Family Trees: How far back have you gone? Share your research tips?

I think that it’s important to learn about our family histories for many beneficial reasons. It’s really cool to know our heritage and where they came from. BUT the most important would be our family health history. My family and my ex-husband’s family have a long history of health issues and I’ve made it a big deal to research and hand over this knowledge to my children and to make sure they keep passing it along there on. By word of mouth won’t work as they tend to forget or might not want to deal with it.

I just started research to form my Family Tree. It has been a lot of fun, but at the same time it has been very frustrating. The easiest way of doing it is by asking your older relatives lots of questions like names and lets not forget health history. I have been lucky that my mom still has an amazing memory at her age. I first started looking by last names but I couldn't find anyone. Then I called my mom and she gave me some of her family first names. I found some of them and also found out that they had changed their last names a bit a few times. I guess to make it more pronounceable. I would like to go as far back as I can.

Do you have a Family Tree? Please share with us your experiences with the search and any research tips would be greatly appreciated.

Blessed Be! Walksfar.

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Atry on January 29, 2009 at 9:13pm: My family has known for years that, on my mother's side we are related to Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. She was "the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war," according to Abraham Lincoln. There were many ministers in that family all the way down to my grandmother's father, her grandfather, etc. Grandma was a Beecher herself. Harriet Beecher also had a brother, Henry Ward Beecher, who was the evangelical minsister who was compared as the Billy Graham of his time. There was another woman in the family, I can't remember her name (Sara, I believe), who had a great deal to do with the womens' suffrage movement. So, I am very proud to have that in my lineage. However, it makes it hard to live up to. At times I feel like I should write a book that could possibly help in the change of our nation. Who knows? Maybe I will!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Coyote Morningstar on January 29, 2009 at 9:45pm: My stepmom introduced me to genealogy. This was back before the internet. She would take me with her to the libraries and courthouses searching for names and dates, records and proofs. It was she who discovered my dad was a great X eight grandson of Myles Standish of the Mayflower. With her help I've traced many lines back into the 1500's and 1600's. One line of my family I've traced back to King William the Lion of Scotland, and further to the Merovingian kings of France. Though the sources are documented, I am reluctant to get too excited as chances are we all have a little royal in us if we could look back far enough.

I've added heraldry in my passion for my ancestors. It's added cool pictures to the often dry reading of family pages.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ocean Monster on January 29, 2009 at 9:46pm: I've seen my family tree as far back as the 1400's! I didn't research everything personally, though. Another person in our family did. Sorry, I don't have any tips!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by KittyMamma.. The Lady C on February 5, 2009 at 11:39am: While I was researching my father's line, I used information my grandfather had given to me at the age of 18. He knew of my interest, as we would sit and go through old pictures, and tintypes of the family (tintypes are the original pictures that were taken, along with glass, back in the 1800's) He told me, after I showed him my writing had made it into the school magazine, that I was fifth cousin to James Fennimore Cooper. His father founded Cooperstown NY, and James is famous now for "The Last of the Mohicans". I decided to go a step further, since no one had done that yet, and found out that on my great grandmother's side, the Coopers, there is a family tree that goes back to 1435, with an Earl and a Knight in the lineage at that time. I was thrilled, as I knew this was good information, and since it was done by a Cooper, and James is in the line, I had more faith in what I was finding.
My great uncle Maurice, is related to the James Family, of the famous Jesse James, though I am trying to verify that now. He told me that Flossie James was either his mother or grandmother, my memory failed to grab which one, because when he told me, I was moving and lost the paperwork.
Working on a family history can be frustrating, but it is exciting as you find what is there. I have gone through four different families to find the right one that I was looking for, as names are common, and you begin to realize that your relative was one of thousands with the same name. The blessing I have is that I know of at least 19 different ways our last name was spelled by census and record keepers of the time. I was the one who explained what Tea said to my sister a few year ago, that it is not how the family changed the name, but who was literate enough to do the writing, and how it sounded. Like Tea, I use a Soundex, and I have met a very wonderful woman who married into another line of a different family, and the difference in spelling is just one "e" near the end of the name. We have been trying to link her family into ours through common ancestors for years, as her husband is getting on in age, and would love to know his line.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tea on February 6, 2009 at 4:23pm: Dearest KittyMamma, if you need help, please feel free to add me as a friend and PM me with info you may have for me to help you. I have done this for many years and am now coming out of retirement an have access to some Databases some don't have. I will do what I can to help you id you wish.

Blessings,
Tea; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Siiri on February 5, 2009 at 11:46am: I want to do that...but it costs a lot to have a professional service do that...I suppose I could ask my grandmother...she's the only living grandparent I have left....; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tea on February 6, 2009 at 4:50pm: Dearest Siiri,

You are right about the cost of such Tree, especially the one fully Documented, that is why I said to always write down what you know first and foremost and work your way backwards. Ask any living relative's all known Info they have, Do Not scratch anything they may say as you never know when that one thing will come in handy for your research. Always start on your own before paying for anything. There are many free area's to guide you to different areas you can look forward on.

Take this info and proceed to spend a tad bit here and there, like the Courthouses and the Bureau Vital Statistics. But please note all States have their own Vital Statistics as well which you can gain a lot online and or get the info needed to call them for info on obtaining copies of certain records. You have sites Like the Church of Latter Day Saints who have a vast Library in Genealogy and a simple search engine to use, there is the US GeneWeb Project, were you can find a wealth of info from people uploading the info you are looking for from a Courthouse and many other sites to go with.

As I said in a previous Post, this is not an over night, one week thing, it will take time a lot of time, but it is the time that will bare you the best of fruits, Love and a great Smile knowing it is your work. Go as far as you can hun. Then if you need help, please feel free to PM me, I will be happy to help you.

Blessings,
Tea; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by NightPoet on February 6, 2009 at 2:43pm: with one side of my fathers family I have gone back to 1055 with 2 of the other grandparents family lines I have barely gotten anywhere and with one I have gotten back maybe 4 or 5 generations. I lucked out really and found a website that had the geneology of the first families of the region my paternal grandmother was from and was able to trace back further from there to 1055.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bormyo on February 6, 2009 at 5:58pm: Can't read all the reply's yet, but will get back to this. I have always wanted to do this.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by LeiaLeFey on February 7, 2009 at 9:54pm: I've been trying to trace mine. One line on my mothers side goes back as far as the 1000s to William the Conqueror. We are direct descendants through his granddaughter Matilda. The family went from royalty to nobility to lesser nobles to commoners as the generations went on.; ▶ Reply to This