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It's been so hard to research my mom's side of the family tree because most of her relatives had VERY common names, and I'm apparently not advanced enough to be certain I'm viewing the correct records for HER ancestors. I'm using Ancestry.com.
Even the first names are unremarkable, like James and William. Can anyone offer tips to help me sort out which people named Johnson, Baker and Mills in the south might be related to my mom?
You can't just pick out people with the same surname in the same location and try to figure out if/how they are related to your mother, if that's what you're doing. You have to start with what you know and work backwards in time. Do you know your grandparents names and approximate birth/death dates/locations? Do you know your great grandparents? Start with the oldest ancestors you know of and find records of them - with enough details, you should be able to confirm it's them. Those should help lead you back to their parents. You want to find records that name other people in their family so you can confirm it's the correct person based on their known family members. Also research the siblings too, that can help lead you back to their parents names.
It's been so hard to research my mom's side of the family tree because most of her relatives had VERY common names, and I'm apparently not advanced enough to be certain I'm viewing the correct records for HER ancestors. I'm using Ancestry.com.
Even the first names are unremarkable, like James and William. Can anyone offer tips to help me sort out which people named Johnson, Baker and Mills in the south might be related to my mom?
If you're really stuck, (yes...I share your pain)...PM me with details and I'll give your research a look.
I have traced most of my family back pretty far, so I am working backwards.
I run into problems when I do a records search and come up with several possibilities in the same region, like a James Johnson in NC in the mid-19th century. Many of them moved from state to state, working as tenant farmers, so I'm finding multiple options with the same name in the same state.
My sister had the same problems with her fiance's side. They have names like Woods, Campbell, and Smith, and the first names are William, James, and Mary. There are many dead people with those names in NY and NJ. It takes a lot of work for her matching up dates and locations to ensure that she has the right ones.
Family stories from my grandmother say her father was different than her mothers other kids. They were all very short, and she was almost six foot, and looks different. Most family histories I've seen say she'd the Irish immigrants daughter, not the Englishman she claimed.
Thing is bothe were Smiths.... I've looked at records but when Martin came there was no records kept other than a list of passangers and they hopped off the ship and dissapeared. The mystery may not be solved but I'll keep looking.
I'm really thinking of doing the Ancestry dna test this month when its on sale.
I never had any idea about my Father or his side of the family; (also a very common name: Horton). But, with a couple of limited, but, solid facts about his father (occupation, location and name), I've been able to trace that side back to before 1500! (Using only Ancestry.com; Heritage and the open Internet). For me, the 'trick' was to pick-out and correlate available bits of data from old Census and marriage records. Of course, consistent surnames and sons in each generation, make it much easier to track the male side of the family
I'm having the same difficulty with my Father's side of the family the surames are very common that being Johnson from Finland and Fewer from Newfoundland. Anything before America is difficult. Johnson I gave up on I'm just grateful to know where they came from, Fewer well that name is another story. How one pieces it all together is beyond my experience when half the town has the same last name
It's been so hard to research my mom's side of the family tree because most of her relatives had VERY common names, and I'm apparently not advanced enough to be certain I'm viewing the correct records for HER ancestors. I'm using Ancestry.com.
Even the first names are unremarkable, like James and William. Can anyone offer tips to help me sort out which people named Johnson, Baker and Mills in the south might be related to my mom?
honestly, if the names you are looking up are really common it might be easier and just a lot bnetter if you hired someone to do it or get started.
Even if you cant pay for the cost of having them go all the way completely or do it all completely it will still give you an idea of where to really start and look so you can pick it up yourself and trae it further later one with better certainty
I was lucky enough my grandmother really does have one of those old family bibles and it has names of her family tree and my grandfather's going back to the early 1800's and even late 1700's for some.
It was passed onto her from her family etc...
and keep adding to it.
also my uncle did paper work geneology on his own before and he gave us those papers and that info to put in the same bible too.
I never knew my father or anything about his family but we had a genealogist try it a very evry long time ago and I have a VERY common surname as did most the other names he found in the same line and on my father's side of the family.
It took him a while to get it really started because it was so common but at some point you end up finding something and the records after that get easier.
after a while we just didn't have the money to keep doing I quit. It was before the internet and ancestry.com etc...
but still I found out a lot and if I ever did want to do it again I have a good staring point based on that.
Like one poster said, you have to start with what you already know. And if you dot know really anything, I think hiring a professional is a good , a better idea or else you are just going to be pulling straws or finding needles in haystacks with real common names.
But a lot of it is easier now though too. I don't know how you feel about it, some people like it and some people don't care for it, but w3ith DNA testing now, they can match with others you are directly related too on whichever line you are trying to find and usually some of them might have info to add that you never knew about and can help you or at least can give you idea or where to go next with the paper trail.
It's not always easy to really trace it far back but it's not impossible either and its a whole lot easier now, with DNA testing or just sites like ancestry.com where you can talk to others that can help, than it used to be.
you just have to stick with it, keep wit it, keep at it long enough until you get it and go back as long as you really want
But like I said if its that hard ands if you are getting stuck that much, then it's probably better and just easier to hire a professional to help even if just short while to get through that brick wall everyone talks about so much, then you can probably do the rest yourself for a long time anyway.
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