family heritage

undecided
Sun, 18 Dec 2005 18:19:40 +0000

It is a very long and drawn out process, unfortunately. My family’s been working at it for about six years now, and we’ve still got relatively little. You think it’d be easier with having odd last names, but then we of course have the extremely generic last name in there as well (Oh, how many Lakes do you think lived in England in the 1800s?).

It’s extremely rewarding, though. So far we’ve found a long-lost great uncle of a branch of the family that’s been feuding with the other branch for about 200 years, now reconciled, and traced our American ancestors back to the early 1600s (!). It’s exciting to know your history. :)

Good luck! I agree with the aforementioned websites. If you’re looking for American (and probably European, sorry) female relatives, try the Daughters of the American Revolution – they have a HUGE database, and the volunteers are very willing and able to help.