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You must keep in mind that the posted data was provided by someone or some document which may not be correct. And that applies to all Internet genealogy data and it makes no difference if it is free or paid. You can only safely use it to research, confirm, or compare. Do not take any one of them as fact. It appears you have already found that families often "recycle" names and it is very frustrating. Good luck in your quest.
I found a family in which the kids all went by their middle names. So all the boys first names were Joseph and all the girls first names were Mary. The later censuses generally had them going by their middle names, though. It's very confusing.
As to the OP -
I've gotten pretty far of my ancestry and relatives and stuff. I search Google, Free Genealogy and Family History Online - The USGenWeb Project, GenForum - Home, https://www.familysearch.org/ , Missouri Digital Heritage : Death Records Certificates (Missouri Records), and anything else I can get my hands on. The thing that does frustrate me is the Ancestry has the 1860 census which Family Search does not and Family Search generally ends after 1920, no 1930 or beyond. That said, I can usually find my way around it. My Family Tree Builder also has the little green circles that light up when someone else's tree has a match. I find other info to back it up, but the other tree at least gives me a lead.
I'm not sure if the paid sites are actually better than the free sites or not. That said, I couldn't afford to have an Ancestry account to pay for every month.
Just curious, do you keep it for business reasons? I just can't imagine why one would keep it for years, once you find your information, what good is it?
Every time I start to think that I've gotten everything I can out of Ancestry.com and I consider cancelling my subscription soon, I find a new record! As mentioned, they are constantly added new records and transcriptions. Some people get what they can, cancel it and then maybe a year or so later active it again to see what's new. But I'm too obsessive to wait for it, lol.
Could you explain why it did not work for you? I am a relative newby, but the ease of accessing the census made it worthwhile for me, since I was starting from scratch.
The family trees also connected me with other people researching the same lines that I am.
I paid for ancestry.com, but only after doing the free trial.
My info seemed to stop @ the ocean. My Gparents came over from Poland. I found my Gma's death certificate, but not my Gpa's. It was very frustrating. I give up.
My info seemed to stop @ the ocean. My Gparents came over from Poland. I found my Gma's death certificate, but not my Gpa's. It was very frustrating. I give up.
When did you last check it? As mentioned, records are constantly being added so the Polish records may have increased. If you want to give me your grandparents names and any vital data on them, I'd be happy to do a quick search on Ancestry to see if anything has been added.
Are all your ancestors from Poland? Not all the international records are very extensive and if you happen to have ancestors from those specific countries where the records are lacking, it's unfortunate. I have found all of zero records of my Italian ancestors but on the other hand, I've found several for my Norwegian ones.
It may be helpful to research church records since almost always births and deaths were recorded by churches even before any centralized government department did this. Simply try searchiing church records of the nearest church of your ancestor's city, town, or village and their denomation. Keep in mind, many curches were destroyed in Europe during WWII, so it may be tough sledding. In this case, I would try the nearest remainig church of the same denomination, since some records after bombings, may have been salvaged and transferred to another church.
I think there are many free sites that provide very good information. One great thing about Ancestry is that you can search many records at the same time. Sometimes you may find someone listed in a record that you never thought about.
THANKS! Had only an hour on the library computer but was able to access Ancestory from there for free. Didn't find the info I wanted (yet, maybe) on my EX's family, having a hard time on his grandmother, but I did find some interesting information on my Mother's family! She never knew her GF was a doctor, and we knew her GF was from Sweden, but we found out her GF's father was born in Sweden, but her GF's Mother was from Poland. Also found out my GM (Mom's Mom) was a a camera assembler.
Thanks to you all for the info. I'm still searching for two things that I'm sure are going to keep me busy, but in the interm, I'm sure to find more family information on other members - along with spending more time at the library!!!!!
Just curious, do you keep it for business reasons? I just can't imagine why one would keep it for years, once you find your information, what good is it?
I'm going to go to the library on Thursday to see what they have there that I can access. I was able to acccess Footnote via the library, but others you have to go to the actual branch.
Thanks for the ideas!
Because your genealogy is never "done." I've been doing genealogy since the early 1970s, and use Ancestry every day. It's the best money I spend. And no, it's not for business reasons. But if your family are fairly recent emigrants, it would not be as of use for long. Most of my family was in America before 1700. That's a lot of people to research.
Does anyone know what the difference is in Ancestory Library Edition and Ancestory Plus Edition? One library, where I'm moving, has one and where I'm moving from, has one. I haven't checked the later.
I'm finding things that make it very hard to know what's what when it comes to my ex's side of the family. On one census it says the husbands name as LEON along with a son being named LEON. On a prior census, the father's name is LEON and I can't make out what the sons name is listed as, but it's odd
Can anyone make out what they think the name may be? Please see line 23, this is the Father, then go to line 25, this is the son. I'm not going to say what I think it may be to infludence any other ideas.
I see on the paid sites I can access from the library, whether the information taken was given incorrectly or written incorrectly, it's hard to know what's really right. When it comes to that side of the family, I can't find any information on when the father Leon came over here. I doubt his real name is Leon - he was from Syria (that alone was a surprise!) and I believe he had a brother come over. I can't find any information on a death, a marriage or even a divorce, which I know the ex's GM was married 3 times, I've found the other two divorces on line.
Anyhow, I'll continue to see what I can come up with in the areas I'm able to access.
Appreciate any info on the name in the link above!!!
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