a photo. I really am the only one left with some of these answers. (I'm too young for that!!!)

Anyway, I've been working many hours every day for 2 months and now that I'm past my absolute info, I've got a pretty good system going.

I pick someone I want to know more about, and after going through the hints, I check out the other trees with that person in them. Usually, Ancestry will bring up a list of other trees with a brief synopsis of the info on that person in each tree. I usually start with the one that looks like it's most likely to give me good answers.

When your ancestor has 22 older half siblings, his father was elderly when he was born, and he moved from the area... well, you can imagine the number of trees and conflicting info you can find.

So.... I stick with what I know. This is the name. I don't care what name you have for him, Eddie is not Edward, but Ann (his mother) may be a nickname or partial name. I'm far more willing to bend on a year or so. Transcription errors happen and I have to decide if you made the error or I did.

That's a long list of kids you have there! Do you really think that same woman gave birth for 46 years to all of them? After she was dead and buried even? And why do you have these exact same people listed under the second wife? I realize that there's a learning curve, but it's not easy sorting out the crazy duplicates you've got going on there! Do you really think the parents named multiple children a similar name within a year or two of birth? It happens, but does this look reasonable to you?

This is what goes through my head.

I find myself going down MANY rabbit holes, working my way towards where the treemaker is. The closer I get to that person, the more I trust their info and the more cohesive a story I can see. I work my way all the way down to the most contemporary and back and then go out to the furthest ancestor and back. Then I go down the next rabbit hole beginning with the same person I searched.

It's tedious. It's time-consuming. I sync FTM and Ancestry with each new photo or story I come across, easily adding a hundred names at a time. But once I flesh out that line more, I begin to see these names as real people. THEN, I can check out the proofs either they have listed or that I find. I have no intention of proving my gggggGrandfather's sister's husband's gggggGranddaughter's birthday was 14 Feb 2004 or not. Not worth my time. Gotta pick and choose what you want more proof of.

Really, you never know what you're going to find in someone else's tree!

I entered your tree at the tip of this leaf on the end of this branch that is pretty weak and the info is sketchy at best, and found the tip of your tree going back to the 1500's of my direct line and the info all beautifully laid out. <---- happened just yesterday.

I will never go back to just paper. I can't easily juggle thousands of names on paper. I can't write as fast as I type, and the redundancy of repeating things from one line to another is perfect for a computer. It's time I can spend zipping up and down the branches of someone else's tree.

You're welcome.




My uncle had an unusual name. He'd go through the phone book looking for his last name whenever he went somewhere and would actually call people he found and introduce himself.



There was a rift in the family when my ldh was young and contact was broken with almost all his bio family for over 20 years. (They lived quite a distance.) When our first baby was born, I convinced him to just try calling his grandfather.... and he and Step-Grandma were still alive. We visited and they put us in touch with every living relative in the area. Ldh's mother died when he was a toddler. Her mother died when she was a toddler. We met 3 of this grandmother's sisters and their families. That makes 5 relatives well into their 90's and several in their late 80's! We photoed as many photos - even Family Bibles - as we could (no scanners then) and I charted like crazy. If I had waited, the whole history would have been lost to us. Not only are those older relatives gone, but many the next generation down are gone now, too.


Why not try the good old US mail? Try Googling a name for an address and send a letter. Messages are much more impersonal and they are easier to miss.

Maybe you'll luck out. Maybe you'll find people who know about you - as we did - and will be thrilled to share their photos and stories with you.

I've checked some of those sites before (never the paid part) and found some surprisingly accurate info.
What will you be out if it doesn't work? The cost of a few stamps?  If you include a self-addressed stamped return envelope it may encourage responses. What have you got to lose by trying?


Right now, I have open in another window the FB account of a distant relative who died this spring that I just found on Ancestry. I've found the names of his kids, wife and sister plus photos, all because someone linked his FB to the page they have for him on Ancestry. Things sure have changed! 

There was a link to an online newspaper obit that was a fascinating synopsis of his involvement in preserving a nationally important historical area.