Genealogy

[ella]

So I've been doing a lot of genealogy research the last couple weeks, it's starting to take over my life- it's so interesting. Anyways I've traced my father's line all the way back to 1645 near Darmstadt, Germany. My 8th Great Grandfather and his family came to America in 1710. He is listed as being one of the first of 300 Palatinates to settle in America. He came over on the 6th ship and settled in West Camp, Ulster, New York. He is even listed on the West Camp Palatinate Monument. After West Camp, he moved his family to the Van Loon patroonship. My 5th Great Grandfather fought and died in the Battle of Saratoga. My 4th GG enlisted and marched to Baltimore towards the end of the War of 1812. His son, my 3rd GG fought and died during the Civil War from fever. Lastly, my Great Grandfather's brother fought in WWI and was listed as being the only soldier who survived in his Unit.

I know tl;dr..... Anyone else into genealogy research? A couple days ago I bought a subscription to ancestry.com....it's really coming in handy now that I've started researching my mother's line. All 4 of her grandparents immigrated from Czechoslovakia to New York during the early 1900s, and it's been extremely difficult to find any information or documentation on them.

[reprise85]

I've started to be more interested in this lately. I know jack shit about my relatives. How fast does ancestry.com come up with stuff? Is the 14 day trial going to tell me anything?

I think it's cool you know all this stuff.

[MyOneAndOnly]

I'm fourth generation white trash.

[reprise85]

i know my mom's side is eastern European/Russian and my dad's side has german but other than that i have no idea

[ella]

Originally Posted by reprise85

I've started to be more interested in this lately. I know jack shit about my relatives. How fast does ancestry.com come up with stuff? Is the 14 day trial going to tell me anything?

I think it's cool you know all this stuff.

I have the 14 day trial as well, but plan on keeping the subscription afterwards. I went ahead and got the 14 day trial w/ the world package, and then plan on downsizing to the U.S package after my 14 days is up.

14 days would probably be enough time to trace your lineage. The deciding factor though will be when your ancestors immigrated here. If they have been here for over 200 years it will be fairly easy for you to find documents on all of them. Like I said though, if your ancestors are fairly new to the U.S it will be much harder. For my line that came over in 1710, I started by researching U.S censuses, birth, death, and marriage certificates...and also using genealogy messageboards for clues. Once you get back towards the early 1800s and earlier, you mostly rely on church records regarding birth, baptism, marriage, and also land deeds, property records, etc will help.

My mother's line that immigrated here in the early 1900s has been extremely difficult. The earliest records that ancestry.com even has regarding Czechoslovakia date to 1930 on up.... I'll probably have to rely more on google and genealogy messageboards to find info on them.

I really like ancestry.com, but it almost makes it too easy- which kind of takes the fun out of it. Part of the fun is solving the puzzle, searching for clues for hours, reading old documents...you know and then FINALLY finding that missing piece that shows proof of a connection. That's what makes genealogy so gratifying...but when you have ancestry.com doing all the research for you, it's just kind of bleh.

[reprise85]

Thanks for the info. All of my family emigrated in the early 1900s except a few right before WWII (I think). We're also jews so we won't have church records, maybe others but I'm not sure.

There are only about 10 people in the world with my last name. I know that's just a small percentage of my "relatives" but I wonder how that changes things. I am certainly related to everyone with my last name.

[ella]

If you want I can't look up some info for you on there, see if ancestry.com has any records of your surname. What is it and I'll do a quick search!

[reprise85]

i'll PM you. thanks!

[ilikeplanets]

i'm probably related to moses

[Sonic Johnny]

Speaking from experience, people telling you about their genealogy is ranked somewhere just below telling you about their dreams and just above asking you to rank all the Beatles albums on the list of "one-sided conversations insufferably shithouse epeople tend to want to have"

[vixnix]

Originally Posted by Sonic Johnny

Speaking from experience, people telling you about their genealogy is ranked somewhere just below telling you about their dreams and just above asking you to rank all the Beatles albums on the list of "one-sided conversations insufferably shithouse epeople tend to want to have"

ahhhh yep.

[redbreegull]

Originally Posted by Sonic Johnny

Speaking from experience, people telling you about their genealogy is ranked somewhere just below telling you about their dreams and just above asking you to rank all the Beatles albums on the list of "one-sided conversations insufferably shithouse epeople tend to want to have"

jesus christ, you sound like a total fuck


I would love to find info on my family. My dad's family came from Latvia in the early 1900s. My mom's mom's family lives in Texas, I think they have done so for some generations, but I dunno. They have an English last name. The only ones I know anything about are my mom's dad's ancestors. My great great grandfather was an engineer and inventor in Austria-Hungary. He was quite good at what he did apparently, because he was asked to come over and work in New Jersey with Thomas Edison. He became friends with Edison and they played chess together on a weekly basis while he was employed at Menlo. He also patented an early design for the automatic shifting transmission, but was unhappy with the tepid offers he received from auto manufacturers, and decided not to sell. Later on someone invented a better one and sold it to Ford or someone so he made no cash off it at all.

[vixnix]

I think he means that while it's understandably interesting to you...it's also understandable that it's seldom interesting to anyone else.

[redbreegull]

Dreams and the Beatles are the two most interesting things to talk about

[vixnix]

Wow really, I never knew. I find festering infections and the size and shape of people's genital organs way more interesting than either of those but I am pretty messed up so it's probably just me.

[hnibos]

I'd love to find out but I can't. All my family is born in Honduras and hospitals/government didn't really keep any records past my grandparents.

[redbreegull]

Originally Posted by vixnix

Wow really, I never knew. I find festering infections and the size and shape of people's genital organs way more interesting than either of those but I am pretty messed up so it's probably just me.

maybe the genitals one

[ella]

Hey reprise, just so you know I didn't forget about you- I started looking up your surname about an hour ago, but then had to get the kids to bed. But man....you weren't exaggerating on the rarity of that name! I found about 20 documents on ancestry.com... Usually that number is in the thousands! I found your mother and father...but besides that, I'm not sure. Your dad is originally from New York right? so I'm using that, I'll get somewhere..it just might take a little longer.

[reprise85]

Originally Posted by ella

Hey reprise, just so you know I didn't forget about you- I started looking up your surname about an hour ago, but then had to get the kids to bed. But man....you weren't exaggerating on the rarity of that name! I found about 20 documents on ancestry.com... Usually that number is in the thousands! I found your mother and father...but besides that, I'm not sure. Your dad is originally from New York right? so I'm using that, I'll get somewhere..it just might take a little longer.

Wow that's crazy huh... yeah, he's from NY. His father died when I was 6 months old, uhhh Ben I think was his name? My parents never talk(ed) about their parents and I believe they both really hated their fathers. I know my mom hated hers.

Thanks!

[Sonic Johnny]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

Dreams and the Beatles are the two most interesting things to talk about

and i'm the one who sounds like a fuck

[ella]

Originally Posted by reprise85

Wow that's crazy huh... yeah, he's from NY. His father died when I was 6 months old, uhhh Ben I think was his name? My parents never talk(ed) about their parents and I believe they both really hated their fathers. I know my mom hated hers.

Thanks!

Alright knowing his father's name helped a lot! I found only one Ben, and he was actually Bernard but went by Ben. Died in Delray Beach Fla, Oct 1985. He was born August 1912 NY into a pretty big family! I'll pm you a census with the list and age of siblings!

[reprise85]

Originally Posted by ella

Alright knowing his father's name helped a lot! I found only one Ben, and he was actually Bernard but went by Ben. Died in Delray Beach Fla, Oct 1985. He was born August 1912 NY into a pretty big family! I'll pm you a census with the list and age of siblings!

That makes sense. I was born in April of that year. My parents moved down here early in 1986, partially to be with my grandmother who was now alone and beacuse my aunt Penny (that was her middle name tho I think) supposedly embezzled from their company and it went bankrupt. Oh yeah, they owned a carpet business in NY! I say supposedly because my dad had a hidden gambling addiction and I think she might have been a scapegoat, but we'll never know I guess.

You are awesome. I'll go ahead and sign up for that ancestory thing. thanks for your help

[reprise85]

looks like my great grandfather was romanian and my great grandmother was austrian

this is cool

and their name got changed when they immigrated... a few letters off... or i just got entered incorrectly

woah

[reprise85]

holy shit i just opened up some shit

[yo soy el mejor]

Originally Posted by Sonic Johnny

Speaking from experience, people telling you about their genealogy is ranked somewhere just below telling you about their dreams and just above asking you to rank all the Beatles albums on the list of "one-sided conversations insufferably shithouse epeople tend to want to have"

you said it, BUT i would be interested to know my own.

[ella]

Originally Posted by reprise85

holy shit i just opened up some shit

LOL I'll let you take it from here then since you got a subscription. I saw the name change to, quite a few different spellings. Every line of mine that I have researched changed the spelling of their name around the time they immigrated, and I'm also sure that some of the spellings were just mistakes made by the men who made the ship lists etc. You should be able to find your ancestor's ship passenger list. I also noticed a lot of people with your surname documented in Ukraine. Probably a lot of your great grandpa's relatives migrated there.

[ella]

I love researching genealogy! If anyone else on here wants me to find info on their lines, I would be more than willing to look it up! Yo Soy, Enrique- If you want I can look up your lines and see what I can get.

[yo soy el mejor]

maybe it's the mexican talking, but my family ancestry is more sacred to me than to just let some junior housewife look it up for me on a website to ''see what she can get''. that's insulting. wth.

[reprise85]

they're just people, not gods. i don't share the same sentiments

[yo soy el mejor]

they don't need to be gods for me to have some respect.