Family Trees

[Ant Sinclair]

My Mum got to that certain point a few months ago and paid to use Ancestry.com in an attempt to find out where Her maternal line had come from and also the roots of where Her brown eyes had come from, I managed to trace the brown eyes using Ancestry and it turns out there was a marriage in the family to an Italian Gentleman from Como, Lake Lombardi in Italy, His name being Dominico Brentani, The Lady He married, Eliza Wall turned out to be interesting in that She descended from The Middletons - these were the ancestors of My Grandfather Henry on My Mums side of the family. My Mums Mum My Gran was a Jackson and We are still looking at all of this and have mailed folk in Italy to get further back down the roots of Dominico.

 

Have any members any tips they can give for this kind of research, are there any better genealogy type sites like Ancestry out there or are they all similar?

[CaptainPanic]

In my family, it was figured out the hard way: by digging into the old sources, such as tax records, marriage documents and registration of houses - those date back sometimes hundreds of years (at least in the Netherlands). Typically, it is rather easy to trace it back as far as the time of Napoleon, since Napoleon (or rather his officials, not him personally) kept pretty good records. Beyond that, you gotta be creative and get lucky.

[Ant Sinclair]

Thanks for Your reply Captain, We have paid for copies of documents such as birth certificates etc here in the UK, I was maybe hoping by chance that some reading may have looked back into an Italian background but all tips/help are welcome.

[hypervalent_iodine]

My nana is a genealogist and does a lot of work within clubs across NZ. She too does things the hard way. I remember being very amused by her microfilm reader when I was a child. You should see if there are any local genealogy clubs and ask them for advice. They should be able to point you in the right direction at the very least. Probably you have a lot of trawling through documents ahead of you, depending on how far back you plan on going.

[StringJunky]

My nana is a genealogist and does a lot of work within clubs across NZ. She too does things the hard way. I remember being very amused by her microfilm reader when I was a child. You should see if there are any local genealogy clubs and ask them for advice. They should be able to point you in the right direction at the very least. Probably you have a lot of trawling through documents ahead of you, depending on how far back you plan on going.

One of my maternal great-aunts did this over a number years, probably decades, and she ended visiting village churches and looking at records there. She managed to trace her line to the 1400's. One good thing, pre-industrial revolution, about those days is families tended to live and die quite locally to each other.

[fiveworlds]

I don't have a family tree. We had a copy of our family tree in my grandad's time and the house they were living in burned down. The public records office holding information about my family was destroyed during a battle on 30th June 1922

[Acme]

Visit cemeteries; families are often interred together. If you can't visit personally, use this tool to visit virtually. > Find A Grave

[fiveworlds]

Visit cemeteries; families are often interred together. If you can't visit personally, use this tool to visit virtually. > Find A Grave

 

 

The problem with that is my family like many at the time found work as farm labourers. The landlords would pick people up at hiring fairs and they would work and be buried where the landlord lived. It was while my greatgrandfather was working for one such landlord that the house was burned down by the IRA and the landlord was shot. My family would have lived in the servants quarters of the landlord's house. Of course they would have used to have land of their own because my great grandfather fought in ww1 but the english took his land off him because he married an english woman.

Edited August 20, 2015 by fiveworlds

[Acme]

 

Visit cemeteries; families are often interred together. If you can't visit personally, use this tool to visit virtually. > Find A Grave

The problem with that is my family like many at the time found work as farm labourers. The landlords would pick people up at hiring fairs and they would work and be buried where the landlord lived. It was while my greatgrandfather was working for one such landlord that the house was burned down by the IRA and the landlord was shot. My family would have lived in the servants quarters of the landlord's house. Of course they would have used to have land of their own because my great grandfather fought in ww1 but the english took his land off him because he married an english woman.

 

Cemeteries are not the be-all-end-all of genealogical research, rather they are just another tool in the bag and one such tool that no one had yet mentioned.

 

Another such tool is family photographs, at least going back to the origin of photography. I have found that these old photos are often annotated with dates taken, people pictured, and location of the scene.

 

There is also the problem of misinformation, whether accidental or intentioned so as to hide skeletons. All-in-all, genealogical research is hard work but not without its rewards.

[fiveworlds]

Cemeteries are not the be-all-end-all of genealogical research, rather they are just another tool in the bag and one such tool that no one had yet mentioned.

 

Another such tool is family photographs, at least going back to the origin of photography. I have found that these old photos are often annotated with dates taken, people pictured, and location of the scene.

 

There is also the problem of misinformation, whether accidental or intentioned so as to hide skeletons. All-in-all, genealogical research is hard work but not without its rewards.

 

 

The only thing I know is an old man born in 1944 with my family name contacted me last year claiming to have known my grandfather. From Wiggan Uk but I haven't heard anything from him since.

[Acme]

The only thing I know is an old man born in 1944 with my family name contacted me last year claiming to have known my grandfather. From Wiggan Uk but I haven't heard anything from him since.

Well, that's something. If you're really interested you can try to contact him rather than wait for him. Being as he's old, time may be limited and once he's gone, then so too is your potential source.

 

My interest has always been rather casual but last year I was entrusted to scan a cache of thousands of family photographs as well as family trees made up by relatives and this all piqued my interest. Some of the photos are tin-types dating to the mid/late 1800's and others run up to present times. Some of my family are interested and others couldn't care less and beat as hasty a retreat as possible when I start relating relations. We have traced our ancestors back to the mid-1700s in America and by-and-large they came from England and Sweden.

 

Just to share a bit, this photo was taken in Kansas in 1885 and the girls are my great aunts Effie & Ella.

[fiveworlds]

Well, that's something. If you're really interested you can try to contact him rather than wait for him.

 

 

Thats the thing it was a strange outlook message which added him to my people contacts but gave me no contact info other than an address

 

[Acme]

Thats the thing it was a strange outlook message which added him to my people contacts but gave me no contact info other than an address

 

 

 

So, try to contact him at that address. Do a search of phone directories or other similar listings. As I say it can be a lot of work and your level of interest will dictate how much work you want to do.

Don't disregard caution of course as you don't want to reveal personal information willy-nilly to just anyone.

I have even found some trusted relatives that don't want to know genealogical information that is, shall we say, uncomfortable such as divorces or children born out of wedlock.

[StringJunky]

,,,

I have even found some trusted relatives that don't want to know genealogical information that is, shall we say, uncomfortable such as divorces or children born out of wedlock.

Before the second half of the twentieth century this was no small matter

[fiveworlds]

I have even found some trusted relatives that don't want to know genealogical information that is, shall we say, uncomfortable such as divorces or children born out of wedlock.

 

 

Or if you married somebody of different religious denomination

[Acme]

Before the second half of the twentieth century this was no small matter

Yup. And it carries on to present for some. I have cousins whose mother had a child out of wedlock as a young girl and the boy was raised by the grandparents so the cousins only knew him as an uncle when he was actually a half-brother. When discussing some general goings-on of the early times they clearly knew something was amiss but rather than face the obvious they became indignant at which point those of us in the know simply dropped the subject.

 

My mother was always forthcoming with such uncomfortable information, even when it may have cast her in what to some was poor light.

 

Kind of on that note I have another photo to share. It's a tin-type that was hidden between images in a photo album of a particular family line and I would guess it lay there unknown for perhaps scores of years. Had I not needed to remove the pictures to scan them I would never have found it. It's hard to guess the girl's age but it seems she was cared for and yet something of an embarrassment. There was also a hidden photo of a young man in the same album, but there was no apparent reason for that secretion. Other than a likely surname of Morse because of the album origin, I have no identification of these folks. Mysteries wrapped in riddles tied up in enigmas. The game is afoot!

 

Or if you married somebody of different religious denomination

Or grandpa was hung as horse thief. No end I suppose of what brings people shame.

[StringJunky]

Yup. And it carries on to present for some. I have cousins whose mother had a child out of wedlock as a young girl and the boy was raised by the grandparents so the cousins only knew him as an uncle when he was actually a half-brother. When discussing some general goings-on of the early times they clearly knew something was amiss but rather than face the obvious they became indignant at which point those of us in the know simply dropped the subject.

 

My mother was always forthcoming with such uncomfortable information, even when it may have cast her in what to some was poor light.

 

Kind of on that note I have another photo to share. It's a tin-type that was hidden between images in a photo album of a particular family line and I would guess it lay there unknown for perhaps scores of years. Had I not needed to remove the pictures to scan them I would never have found it. It's hard to guess the girl's age but it seems she was cared for and yet something of an embarrassment. There was also a hidden photo of a young man in the same album, but there was no apparent reason for that secretion. Other than a likely surname of Morse because of the album origin, I have no identification of these folks. Mysteries wrapped in riddles tied up in enigmas. The game is afoot!

 

Or grandpa was hung as horse thief. No end I suppose of what brings people shame.

Yes, many rabbit-holes lie ahead. My great grandad, born around 1887, wouldn't let his wife, who already had a child out of wedlock, transfer his name to her daughter. My Aunty Madge had to go though her early life known as a bastard.

[Acme]

Yes, many rabbit-holes lie ahead. My great grandad, born around 1887, wouldn't let his wife, who already had a child out of wedlock, transfer his name to her daughter. My Aunty Madge had to go though her early life known as a bastard.

Such things are the sadder when the shame comes through no fault of ones' own. One of my aunts contracted polio as a child and went through her entire life known as the 'crippled one'.

 

Another avenue for tracing genealogy that is more recent is DNA typing. It's not particularly cheap and obviously requires cooperation, but it can resolve some questions that records and recollections can't or won't.

Speaking of genealogy, shame, & DNA, this skeleton recently came to light. Presidential love child? Gasp!

 

Ex-President Warren Harding's love child confirmed

It turns out the rumours were always true - America's 29th president had a love child.

New genetic tests reveal Warren Harding fathered a child with Nan Britton during his presidency.

The tests show that Harding, who was married, was indeed the father of Elizabeth Ann Blaesing, the late Britton's daughter.

Harding's immediate family and the public had rejected the claims and shamed Britton, calling her a liar.

Dr Peter Harding, one of the former president's grand-nephews who spearheaded getting the DNA tests done, told the BBC he is "totally jubilant" to finally know the truth about Blaesing's father.

...

[Janus]

I have a somewhat unique situation when it comes to tracing my family tree on my father's side. I can easily go back as far as 1854, but in generational terms that only goes back as far as the birth of my grandfather(in Finland).

You see, while I was born in 1958, my dad was just a couple weeks short of 50, and when my dad was born, Grand dad was almost 54. This creates a generation gap of almost 104 yrs between my grandfather and myself( My grandfather would have easily been old enough to have been StringJunky's great Grand dad's father). Needless to say, I never met my grandfather.

And since all my grandparents immigrated from Finland, and my Grandfather immigrated in the 1880's, this means that while my family has been in the U.S. for ~130 years, I am only a second generation U.S. citizen. This led to My brother, who is 8 years older than I am to be called a liar in class by his high school history teacher when he told him that his Grandfather almost went on the Oklahoma run. he later had to apologize after my Mom backed him up.

 

I'm not too sure if it be worth it too try and go back any further, as I remember hearing something about a church fire in which all the birth records were lost.

[Acme]

...

 

I'm not too sure if it be worth it too try and go back any further, as I remember hearing something about a church fire in which all the birth records were lost.

Very interesting story. Funny how we can be interested in others' families as well as our own.

 

Your church record reference prompts me to mention another avenue of genealogical research and that is family Bibles. Part of the archive I took charge of includes 2 such Bibles, one of which has pre-printed blank pages for the recording of births, deaths, and marriages. I have the scans on a separate drive, but I'll have a look and see about putting up one of the pages for illustration.

OK. Found it. A slight correction as both Bibles had titled blank pages for family entries. The scan I'm putting up is from a very large Bible printed in 1852 and rather more elaborately illustrated than the other.

 

It is just by chance I came by these and finding them may take some detective work by others doing genealogical research. Again, peoples' level of interest will determine how much work they are willing to undertake.

 

[imatfaal]

I can get back to mid 15th century on my father's side (english country church records can be amazing) and mid 18th century on my mother's (records might be in Ireland for further back but none of us have ever looked). my aunt was a member of a religious order who specialized in creating religious art - so maybe she was able to get better access than joe public would.

On my father's side we get to a division where two families with similar names seem to have both changed spelling to my surname under the same parish priest - and we cannot know which one to follow back. Both those lines can be traced back at least another few generations but one seems more likely to be celtic and the other more norman; perhaps this was why the foresighted parish priest merged them and removed a touchstone for animosity

[Ant Sinclair]

There have been many helpful hints such as Hypers' about joining genealogy clubs, that way learning from other peoples' experience about the best way to search. The leg-work side of this kind of research is probably something I'd consider when I retire as We all can appreciate this kind of activity could be quite time consuming. Something We discovered recently is My Grandfathers Uncle is buried in a village here in North Yorkshire only 4 miles away using the utilities on Ancestry, We haven't popped by to find Him yet but intend to, when We say hello it'll probably the first time He's had a chat with a member of the family in a long time