Genealogy--anyone??? (location, name, Canada, marriage)

[Inthesierras]

Originally Posted by jgussler

My brother and I hit a curve ball. My dad was born in 1912. His birth Certificate was issued from a different town in 1942. It appears that he didn't have a birth cert and had to get one so he could go in the Army.

I have ran into that also. It seems many counties/states did not 'require' birth or death certificates until the 30s and 40s. It was very common for people to get a birth certificate well into their adult life for purposes of obtaining a social security number, joining the service, etc.

I have ran into that quite a bit with a few lines of my family. I hope you are able to find the info you are looking for.

[Huckleberry3911948]

i like gtldna.com for 174 george washingtons
they will take away the family fable game and give
you the facts. i found out. i did not come over on the
mayflower never happened.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Inthesierras

I have ran into that also. It seems many counties/states did not 'require' birth or death certificates until the 30s and 40s. It was very common for people to get a birth certificate well into their adult life for purposes of obtaining a social security number, joining the service, etc.

I have ran into that quite a bit with a few lines of my family. I hope you are able to find the info you are looking for.

We had the info but were getting birth and death certs to scan into the computer so we had accurate data. Was just funny, born 1912, birth cert issued in 1942.

We did have one small glitch, so to speak. We tracked back on G Grandad and found a questionable date for birth. So we went the other way, we had dates of elders and we tracked down. We had two dates for his birth. Both in the same year, both recorded by the church. So we still don't know his exact date, but we're close. haha

[ArizonaBear]

My DNA kits; complete with 'DNA' are going into the mail in about 10 minutes.

I will let everyone know what the results are once I receive 'em.

[capecodcathy]

Good morning! I'm new to this forum but have been doing genealogy for about 10 years. I, too, have run into roadblocks once I get outside the US. Ireland, England, and Canada. I'm a member of Ancestry.com but refuse to pay them any more money for their Canada collection. I've been on the Canadien sites (mostly Montreal and the surrounding areas but what they do have online is not easily searched). NEHGS has been very helpful to me since most of my ancestors stayed in New England after immigration.
I've been curious about the DNA tests so will be interested in the results.

[Mississippienne]

Originally Posted by jgussler

We had the info but were getting birth and death certs to scan into the computer so we had accurate data. Was just funny, born 1912, birth cert issued in 1942.

We did have one small glitch, so to speak. We tracked back on G Grandad and found a questionable date for birth. So we went the other way, we had dates of elders and we tracked down. We had two dates for his birth. Both in the same year, both recorded by the church. So we still don't know his exact date, but we're close. haha

Could one be his baptism date?

In general, a good rule for genealogy is that the oldest attested date is usually the right one. For instance, let's say you find your ancestor in the 1840 census where his age is given as 3 years. Then you find him in the 1850 census aged 15! What happened? Was he really 15 or 13? Probably 13, as the data from the 1840 census probably came from his mother, who would've known better than anyone how old he was. A lot of people weren't very well educated and they might not know exactly how old they were. The older they were, the more likely they were to guess. "Oh, I'm 40 or 42."

A lot of the time they didn't spell their names consistently, either. They'd spell it phonetically or have someone else write it for them. A lot of families have some old story about two brothers who argued and one changed the spelling of the last name. Nine times out of ten this is all hooey. Neither of the brothers knew how to spell their name in the first place. Some of my ancestors' surnames changed from Blackwell to Blackburn and from Nicholas to Nichols from one census to the next.

I imagine everyone has seen worldgenweb.org?

[dynimagelv]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

I am looking forward to rattlin' some old bones!

I rattled a few.....and found my 6th cousin was Lizzie Borden......I loved shocking the prudish ones in the family with that info

[dynimagelv]

Another site that I really like is familysearch.org

It's operated by the Mormon church and taps into their genealogy library...

It's totally free and you can even download their software.....

best part of all.....they do NOT send any Missionaries around to talk to you

[njkate]

Originally Posted by Mississippienne

I'm assuming you're female and that you and your brother are full siblings (sharing both parents). You and your brother will have the same mtDNA. Your brother will have your father's Y chromosome. You will not, because you're female and females do not inherit Y chromosomes.

Thanks....I'm assuming then my brother if tested can get the whole picture

[Inthesierras]

Originally Posted by Mississippienne

Could one be his baptism date?

In general, a good rule for genealogy is that the oldest attested date is usually the right one. For instance, let's say you find your ancestor in the 1840 census where his age is given as 3 years. Then you find him in the 1850 census aged 15! What happened? Was he really 15 or 13? Probably 13, as the data from the 1840 census probably came from his mother, who would've known better than anyone how old he was. A lot of people weren't very well educated and they might not know exactly how old they were. The older they were, the more likely they were to guess. "Oh, I'm 40 or 42."

A lot of the time they didn't spell their names consistently, either. They'd spell it phonetically or have someone else write it for them. A lot of families have some old story about two brothers who argued and one changed the spelling of the last name. Nine times out of ten this is all hooey. Neither of the brothers knew how to spell their name in the first place. Some of my ancestors' surnames changed from Blackwell to Blackburn and from Nicholas to Nichols from one census to the next.

I imagine everyone has seen worldgenweb.org?

How funny, I have run into the very same problem. Different relatives spelling the same last name differently on numerous documents. It took me awhile to realize what was going on. Once I started looking for other ways to spell a last name, I hit the jackpot with census images. My hubbies great great great grandfather spelled his name 3 different ways during his lifetime that I was able to find.