Ancestory.com? (American, grandmother, Ireland, Germany)

[bjh]

Originally Posted by nitram

Here's more info if interested; 1940 Census Records

*yawn*

I don't expect to learn much from this census.

[nitram]

Originally Posted by bjh

*yawn*

I don't expect to learn much from this census.

We are, we're looking forward to locating a lot of people, relatives and friends, and the places where we use to live.

[silverwing]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Three months? Now I'm wondering what have I been wasting the last thirty years on, and why I have all those missing ancestors, if it only takes three months to complete a family tree.

*snark*

There are varying definitions of "family tree". Some people are fine going in a straight line back up through their mom and dad - which wouldn't take that long, I suppose. Others (moi) get hooked on the historical and snooping aspect of finding out who their 3rd cousin twice removed was and what kind of life they lead.

It will probably be of a benefit to a more direct ancestor; one reason for leaving my tree public; but I'll come across an obscure ancestor in a newspaper article and go "ooooh, here was a guy who sold snake oil medicine and got ran out of town" (true story) "I wonder whatever became of him?" and start digging.

[silverwing]

Originally Posted by bjh

*yawn*

I don't expect to learn much from this census.

Heh

For all women who are or have been married:

• Has this woman been married more than once? (Yes or No)
• Age at first marriage.
• Number of children ever born (do not include stillbirths).

There are a few women in my family whom the more straight-laced and conservative members considered scandalous and only spoke of in whispers. I'm thinking I might find a few clues in those disclosures

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by nitram

Here's more info if interested; 1940 Census Records

Very interesting. Thanks for the link.

Questions I'm eager to see answered include:

An "X' indicating the person who ANSWERED the census taker.
Where everyone resided on April 1, 1935.
Income figures.

Those are all new, and nice bits of information to have.

[bjh]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Very interesting. Thanks for the link.

Questions I'm eager to see answered include:

An "X' indicating the person who ANSWERED the census taker.
Where everyone resided on April 1, 1935.
Income figures.

Those are all new, and nice bits of information to have.

I wonder how they handled answers from neighbors.

[gentlearts]

Originally Posted by ArkansasSlim

And FYI, the 1940 census will be released early 2012, but I don't remember the month.

Its April.
Don't forget, if you know the addresses where your family has lived you can Google Earth them and sometimes the houses are still there.

[gentlearts]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Three months? Now I'm wondering what have I been wasting the last thirty years on, and why I have all those missing ancestors, if it only takes three months to complete a family tree.

Seriously, enrico, my husband's great aunt left reams of correspondance with the records departments of different states, and got basically nowhere. She would have been so excited at the speed and abundance of the records on ancestry.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

Seriously, enrico, my husband's great aunt left reams of correspondance with the records departments of different states, and got basically nowhere. She would have been so excited at the speed and abundance of the records on ancestry.

Yes, she would have. But I must say, you're obviously not doing genealogy the way I am. And that's fine if that's all you want. Personally, I want mine to be accurate, and well-documented, and I want full pictures of my relatives lives. Not just the vital statistics copied from someone else's (possibly) shoddy work.

[MaryleeII]

Originally Posted by suzy_q2010

Do not worry about ancestry.com trying to scam you. Cancelling after the free trial is easy. They may have discounted membership promos in January, too, if you decide to continue. I would not buy the more expensive world membership until you have more experience and know you are going to be able to use it.

You jumped the gun a little bit with the free trial. It's better to figure out what you already know, then make a "to do" list of what you are looking for so you can use your two weeks efficiently.

If you just want to nose around a little bit, you're OK. On the other hand, if you want to get serious, you'll want a genealogy program to store your data. They are not expensive. Genealogy research causes a massive information overload and rapidly becomes addictive. Be prepared!

Be aware that the family trees on ancestry.com contain a lot of bad information. Anything you find there really needs to be confirmed with other sources.

Ancestry has millions of records. You'll see scanned copies of original documents, including federal Census records, which are sort of the backbone for beginning your research. Most people start with the census and work back in time. Right now the most recent census the general public can see is from 1930. The 1940 census will be available in April of next year.

I would suggest talking to your living relatives first. Find out all they know. You are even likely to find someone who is already doing research, because the hobby is so popular.

You can browse this forum for several threads on getting started. I would do links, but it is late and I need to get to bed.

Good hunting!

Thanks, but none of my relatives are alive! I'm an only child of an only child on my mother's side however my grandpa was quite a storyteller, and, I remember enough of those stories to have made a pretty good start! I've managed to trace that part of the family back to about 1810. It was quite thrilling to find my GP draft enlistment for both WWI and WWII, his BC, ML, etc.

You are all quite right, it is addictive! I've also discovered the LDS family geneaology site, a lot of information for FREE!