I'm trying to find the branches of my family tree

[heather6773]

My latest "hobby" is to piece together my family tree. I have been able to go as far back as my great great grandparents on my Grandfathers side. His mother and his Grandparents. Has anyone ever done this before. I find it very interesting. Its cool trying to figure out where you come from. Some people know if they say came from England or France they can say well my Grandparents came from....but it seems at least back to my Great great grandparents they were from rural NY. Are there any free sites to look at? I keep getting directed to Ancestry.com but its a monthly charge. I can go that route if I can't furthur on my own. Thanks for any help.

[meliz]

I would do one of two things, Heather. Get in touch with a Geneological society somewhere near where your grandparents lived, or contact an archives in that vincinity -- I bet they could help you out.

Also, do you know what religion your grandparents were and if they went to church? Church records are often very useful. If, for example, they, or one of their children were baptised, there could well be a baptisimal record (usually collected in a church record book of vital statistics)-- very often these indicate the place of birth of the father and/or mother, so you might be able to trace it backwards in that way.

Up here in Canada I've had good luck tracing people through national census data-- how long has NY state been collecting census data? That might be one way too.

Good luck!

[Csara]

That sounds fun and very interesting. I don't really know much about it at all, but wanted to wish you luck!!

[heather6773]

Meliz,I think they were Methodist. I posted on a website that is from the county where we live. I live only about 15 min from where they lived. I love early pioneer life and find it interesting. I need to pick my gram's mind and see what she knows.
Csara...thanks!!! I'll let you know if I find anything!!!

[Margarita]

My mom has done a lot of this. She has traced parts of our family back pretty far. I never can remember the details, but we're related to some interesting people. She found ancestors in specific parts of Ireland and a guy who invented something in dentistry. More recently in our history, she found out that my great great grandmother who was so angry with her daughter for being unmarried and pregnant, was herself pregnant before she got married! Ha, oops.

[heather6773]

Margs,Thats just the juicy stuff I hope to uncover:lol:
I know there is an illegitamite(sp)brother to my Grandfather. He had to wait until his mother passed away before he really became part of the family. It was kept hush hush.

[Sydneyp]

We have a fairly extensive recorded family tree, probably due to being long lived and unlikely to relocate.
However, like you, I cannot say that my grandparents or even great-great grandparents were from somewhere, because even if you go back 120 years, all of my ancestors were born in the US. My patriarchal family name has been in the US since the 1700's. We are related to those first three brothers 300 years ago. Since then, people in my family have 'gone forth and multiplied' with everyone they could, so we're a big mix and really don't have the ethnic traditions many more newly arrived (within the last 120 years, say) Americans have (the Irish, Polish, Swedish, and Italian factions come to mind.)
I have no advice, just wanted to tell you you aren't the only Heinz 57 out there.

[meliz]

Ha! That's so true Sydney! I have an uncle who traced our family tree (Dad's side- I know my lineage 5 generations, thanks to him) and about 15 years ago he hosted a huge reunion... 500 people from all over the world! Talk about mutts! At the reunion we all had name tags that stated our line, back 3 generations. My family is James-James-John. It was VERY cool, only wish I wasn't a snotty teen then who was too cool to enjoy it.:) I also hope my generation keeps it up... as my uncle, and all my dad's siblings left, are old and sick.

[tommysgirl18]

my dad has been into this for a while now. he uses ancestry.com, I think.

[heather6773]

I posted on ancestry.com and this guy from Florida e-mailed me and said he thinks he knows of my family. I e-mailed back with more names and sure enough its the same family. His wife is somehow related to my great great grandparents. He had the names and dates(birth and death)So am able to go back to my Grandfathers grandparents. I am so excited!!!!:five: My great Grandma was born the same day as my older son. Dec. 23rd. I am waiting for more info.....my husband keeps saying they will track my family back to the Hatfields and the McCoys....:lol: We are a bunch of hillbillies....but thats ok I like being a redneck!!!:beer:

[tommysgirl18]

that is great!


my dad has found relatives of ours all the way back to Ireland. I think he even found where someone (a male) married a princess of a county or something like that.

[tommysgirl18]

I have to tell you a funny story about tracing family trees.

before me and Tommy got married, we were tracing our family trees. My dad showed us how to do it, and it brought up some interesting listings. My dad said "ummm.....you guys might not be able to get married." We both looked at him and said "what?" and he goes check this out and clicked on the link. It ended up being a post by one of my BIL's about us getting married and when. My dad thought it was saying that we were related before that. We all got a good laugh out of it.

[rdy2rac with]

From what I remember of a ancestry report I had to do in jr high back in Ireland our name was O' Tohalin (or something like that, I can pronounce it but can't remember the exact spelling). Oh & I also found out we are related to Nathaniel Hale, early American traitor. :D

[tommysgirl18]

Kate~ I didn't know that about the spelling....I know that dad has several different spellings for it. I remember dad mentioning something about us being related to Nathaniel Hale (maybe that is why we liked that as a middle name for Logan :D )

[heather6773]

I love that story!!!Tommysgirl!!!Thank goodness you and Tommy were not related!!!Rdy2race.....I was hoping for a scandel myself....course I just have names and dates at this point so ....theres still hope:lol:




Well I have exciting news. The guy from Florida not only was the predident of the Historical Society for the county I live in .....he had 12 generations of my family. Basically my family has been around this area since 1805 and before that we were from the Mass./R.I./ Conn. area....one family member was from Salem,MASS. Wouldn't it be cool if they were a Witch from SAlem:lol: Anyhoo it goes back to the 1600's and we originated from England. He is going to keep looking.(Its his wife who is related)I have an idea she is either passed away or not in good health. He hasn't mentioned it but he is the one doing all the e-mailing. She was born in 1946 so she's not all that old.

[rdy2rac with]

Me & hubby didn't have to go far to fine our family tree branches intertwined. Mainly because his SIL is a first cousin to my (former) BIL. When my sister made her toast at our wedding she thanked Rob for making her sister her cousin. :D

I tried to do a family tree on the inside of the bibles for the kids but hubby's side has very little information. His great-granddad was found on the doorstep & taken in by Staley's so that line kind of ends there. Either way his mom & dad aren't very forthcoming with information about the past. Heck I couldn't even get wedding (or even couples) photos of them or his grandparents for a table I wanted to do at our wedding.

[Margarita]

That's great, Heather! You are making some headway!

I remember one problem my mom ran into was when some of our relatives came over (from Sweden, I believe), their last name was changed simply because they had already let in too many people with that last name. :silly:

[heather6773]

Margs...I've heard they had changed their names once they got here to sound more "American" but never because they had too many of one name:lol:What would the Smith's or Jones do today? Maybe they started out different....