Genealogy

[Shawna in Texas]

My grandmother wants to find out how many siblings (and who they were) her mother had. She knows she had one aunt, who had three children, but that's it. Her memory is not that great, but she doesn't recall her mother speaking about her side of the family at all, whereas they were surrounded by her father's family. She was the baby of the family, so she's the last, but a few years back she had conversations with her oldest brother, but he only remembers the one aunt.

 

Recently, a distant relative sent her a bunch of pictures, and she recognizes her mother in some, but no one else. Nobody seems to know anything. Another person who had been digging on her father's side to write a book, uncovered her maternal grandparents, names and where they were buried, but that's it. We know her mother's full name, birth date and place, and death. She has quite a pile for me to read, so the birth and death dates of her grandparents might be in that. She had never met them. To top it off her mother's maiden name is Jones.

 

So, all the info she wants is names and number of her mother's siblings. I've been playing around at some ancestry sites, but I really don't want to sign up for anything if it's not going to go anywhere. Searching for a Peter Jones who died in Oklahoma in an unknown year is not getting me anywhere. :glare::D Since I know all her mom's info, I should be able to get some basic info and build a family tree, but I want to know which website would be the way to go. Any advice?

[MomLovesClassics]

Is she searching on her mother's side or her father's? Believe it or not a lot of info can be found on ancestry.com. You can find birth records, marriage records, and other records. Also, now DNA projects are available for a lot of surnames. Usually the older male takes the DNA test. One can find lost relatives this way. I got my dad to do this, and the results were suprising. I don't think ancestry.com is worth a long membership, but lots of info can be uncovered in a short time.

[mommaduck]

Start entering names here ;)

 

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html

 

You may want to download this. It's free and a good way to keep track of what you are finding. Who knows, you may just catch the family research bug ;) It's addicting LOL!

 

http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/

Edited April 21, 2010 by mommaduck

[Rebecca VA]

Yes, I was shocked at how much information I found at ancestry.com. I located a good deal of my dad's family tree, going all the way back to before 1700, from only the recollection of a name or two. I was able to do this because previous searchers had generously made their family trees available, and I was able to tap into what they had done.

 

I did a few practice searches for free at ancestry.com before I signed up for a six-month subscription, and I learned a lot. I really, really, really wish I had asked my dad more information about his family before he died. (I couldn't find out anything about my mom because she was adopted from a baby mill back in the 1930s and she died at a young age.) If you still have ancestors alive, ask them many questions! You and your children will be so glad later to have that information.

[Mary in VA]

I've had great luck with Ancestry.com. You can sign up for a month at a time at I believe $16.95. I've done it the last two summers when I had more time and then turned it off in the fall. When I went back my info was all still there. I turned it on again in February during our huge snow storm to combat boredom :001_smile:

 

I found most of the information in census records. It has names, ages, employment, education, addresses, etc. I was even able to take some info and go to google maps and see a house my grandmother lived in. But the census records from 1940 and on are not available yet. They are not released until 75 years after they are collected. So depending on your gm's age, you might not be able to get much through through the census.

 

A lot depends on the state. Some state records are available on-line and others aren't. I might be worth a one month subscription to Ancestry.com to just poke around a little. It is very quick to pick up how to search.

 

HTH,

Mary

[junepep]

Have you tried rootsweb.com? It's free.

 

Also, some of the censuses have been transcribed and are available online for free from various genealogical societies.

 

I understand that you're trying not to be specific, but it's hard to help without knowing the timeframe involved.

 

Ancestry, which someone mentioned, is the fastest route unless you're looking for information on people who might still be living. But it's expensive if you can't find it in your initial searches with a trial acct (or if you get distracted and start looking up additional family members ;)) You can search by the child's name and age which is what makes if so valuable for census and local searches. If your grandmother was born before 1930 it's a very valuable tool. If not, then you'll have to start looking at other options (I haven't been keeping up with it, but 1940 census should come out relatively soon...)

 

Also you can search off of SS#s if they had them (if you know what they were -- you might even be able to find their ss number if the location of their death didn't have TOO many Jones')

 

If your grandmother remembers what her father's profession was or what church she attended as a child you'll find clues through that as well. Churches keep confirmation/baptism records. Also, if they were active in their local community (even if it was just participating in local events) they might pop in the newspapers as well for local activities, the church or the husband's job/retirement.

 

Obituaries are the best though for sibling records. In fact, you can search by your grandfather's last name (here's hoping it's unusual) listed as a surviving daughter/family member within obituaries for the last name that you're looking for. You can do country-wide searches and local searches.

 

The issue is that MANY newspapers aren't electronically archived. Ancestry has a few though... so... maybe it'll work out.

 

But seriously before ancestry I really would try rootsweb first and all of the local resources that they offer and... I would look through that huge pile of material that she gave you. As you said, the answer may already be there waiting for you to find it!

 

DUH!! Also look in the family bible :D -- people always forget that but genealogical info is invariably in there!!!

 

Oh, and posting for help on the boards are free! So post away :) I found some distant relatives that way.

 

PS - be careful with Family Search. I've found that their records have a high rate of transcription errors and the family groups have been just plain wrong in several cases (my family has a very rich written family history lovingly transcribed from mother to daughter for the past 5 generations and I found several cases where their records were simply wrong -- the same is true of Ancestry's world tree because they accept everyones records regardless of provenance.) Since I'm not a member of the church they refused to correct the transcription errors or to fix the family groups indicating to me that the assumptions that were made regarding their records would be the ones that they would be moving forward with. Something similar happened with Ancestry when I tried to point out that their service had transcribed a couple of names incorrectly - they require a certain number of people to point out the error before it becomes an "alternate name" or date :/. LOL in one instance it had an 80yo married to a 30 yo ;) so... just keep an open mind when you're interpreting your results and double check everything (and the origionals of documents that might be "maybes" before adding it to your tree!! :-)

Edited April 21, 2010 by junepep

[elegantlion]

Here's a free website I spent several years looking through. http://genforum.genealogy.com/ I'm not sure how active it is now, but it was a great resource for me.

 

After looking further here is the page to sign up for the message board, it's free. http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-genforum/gfregister.cgi?forum=dabbadie&msg=

Edited April 21, 2010 by elegantlion

[mommaduck]

Genforum also has a chat room, I believe. People that have subscriptions to places like Ancestry will often hang out there to help those that are both less experienced at this kind of research and are not ready to commit to a subscription to those places.

[cathmom]

your library might offer ancestry.com for free. Mine does.

[Shawna in Texas]

You guys are so helpful!

 

Is she searching on her mother's side or her father's? Believe it or not a lot of info can be found on ancestry.com. You can find birth records, marriage records, and other records. Also, now DNA projects are available for a lot of surnames. Usually the older male takes the DNA test. One can find lost relatives this way. I got my dad to do this, and the results were suprising. I don't think ancestry.com is worth a long membership, but lots of info can be uncovered in a short time.

 

It's her mom's side. We have oodles of info about her dad's side (her grandfather had something like 17 children with 4 women). Just using free searches I can't find anything on her mom, but maybe I'm being too specific and not patient enough.

 

Start entering names here ;)

 

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html

 

You may want to download this. It's free and a good way to keep track of what you are finding. Who knows, you may just catch the family research bug ;) It's addicting LOL!

 

http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/

 

OK, first link takes patience. I type in Elizabeth Jones, birth year and place, and get over 200 results. I didn't type in the town, only state, but one looks like a match. It has the correct head of household, town, and birth month (all things I didn't specify). If that's true, it's got my maternal great-great grandparents as being born in Wales. I need to call Memaw and see if she knew that. I didn't get any other info on Elizabeth, yet.

 

Yes, I was shocked at how much information I found at ancestry.com. I located a good deal of my dad's family tree, going all the way back to before 1700, from only the recollection of a name or two. I was able to do this because previous searchers had generously made their family trees available, and I was able to tap into what they had done.

 

I did a few practice searches for free at ancestry.com before I signed up for a six-month subscription, and I learned a lot. I really, really, really wish I had asked my dad more information about his family before he died. (I couldn't find out anything about my mom because she was adopted from a baby mill back in the 1930s and she died at a young age.) If you still have ancestors alive, ask them many questions! You and your children will be so glad later to have that information.

 

I'll do the free trial of this and see of I get anywhere. My grandfather (86), remembers everyone and all the juicy details (Irish granny killing 2-3 husbands). He remembers names, ages, burials; it's pretty neat all the info I've gotten from him.

 

I've had great luck with Ancestry.com. You can sign up for a month at a time at I believe $16.95. I've done it the last two summers when I had more time and then turned it off in the fall. When I went back my info was all still there. I turned it on again in February during our huge snow storm to combat boredom :001_smile:

 

I found most of the information in census records. It has names, ages, employment, education, addresses, etc. I was even able to take some info and go to google maps and see a house my grandmother lived in. But the census records from 1940 and on are not available yet. They are not released until 75 years after they are collected. So depending on your gm's age, you might not be able to get much through through the census.

 

A lot depends on the state. Some state records are available on-line and others aren't. I might be worth a one month subscription to Ancestry.com to just poke around a little. It is very quick to pick up how to search.

 

HTH,

Mary

 

My great-grandma was born in 1895 and died in 1976, and I believe that was her info from the 1900 census I found. Unfortunately, it was specific to her, and not her father (Peter) that I'm wanting.

 

Have you tried rootsweb.com? It's free.

 

Also, some of the censuses have been transcribed and are available online for free from various genealogical societies.

 

I understand that you're trying not to be specific, but it's hard to help without knowing the timeframe involved.

 

Ancestry, which someone mentioned, is the fastest route unless you're looking for information on people who might still be living. But it's expensive if you can't find it in your initial searches with a trial acct (or if you get distracted and start looking up additional family members ;)) You can search by the child's name and age which is what makes if so valuable for census and local searches. If your grandmother was born before 1930 it's a very valuable tool. If not, then you'll have to start looking at other options (I haven't been keeping up with it, but 1940 census should come out relatively soon...)

 

Also you can search off of SS#s if they had them (if you know what they were -- you might even be able to find their ss number if the location of their death didn't have TOO many Jones')

 

If your grandmother remembers what her father's profession was or what church she attended as a child you'll find clues through that as well. Churches keep confirmation/baptism records. Also, if they were active in their local community (even if it was just participating in local events) they might pop in the newspapers as well for local activities, the church or the husband's job/retirement.

 

Obituaries are the best though for sibling records. In fact, you can search by your grandfather's last name (here's hoping it's unusual) listed as a surviving daughter/family member within obituaries for the last name that you're looking for. You can do country-wide searches and local searches.

 

The issue is that MANY newspapers aren't electronically archived. Ancestry has a few though... so... maybe it'll work out.

 

But seriously before ancestry I really would try rootsweb first and all of the local resources that they offer and... I would look through that huge pile of material that she gave you. As you said, the answer may already be there waiting for you to find it!

 

DUH!! Also look in the family bible :D -- people always forget that but genealogical info is invariably in there!!!

 

Oh, and posting for help on the boards are free! So post away :) I found some distant relatives that way.

 

PS - be careful with Family Search. I've found that their records have a high rate of transcription errors and the family groups have been just plain wrong in several cases (my family has a very rich written family history lovingly transcribed from mother to daughter for the past 5 generations and I found several cases where their records were simply wrong -- the same is true of Ancestry's world tree because they accept everyones records regardless of provenance.) Since I'm not a member of the church they refused to correct the transcription errors or to fix the family groups indicating to me that the assumptions that were made regarding their records would be the ones that they would be moving forward with. Something similar happened with Ancestry when I tried to point out that their service had transcribed a couple of names incorrectly - they require a certain number of people to point out the error before it becomes an "alternate name" or date :/. LOL in one instance it had an 80yo married to a 30 yo ;) so... just keep an open mind when you're interpreting your results and double check everything (and the origionals of documents that might be "maybes" before adding it to your tree!! :-)

 

I'll go check out rootsweb. I don't think I went there. I'm not too worried about specific stuff, I just don't know a lot. I just got off the phone with my Memaw, who had called the SIL of her oldest brother (who was nearly 20 years her senior, I just found this out; Memaw born in 1933, her brother born in 1914, their mother 1895). Anyway, apparently, Peter and his pregnant wife were coming over from Wales to Plymouth, Pennsylvania. She had the baby and died in childbirth on the boat. The nurse who took care of the baby was the woman who became my great-great grandmother (Kathryn, Catherine). So, Peter (g-ggf) had children with his first wife and at least 2 with the second (my g-ggm). Does this make sense? :lol: My Memaw knows the woman who is her full sister, but doesn't know anything about the others except that they exist and came over on the boat with their parents. Memaw's niece (who we have no idea how to contact) relayed this info to SIL many years ago. The more I hear of this, the more intrigued I am.

 

She doesn't know anything about her grandfather's profession, or church ir anything. She doesn't even know if any of her sibling had met them since she was the baby. She doesn't recall her mom talking about them at all. Obituaries haven't been helpful considering it's Jones. I know where they're (g-gparents) buried, though, so I'm going to do some checking.

 

Memaw has the family Bible and it's full of newspaper clippings from her father's side. Not her mom's.

 

Here's a free website I spent several years looking through. http://genforum.genealogy.com/ I'm not sure how active it is now, but it was a great resource for me.

 

After looking further here is the page to sign up for the message board, it's free. http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-genforum/gfregister.cgi?forum=dabbadie&msg=

 

I shall check this out. Thanks!

 

your library might offer ancestry.com for free. Mine does.

 

I didn't even consider this. Thank you.

[mommaduck]

You guys are so helpful!

OK, first link takes patience.

 

Genealogy takes patience. Years worth of patience LOL! There will be months where you will have time and find a lot. There will be times that you will put your research away or just beat your head against the latest brick wall. If you use the Ancestry boards for queries, then it can take a couple of years or longer before someone replies, but they may know information that you don't have :)

 

I type in Elizabeth Jones, birth year and place, and get over 200 results. I didn't type in the town, only state, but one looks like a match. It has the correct head of household, town, and birth month (all things I didn't specify). If that's true, it's got my maternal great-great grandparents as being born in Wales. I need to call Memaw and see if she knew that. I didn't get any other info on Elizabeth, yet.

 

With a name like that, yes, you would have to be patient! :lol: Sounds like you found what you were looking for though. You take every little piece of that information on that and you start posting like crazy on Ancestry and entering searches on the boards to see if anyone else posted about the same family ;) Get on the genforum chat and see if someone can help pull up things from elsewhere.

 

Another place to go to for help is your local Family History Center (usually located in one of the local LDS churches...they are very helpful with this sort of thing. We aren't LDS, but my mama volunteered for a few years at one near her.

[ReneeK]

Here is another site that has been helpful

http://www.cyndislist.com/

If any family members have been buried in a church cemetary they usually have records on site or at the county library.

 

I have been doing it for 16 + years on a very common name also-not so easy at times- and it takes alot of patience.

 

Keep a notebook and write everything down when family tells you things about the family history. Even if it sounds false or not important. You will find that while you are searching that somethings are true-or false several years later:D and those little things are great leads when you see something and it all comes together.

 

Yes, post on the free boards-I have connected with cousins I never knew I had.

 

My mind is blank on other sites but others have listed some wonderful sites.

[junepep]

I'll go check out rootsweb. I don't think I went there. I'm not too worried about specific stuff, I just don't know a lot. I just got off the phone with my Memaw, who had called the SIL of her oldest brother (who was nearly 20 years her senior, I just found this out; Memaw born in 1933, her brother born in 1914, their mother 1895). Anyway, apparently, Peter and his pregnant wife were coming over from Wales to Plymouth, Pennsylvania. She had the baby and died in childbirth on the boat. The nurse who took care of the baby was the woman who became my great-great grandmother (Kathryn, Catherine). So, Peter (g-ggf) had children with his first wife and at least 2 with the second (my g-ggm). Does this make sense? :lol:

 

Ok, so you've got the beginnings of a fabulous way to find out more about your Great-grandma here. All of the emigration & transportation records from the turn of the century are available -- almost all of them are even online. The key is going to be finding a correlation between an unwed (hopefully ;)) Kathryn/Catherine (& spelling vars) and a Mr & Mrs [Great-grandfather's name] Jones aboard a vessel together some time before 1913 (I'm assuming that they didn't have the baby immediately, but jic you might want to check 1914 too). I'm assuming that the port was NYC, which will make it even easier --- http://www.ellisisland.org/ is your new best friend :D -- arrivals (even on visits) 1892-1924. Nevermind bothering with anything else for now. Once you have your "likelies" you can then narrow down your list by trying to trying to track it down along the message boards etc

 

But here's the thing, you have her name: Kathryn, birth year 1895, and you have a cross search via Jones & his full name and birth year to confirm that they would have been on the same boat together (actually, you should probably search for him first :). Just make sure that you're searching on +/- a couple of years on both of their ages. For whatever reason people always lie about their age ;)

 

Good Luck!!

[Shawna in Texas]

 

Another place to go to for help is your local Family History Center (usually located in one of the local LDS churches...they are very helpful with this sort of thing. We aren't LDS, but my mama volunteered for a few years at one near her.

 

I'll check that out. I wouldn't have thought of it.

 

Here is another site that has been helpful

http://www.cyndislist.com/

If any family members have been buried in a church cemetary they usually have records on site or at the county library.

 

I have been doing it for 16 + years on a very common name also-not so easy at times- and it takes alot of patience.

 

Keep a notebook and write everything down when family tells you things about the family history. Even if it sounds false or not important. You will find that while you are searching that somethings are true-or false several years later:D and those little things are great leads when you see something and it all comes together.

 

Yes, post on the free boards-I have connected with cousins I never knew I had.

 

 

 

Got my notebook. I still haven't identified the cemetery yet. Memaw is working on that. I will check out that link.

 

Ok, so you've got the beginnings of a fabulous way to find out more about your Great-grandma here. All of the emigration & transportation records from the turn of the century are available -- almost all of them are even online. The key is going to be finding a correlation between an unwed (hopefully ;)) Kathryn/Catherine (& spelling vars) and a Mr & Mrs [Great-grandfather's name] Jones aboard a vessel together some time before 1913 (I'm assuming that they didn't have the baby immediately, but jic you might want to check 1914 too). I'm assuming that the port was NYC, which will make it even easier --- http://www.ellisisland.org/ is your new best friend :D -- arrivals (even on visits) 1892-1924. Nevermind bothering with anything else for now. Once you have your "likelies" you can then narrow down your list by trying to trying to track it down along the message boards etc

 

But here's the thing, you have her name: Kathryn, birth year 1895, and you have a cross search via Jones & his full name and birth year to confirm that they would have been on the same boat together (actually, you should probably search for him first :). Just make sure that you're searching on +/- a couple of years on both of their ages. For whatever reason people always lie about their age ;)

 

Good Luck!!

 

It was Elizabeth (my great grandma) that was born in 1895 (Plymouth Penn) to Kath/Cath and Peter. I might have found something through FamilySearch. There's a Peter from Wales who came here in 1886. He was born in 1847 in Wales and was on the Plymouth Penn census in 1900. There was another Peter that came the same year who was born in 1883 (who's HOH on 1900 census was Peter). I'm wondering if this is connected and that possibly making younger Peter his son, making him Elizabeth's brother. I'm glad I'm keeping a notebook. This may be someone else's Peter Jones. Pretty sure about Elizabeth, though. Elizabeth married my G-Gfather in 1914 Oklahoma.

 

I'm off to Ellis Island now. Thanks for that! I think I'll check 1880 to 1895.

[Shawna in Texas]

I'm assuming that the port was NYC, which will make it even easier --- http://www.ellisisland.org/ is your new best friend :D -- arrivals (even on visits) 1892-1924. Nevermind bothering with anything else for now. Once you have your "likelies" you can then narrow down your list by trying to trying to track it down along the message boards etc

Good Luck!!

 

 

Was there any other ports?