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The ancestors I love are the ones from the 1600s with the mis-transcribed names that were dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century by an auihor who cited the mis-transcriber as an authority. Neither one of them could pour water out of a boot with directions printed inside.
I understand! When I first started genealogy around 2000, I sent letters to all the older relatives I could find. I printed out family information sheets and asked them to fill in everything they could. I also asked for family stories. The stories were often INCORRECT, but they led me to the correct info, eventually.
That's true. Sometimes the wrong information can whittle down the possibilities.
Oh those family stores......... I always heard the same story over and over growing up about my maternal grandfathers mother. How her mother died when she was a baby and they came from Kansas to Texas and the mother is buried in Oklahoma somewhere. Then a few years ago one of my grandfathers brothers says that this "mother" of my g-grandmother is buried in the family cemetary and just a few rows down from my g-grandmother. WT!?!?!?! A cemetary I've tracked thru myself and looked at every single grave that had any of my ancestors last names on the markers and not seen this womans grave. I have found no proof of ANY of the stories being correct and no proof of this mystery person buried anywhere that anyone has said they "heard" or "thought" or "remember taking g-grandmother to visit", etc. in ANY state. I do know for a fact the father of this g-grandmother remarried and found proof of such thru marriage licenses, census records and birth records of siblings.
I have an old online transcription of a cemetery that includes my great great grandfather's headstone, with a wonderful sentiment of love on it from my gggrandmother -- he died young.
A relative saw it with his own eyes and transcribed it for his records (no photos) and when I went to see it this past year it was gone.
It looks as if there was some damage done to the old cemetery, so his headstone with the poem was taken.
My Husband, Sleep husband dear and take your rest, God called you home, He thought it best
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ...Twas hard, indeed to part with thee But Christ's strong arm supported me.
Please CITE, CITE, CITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for it from every serious genealogist
I sympathize. I'm not a genealogist or anything, but we see this type of thing all the time in terms of people believing any old thing they read, and then forwarding it on as gospel. Nothing to do except keep on correcting their misconceptions I guess.
I have an old online transcription of a cemetery that includes my great great grandfather's headstone, with a wonderful sentiment of love on it from my gggrandmother -- he died young.
...I'm sure someone stole it....
I absolutely hate people who desecrate grave yards!
Recently they've had to disallow metal grave markers because thieves sell them to metal scrap dealers, who ought to be prosecuted!
I absolutely hate people who desecrate grave yards!
Recently they've had to disallow metal grave markers because thieves sell them to metal scrap dealers, who ought to be prosecuted!
Out here it's common to put some sort of medallion on the stone, or an urn for flowers -- and yes -- they are getting pried out and ripped off. and this was WAY before the economy fell apart.
Over the past week, I have e-mailed 4 people who linked to my family at Ancestry using something they got from a "leaf hint". Problem? None of the 4 links were correct.
My grandparents and great-grandparents census was used for the same year the person who linked to them was in Michigan (while the census was in NY)!
My husband's 3rd great and 2nd great- grands were linked to a person with a dead guy of the same name in their family in Minnesota married to a different person than his wife (they are in NY)
I think you get the idea..... hints are great and can lead you somewhere. However, you need to research the "hint" and make sure it is correct.
I know where my mother's father and grandparents lived in 1900 and what my g-grandmother's name was and that they never left NYC; just like my husband's family has a family bible with a correct marriage for the guy who was posted as being in MN married to someone else.
To any of you who are out there just starting in genealogy or just using the net for it: PLEASE search every item before you stick it up there -- possibly incorrectly -- on the net. I gave data to ONE person 10 years ago with the explicit promise he would not put it on the web, just keep it for his own tree and if the person was mine, contact me. He posted it and I spend hours every time I find a mistake link fixing it with the person who posted it.
Just because you have John Doe born 1815 m. Jane Smith does not mean it is MY John Doe ( esp. when my line is up there with a different wife)
Please CITE, CITE, CITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for it from every serious genealogist
I totally agree.
I use ancestry.com quite a bit and I was able to connect with newly found "cousins" via phone/email. The "leaves" however, are not very helpful because the software doesn't seem to be able to compare dates and localities too well.
Lately, I have been using Familysearch.org. It has been incredibly helpful.
I am in the process of going back and referencing my info to records in Familysearch.org. My favorites are the records kept by the Catholic Church: birth, marriage and death. One baptismal certificate can yield 3 generations with places of origin and residence. And, of course, everything witnessed by at least 2 people and signed.
I use ancestry.com quite a bit and I was able to connect with newly found "cousins" via phone/email. The "leaves" however, are not very helpful because the software doesn't seem to be able to compare dates and localities too well.
Lately, I have been using Familysearch.org. It has been incredibly helpful.
I am in the process of going back and referencing my info to records in Familysearch.org. My favorites are the records kept by the Catholic Church: birth, marriage and death. One baptismal certificate can yield 3 generations with places of origin and residence. And, of course, everything witnessed by at least 2 people and signed.
The leaves leave a lot to be desired.... with a family name of Mason, there's tons of James Mason's out there and the leaf is any James Mason there is, even if I only use James Mason from PA records to connect.
And sometimes the leaves are sad.... after my mom died, I didn't go online with the genealogy for two months..... first time back my mom got a leaf.
Kinda surprising... it was her obit. Thought that was kinda fast. I connected the source, and turned off the program. It was another couple months before I went back....last week.
I use ancestry.com quite a bit and I was able to connect with newly found "cousins" via phone/email. The "leaves" however, are not very helpful because the software doesn't seem to be able to compare dates and localities too well.
Lately, I have been using Familysearch.org. It has been incredibly helpful.
I am in the process of going back and referencing my info to records in Familysearch.org. My favorites are the records kept by the Catholic Church: birth, marriage and death. One baptismal certificate can yield 3 generations with places of origin and residence. And, of course, everything witnessed by at least 2 people and signed.
Ancestry has many Catholic Churches in Brooklyn with records online. I located many family recently. I knew the godparent names so it was a certainty ( g-grandparents and all of their children, in one parish)
Have you tried wills and guardianship records? We have one will that links 3 generations: its kind of a "Jane Doe leaves her granddaughter Mary Doe, dau. of her son John Doe some items and then leaves her son John Doe the family house. Thrilling to see it for real in the courthouse, we got a copy from them.
My husband was fortunate in that his grandfather got interested in genealogy back in the 70s and decided to document his family history. He compiled stories, newspaper articles and photographs, typed it all up and put it together in a report cover. He had 3 brothers and his father had 8 sons. They used to have an annual family reunion 'back in the day', so there was a LOT of information there.
My grandmother, through my father, is a Daughter of the American Revolution, so I just had to update the information I received from her and the family bible with those that had been born since Grandma was inducted. They are the longest line we can trace. They weren't a large family (only one or two children per generation) so it wasn't as difficult. We get many hits on both of those lines, but know those aren't relatives, for sure.
One of my grandfathers can only be traced back to his father and mother - common last names, along with family divides, have left it all open to discussion. His mother was nuts and his father ran out on them when he was little, so he had very little information.
My other two grandparent's parents came to this country in the early 1900s. They both came from large families. While we know their parent's names and the names of most of those siblings, no one kept good records, though my grandmother had contact with some of her aunts & cousins that immigrated here and in Canada, most of those relationships weren't close, so the tree officially ends there. My aunt is always finding someone through the records at Ellis Island she thinks is a relative, but the dates don't add up - and she's upset that my dh won't link our tree through Ancestry to hers. But I know some of her information is wrong, including my great grandmother's!
People are always trying to link to the tree dh has on Ancestry, but he won't unless he can absolutely verify them - though one woman who contacted him was an actual relative and they shared photos of their grandfathers (who were brothers) when they were young men. (The brothers had a falling out in the 60s, which is part of what prompted HIS grandfather to document everything).
My maiden name is very rare. There are two families/lines here in the US. The oldest living blood relation through that line just hit his 70s. I spoke to him in 1996, but we couldn't verify a connection. My great grandfather was the oldest of 19 children and came here in 1917. His grandfather was the youngest of 9 and came here in 1911. They were from the same general area of Prussia, both sharecroppers, so were probably cousins, but the records of their small village were destroyed by what my great grandmother used to call "Bolsheviks". But that's a story for another thread.
Anyway, some of that man's grandchildren have tried to link to the tree. I explained to them what their grandfather and I discovered, but they got offended and insisted we share a great grandfather. Oh well. Dates don't seem to matter to some folks!
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