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Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
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4:54 pm - Hey Snowwand
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| Monday, March 18th, 2013
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5:45 pm - MA VR lookup?
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snowwand
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Anyone with access willing to do a look up for me? :)
Albert Drew, 13 Dec 1905 in Massachusetts
I'm rather interested in the name of his father as he apparently died soon after Albert was born.
Thanks!
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(17 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, March 12th, 2013
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11:59 am - Genealogy Records Virtue
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records_base
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Tracing down one's family tree, is something that almost everyone are tempted to do at one point or another in their lives. It is simple and basic human nature to have a desire to know one's origin. You may be related to anyone - a hollywood movie star, a star athlete, an army general, a US senator or possibly even a president. You may already be aware of certain rumors that run in your family, but there is nothing like staring at proof undeniable of your ancestry in black and white.
There are also additional benefits to dealing with genealogy records. For example, if you are a decendant of an indigenous tribe, you may be eligible for a government program. Studying one's own genealogy tree is not for everyone. Many young people in their twenties found the idea a bit boring. The interest usually comes by after they have children of their own. When your own kid starts asking question, you get to the point where you realize you don't have all the answers. For others, genealogy is in itself a hobby. They simply enjoy tracing the bloodlines of themselves as well as others. In the old days, genealogical research was a complicated matter, but in today's age of the internet, the process can be much easier to anyone involved. RecordsBase.com provides you with a multitude of resources in order to assisst you with your journey.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, December 14th, 2012
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1:28 pm - "Now Get That Dad of Yours....."
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auntysocial
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Originally posted by  auntysocial at "Now Get That Dad of Yours....." Lester and Ed got together in 1903 and remembered their grandfather, a soldier of the Revolution, and their other ancestors. Some of what they remembered was true, and some perhaps was not. Ed thought it was important and urged Lester's daughter Altha to record the history. "Now get that Dad of yours to give you the history of the Browns before it is everlastingly too late," he wrote. She did. I always imagine her sitting by his bedside writing down his words, but I don't really know whether he was bedridden at the time. Ed went to visit Altha and her husband after Lester died, and copied the family history into a notebook. He wrote some facts of his branch of the family and a timeline of his own life, copied from old diaries, and went on to record the activities of some of his later years day by day. He lived until 1935. Then his daughter Mabel put the old notebook with some of the other papers she had. Her husband died the same year. She uprooted herself from her Wisconsin home, eventually settling in Long Beach California. The notebook and some of her other old treasures found a home in the garage of her son Roger, my father. There I found it, in 1992. My father had never been interested in it, but he did manage to preserve it well. How lucky we were that the garage never leaked or was infested with mice! |
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
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9:40 am - Objections to our hobby?
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author_by_night
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So, here's a question: Why is it that some people have strong objections to genealogy/family history?
Yesterday I was google searching for something, and I found someone saying that genealogy is racist. Unfortunately it was one of those things where I wasn't really able to figure out the context because it was part of a long thread that happened to show up on the search, but nevertheless... really? I've also come across people who just view it as smug.
I think some of it is that people are under the mistaken impression that it's a way to prove how great your heritage is or something... while I do think there are some people out there who just want to know if they're descended from a certain famous person, I think most genealogists recognize the unlikelihood of a, proving this for certain, and b, of it even being true. I have found friends who were distantly related to famous people, but given their family settled in the United States relatively early, it wasn't surprising.
Other than that, I can't think of why people get so defensive.
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(11 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, October 29th, 2012
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3:34 pm - Some of This Is True
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auntysocial
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When I first started my LJ, I called it "A Reluctant Genealogist." Then I started exploring the L.A. River, I changed the name to "Upstream, Downstream," a name which also fit my travels up and down one of the city's major streets. I'm back to genealogy, but I'm not going to change the name again. I'll call this document the Headwaters. This was one of the first things I found among the family history papers, and I set out to find out how much of it is true. Here's the transcription--
The following is a copy dictated by Jesse Lester Brown Jany 1903:
"My knowledge and recollection of the history of the Brown family as far back as I can remember. Reverend Z Brown was a chaplain in General Wolfe's army (war of 1776) and was at the taking of Quebec. He was a minister of the Church of England. He served in the Army 7 years 6 months and 9 days. After the war he left the army and settled in Massachusetts, where he died shortly after sending to England for his family. Said family consisted of a wife and four sons: Jude, Zach, Josiah and William. During he American Revolution the two oldest boys-Jude and Zack, who were educated for the army in England, held command in the British army and fought on that side. The two younger boys, Josiah and William, espoused the cause of the Colony and held command in the Colonial army.
After the end of the war the two oldest sons resigned from the British army and settled in Canada (Nova Scotia) where they held grants of land."
1776? No! It was in 1759 Major General James P. Wolfe (2 January 1727 – 13 September 1759) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wolfe participated in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which won Quebec for the English. This was what was called the "Seven Years War" or the "French and Indian War." He died in battle and is remembered as a hero. This information set me on the path of skepticism about the document.
I never found a chaplain Zachariah Brown as a Chaplain in the British Army, but I did find a Zachariah Brown who was born in Massachusetts and had sons with those names--Zachariah, William, Josiah and Jude.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, October 17th, 2012
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12:45 pm - Success story
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dima75
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In April 2003, 94 year old man died in the USA. His children found in his archive old photos, some of which were signed by Russian and Yiddish. With the help of the friends the inscriptions were translated into English, and the children realized that these were pictures of the rest of the family remaining in Europe. The children asked their cousin Ari interested in genealogy to clarify the fate of the people in the old photos. In January 2012 Ari wrote to me via the JewishGen website. Ari told that his great-grandmother's brothers were married to sisters Sribnik from the village Logishin (Pinsk district in Belarus). Ari attached to the he letter those old pictures. I just did not believe my eyes, as I always knew my grandfather Volodya an elderly man, a veteran of the World War II. Even in the earliest pictures he was in uniform. Now I saw him as a child, yet close to his still not old parents and brothers. These photos were taken in about 1925. All photos are clickable.
( Read more...Collapse )
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, September 3rd, 2012
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6:38 pm - A genuine obituary posted by someone on Find a Grave
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marketeer
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I just had to share this gem with someone. Regretfully, this apparently is someone in my extended family:
Lois divorced a wonderful man after nearly 25 years of marriage and still used his last nane over 45 years later, feeling it more prestigious than her own maiden name. He was the father of 2 wonderful children, and 1 of questionable merit as noted by his Will. Lois never worked, except for a 10-year stint from age 55-65 and lived until her death on her divorce settlement, supplemented by significant monetary assistance from one of the good children. The other good child preceded her in death, while serving in the military.
She had no hobbies other than a plant or two. No friends other than Violet F., who walked to visit her until the very end. She spoke poorly of Violet for over 50 years, to all who would listen and those that didn't want to. Violet expressed genuine sorrow when told of her passing by Lois's son-in-law, whom neither Violet nor Lois had ever met. Lois declared her anti-social behavior was due to total nerve deafness in her right ear (although her 10-year work tenure was as a bank teller). She blamed her deafness on her wonderful mother for making her bring in laundry when she was 14.
The "Mommy Dearest" of the common people, Lois was a true clothes horse all her life. She was probably cremated in a wornout nightgown after dying in her sleep. She had many new nightgowns, still with their price tags, hanging in her closet.
Her remains were rescued from a shelf by a fantastic step-granddaughter, nearly 40 years of age, that Lois refused to acknowledge or ever meet. Lois was languishing on the shelf, because that is where her questionable child left her. Harley personally made arrangements for the burial and then made a 500-mile journey to find Bethel. She performed a funeral service that she wrote herself, which brought the person doing the actual burial to tears. Other than Harley and her friend, no one attended Lois's funeral.
current mood:  amused
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, August 16th, 2012
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7:04 pm - To Look or Not to Look
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quinns_crossing
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Sometimes you find out stuff about your family by accident, by being in the right place at the right time.
The newspaper had a short article about a teenager who had won a track and field Memorial scholarship to a summer camp. It said that the high school awarded this scholarship every year in memory of a former student who had been killed in an automobile accident while in college.
The surname was the same as Mary who had been married to my third cousin. I remembered the conversation I had with Mary's oldest brother, John, now retired and living in Arizona. John told me he had two grown daughters, "And there are no sons left to carry on the family name." At the time, I was still tracing my family roots and hadn't thought to ask him about his kids yet. But I thought, yeah, OK, he's being helpful.
Now, I wonder if he had a son who died and that is why he made such a point to say that. He had also mentioned that he lived for several years in that same suburb where the school is located. Maybe he didn't tell me his only son was dead because it was too painful for him to talk about it with a stranger on the phone. The young man died in the early 1990s. His SS death record is on the Family Search website. The death record lists the county he died in and, of course, his home town. I could easily visit the state library archives and look up a microfilm or microfiche of the obituary. It's public information, but I'm not sure what I'd do with that information other than put it on my wikitree for my records. I haven't visited my wikitree in months. Actually, I had not planned to research that particular branch of the family any further, for fear of hurting the living by letting skeletons out of closets.
But I have no control over what goes in the local paper. I had been looking for something else on that page. Like I said, right place, right time.
So far, I haven't had time to visit the library. I'm not sure what I would do with the information. My husband and I don't have money to give to the scholarship fund at this time. I understand why these people might not want to meet long-lost relatives, by marriage or otherwise. It is public information.
When talking to living descendants, it's very interesting to read between the lines; not only what they say but also the things they leave UNSAID.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, July 22nd, 2012
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2:38 pm
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paularidgeway
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I'm perplexed by my 4th great aunt's probate case. She had no known children. Named all but one of her brother/sister's children and/or grandchildren as heirs to her estate. She also names another sister, a Mrs. Heacker (sometimes referred to as Sallie Heacker) that I wasn't aware of and is firmly placed, along with her descendants, in another line in other family trees. What really makes this even more perplexing is that Mrs. Heacker goes by Armilda on every other record and my 4th great aunt was named Armilda as well. The name Armilda or Millie is is on about every branch in every generation in both 'the other Armilda's' lines and my 4th great aunt Armilda's siblings lines.
Would someone refer to someone who was not a sister as a sister? My Armilda was born in 1823 and the other Armilda was born in 1837, so there are quite a few years between them.
I can give quite a few more details, but I'll leave that for the comments with any questions you may have with specifics. There's also a little more desperation in my quest here: http://geneabug.tumblr.com/post/27520030319/being-stuck-is-the-worst.
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(15 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, July 2nd, 2012
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8:01 pm - Occupation on immigration records
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siuil_sydan
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I think I found one of my ancestor's immigration records, he had a really unique name so there's very little chance it isn't him, but his occupation is listed as "doctor of medicine." After he arrived in the States, he never had a job other than (Civil War) soldier and generic laborer. I don't know which is more likely, did he lie when he immigrated, or is there a chance he really was a doctor in Germany and just couldn't practice in America?
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(9 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, June 24th, 2012
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7:11 pm - Did children immigrate alone?
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author_by_night
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So I'm still trying to find out information on my German Great Grandfather. The latest development is that my aunt recalled a conversation with her father (my grandfather) where he said that he never knew his grandparents because, "they didn't come to America." So here's my question - did orphans or poor children ever come with family friends, relatives, or even friendly acquaintances who offered to care for them? This would've been around 1882 or 1884 - which is even more confusing, as my great grandfather would only have been between two and four years of age. I'm trying to find out if that's why I can't find any definite record of him between the time he would've come and the time he was married to my great grandmother. (Noting too that the last name was very common - we've found records of people who I think might be relatives, but not him.)
If anyone has any input, that would be great.
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, May 20th, 2012
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6:14 pm - DNA Test
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author_by_night
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So I've decided that I want to do a genealogical DNA test. But I have a few questions.
1. Which services would you recommend? Ancestry.com has changed theirs so it's not readily available. And anyway, I'm not sure that's the best way to go. I've found something called DNA Spectrum, but I'm not sure how reliable/comprehensive they are.
2. Whose DNA do I use? I could do mine, but I feel like that would be a mess because would I know which side was what? So it seems better to go with the two sides, but I think both sides it has to be male, and there's no way I'm getting my uncle to do a cheek swab. Let's leave it at that. ;) (He's a good guy, he'd just find the whole thing pointless.)
Thanks for anything you can tell me!
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, May 6th, 2012
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8:17 pm - 1861 Census of Ontario
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rainbow
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Has anyone access to the 1861 census of Ontario who would be willing to copy a page for me?
I'm looking for the James and Catherine Craig family of Glenelg Township, Grey County, Ontario; I'm trying to get an idea of what part of the township their farm was in and want to see if I recognise any other families on the same page.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
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8:15 pm - Blank form for 1911 census?
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| Sunday, February 19th, 2012
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4:58 pm - Is a Letter Worth it?
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| Monday, January 23rd, 2012
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12:46 am
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schexyschteve
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Hello! I'm new here, and a little confused about some aspects of genealogy. I started researching my family tree within the last month. I started by going off of what I knew already, and Facebook/general Googling helped (obituaries and such). This weekend, I talked to my parents to help me fill in as much as they knew (with help from death certs and papers saved throughout the years).
( A few questions from a newbieCollapse )
Sorry if these questions are confusing!
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, January 22nd, 2012
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6:00 pm - Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, 1875
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rainbow
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Does anyone have access to a site that has transcriptions or scans of The Oakland (California) Daily Evening Tribune from 1875?
It published a note about the "funeral yesterday" of Teresa Brennan on 30 Mar 1875 (she died 26 Mar 1875 and was buried Mon, March 29, 1875 at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Oakland, California).
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
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10:09 pm - Online Family Trees
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quinns_crossing
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Yesterday I was in the library looking at the 2001 version of "Genealogy for Dummies" and they had a section on privacy. They said it could be very harmful to have certain information available online. Private detectives, con artists and other potentially troublesome people can use search engines to look for living family members.
I went back to my Wikitree and changed all of the living relatives to "Unlisted" and several deceased to "Private." Right now I use it mainly for my own information, but I don't want to put my family in harm's way. On the Wikitree site, the default setting is automatically "Unlisted" for kids under 13. I think the default should be under 18, not 13. The wrong information in the wrong hands could even be dangerous: For example, a disgruntled former spouse might hire one of those detectives to track down an ex who wants to be left alone.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
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8:19 pm - Legitimate Independent Sites/Genealogists?
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author_by_night
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I've had trouble finding information on certain ancestors, and so I decided to give up on familysearch/ellisisland/ancestry and turn to more specific websites and people. However, I've had trouble figuring out how to know if they're trustworthy.
One thing I encountered was that these organizations charged by the hour. Is that typical for genealogists? I guess I'm just uncomfortable that, especially when it's online. And in one case, not only did the person charge by the hour, but there was a starting fee of $75.00 just to get basic information on one person. Something about that didn't seem right to me. Is that the norm?
Along a similar vein, I was about to sign up for genealogy.com and archives.com when I realized they take your credit card number before you've completed your free trial. That just sounds like a scam waiting to happen. Again, is that normal or was I right in not signing up?
I really want to find out more about these people, and the services I already use (and, in the case of ancestry.com, pay for), aren't working, so I'd like to go further. But I want to literally get my money's worth - and I certainly don't want to be scammed. So how do I avoid it? And what are normal practices?
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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genealogy
curious