Genealogy Website

Hi everyone,
It has been a little while since I have posted anything on here, but wanted to give everyone an update. My personal website www.wintersfamily.net/genealogy/ is back up to be used to access my family history. My husband has been working hard to get it back up with some new modifications.

If you want to add your personal family history website to our list let me know and I will add it in. There is also some new information in the website. Look it over and let me know what you think.

Look forward to hearing from you soon.

How To Throughly Research Your Family's History

There are certain steps you need to take when researching your family history. It will help you if you make lists of different things you need to do, so that you can keep everything straight. You will need to interview family members, review family, church and courthouse records, network with other people and keep detailed notes of the information you find.

The first step is interviewing family members. You don’t want to limit this just to the older people in your family, but to everyone you can think of. The reason for this is that you might have someone that is your age or younger who have talked to their parents or grandparents and received stories that other people in the family didn’t have access or knowledge of. Make a list of the people you can interview, remember that it works best to go visit the people in your family to interview them. If you are sitting in front of them talking you are more likely to find out more information that if you do it over the phone or through email, because they are interacting with you and it will help them remember more information. Make a list of the questions you want to ask before you go visit them and it might help if you take a tape recorder so that you can play back the information and make sure you didn’t miss anything. You will want to talk to the person before you go visit them, to make sure they want to talk to you and that they have time. It will also help you to find out if they have pictures of people that you can make a copy of because then you have a pictorial history of your family, even if the relative is still alive and there are quite a few pictures of this individual, that might not always be the case.

After you have interviewed all of the family members you can think of, the next step is to take the information you have gathered and organize it. This is when it is helpful to have a genealogy software program but if you don’t, you can use family group sheets to keep everything straight. Next make a list of the people you need more information on and go to the courthouse and review the information they have on births, deaths and marriages. Some of the information might be found in the church records and some might be found in old family bibles. The family bibles can be found out about when you interview your family members. They will either have the bible themselves or know you is the keeper of the family bible. Researching the courthouse and church records is not a quick task. It could take you years to research all of the information you have received, but perseverance is crucial when you are researching your family history. Some courthouses won’t have any records because of different reasons, whether there was a fire or flood or information was just lost. The same is true with churches, not all of the churches that existed 100 years ago are still in existence today and their records have been lost. Thankfully, much information has become accessible online and it will make your research easier, but you will still hit roadblocks.

The next step for researching your family history is through networking. Many people do not know what this means. This is when you access different newsgroups, forums and websites for information on your family. You can post information on all of these venues to find out if someone else has information you are looking for, but it is important to remember that the information you receive from them is not always accurate. That is why it is important to take the information you receive from other people and verify it through other avenues, i.e. courthouse records, church records, marriage certificates and birth and death certificates. If you follow these steps it will help you make sure your information is as accurate as you can make it.

The most important part of family history research is to keep detailed notes of what you have done, where you have found the information and who you have received information from. This will help you keep the information as accurate as possible without worrying about looking for the wrong individual in your family history. A word of warning, you will receive quite a bit of information and if you don’t keep it organized you could very easily become lost and discouraged. You will also hit bumps in the road where you feel like you aren’t making any progress, but work through these times or set it aside for a little while and eventually you will find the information you are looking for. Researching your family history is a rewarding and fun endeavor that you can pass on to future generations. You will meet family you never knew you had and find interesting twist and turns along the way. So have fun and enjoy the journey into your own personal history.

Genealogy Sources - when to use them

I was using one of my favorite forums for genealogy and ran across someone I have spoken to in the past. It had been a couple of years since I had contacted her, so I decided I would check and see if she had any new information. I sent her message through the forums and the reply I received was that she was amazed that I would contact her considering I took all of the information she had and placed it on the Internet and didn't site her as her as the source. As I used her information for verification purposes I didn't see the need to site her as the source. My question to other genealogists is if you are receiving information from someone and are publishing it on a website, without receiving monetary rewards do you need to site the source of the information?

It is an interesting question as there is so much information available on the Internet for anyone to access. Many people make it possible to download gedcoms to be able to connect with fellow researchers. But I put the question out there to all my fellow genealogists. Should we site sources when publishing information on the Internet even if the information was received from a person but used for verification purposes.

Happy Hunting

Ancestry Site

Ancestry uploaded a bunch of military information onto their site recently. Here is the letter I received from them. I hope it is helpful to all of my fellow genealogist out there. It also explains why they had slow downs and apologize for it affecting anyone.

Dear Friend,

Today’s massive launch of military records and historical newsreels was a big hit in the press. So much so that Ancestry.com experienced record traffic — and some of our valued members experienced slow-downs and other issues on the site.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We’re working nonstop to get Ancestry.com up and running in top form. Please check back with us soon to access the exciting new Military Collection and the rest of our collections.

Thank you for your patience,

Andrew Wait
General Manager, Ancestry.com

It is also free through D-Day, here is the information I received:

At the front lines of our nation’s history, America’s patriots valiantly fought for life and liberty. They dedicated their lives to the cause of freedom, unshakable in their resolve to secure and sustain our unalienable rights. Through the centuries, millions of Americans would take up arms in defense of their country. Ancestry.com honors all of them with the release of the U.S. Military Collection - free between May 24th and June 6th (D-Day).

I hope the new information on ancestry helps you like it has helped me. As always enjoy your research into the dark and unknown corridors of your family history research.

It's All in a Name...

Are you proud of your heritage? Do you feel you need to live a life with honor because you are a…? You want your family name to mean something. It is special to you so you want it to be special to others like Ford, Edison, Einstein, and Mozart. What many people don’t know is that when they came to the United States their name was changed, whether it was because the custom agent couldn’t spell the name or your ancestor wanted to Americanize their name, but in some way or other your family name could have been changed.

So what does this mean to you as you research your family history? So far for my family, I have run across three names that have been changed and one of them was a first name. Finding information is rarely easy and when we have ancestors that immigrate to other countries it makes it more difficult. So just because a surname is spelled different than the one you are researching, don’t close the door. You just might find the missing ancestor you were looking for and he is under a different rock than you thought.

As people change their names today, it will be confusing for future generations to find their ancestors also. It used to be families normally stayed near one another so if you found two people with the same last name in a town they were normally related. But now with so many people in the world and families so far spread out it will be extremely difficult for future genealogist to find their history. At one point my parents, who have eight children, had 3 daughters and 2 sons living in other states.

So just remember when you are looking for that elusive ancestor, try to phonetically change the spelling and see if you find the person you are looking for. You just might get lucky and open up a whole new world.

The Most Significant People in Your Life

When you are considering what people are significant in your life, you inevitably think of the people who have impacted your life the most, whether good or bad or both depending on the person. When you look over the list of people that you have classified in this category it is a good idea to review why they are significant. There are two reasons for this, one is because you can let the person know how they have impacted your life and either able to exercise some demons and repair a relationship or you will make someone's day by letting them know.

People crave the approval of others. They want to be liked and thought well of, but not everyone is able to do this. It is important to let the people know who are important in your life why they are important. Open communication in any relationship is what will help it not only survive but flourish. If that person impacted you to a point that they made a significant change in your life it could help them in their other relationships which could improve their overall well-being.

The most significant person in my life is two different people, my father and my husband. My father is the type of man who is quiet and solid. He is always there for anyone who needs him. He is an accomplished craftsman who gets more enjoyment out of helping people than anything else. He has taught me so much that I couldn't list it all in this article. Suffice it to say that he has always been my role model and I hope I manage to be half the person that he is. The husband and I have been married for 18 years and have held fast through different trials and errors. He is my rock, if I have a problem or concern I know that he will listen to me and either let me work it out myself or help me with the dilemma. He isn't a romantic man, he doesn't come home with flowers or candy, but he is the most generous and loving man I have ever known. He knows when I need him, whether to talk to or to handle a situation for me and will always be the first one to defend any action I have taken. He is always there to offer his support and encouragement in everything I do. He might not understand my desire to write or create crafts but he is the first one to critique it and give me positive feedback.

Always remember the significant people in your life are the ones that help make you who you are. It doesn't matter whether they had a negative impact on your life or a positive one because they helped you grown into the person you are today.

Product Review: Family Tree Maker

When I first started working on my family history, the only thing I used for keeping track of my information was paper and a typewriter. No, not a computer but a typewriter, very few people owned computers at that time let alone used it to keep track of a family history. When we finally bought our first computer, we used a free program to log in all of our information; it was called Brother’s Keeper. I don’t even know if it still exists. For what type of computers we had back then, it was amazing the amount of information you could store in the program. Just to let you know this was before there was a World Wide Web. I know ancient times and some of you can’t even imagine what that was like.

A few years later we bought our first software package for family history research, Family Tree Maker. Every few years I upgrade my software so that I can’t get the latest technology available. It is an easy to use program; that allows you to upload pictures and put more information into the program. You can print out group sheets to help you keep track of your family and even print out ancestral sheets to give you a broader list of how things look and where you have gaps.

I haven’t found a problem with this software. It is simple to update. You can find information simply by going to the index and you can add more than one spouse. You can also attach a child to a family even if the couple isn’t married.

Overall, I would recommend Family Tree Maker to other budding genealogists. You can buy is relatively inexpensive and you don’t have to upgrade every year. It will be an asset to your genealogy research. As always good luck and happy hunting!

Planning your Family Reunion

All those people together in one place, the Aunt who smells like menthol, the Uncle who is always chomping on a cigar or the cousin who whines because she isn’t getting her way. Does any of this sound familiar? If it does then you know it is that time of year again when you are going to your family reunion. But maybe you are the one who gets to plan it and figure out where it is going to be and who to invite.

If you are responsible for putting the reunion together then you will have a fun time getting every to get along long enough to plan the party. You can choose a theme for the party, figure out where you should have it at and who should you invite. Remember if you don’t invite Great Aunt Trudy then you will hear about it for the next 20 years.

The theme of the party can be anything or nothing. You can make it lively or conservative, it just matters what suits your family best. If they are a wild and crazy bunch then you will want to have a wild party, like a luau or a tiki party or even a wild animal theme, but if they are a calm and staid group them you will want to through a conservative party that just has a few decorations and doesn’t have a girl jumping out of a cake. The best thing to do is to keep it simple, because you will probably be the one decorating the room and cleaning up afterwards.

Figuring out where to have the reunion can be the most difficult decision you make for the party. First you need to figure out what town you are going to have it in, because most families have scattered around the countryside and don’t live close. Some families choose to have it in a different state every year while some have it in the same place each time. It is what suits your family the best. Once you decide on the town you are going to have it in, the next thing to decide is where in the town you are going to hold it. There are a few options for this; you can have it at a house of someone who lives in the town, a convention hall, church or community center. There are definitely more possibilities but you need to look at the area you are at to determine which place best suits your needs.

You have figured out the theme and where you are going to have the party, the next step is to figure out who you are going to invite. The safest bet here is to invite all of the family and let people know that if you forgot someone then have them invite the person. You don’t want hurt feelings in the family and that is what you would have if you didn’t invite everyone. Even if Uncle Chuck drives you nuts you still need to invite him, just avoid him if you can.

The final thing you need to worry about is the food and drinks. You can have the party catered and not have to worry about food. But the best option in my opinion is to have a pot luck. Let everyone bring a dish, you will get to taste foods you wouldn’t normally try and it is cheaper than having the party catered. It also helps people to feel involved with the planning of the party. You will get duplicate gifts, but enjoy and you will have fun.

Family reunions can be fun or a chore. It is all in what you make of it. So relax and enjoy the party. If you are having fun then normally everyone else is also.

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The Attic: A Treasure Trove of Information

Do you remember climbing into your grandparents’ attic as a child? There were trunks and boxes piled everywhere. Old furniture was scattered around, everything was covered in dust and grime and there were spider webs hanging from the rafters. But you remember this place with fond memories; you could escape into this hidden land of forgotten items. If someone came up with you they would get a far away look into their eyes when gazing at some of the items.

This could be your treasure trove of information. You could walk through this old attic and find the clothing your grandmother wore when she was in the roarin’ 20’s and she would go out and dance the Charleston with your grandfather. Or maybe when he went away to war, he sent her love letters as often as he could and you find them tied up with a string in the bottom of one of the trunks. This is the kind of stuff that will help bring your family history to life. It will open up pathways and give you so much information it will bring your history to life.

So if you have a relative who lives in the old family home, go explore her attic. See what you can find. You can even offer to help her organize it and you will be amazed at how you will make her day. You will find that going through old historical items will make you feel even more connected with your family than you thought possible. You will also be amazed at some of the items you will find. A sales receipt for their first car, or an elaborate hat pin that was born at your grandmother’s wedding. These are just a sample of some of the items you could find. So go explore and immerse yourself into your family history. You will be glad you did.

The pros and cons of being the youngest child

The dynamics that make up family is varied and strange. It will change from family to family and person to person. Depending on what position you are born into in the family can affect not only how you are raised but the personality that you develop. To understand the pros and cons of being the youngest child then you have to look at the family as a whole. If there are only two children then the youngest child and oldest child might not be as strongly affected as a child born into a family of six.

The pros of being the youngest child are great. You are normally coddled or babied, which can allow you to get your way more often. By the time you are born the parents are more likely to be tired especially if you are born into a large family, which means the rules will be less strict and your life will be easier. You have older siblings that will look out for you. They will be able to help you with your school work and something they are even willing to do this. If you have older brothers, they will beat up or intimidate the boy in your class that is picking on you. These are just a few of the things that will work in your favor as the youngest child.

But being the youngest child isn’t all fun and games. Your parents aren’t as likely to have the time and energy to devote to you that they did to the oldest child. You will have older siblings that will try to annoy and intimidate you and boss you around. You will be eternally known as the baby in the family and your siblings and parents will have a hard time believing that you can ever be anything but the baby. If you have older brothers they will scare off boys so it will be harder for you to find a date if you are a girl. You will be compared to your older siblings on a regular basis, well such and such did this, why don’t you. These are just a few of the items you will have to overcome as the youngest child.

As with everything in life, it is up to you to decide how you are going to be treated and how you are going to react to any given situation. You can’t let others dictate how you are going to be or what your personality is going to develop into. Being the youngest child has its advantages and disadvantages; it is up to you how you let them shape your life.

Genealogy Book Lookups

When you are researching your family history one of the areas that you can looking into are other genealogy books. What I mean by this is that many families publish books on their family history and have been doing this for a few centuries. Many of these books are available online and you can access them through different websites.

As you look up the different books for your family history you have to be careful that the facts are correct and verify them through outside sources, i.e. court records, birth and death records, and church records. Some people who have bought the books for their family history will also look up information for you, but do not assume just because someone has the book that they should look up the information. After all they are the one who went and bought the book.

As with any research it is always important to verify that the person you are looking at is your ancestor. You need to look at the children of the person and their spouse and if you have the information their parents, but you need at least two points of reference when you are researching to make sure the person is who you are looking for. Whenever you do research, take plenty of notes and write down the smallest detail to make sure that you can look at it later. It is also important to write down your sources to make sure you don’t duplicate sources and to help other people when they request your information. Genealogy is like a detective game. It has many twists and turns and you have to find the correct ones to find the path that will lead you to your ancestors.

Memory Lane

When you are thinking of genealogy and family it is easy to get stuck with the facts, births, deaths, marriages and children, but it is important to look deeper. You need to look into the memories that people have. It will help your family story become more real, instead of just being a book of dry facts. People will enjoy reading your family history and not just the basic facts that most people have in the books they create about their families.

If you want to make your family history come alive you need to interview people in your family and find out their life story. You can talk to them about their favorite memories, places where they lived and friend they had. You can also find out from them memories they have of other people in the family whether they are alive or dead. This will help your story become more alive, it will make a rich and detailed story instead of a dry and boring history, just stating the facts.

The more you talk to people in your family the more information you will find out. You can talk to the same person many times and get different stories each time. It is mindful to realize that some of the stories will be repeated but if you are patient and wait you will find out new information and sometimes there will be information in the stories that will help you trace your history.

One of my favorite stories is about my grandfather. He was a great man, a farmer who raised his children after his wife died in a time when it wasn’t done. When he was younger he worked at a paint factory and loved it. He had the eye for mixing the right colors together and not get mud. But over time from the fumes in the plant and overuse, he developed colored blindness. This meant he had to leave a job he loved, but did he let it get him down, no. He was a man who took care of his family any way he had to and instead of getting discouraged he went out and bought some land and started farming like his family had done for centuries. This is the kind of stories you are looking for. Something that will make your history full and intriguing, a wealth of information future generations will enjoy reading about because they never knew the man or woman in your story.

The Patchwork Quilt

If you have ever created a patchwork quilt then you know that it takes time and patience to put it together. A patchwork quilt is traditionally created with old clothing, having to decide what clothing to use and how to put it together can take a long time. It is an in depth process. You have to decide if you are going to create it with just one person's clothing or an entire family. The time and effort you put into it will be more than made up for when you see the end product.

The same holds true for your family history. It isn't something that you can just throw together and think you will have a clear picture. It is something that will take time and quite a bit of effort. But the end result will be a beautifully woven together creation that not only you will enjoy and treasure but so will generations to come.

So take the time to complete all the stitches in your patchwork quilt, fill in the holes that are missing. You will be thankful you do when your child or cousin or some other family member takes that interest that sparks another generation into looking.

Pass down the legacy of family history research with a well woven patchwork quilt that will be appreciated for generations to come.

As always happy hunting
Patti

Defining Family

While doing research into your family history you will run across lines that are confusing. There will be families who raise children who aren't theirs, but they didn't adopt them either. It is up to you as the research what you should do with this information. Should you include it into your genealogy or should you ignore, after all the person isn't related. It is up to your discretion.

Personally I normally include these people into my history because they are part of that family. They are part of the dynamic that help create the characteristics of how that family works, what they stand for and the opinions they had. When you introduce people into your family whether they are related or not they become part of the whole. They will influence decisions by offering their opinions or by their actions. If you add them into your history then you are helping to create the whole picture of the research. They will normally also help you to find additional information. They had to be brought into the family somehow and if you follow their link you might find the missing piece of information you were looking for.

How you handle your history is completely up to you. You can add people even if they aren't related, but if they aren't make sure you flag that in the history so future generations don't get confused. You can leave people out, do you have that one family member that hurt you completely, you have wipe them out of your family, you don't talk to them and no one mentions them to you. Then you have to decide if you are going to provide an actual account of your history or if you are going to swing it to your discretion, if you want to wipe that person completely out of the history books. It is up to you.

Thanks everyone and happy hunting
Patti

Where there is a Will there is a Way

Another type of document that can be very useful to you in your search for your history are wills. The amount of information that can be garnered from the will of someone in your history is priceless. Old courthouse records contain will along with family papers. If you can find the family papers then this will be a tremendous help.

Wills provide information on the person who died to include their children, spouse, possibly parents and siblings and also their grandchildren. It will list the property they owned, which is helpful because you can find out more information from land records, but that post is for another day. It also might provide valuable insight to that ugly vase you have sitting on your mantle, you knew it was a family heirloom, you just didn't know where it came from. This can be beneficial in appraising items.

These documents can also give you birth dates and places which could give you some valuable information on how to find out about the next in the line. With having the information on their siblings you might be more likely to find the parents, because someone could be researching a person and not know they had a sibling but with the information you found you can verify they did.

There are websites that will help you with wills and other documents that are beneficial to your family history research. If you know of any I haven't listed, let me know and I will add it to my list.

Thanks and Happy Hunting
Patti

The Tapestry

When most people think about history they think about old, dusty libraries with the old man in the corner with his tweed jacket on and a pipe clamped between his teeth. This is so far from the truth. History is a rich detailed tapestry that can come to life under the hand of the right person. If it is a person who doesn't have an interest or care about the lives and beliefs of the person they researching then the colors of the tapestry will be dull and faded. But if it is a person that enjoys researching and taking care with the history of those same people the tapestry will brighten the more someone researches. The colors will become vibrant and rich, showing the details of the past.

The reason I am prosing is because it is important to have an interest in history before you start your research. If you are someone who doesn't care about history then maybe doing family history research isn't for you. If you are encouraging someone to look into their history it is important not to alienate them from the history, show them something interesting and they just might catch the bug, but don't force it.

I can imagine sitting in that dusty old library and it touches me. It is a place where I would love to visit and spend long hours. I enjoy recreating the tapestry of my family's life, watching the colors come to life, renewing the vibrant colors for my family. Most of my family don't have an interest in researching but they do enjoy hearing the information that I am able to provide for them. This will help you in that it might stimulate their memory and help them to bring more information to life. So when you work on your tapestry, think about how you would like to create it. Do you want to recreate a tapestry that is dull and faded or do you want it to be vibrant and rich in detail? Whatever you decide will help you in your history, do you want the detailed information or just the bare bones to get you further back. The answer is up to you.

Census Records

I have found that census records are a great tool in the quest for your family history. The information provided on the newer census records are a great font of information. It is important to remember that census records are only released every tens years and only 70 years back. We currently have available the 1930's census and in 2010 the 1940's census will be released. The farther back you travel the less information you will receive. Eventually it will only list the head of the household.

When I use census records, I print out a copy of a blank census record and input the information into it for the specific person I am looking at. I do this because I am able to see and understand the information provided easier. Once I have input the information, I then input it into the computer program I use to keep track of my family history. When I have accomplished that, then I file the census record under the family that it belongs to.

It is important to verify the information on the census records, with land records, birth and death records, family bibles, church records, etc., because the older records were written by individuals and the ink has faded or been damaged and they didn't always write neatly. They also didn't always know how to spell the person's name and would write down what they thought.

Census records are a great tool for you. They will supplement the information you already have and possibly give you the lead you need to find the information you are looking for.

As always, Happy Hunting
Patti

WWI Draft Papers

I noticed when I pulled up my grandfather's WWI draft papers that it listed him being born in a different country than we have him from. I thought this was interesting and did a little bit of research into it. I located the town on a map of the Czech Republic and found that it wasn't far from the border of Austria. I do know that the borders changed during that time frame but haven't figured out if he was classified as Czech or Austrian. I do know that census records show that he was from Czechoslovakia, but haven't been able to find his immigration records because of a fire in Galveston that destroyed quite a bit of documentation.

When looking up different resources for information, it can really throw a wrench in the works if you find information contrary to what you currently have, but the important thing is to not get upset. If anything this information will help you find out more about your ancestor, because the more information we have the clearer picture we can create.

We were able to determine that at the time of my grandfather's immigration he was a Czech. We were able to determine this because we know the language he spoke was Czech. So I figured the information on the draft papers was listed as Austria because at the time Austria had changed it borders and taken over that town. If anyone else has any ideas I would love to hear them.

Thanks and enjoy your look into the past!
Patti

Research and Discouragement

There are times when you are going to feel discouraged. The only thing you can do in this instance is not let it get to you. If you let yourself get discouraged you won't keep going with your history and you will give up.

During times like this, I either step away for a little bit or I take all my information and lay it out, look over the last in my line again and decide which person I am going to work on. Once I decide what I am going to work on, then I look at the people I could research. This could be either the farthest person back or one of their spouses or even one of their children. This is a time when you could work on filling in the children's details, i.e. their birth dates, where they were born or the places they lived, their children's names, etc. By doing this you are filling in the gaps in your history and if you post it on the Internet, someone else may only have the information you are missing, but have the line farther back. This is a way to improve your information and at the same time keep from being discouraged.

A good way to find this information is through census records, the later records list the children and their age. You can also find this information from other people's records, but be careful that you double check the information because you don't know their source of information and it might be flawed.

I hope this information helps you and as always happy hunting.
Patti

Family Dynamics

I went and visited my parents this weekend and was able to find out some new information about my elusive grandparents, well actually my grandmother. According to my father she was from the area surrounding Prague, which is interesting because the information that I had before, placed her near the border of Austria in the same village as my grandfather.

Interviewing family members is a constant avenue to explore. You don't have to have a formal session about family, just general chit chat will reveal information you didn't expect. I now have a new avenue to explore for my grandmother. Hopefully I will get farther this time than I did last time.

You never know when you will receive new information or from whom. It is up to you what you do with it. I could have discounted the information I had received, because I had records stating where she was from. But remember not all records are 100% accurate, it all depended on who was writing down the information when your ancestor came into the country.

So remember to always keep all possibilities open in your mind, because you never know when one of them will pan out for you.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Patti

The Family Bible

I was going through my notes on genealogy yesterday and came across a reference to a family bible. I know that somewhere in my family one of the branches is the keeper of the family bible. I do know my family is not that branch. Is your branch, the keeper for your family?

The way you can find out is to ask your family. Now you may be wondering why it is important to know who is the keeper of the family bible. This is because in the family bible is where all of the births, marriages and deaths are listed for the family. If you have access to this bible then you will be able to use it to reference valuable material in you hunt for your ancestry.

It used to be when someone was married it would be listed in the family bible and then when that couple had children, their names, birthdate and place of birth would be listed. As families move further away from tradition and further away from each other geographically, it is harder to keep track of the children that have been born into the families, who is still married to whom and even who has died recently.

Part of your job as the family genealogist is to keep track of this information. The family will look to you to find out information on people in the family, i.e. how long ago did Uncle Henry die, or what was the name of Margaret's daughter. This is why it is important to keep clear and concise records. It is also important to do this to help the next generation of genealogy researchers, that way they don't have to redo the research you already did.

Happy Hunting
Patti

GenForum

When I am working on my genealogy research, one of the main sites I use is www.genforum.com. It is sponsored by Genealogy.com and is a place where people can go and look up the surname they are researching and search to see if anyone is looking for the same people they are or to post a message to find out if anyone is looking for the same information or already has the information.

You can look up information through surnames, regions, countries or just general genealogy research questions. Now one of the things to remember is that names can be missed spelled or the spelling changed on names especially in the United States. When the people immigrated to the US the agents who worked the ship manifests and logs weren't always able to spell the people's names so they guessed which caused the person's surname to change. That is why there are so many different spellings for the same last name.

Another thing to remember is that just because you find information that you links to your information does not mean it is factual. It is always important to go and verify the information that you have with the court houses, churches and cemeteries so that you have paperwork to backup your information.

It is also important that if you see information on this site that meshes with your, don't just think about how it will benefit you, think about how the information you have will benefit the other person. What I mean by this is, don't just download their information, send them an email letting them know that you found a possible link so that you can possibly help them also. By doing this you might also be helping yourself because the person might have found more information by then.

I hope the review helped and happy hunting!
Patti

Genealogy and the Web

You now have all of your information updated from interviewing your family members and writing down everything you could remember. You also might want to revisit some of the family members that you talked to first as you might have received different information from other family members and it might help them to remember something else.

So you ask yourself, what do I do next? I have all of this information but what do I do with it? How do I continue it on to find out more information? There are a few different websites that you could go to and start your research. Some of the websites I like are www.familysearch.org, www.ancestry.com, www.genforum.com, and www.rootsweb.com. I would recommend you start with one family, take your family group sheets with your information that family. You can start with the oldest family member in your list, but you also want to look at the children. This is because you might find someone who has different information that you do on the Internet, sometimes they will have listed another marriage and different children or they might have found the information you are already looking for.

If someone does have your line back farther than you do, remember it is always smart to verify any information that someone has. If someone has put information into the computer, it doesn't mean it is accurate. So take there information and visit the courthouses and cemeteries to verify it is correct.

This is an in depth process and the part that can take you years to compile. I would recommend that you take lots of notes and keep everything organized. The next topic I am going to focus on is the different websites that I use and what I use them for. I hope this information has been beneficial for you and happy hunting.

Thanks
Patti

Interactive Genealogy

So you think you have written down everything you can think of, and you probably have for now. But as you start talking to people you will remember little tidbits of things you have overheard as you have grown up. So the next step in the research into your own personal history is interviewing.

Now you need to make a list of all the people you think should be interviewed to find out information, then make another list of people you think shouldn't be interviewed...and interview both. Now before you start interviewing your family members take something into consideration. There might be information in your history that people don't want you to know, so the more people you are able to talk to the more robust your history is going to be.

After you have made your list of people to interview, you need to figure out what you want to ask them. If you go over to talk to your great Aunt Mildred, she will talk your ear off and you will walk away without any information. But if you have specific questions you would like to know, like the names and ages of all of her brother's and sisters (even if you know the answer ask anyways, because she might have different or more information). Continue this until you have interviewed everyone you can think of and when you are talking to your family, remember to ask them if they recommend anyone you could talk to, you never know who might have information on your family.

As I have stated I have been researching since I was 16, and a few years ago I got a funny letter from my Uncle. My cousin had decided to do some family history research and started looking on the Internet. He called my Uncle really excited, he said, "Uncle, I found someone on the Internet who has a lot of information on our family. She has a lot of the information you do."
My Uncle asked the name of the person and when my cousin told him, my Uncle laughed. The person my cousin had found was me and because he hadn't looked closely at the family history he didn't know my married name, so he didn't know it was me.

So remember, think of as many people to interview as possible, decide on your questions, interview, ask for recommendations and then the most important piece of any research...organize your notes. After each interview update the information in your spreadsheets. If the information is varied, you might need to create alternate group sheets for one individual, but it is extremely important to stay organized.

Have a fantastic day and Happy Interviewing!
Patti

Genealogy - The First Step

I will tell you right away, genealogy research is addictive. It gets into your blood and it is hard to stop. You keep thinking that the clue you need is right around the corner, in the next book you read or court document you look at. Keep this in mind before you start your research.

With that said, I believe the first step in genealogy is to write down as much information as you can think of. Write down place names, people, how you think they connect, as many dates as you can remember, and as many places you can remember. Think of any stories you heard growing up from your parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. This is an important first step, if you don't have the basic information it makes it more difficult to find any further information.

Once you have written it all down, then organize it. Put the people together with the places that you think they are from. If it helps draw the family tree out so you can see it. It might also help to break the information down by family. You could start with putting the paternal side in one folder and the maternal side in another folder. This way you can keep track of what information you have where and it won't get mixed together.

You can even invest in a computer program that will help you stay organized. There are some good programs out there, I personally use Family Tree Maker. But there might be a better one out there for you. It just depends on your preferences. If you do input the information into a computer program, print out the family group sheets and review them to make sure the information is correct and fix any errors.

Next we will go over what the next step in this long process is. I hope this was beneficial to you.

Thanks and Happy Hunting
Patti

The Web and Genealogy

Hi, I have been researching my family history for 20 years. I have hit roadblocks and I have make great breakthroughs. One of my favorite accomplishments was when I was able to locate a family history back to the 1500's and it wasn't even a line I was actively researching. I was working on the ladies husband and trying to find some information on his and decided to try and find her information and see if it gave anything new for him, instead I was able to take her family back to Germany and our family didn't even know we were German. I think my most difficult one to research is my father's, the last name is Mynarcik and it is very difficult to find information on them. My grandparents came to the US in the early 1900's and because of the World Wars and communism I haven't been able to find much information. I will keep trying through because that is what makes a person a genealogist. The wanting to persevere even in the light that you might never succeed.
I remember talking to my Uncle about doing research on the Internet. He had started the family history and I am continuing it. He thought that I wouldn't find anything of value by using the Internet, that you needed to go to the courthouses and cemeteries and interview family members. All of this is true, you need to do that, but the resources the Internet offers you now are tremendous. When I started the only thing available to use was RootsWeb and newsgroups, (mind you this was before there was a World Wide Web). But I stuck with it and found some great leads and have been able to link with some fantastic information. Now remember you won't always succeed, you will always have that one line that will drive you crazy. But with perseverance you should be able to find some information and will help pad your history if nothing else.
I plan on using this blog to create a how to on how to use the different websites, which ones work and which ones just want you to spend money. I plan on keeping you up to date on my family information as I hopefully find out more. Until my next post, enjoy hunting!
Patti