<p>This has become a really great hobby and I would encourage others to try it. I have become acquainted with many distant cousins all over the world, all interested in the same thing, have learned not only more about my own family and ancestors, but an awareness of other cultures and perspectives. I have found family photos from the most faraway places of people I am related to , like gt granduncles and gt gt gt grandfathers and gt grandmothers. I have found wills and documents mentioning people I distantly remember. It’s been wonderful. Anyone else doing this hobby too?</p>
<p>Yes, BHG. My grandmother really pushed geneology on us when we were younger, and we kind of rolled our eyes over it, but she did us a great service in being the one to do all of the research, going to various clerks’ offices for paperwork, scrounging around graveyards, etc. Now its all written out for us…fascinating.</p>
<p>My favorite thing to do! I have over 30,000 names on my H’s side, and several thousand on my side. (3 of my 4 grandparents were immigrants, so it’s a bit harder.) It has been one of the plusses of being in Europe these past couple years - I’ve visited second cousins in Sweden and Switzerland, and visited homelands of ancestors in France and Germany, too.</p>
<p>I love the puzzle aspect of it, and spend time helping others do research. It doesn’t matter to me if they’re related more recently than Noah or not.</p>
<p>Yup, me too. BHG - you and I have communicated on this before. </p>
<p>If you can’t get to the Mormon library in Salt Lake City, the second best place is the DAR library in Washington, D.C. It’s got a wonderful collection of books, all shelved in a very easy way to search. I highly recommend the DAR library, even if you only have a couple of hours to spend there.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip. We have reached a difficult point acquiring the early U.S. Census, 1800, 1810. Maybe they can help.</p>
<p>What difficulty are your experiencing? Do you have any paid subscriptions that allow you to check the scanned census online? (I tried to send you a PM, but you are not set up for it.)</p>
<p>If you go to the closest Mormon genealogy library, you can get all the census (except, of course the 1890!) on micofiche. If you don’t subscribe to any oneline ones, and you are comfortable giving me the names of the people you are searching, I’d be glad to look up a few. Since it’s from 1800 or so, I guess you could say your identity is still pretty well protected. Up to you, but I’m very happy to give it a shot. </p>
<p>Of course, if you’ve hit a brick wall, it’s very likely it’s a real brick wall. But if there’s anything I can check into for you, please let me know.</p>
<p>Anybody find any “fun” connections during their research? We discovered that H is 7th cousin to Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger. He is also connected to Halliburtons distantly. And of course, the requisite royal lines like Charlemagne (which, if you figure the number of descendants each early royal has, it would be more unusual to NOT connect.) My great-uncle always claimed we were related to Goethe, but I’ve not been able to connect that one yet.</p>
<p>I found out at a family reunion about 20 years ago that we were related to “Dubya”…my Democrat husband wasn’t thrilled about that!</p>
<p>My personal favorite stories are the people who claim to be descendants of George Washington . . . . .</p>
<p>The most interesting relationship I found came from a family reunion of descendants of a gggrandfather. The reunion was advertised in the newspaper, and took place in the deep South. We’ve all white, so there was some surprise when a black family suddenly showed up. Rather militantly, the senior member of the black family announced they were descended from the same person. There was a very long silence, with most of our family surprised, and the black family looking like they expected to be pelted with deviled eggs. I can’t speak for the whole family, but I think some of the tension was due to the fact that many of us feared some unpleasantness from the white side.</p>
<p>Then one of our family yelled out, “Well, we always suspected something like that! Welcome, and have some salad!” Everyone started exchanging hugs, and it was a great time. </p>
<p>Shows how much things have changed, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>Do you have access to the 1800, 1810 and 1820 U.S. census?</p>
<p>Yes, I do.</p>
<p>Hayden: I have to think about it. I never give out my email or contact people from forums. I would like the look up but I don’t think I can break the ‘cone of silence’.</p>
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<p>BHG–definitely check the phone book under Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (official name) and see if they have a local genalogical library. There will be a number to call, if there is one. A lot of non-members use the library.</p>
<p>BHG - ellemenope is right. There are many Mormon libraries (Church of Latter Day Saints, or “LDS”) around. You can go there, and either order the fiche to be delivered from Salt Lake City, or (more likely) just use the one they probably have on hand.</p>
<p>(For anyone reading this who is wondering why we keep talking about the Mormons: The Mormons believe in posthumous baptism. Therefore, they strongly support genealogy so that their members can identify their ancestors and have them baptized. They encourage non-Mormons to use their libraries, since any work done by a non-Mormon could potentially add to the ancestral knowledge of a Mormon. They’re very friendly and helpful about it.)</p>
<p>The other thing you might do is go to the genealogy.com or rootsweb.com websites, and go to their message boards. These are free, and you don’t even have to register. You can input your family names in the search function, and sometimes you can really find some great info. Make sure it’s sourced, though, or take it with a grain of salt! Best way to use the search function is to put in last name and state initials. That will exclude many unrelated families. </p>
<p>But I hope for your sake your last name isn’t “Jones” !! Good luck.</p>
<p>Let me know how that goes.</p>
<p>I love genealogy! I have discovered that my maternal family is descended from a Revolutionary War Veteran. He was a “freed person of color” in N.C. Historically, “freed persons of color” were persons who were not enslaved during our country’s slave period. They were listed in the regular census by name. Which has been a great find for me, because I have a paper trail of marriages, ages, etc. I have a couple of websites regarding my search, and have corresponded with other relatives who share our ancestry. I have recently been invited to a family reunion but have not yet decided to go, because…“I don’t know these people” lol :O) Anyway, I love the researching, and as someone stated earlier, it’s like a big puzzle. I can sit for hours doing research and am well known in our local library’s State History Room.</p>
<p>What is the best software for organizing the info?
I’d like to start putting things in better order, hoping it will help my sisters and me get inspired to do more research.</p>
<p>I have “Family Tree Legends”. I use it to keep track of the family line, (whose related to whom), but I do find that I have a thousand pieces of paper with names, dates, etc., that I have yet to enter into the “Family Tree.”</p>
<p>bhg - one other thing I forgot to mention: go to familysearch.org, which is the Mormon library search function. You can input criteria there, and sometimes find some good info. Like the other search functions, however, you have to check source documents.</p>
<p>Thanks Hayden. I’ll put some of that into practice. By the way, I posted once to you years ago but I don’t think you ever saw it. You were the one who mentioned the Civil War forum and I tried it. Low and behold several months after I posted my ancestor someone contacted me and they had a signed Civil War photograph of my gt grandfather in full uniform and signed in his handwriting. It was one of those carte d vista photos. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to see that photo. I remember when it came in via email attachment and as it scrolled down I nearly fell off the chair. Amazing because the image looked exactly like my father.We had one of photo of my gt grandfather but this was of him in his prime of 24 and the resemblance was uncanny. To this day one of the most stunning experiences for me. Now whenever I go any of the sirname forums of the families who lived on the farms all around my ancestors- I ask them all if they have any photos.</p>
<p>Just want to add, if you know the names of the surrounding farmers of your ancestors (and you can find this from the census documents) chances are one or more may have intermarried with your family.Give key works on sirname forums like , " farmers of Peterborough, Canada area". Sure enough, I have found descendants of these farm families and found my gt gt grandfather’s will this way. Plus photos of ancestors where you are actually able to find family traits like a prominent forehead or jaw.The most startling thing in the world is when one of these photos comes in and you recognize yourself or a family member in the ancestor’s features. Enough to make you fall off the chair. And this is someone you hardly knew or didn’t know exsisted. Incredible. This has happened to me several times now and I’ve gotten to the point I’m trying to find photos of all my ancestors back to the 1860’s. And that is quite a few!</p>
<p>quopoe - that’s fantastic! With a patriot ancestor, you can apply to the DAR for membership. If you have not already done so, you can go to the DAR website and get the info there. Let me know if you need any help.</p>
<p>That must have been a very exciting find!</p>