ancestry

jonri · January 30, 2011, 4:30pm

Take a look at familytreeguide.com. The advantage is that you can add gedcoms to this.

What does that mean? Well, simplifying, all the various software programs speak a slightly different language. So something stored in reunion can’t be directly added to the tree of someone who uses familytreemaker or ancestry. You have to convert it into a gedcom file and then all the different programs can use it.

The problem is with some of the sites, uploading a gedcom onto your website wipes out your pre-existing tree. It doesn’t on familytreeguide.

Another free or cheap site is tribalpages. It does wipe out your gedcom if you upload a new one. It does allow you to back up your gedcom onto your own computer up to once a day. I do it less frequently. I like some of the “tools” on it a lot more than ancestry’s. The photos can be much larger. It also gives you a lot of flexibility re the levels of privacy you set.

Like ancestry, tribal pages tells you if you have a possible match. You choose whether or not you want to have people in your tree listed in the directory.

Of course, you can also choose to put your family tree on rootsweb. It’s “hosted” by ancestry, but is entirely free.

I’d urge everyone to make sure they can convert the data they put into a tree into a gedcom file and to do it frequently. You may have trouble connecting the photos, but at least you’ll have the data.

And you can, BTW, download FREE software on the Mormon site. Then you can save any gedcom for free.

merlin · January 30, 2011, 6:12pm

DougBetsy, I liken it to solving a good mystery. Good to know about the 3 month free trial at ancestry.com. Some years ago, there was a 2 week free trial and I worked through the nights during a vacation to take advantage of it because I knew that once I returned to work, it would not be worthwhile to subscribe.

poet girl, you bring up an interesting point about political boundaries.
My husband’s grandparents are from eastern European regions where the country boundaries have not been consistent. Is he descended from Poles or Ukrainians? Does it matter? I sure felt a thrill to find a copy of his presumably Ukrainian grandfather’s draft card with his signature on it.

In this age, hopefully, we have become increasingly aware of the differences between ethnic/tribal identity and political identity/loyalty. This has become apparent through some of the US’s interventions in other cultures. Tribes whose members straddle political (eg: country) boundaries may not care if they are in Bratislenia or Bhugistan–Not to spark a political debate!

For a more in depth look at family origins, consider a DNA test, with a company such as Family Tree DNA, or the one affiliated with the National Geographic. DNA tests reveal much older information, many generations before the countries of the world were defined. The confusion surrounding my husband’s (recent) ethnic identity sure dissipated when we discovered that there is evidence that he is descended from the Ice Man.

theaterbrat · January 30, 2011, 7:39pm

I don’t know you all got a three month free trial to ancestry.com. I only got a 2 week trial, then paid for it for several months until I hit a “saturation point” and decided to lay off it for awhile. I had public family trees until I got tired of people taking information and putting it on their incorrect family tree. However, I share mine with anyone who asks. I have also found out a few family secrets on ancestry.com which has been a shock! So you never know what you will find! Find a grave.com is also a good resource. It is addicting!

Hugcheck · January 30, 2011, 8:23pm

There’s a program called Ancestral Author [Ancestral</a> Author: Convert GEDCOM to Hyperlinked PDF](<a href=“http://www.ancestralauthor.com/]Ancestral”>http://www.ancestralauthor.com/) that will take your gedcom files and convert them to PDF format. You can create books with your genealogy info. From the website: Ancestral Author “constructs hyperlinked Adobe Acrobat PDF files from GEDCOM files, text files, images, and other user inputs. It is very simple to use, and creates high quality documents that can be printed, emailed, published on the internet, or sent to a service bureau for conversion into a bound book.”

DH uses it - he’s gone back to the 14th century on his mom’s side. It’s suprisingly exciting stuff, genealogy! He has taken a few versions of books to be bound at the local copy center. Great gift.

jonri · January 30, 2011, 9:27pm

Hugcheck, Once you purchase the program, can you use it with an unlimited number of trees?

jonri · January 30, 2011, 9:41pm

From the New York Public library, a list of databases. Some are free; some aren’t. Log onto wwwDOTnypl.org to find out which are free, which can be accessed at home, from any branch, from the research library, etc. Obviously, it is geared towards NY. Libraries elsewhere have more info re other locations:

America’s Historical Newspapers
Full-text digital images of American newspapers published from 1690-1922.
More info»

American Ancestors
Databases of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Highlights include full-text access to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register from 1847 to 1994 and the Massachusetts Vital Records to 1910.
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American Periodical Series Online
APS Online provides searchable full-text and page images from over 1,100 popular magazines, journals and newspapers which began publication between 1740 and 1900 with coverage through 1940.
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AncestorsOnBoard.com
Outward Passenger Lists for long-distance voyages leaving the British Isles from 1890-1960. View index for free but you must pay to view information on passenger lists.
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Ancestry Library Edition
Access to more than 5 billion names in more than 4,000 genealogical databases including Census Records, Passenger Lists and UK & Ireland records. Library version of Ancestry.com.
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Atlanta Constitution (1868-1945)
The Atlanta Constitution (1868-1942) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue.
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Biography and Genealogy Master Index
Indexes biographical listings in dictionaries and encyclopedias covering millions individuals, both living and deceased, from every field of activity and from all areas of the world.
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Bremen Passenger Lists, 1920-1939
Searchable database of passengers leaving Bremen for the years 1920 to 1939.
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Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online (1841-1902)
Developed by the Brooklyn Public Library, this free database provides access to the full-text of the Eagle from 1841 to 1902.
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Burke’s Peerage and Gentry Online
Records the lineages of significant families from politics, royalty and nobility in the British Isles. Includes information on American families with British ancestry and American Presidential Families.
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Castle Garden Immigration Center, 1830-1892
Index of more than 10 million immigrants who arrived at the Port of New York from 1830-1892. Searching via S. Morse’s One Step Search Form.
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Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Chronicling America is a prototype Website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program.
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Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
Contains basic facts about servicemen who served during the Civil War and regimental histories.
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Columbia Gazetteer of the World
A unique world encyclopedia of geographical places and features with over 170,000 entries.
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DAR Genealogical Records Index
Indexes unpublished genealogical materials, mainly bible and cemetery transcriptions, collected by DAR members. New York state volumes held at NYPL Milstein Division.
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Death Indexes and Records Online
Directory of online death indexes and records listed by state, including death certificate, obituaries, cemetery burials & probate records.
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Ellis Island: American Family Immigration History Center
Covers the period 1892-1924 when 22 million passengers and crew members entered the Port of New York through Ellis Island. Search for an immigrant’s name and view a digitized page of the passenger manifest.
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Ellis Island: Searching the Ellis Island Database in One Step
An enhanced search of the Ellis Island Database (1892-1924).
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England and Wales 1911 Census
The 1911 census is a record of everyone who lived in England and Wales in 1911. Searching the index is free but there is a fee for viewing the digitized record.
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England and Wales Historical Directories
A digital library of local and trade directories from England and Wales from 1750-1919.
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Family History Archive
Digitized full-text family histories.
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FamilySearch Genealogy Service
Produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), this site searches genealogical records worldwide including Ancestral Files, International Genealogical Index, and census and other vital statistics sources.
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FamilySearch Record Search (Pilot)
Search indexed records for your ancestors worldwide. Under development. New content added monthly.
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Footnote
Searchable digitized images of millions of historical primary documents relating to the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, U.S. Presidents, historical newspapers and naturalization documents, many from the National Archives.
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Freedman’s Bank Records, 1865-1874
Freedman’s Bank Records are a great source for genealogists researching their African American heritage. This database is an index to registers of signatures of depositors and includes images of the original documents.
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Germans to the U.S.: 1850-1897
Index of German immigrants arriving in the Port of New York.
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Google Book Search
Google Books enables you to search the full-text of scanned books (contributed by The New York Public Library, other libraries and publishers) via the Web, and to read selections of the full-text of these digitized texts.
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Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn
Founded in 1838, this cemetery was the place many famous New Yorkers who died during the second half of the 19th century were buried. It is still an operating cemetery with approximately 600,000 graves. Look for the search form under “Burial Inquiry.”
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Griffith’s Valuation
First full-scale valuation of property in Ireland published between 1847 and 1864. It allows researchers to locate ‘occupants’ to see who lived where.
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HeritageQuest Online
Search U.S. Federal Census records, digitized family and local history books, an index to genealogical and local history periodicals, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files and the Freedman’s Bank Records, 1865-1874.
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Internet Archives: Text Archives
Text Archive enables you to search and view the full-text of scanned books via the Web.
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Italians to the U.S.: 1855-1900
Index of Italian immigrants arriving in the Port of New York.
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Marquis Who’s Who on the Web
Basic biographical information on over 1 million of the most accomplished individuals worldwide from all fields of endeavor.
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Naturalization Index to New York Petitions, 1792-1989
Access through Ancestry Library Edition - Search under U.S. Immigration Collection. This database contains an index to the petitions for naturalization filed in various federal, state and local courts in New York City.
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Naturalization index to records at the Kings County Clerk’s Office, 1907-1924
Index to the Kings County (Brooklyn) naturalization records located in the Kings County Clerk’s Office.
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Naturalization Indexes for Greater New York
Indexes to naturalization records of the Eastern District (Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau, Suffolk) 1865-1957, the Southern District (Manhattan & Bronx) 1907-1959, Bronx County Supreme Court 1914-1952, Queens County Clerk’s Office, 1906-1957, Nassau County 1899-1989, Suffolk County 1865-1981, and Military Naturalizations for the New York Tri-State Area.
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Naturalization Petition Index at the New York County Supreme Court, 1907-1924
Access through Ancestry Library Edition - Search under U.S. Immigration Collection.
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New York City Death Index (1862-1948)
A searchable database of the death indexes for Manhattan (1891-1897), Brooklyn (1862-1897) and All Boroughs (1898-1948).
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New York City Marriages: Brides Index (1866?-1937)
A searchable database of the brides indexes for Manhattan 1866-1937; Kings County (Brooklyn) 1871-1913 and 1931-1937; Bronx 1899-1937; Queens 1904-1937; Richmond (Staten Island) 1898-1937. Not all years are 100% complete.
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New York City Marriages: Grooms Index (1864?-1936)
A searchable database of the groom indexes for Brooklyn, 1864-1907, Manhattan, 1866-1907, Staten Island, 1898-1907, and All Boroughs,1908-1936.
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New York Death Newspaper Extracts, 1801-1890
Access through Ancestry Library Edition - Search under the Birth, Marriage & Death category. Digitized version of Gertrude A. Barber’s extracts of deaths recorded in the “Brooklyn Eagle” (1841-1890) and the “New York Evening Post” (1801-1890).
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New York Emigrant Savings Bank, 1850-1883
Access through Ancestry Library Edition - Search under U.S. Immigration Collection. The Emigrant Savings Bank was established in 1850 by members of the Irish Emigrant Society. The bank kept records on depositors and borrowers that provide the name of the depositor, account date, and year and place of birth, if given.
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New York Marriage Newspaper Extracts, 1801-1880
Access through Ancestry Library Edition - Search under the Birth, Marriage & Death category. Digitized version of Gertrude A. Barber’s extracts of marriages recorded in the “Brooklyn Eagle” (1841-1880) and the “New York Evening Post” (1801-1837).
More info»

New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
Access through Ancestry Library Edition - Search under U.S. Immigration Collection. Index to the passenger lists of ships arriving from foreign ports at the port of New York from 1820-1957. In addition, the names found in the index are linked to actual images of the passenger manifests.
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New York State Census 1905/15/25 - Obtaining AD/ED for NYC
Work in progress - The 1905/15/25 New York State census records are arranged by Assembly District (AD) and Election District (ED) and are only available on microfilm. In order to locate a person, you first need to know their address and then you need to convert that address into AD/ED. This website will help you obtain this information.
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New York State County Histories
Full-text searchable 19th century histories of counties in all of New York state.
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New York Times (1851-2007)
Searchable full-text and page images from The New York Times archive.
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New York Tribune (1841-1922)
The New York Tribune (1841-1922) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue.
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One Step by Stephen Morse
Easy to use search forms for a wide variety of genealogical resources including Passengers Lists, New York State Census AD/ED finder, and much more.
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One Step Census Locators (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930)
Search for Enumeration Districts by address for large cities including New York.
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Origins Network
Irish, British and Scottish genealogy information online, featuring the Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland.
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Palmer List of Merchant Vessels
This list consists of descriptions of historical merchant vessels including photographs whenever possible.
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PERSI - The PERiodical Source Index
A subject index covering more than 6,500 genealogy and local history periodicals since 1800.
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ProQuest Civil War Era (1840-1865)
Combines complete runs of eight newspaper titles, covering 1840-1865, as well as nearly 2,000 pamphlets covering a wide range of topics, focusing on the entire era
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ProQuest Historical African American Newspapers
Simultaneous search of the Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Chicago Defender (1910-1975), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), and the Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002).
More info»

ProQuest Historical Database
Searchable full-text and page images from the Atlanta Constitution (1868-1942), the Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Boston Globe (1872-1926), Chicago Defender (1905-1975), Chicago Tribune (1849-1986), the Guardian & Observer (1791-2003), the Hartford Courant (1764-1984), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), Los Angeles Times (1881-1986), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), New York Times (1851-2006), New York Tribune (1841-1922), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002), the San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922), Wall Street Journal (1889-1992), Washington Post (1877-1993), ProQuest Civil War Era database including New York Herald (1840-1865) and thousands of magazine articles published from 1740 to 1940.
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Russians to the U.S.: 1834-1897
Index of Russian immigrants arriving in the Port of New York.
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San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922)
The San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue.
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Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970
Access to large-scale maps for towns and cities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
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Search for Missing Friends: Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed in the Boston Pilot
From 1831 through 1921, the Boston Pilot newspaper printed a “Missing Friends” column with advertisements from people looking for “lost” friends and relatives who had emigrated from Ireland to the United States. This collection of 31,711 records is available here as a searchable online database.
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Social Security Death Index
An index to basic information about persons with Social Security numbers whose deaths have been reported to the Social Security Administration.
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Soundex Converter
“The soundex system is a method of indexing names in the 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 US Censuses.”
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Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
This site provides access to four databases (Voyages, Estimates, Images, and African Names) with "information on almost 35,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between 1514 and 1866. Records of the voyages have been found in archives and libraries throughout the Atlantic world. They provide information about vessels, enslaved peoples, slave traders and owners, and trading routes.
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U. S. Census
Provides in-depth U.S. census data.
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Vital Records Information
This site explains how to obtain vital records (such as birth certificates, death records, marriage licenses) from each state, territory and county of the United States.
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War of the Rebellion: Compilation of the Official Records
Contains the full-text of all 128 volumes of The Official records of the Union and Confederate armies, originally published between 1881-1901.
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Washington Post (1877-1994)
Searchable full-text and page images from the Washington Post archive.
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Westchester County Archives
A database of public records of Westchester County, New York from 1680 to the present.
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Who’s Who on the Web
See Marquis Who’s Who on the Web.

World Biographical Information System (WBIS) Online
Contains short biographical information on millions of people worldwide from the 8th century B.C. to the present.
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There are many others that aren’t on this list. However, this should give some of you an idea of how much is out there!

Bromfield · January 30, 2011, 9:52pm

Do any of you have books to recommend on how to do this type of research; I’m fascinated by the idea, but have no clue where to start as both of my parents were immigrants to the US. I’ve managed to find some census information about my mother (place where she lived when she first came here as a 12-year-old) and a listing for her when she came through Ellis Island. But where would one find information on relatives who never lived in this country. Both of my parents were from Croatia. Where would I start to find information on other generations? I have a distant cousin in Australia who has compiled a family tree on my father’s family so I do have names, dates of birth, death, etc.

Bromfield · January 30, 2011, 10:04pm

Jonri: Excellent list–didn’t see it until after I posted above. I got the information that I have on mother’s arrival at Ellis Island through the Ellis Island data base you listed. (Her name wasn’t spelled correctly and her year of birth was wrong. I am wondering if I might not have her actual date of birth. I only found out after she died that she’d been married once before she married my father–something she never wanted her children to know.)

Have I missed it or is there any other database on your list that would help me with information on ancestors who didn’t live in the US? My parents were the first to live in this country. Any suggestions on where I might start?

IloveLA · January 30, 2011, 10:25pm

I used an earlier edition of this book:

[Amazon.com:</a> The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, Revised Edition (9780916489670): Sandra H. Luebking: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Source-Guidebook-American-Genealogy-Revised/dp/0916489671]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Source-Guidebook-American-Genealogy-Revised/dp/0916489671)

jonri · January 30, 2011, 10:54pm

I’m not familiar with Croatia.

However, the Ellis Island site usually has the actual image. Blow it up and you can usually find the “last residence.” If it doesn’t list one, look at the names of the others she was traveling with. They may list it. Once you have the name of the place, it’s usually a lot easier to find out more.

Look to see who else she traveled with. Often one person in a family is much better at noting origins than others.

The year is important here because Croatia was in several different nations.

See what port they left from. Some ports kept records. Search there.

Kajon · January 30, 2011, 10:55pm

Bromfield - your library or local Barnes and Noble has a huge section on genealogy. I just jumped in head first and became totally engrossed in the process. It really is self educating and there are so many people on the message boards that are willing to help.

The best thing you can do is to collect as many facts as you can. Middle names are very important, birth, death, marriage dates. Most records were kept at the church. Everyone has an aunt who seems to have a lot of family information. Every tiny, tiny tidbit is a clue.

Here is a link to a Croatia website, if it doesn’t work then use some of Jonri’s sites or google genealogy websites. [General</a> - Family History & Genealogy Message Board - rootsweb.com](<a href=“http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.eeurope.croatia.general/mb.ashx]General”>http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.eeurope.croatia.general/mb.ashx)

DonnaL · January 30, 2011, 11:32pm

I would agree that one should try to stick as much as possible to actual old records on Ancestry. I’ve seen a huge amount of misinformation in family trees that other members have submitted that overlap with my own (which I have not put up, yet anyway).

The best website for Jewish genealogical research, including many “how-to” guides for Jewish genealogy in different countries, is jewishgen.org. They’ve donated some of their databases to ancestry.com, with the stipulation that they must remain accessible to everyone whether or not they are paid members of ancestry.

In answer to the question about Alsace, it was part of France from 1648 until the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, after which it was part of the German Empire until 1914, part of France again until 1940, and again since 1945. Certainly until the First World War, a regional dialect of German (similar to the Alemannisch spoken in Baden and elsewhere in Southwest Germany) was the most common spoken language rather than French, although sometimes the records were kept in French, depending on what town you’re talking about.

If you know what town or village your ancestors came from, indexes to and images of the civil birth, death, and marriage records are available online back to 1793, and Catholic or Protestant church records are generally available online back to at least the 1600’s, depending again on the particular town, all on the French Departmental websites for Bas-Rhin (northern Alsace) and Haut-Rhin (southern Alsace).

By the way, for the most part, the Ellis Island ship passenger lists give the town of origin (as opposed to the country of origin) only beginning in the first decade of the 20th century.* If any of your ancestors immigrated before then, and you don’t know the name of the specific town where they came from, sometimes that information can be found listed on their marriage and/or death certificates in whatever part of the U.S. they lived – which are almost never online, although there are indexes to a handful of them on Ancestry. It’s usually necessary to visit or write to the town, city, or state depending on where such archives are kept. Marriage and death certificates often list the parties’ parents’ names as well (marriage certificates tend to be more accurate, of course, since the person him or herself was the source of the information).

*For example, the only way I was able to discover the name of the town in Poland from which my paternal grandmother’s parents came, since they arrived in the early 1880’s, was by sheer luck: they had a very unusual surname, and I happened to find on the Ellis Island website a cousin with the same surname who didn’t come over until the 1910’s, by which time the specific town was listed on the ship passenger lists. Once I knew the name of the town, I was able to go to the Mormon Family History Center’s copies of Jewish records for that town (on microfilm at the NYC branch of the Mormon genealogy library, ordered from Salt Lake City) and find many records for my great-grandparents and their families. Now, there are at least indexes to many such records available on jewishgen and ancestry, but this was long before the Internet and one had to sit there at a microfilm reader scrolling through every single page of the records for every single year looking for relatives. Deciphering 19th-century Polish handwriting is definitely a learned skill! (It’s worse for the post-1866 records in Poland, which were required to be kept in Russian.)

jonri · January 30, 2011, 11:45pm

Most Ellis Island records do have info re town of origin because Ellis Island didn’t open until 1892.

Another way to find the info is from the grave.

DonnaL · January 30, 2011, 11:57pm

I was using “Ellis Island” as a shorthand reference; the earlier ship passenger lists to New York, with arrivals at Castle Garden, usually do not show town of origin. Nor do many of the lists for Ellis Island, even in the 1890’s.

A one-step index to all NYC ship passenger arrival records covering the years 1830-1912 is at: [Searching</a> the Castle Garden Passenger Lists in One Step](<a href=“http://stevemorse.org/ellis/cg.html]Searching”>Searching the Castle Garden Passenger Lists in One Step)

An even broader overall index, to the years 1820-1957, is at:

[Searching</a> the New York Passenger Lists in One Step](<a href=“Searching the New York Passenger Lists in One Step”>Searching the New York Passenger Lists in One Step)

Once one has the specific name, date, ship name, page reference, etc., one can go to the Ellis Island website for actual images of the ship passenger lists for the Ellis Island arrivals. Ancestry.com has indexed images for all the pre-Ellis Island records, if I recall correctly, but one has to be a member.

Please keep in mind that the passenger list indexes are hardly infallible: the people who did the indexes were and are human, and not-infrequently misread the handwritten names, so that they’re incorrectly indexed and it can be impossible to find the correct list.

cap · January 31, 2011, 7:06am

I have communicated with a descendant of my 3ggrandfather’s oldest brother. It was a family of 13 and my ancestor was the only who came to the US in the early 1800s. He sent me copies of church records, etc that take the family back to the early 1700s in Holland.

Another branch has been traced back to 1650 in Germany with the help of several “cousins by rumor” both here and in Germany. Yet another came about the same way - back to 1623 in Switzerland.

Inquiries on Rootsweb.com back in 1999 led to both of these breakthroughs, as well as several others. So does having Catholic ancestors because records by the churches of all major events, and many of those are available on microfilm via the Family History Centers.

Also I knew five of my greatgrandparents and both of my grandmothers were quite helpful with information. One is still alive and every once in awhile remembers something I had asked about before.

Ancestry was useful mainly for the census records, but I finished with those years ago.

Hugcheck · January 31, 2011, 7:20am

Jonri,

Yes the Ancestral Author program allows PDF’s to be produced for an unlimited number of family trees. (Had to ask.) Once you register it (purchase it) you can use it as much as you want; your book can be as long as you want it to be and you can start the program over and over again setting up different PDF files for different trees. You just work with whatever PDF file you want to at the time you want to.

cnp55 · January 31, 2011, 7:35am

I just thrilled my H with what I found on ancestry dot com.

His parents, one Polish and one English came to the States, pregnant with him after WWII. I just found, online, the passenger manifest from their crossing. It shows his mom as being British (correct) but then it show his dad and the nationality is POLAND crossed out and STATELESS inserted. It just sort of stops you in your tracks to realize just how it must have been, to have fought for the Allies, won the war, and not be able to go home.

The postscript is that in the early 90s Poland did recognize all their war veterans at a ceremony at the Polish Consulate – we all went, and I have pictures.

The followup postscript is that my son (who is 3/4 British heritage) was able to prove his Polish lineage, was granted dual citizenship and a Polish passport and played for the Polish National Lacrosse Team at the World Championships last summer in England. While we were there – we found the cottage where my British MIL was born and raised.

My kids have always been aware of the seventeenth century New England side of their family – and now they have an understanding of the immigrant side.

scout59 · January 31, 2011, 8:34am

I am coming late to this discussion - I’ve been working on genealogy for about 15 years, so at one time, Ancestry’s on-line access to census records was a real Godsend. Now that I don’t use the census records as much, I’m debating whether to stop my membership. I have found over time that my “best” information comes the old fashioned way - like through estate records held at the stae or county level, Confederate or Union military files, and pictures of gravestones.

I’ve also found that old newspapers are great if an ancestor did something newsworthy. In my husband’s family, his great-great-grandmother was murdered by her stepson, and the trial was big news in the local newspaper for months. Various family members testified, and the write-ups were wonderful: very descriptive and detailed. Many of the old newspapers are available on microfilm through interlibrary loan at your local libraries; I think one of my best genealogy tips is to become very friendly with your local librarians.

I have a real love/hate relationship with Ancestry. When I first started using it, I “met” a few less-than-meticulous researchers there who borrowed some of the information I gave them and posted it incorrectly on-line. I still see some of “my” material attributed erroneoulsy and it still makes me mad.

Jonri - I note that you’re in NY. Do your libraries have access to the 1855/1865 NY State Censuses? I’m trying to track down some people in Halfmoon Township!

scout59 · January 31, 2011, 8:38am

Another hint - old obituaries (especially if you’re looking at small-town newspapers) can be a real trove of information. Often they are descriptive and will list the names of surviving relatives (which can be the source of more information and more obituaries.) The death notice for my own great-great-grandfather contained information about his work, his stature in the community, and even his passion for orchids… all things I had no idea about.

Kajon · January 31, 2011, 9:01am

scout59 brought up a great tip with the obituaries. I live in Minnesota and our history center has micro filmed all the old newspapers from each town in the state. Those old obits are a treasure trove of info.

Just seeing this thread resulted in me opening up my Ancestry.com stuff. I was up until 2 am dancing around the room because of some new discoveries.

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