ancestry.com

[telecom_goddess]

So I've been dinking around on ancestry.com and have traced part of my family back to 200 years ago. I knew that my maternal grandfather's side of the family came from England but I never knew where until now. My mother had me late in life so my immediate ancestors can go back a hundred years easily. My grandfather was born in 1898 in California...but HIS father was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. So now I know where in in England my family came from. Except I don't know much about England in general, like where that is or what it's like. I know a lot of you, Raps included, are in the UK so does anyone live near there? What's it like, is it rural or urban or what?

It's weird to know that I"m only a third generation american.....

I'm trying to trace my maternal grandmother's family back, I know she was french, but so far her parents came from Canada, but I don't know where in Canada exactly, it just says Canada English So whether that means French Canadian or what I have no idea.

As far as ancestry.com goes I'm on the 2 week free trial period at the moment and debating if I want to continue and pay the subscription.

[Jester]

Worked on my family tree for a while a few years ago. As it turns out, one of my father's cousins had a good bit of it mapped out. (Well, on my father's side, of course.) One thing that was amusing, though, was that he thought we were related to a major Hollywood family, due to similarities in names and timelines, but with some careful research, I actually proved that to be incorrect. But I did see why he thought that. Some of the coinciding names made it very easy to believe the two families were one.

My mother had me late in life so my immediate ancestors can go back a hundred years easily. My grandfather was born in 1898 in California...

It's weird to know that I"m only a third generation american.....

I am on the same boast, as my parents had us kids late in life. Actually, that seems to be a trend in my family, as we have long generations. My grandfather, who I was named after, was born in 1897. I am only 40. Amusingly, I have a friend who is three years younger than me who's paternal grandfather was born in 1869.

And I am a third/fourth generation American. Three of my grandparents were born here, and my paternal grandfather (the one mentioned above) came here when he was four. Most of my great-grandparents came to the U.S. in the 1880's. So, yeah, I'll say fourth generation. Why not?

Amusingly, every now and then I'll hear some idiot anti-Semite white supremacist asstard spouting off about how I "should go back to Israel." I love pointing out that my family has been here 130 years, longer than a lot of "white" American, and that they actually got here seventy years before Israel even existed.

That usually gives their brain an overload and shuts them up.

What's it like, is it rural or urban or what?

I am guessing it was a lot more rural back then.

[Mytical]

From what I understand (which is limited) my Ancestry goes back many moons .. um I mean generations in America. My grandfather on my dads side was nicknamed 'Flying Bill', and my grandmothers name was Aliflower (spelling). Granddad was full blood Cherokee, and my grandmother was (supposedly) 3/4 blackfoot (or Soo (spelling again)) nobody is sure which. They were born in a time when birth certificates were not widely used..and so far have had no luck tracing it further then that on that side.

However, being Native American, the only thing we know for sure is our family has been in America for awhile.

[Jester]

Soo (spelling again)

It's spelled Sioux, pronounced "sue."

[Mytical]

Thank you, I knew I wasn't even close, but my brain did the "Sector not found" bit

[Victory Sabre]

I can trace my dad's side pf the family all the way back to 1700, and came here in 1751. I can trace my mom's to the mid 1700s, and they came here in 1885.

According to the research done my great (x5) grandfather (dads side), who started the family here, became a very rich man, and a huge landowner in western Virginia (now West Virginia). He hired a very young George Washington to survey his land in 1751. He fought in the Revolutionary war defending his land against a British attack, and is the only Revolutionary war vet buried in cemetery where he's buried (which used to be his farm).

My moms family were Germans who moved to Russia, because Catherine the Great wanted German settlers there. They left before the SH-- hit the fan and moved to North Dakota, and the farm is still in the family all these years later.

[AdminAssistant]

I've been wanting to do some digging into my family. There's been some stuff done on Dad's side, and so far I know that my great-grandfather lived in/around St. Joseph, MO and may have been adopted. Which may stop the track cold, depending on whether or not the last name was his biological one. Also, I've heard that he married a half-Choctaw woman, but I've never been able to get her name to check it against the list. (Many 19th-century Natives were forced to sign rosters, which you can now check online.)

There has been considerable work done on my maternal grandmother's family. They're from the Mississippi bluffs, and one of my great-great-(great?)-grandparents was a Cherokee. She ran away from somewhere, and so didn't sign the roster. Or, at least, I couldn't find her. One of my distant cousins on that side recently compiled a number of family stories and histories into a cookbook, a great idea if you're looking for a way to share the family's history with the rest of the family.

[telecom_goddess]

Thanks for the comments and feedback, keep it coming I will try the familysearch.org site thanks!

I did get in touch with a cousin in California that I didn't know existed...and helped her correct some of her records...she showed my mother as "living *lastname* I told her she'd been dead for a while now and what her actual name was.

[RayvenQ]

If you're looking for info about family in england way back when, your best bet is to try and get ahold of censuses from that time period for that region, though it may be harder since you're not in the UK.

[Elspeth]

Also look at siblings sometimes you can get a lot of info from other trees. My Mom has a done a ton of research on both her side and my Dad. Mom's side came over on the Mayflower and on my Dad's side we might still have relatives in Iceland.

I am starting to work on my hubby's family tree, looks like his side also came over from England though much later. When I plan the England trip I will have to include a stop there.

[telecom_goddess]

If you're looking for info about family in england way back when, your best bet is to try and get ahold of censuses from that time period for that region, though it may be harder since you're not in the UK.

No I can but it requires a higher membership due from ancestry.com ....how to do it elsewhere I'm not sure.

[ferebee]

No I can but it requires a higher membership due from ancestry.com ....how to do it elsewhere I'm not sure.

Try your local library system - a lot of libraries these days offer genealogy services; some may even have a genealogist on staff that could help with search resources.

(My mother does this in our local system, though I know bugger all about it aside from some interesting tidbits. It's where my username came from - a distant loyalist ancestor called Ferebee Fanning.)

[telecom_goddess]

Try your local library system - a lot of libraries these days offer genealogy services; some may even have a genealogist on staff that could help with search resources.

(My mother does this in our local system, though I know bugger all about it aside from some interesting tidbits. It's where my username came from - a distant loyalist ancestor called Ferebee Fanning.)

Hmmmm worth a try...not sure if the local teeny library near me would be good but the main one downtown might have stuff. I'm not a member of that library anymore since it's in a different county than where I live though.

[ferebee]

Hmmmm worth a try...not sure if the local teeny library near me would be good but the main one downtown might have stuff. I'm not a member of that library anymore since it's in a different county than where I live though.

That probably wouldn't matter too much. Mom does a lot work for people in the States and other parts of Canada by email or snail mail when they're looking into local connections. At the very least they would probably know the best way to access UK census data or parish records.

[CaroPhoenix]

My maternal uncle uses ancestory.com. He's done both branches on his side of the family (my grandma & grandpa) and both sides of his wife's family.

We've got family from all over the world (or so it seems). Right now, he's having a hard time researching the Volga Germans of whom our family (grandpa's side) was part. Trying to find anything about family in Russia very hard. And Germans living in Russia? Even harder! However, he did recently find out that part of the family, instead of moving to America, actually ended up in Argentina!

And for those researching and finding they have French/Fench Canadian family memebers, remember this: Those within the States & Canada with the last name of Rubidoux (or any variation of the name) are all related and descended from one man who was born in France around the 1620's (I think) and who then moved to Canada and decided to help populate Northern America single-handedly. There's also a Rubidoux Association of North America which one can join.

I might ask my uncle for help in finding out ancestory information on Mr. Rum's side. His mother is of English descent, his father is Scottish descent. However, MotherNotaRum is sure she's part Native American.