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[Spiderman]

My cousin Donna has been a quest to chase down our family's history as far back as she can and in as many directions as possible for the past three years. She's amassed an incredible database of information tracing us back to one of the founder's of Hartford Connecticut on my Mom's side of the family (My Mom and her Dad are brother/sister) I've been working on my Dad's side as Donna has chased her Mom's. It's interesting as you go backward because while you have one name that provides a straight line (in my case Butler) you have the spouse's of each of the forebears you find that begin a new branch. I think Donna and I calculated that we have something like 257 different surnames associated with descendents of our Mothers and Fathers.
Anyway, I digress. I started this thread because I was hoping maybe someone out of the 19,000 members on this site also has an interest in geneology and what resources do you use. Donna and I use Ancestry.com as a base so to speak and then research what we find on that site. For instance, when we noticed a connection to Hartford CT we Googled the founding of Hartford and established that our 8th Grandfather was Deacon Butler who's name appears in the Founders list. And so on. I'd be interested to read what and how anyone else has done with regard to this

B B

[Master Guns]

I have done some research into my family ancestry and I have had the opportunity to correspond with a distant cousin in Sweden who is doing the same from there.  My grandfather immigrated to the US when he was 7 years old and there are still many relatives alive and well in Sweden.  The wife and I aretrying to get a trip scheduled to meet some of them and to see the country.  It was also interesting to find out how our family name has changed over the years due to the Swedish military giving enlistees a new name and going through immigration into the US in the 1800's and early 1900's.  I too use ancestry.com as a starting point plus I had a huge amount of information to start with on my mom's side because of another distant cousin's research.

Enjoy your searches and findings!

[dayne66]

Interesting history you have!

I'm estranged from my messed up family...for almost 20 years now...a lot less stress this way.

A couple (they are a couple) of friends have been tracing their history and went on a trip to visit some grave sites.....and found some info on headstones that they, in years of research, had not found anywhere else.

[VaEagle]

I use Ancestry.com and in the past year I came up with over 400 people in a wide spread tree. I did hit dead ends on father's side as well as mother's side. I have hired Progenealogists.com to verify my work and see if they can break past my dead ends.(No pun intended.) Their link can be found on Ancestry.com but they are expensive and work like a lawyer on retainer, you decide how many man hours you can afford. They have researchers in many countries so they can translate foreign documents that they find.

[ultrarider123]

My step mother swears by Ancestry.com in her search for her and my dad's family history.  She's traced my dad back to Nathan Bedford Forrest which is pretty interesting as my middle name (Forrest) is found in a male member of every generation of my family going back to him.  I always thought I was just named after my paternal grandfather.  I never wanted to look as I was always afraid I would find out something I really didn't want to know about my family if I searched anything but glad somebody looked...

[ice6900]

I have also researched my family history over the last few years, during the winter ride break!

I have listed every single person every born on Guernsey with my Surname "Le Noury"  Its intersting how the spelling also changes with early generations, the use of a small range of birth names makes it difficult to keep track of those born within a few years of one another.
There are also lots of misspellings and other errors as the old records were given verbally to the curators.

http://lenouryofguernsey.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=lenouryofguernsey&view=9&rand=271844698


I have used mainly http://www.findmypast.co.uk/    but have without subscription used every other ancestry site available.  My daughter slogged through all Baptism records held in the local library archives...






Where did your Deacon Butler originated from, what was his birth year? 

[Eagle Eye]

Absolutely!  I’ve been at it for around 19 years, or coinciding with my access to the internet.  Ancestory.com and Roots.com are both very good resources.  Also like minded Cousins, distant and not so distant have managed to provide more information than either website.  The websites have filled in the gaps or taken me on other name strings.  

So far, on my mother’s side, I’ve traced back to 13th century France and 14th century England.  The coolest thing I’ve found out in the last ten years is I have 3 GGG-Grandfathers who fought in the Revolution.  Two were Baptist Priests fighting for their religious freedom from King Georges Anglican Church.  The third was an Irishman named John Ragan, who is my mother’s namesake.   There was also a Stephen Carter Ragan (John’s Grandson) who formed a Mounted Calvary unit at the start of the War Between the States.  He was a historical figure in the Mid-west and my GG-Grandfather.  He was also a two term Missouri State Senator and Under-Sheriff of Kansas City, MO after the war was over.
 
One interesting thing about the Ragans:  They were among some of the first settlers in the Kansas City, MO area.  Stephen was one of the first school teachers.  Self-taught, or home schooled, he opened one of the first schools and had such illustrious names as Jesse James and Cole Younger as students.  He wrote that Cole was one of the brightest students in his class.  These were farm kids who reacted to the events that followed in much a way that many of us would have, had the railroad taken or burned our property.  

Lots of new material presents with each search. So even though you have searched, if you wait a month or two, you’ll want to do it again.  The last time I searched, I found another generation just because of someone posting a last will and testament written by my GGGG-Grandmother.  Her husband had passed away 20 years earlier, so we are now seeking his name, which was not mentioned in the document.

One of my best resources has been family.  I started with my Grandfather in 1985, about a year before he passed away.  I interviewed him and recorded his voice, so my Grandchildren could hear his stories first hand.  He started me on my quest that year and I’ve been going ever since.  

On my father’s side, it’s been a little tougher.  They emigrated from Germany in 1853.  They were in Union Army during the WBTS.  I had one GGG-Uncle killed and two returned home safe.  They were farmers in the FT. Wayne, IN area.  We managed a few years ago to find out our name had changed phonetically, so now we have a way to search in Germany.  It was changed from Fladung to Flauding.  We’ve traced it back to a small village just north of Frankfurt called Mohra.  Also, Fladungen is nearby.  We managed to find church records in Mohra, dated in the 1700s.  We also have found other information that still needs to be corroborated.  

Yip, it’s good fun to learn these things; but more important to me to save it and pass it on to the next generations, so our story is preserved.  
Happy hunting!
    
 

[braymond52]

A couple (they are a couple) of friends have been tracing their history and went on a trip to visit some grave sites.....and found some info on headstones that they, in years of research, had not found anywhere else.

My mom has been doing this for almost 20 years now.  She's learned a lot about both her and my dads family history.  She told me that many graveyards have websites and put interment information there.  She found out a great deal, at least in terms of final resting places, etc.