You might have resisted the pull until now, but admit it. You're starting to develop a hankering to look into your roots, aren't you? Maybe it was that episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" that made you ponder about your own Italian great-grandfather, maybe it was your son's family tree homework assignment, or maybe it was that co-worker bragging about being related to Jesse James, but now you've got a bit of an itch to take peek into your past.
Perhaps I can ease you along your learning curve so you can make that incredible discovery a tad faster. As an avid genealogist since the sixth grade, I've learned a few tricks when it comes to finding ancestors who stubbornly refuse to come out of hiding, and in this slideshow, I'd like to share advice featuring examples from some of the investigatory adventures featured in my new book, "Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing" [Citadel, $15.95].
Follow Megan Smolenyak on Twitter: www.twitter.com/megansmolenyak
http://www.familytreedna.com/
And since it is a public library, it is freely available to anyone who visits the library.
For those on the East Coast, the best site for census records (and much other information) is the National Archives collection in Washington, DC. Anyone who wants to do research there must follow the rules, but if you do, you have free access to any and all the public information.
I'd sure as heck rather drive 10 miles to the LDS church than 400 miles to Ft. Wayne.
As for the National Archives, they also have regional satellite facilities with region-specific collections in addition to the census enumerations.
I love the smell of microfilm in the morning... it smells like... discovery.
On my grandpas side it seems like they are trying to hide something and I cant figure out anything past his dad. It seriously seems like he is not remembering on purpose. It is really frustrating.
But... I did find my great grandfathers thing from world war two and my grandmothers border crossing paper scanned onto the internet by someone.. . because she was born in Mexico by accident.
To bad I don't have anything really cool that was passed down through generations.
Something I also don't get is that my great grandfathers name was Spanish yet they were Navajo Indians from a reservation. it is all very confusing.
I'm having similar difficulties with my Comanche, and Cherokee ancestors. Family lore has it that my great great great grandmother was full blooded Cherokee, yet HER ancestors trace back to Great Britain. At a recent family reunion, I was told by a distant cousin that she had fallen by the wayside on the trail of tears, and the family adopted her.
I suspect there is a similar situation with respect to my Comanche great great grandfather, but I don't know how to find more specifics. I only want to prove these things for my own serenity not to recieve anything from the tribes.
I have no Apache blood, only a Rusty 1958 Chevrolet.
Have 2 large pools of 'famous cousins.' One pool ranges from 4th to 10th. The other goes clear to 13th. Among them are presidents Nixon, Millard Fillmore, FDR, Ulysses S. Grant, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. Also have two First Lady cousins Laura Bush and Ida Saxton. The most unusual cousin-ship I've found is Abraham Lincoln's grand children are my 5th cousins and my 4th cousin Mary Eunice Harlan married Robert Todd Lincoln.
My people are from England, Wales, Scotland, Germany and Ireland. On my paternal side the Genographic Project gives our branch birth 9,000 years ago on the south east shore of the Black Sea.
I'm also researching my 2 children's mother's ancestry and found that 3 of her lines married into 3 of my lines a total of 9 times. Not a cousin though as I haven't found a common ancestor of us both. Although it wouldn't surprise me if one day I do.
What better legacy can we pass on to our young descendants that the story of their roots?
Thanks to people that help us like Megan.
Are you using your middle name, or your last name in your screen name?
VBG
I worked on several branches of my family tree years ago and have always planned to get back to it sometime. My father was born here but both parents immigrated from Hungary. The most interesting branch but I have little information. My grandmother Elizabeth, actually the Hungarian Erzsébet., I found coming through Ellis island as well as my grandfather (they came through a year apart but met and married in the US). My grandfather told a story that he was an orphan and ran away at 14, then said he "fought his way across Europe"....saying he joined the military in different countries as he made his way...no way to check that story. My Hungarian relatives had no interest in their roots-and when I asked questions, they were vague and surprised ("why would you ask that?")
Another branch-those that settled early in Montana-came originally from Virginia in the early 1700s but I was unable to find where his parents came before that-perhaps France to England and through Canada. Probably French Huguenots as the timeline fits and the name is French.
One of my relatives was married to two women at once and joined the military in the Civil War-I have to think the wives discovered each other :) I wish I knew that story
The DNA seems wonderful-I may have to see about that!
I'm stuck at 1800s Slovakia and it seems that it will be quite expensive to find out more.
Thank you.
I wish I had that kind of talent. I am only 18 and my grandfather was surprised when I found out my nonliving grandmothers real name (he knew it but never told me) after looking through any and all websites and finding the border passing thing that had her real name on it, all I knew was that she was born in Mexico by accident. Unfortunately I haven't got very far besides my grandparents parents. It drives me crazy sometimes and I get into moods where I will spend my work money on anything trying to find ancestry records. Oh well.
My first major problem was trying to trace and at least partially confirm family from the time prior to when Census Records were available (and some were from New Jersey, so it hit earlier in those sections of the family than other sections). I eventually found ways to get around that problem, though, by doing research in county records and state historical associations (such as the Maryland Historical Society). And you'd be surprised at some of the information you'll find in county records even if the family didn't live in the county - one of my ancestors was born and raised in Harford County, Maryland, got married in Washington County, Pennsylvania to a woman from Harford County, and died in Ohio.
Why the marriage in Washington County? Although I've never found the exact reason, Washington County is where his grandparents lived, and it was between Maryland and Ohio.