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#152401 October 24th, 2006 at 03:46 AM
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I just started about a month ago. I decided that I would research Stephen's family and put it in a large book for his Christmas present. I've gotten alot on him and decided to start on me. My family is REALLY hard because there are soo many multiple marriages and on my maternal grandparents were both 1st generation americans, so its almsot impossible to find anything on them......my Pop-pop was adopted also, so that makes it even harder!

Lately I've decided to find information on me....like the adoption papers from when my mom and dad got married. My biological father let my step father adopt me so that I would have the same last name...not like the biological father saw me or anything.

Anyways, does anyone else do this kind of thing? Maybe we can swap good resources and such.

#152402 October 24th, 2006 at 06:07 AM
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Hi Jenn wavey
I've been working on my family tree for about 5 years now (my winter hobby) I've traced my husbands family back to about 1785 in England and my own German lines back to about 1789 on one side. I have met some really nice people, some who turned out to be related and some who did not. I made a family history book for my father for Christmas a few years ago and the look on his face was PRICELESS!

#152403 October 24th, 2006 at 09:25 AM
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One thing I've been trying to figure out is how exactly to organize the book.....how did you do it?

I have gotten back to the 1400's in England with one side of Stephen's family. The other side, however, has been a little harder tho.

#152404 October 25th, 2006 at 03:36 AM
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1400's ??? WOW! That is amazing that you have gotten back so far!
I use the Family tree Maker program and they make it very easy to put together a book. Are you using a genealogy program? If you are, check and see if they have that feature. Makes it ALOT easier!

#152405 October 25th, 2006 at 04:50 AM
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I have been researching genealogy for about 10 years. I've found some info quickly and am still looking for some basic info about my father's family.

Some free sites I've found useful are;
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cgaunt/gen_web.html
search by location

www.genforum
search messages by surname and/or location

rootsweb.com
search by surname and/or location

Good luck with your research and your book!

#152406 October 25th, 2006 at 05:58 AM
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I have RootsMagic as a program that I'm using. I like it alot and it cost $30. It has the ability to make "publications" of different sorts. I'm assumming that is the same as making a book.

I do not do well with genforum.com. I never find anything on there. I have used rootsweb.com though.

I have also found ALOT on familysearch.org. It is the moran site....they do ALOT of geneaology as part as their religion (or whatever PC word you wanna use). That site is how i was able to get back soo far with Stephen's one branch.

So, when I decide to put all of my information into a book for STephen, should I organize it by each branch of the tree??? I'm trying to find a really nice album for it because I have copies of census pages and draft cards and such.

#152407 October 25th, 2006 at 07:03 AM
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That's how I did it. Each family had it's own "chapter". After I had everything I wanted to include in the book, the Family tree Maker program assigned each person a number so it would be easier to follow each person thru the generations. Once you have everything gathered and in the order you want it, you just hit the print button. It automatically numbers the pages, makes a table of contents and an index. It also lists the people and on what pages they appear. You just have to put it all together. I used a leather binder type book and put plastic sleeves on all the pages. I also included copies of birth certificates, health histories, photos, old letters from the war, obits and other misc. papers. I also did a bit of research on the ship that my ancestors came to North America on and included that. It was alot of fun!
I made some good progress in my tree thru Rootsweb's message boards. The Latter Day Saints Site helped with my husbands side.

#152408 October 25th, 2006 at 07:28 AM
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I have run into a weird spot with one of Stephen's relatives. Apparently he wrote his history down before he died. He immigrated over and in his little book thinger, he says when he came over. Well, when I looked up the immigration information online, its different than what he says. Like the passenger list for the boat has a totally different year.......crap...what do I do about that!?

#152409 October 25th, 2006 at 10:19 AM
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Quote
Originally posted by hisgal2:
I have run into a weird spot with one of Stephen's relatives. Apparently he wrote his history down before he died. He immigrated over and in his little book thinger, he says when he came over. Well, when I looked up the immigration information online, its different than what he says. Like the passenger list for the boat has a totally different year.......crap...what do I do about that!?
The info that you found about the ship, date etc, would be consider "proof" that is accepted in genealogy research. These logs were kept by the captain of the ship and he had to turn these in to the port authorities and had to be as accurate as possible. So maybe when he wrote his history, he was old and didn't remember dates or things correctly...another thing I have seen is that some of these people who came from other countries never became naturalized citizens and therefore lied about their names, ages & place of birth etc.

Here is how I put my research together for giving to someone: I print out each family, I use those plastic sheet protectors that have the 3 holes in them and place them in a notebook, the sheet protectors keep the pages from getting dirty or torn and last a very long time. I place each family in order starting with the oldest family down to present family, I include things like copies of birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, military records, census records, land records anything that you find or want to include. All of these things prove that your research is correct and makes it more valuable for generation to come.

#152410 October 25th, 2006 at 10:36 AM
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This is going to be one of my winter projects. I want to find members of my family and research back along the family lines. I know that other members of the family have started so I am hoping to get a good head start with that information.

#152411 October 25th, 2006 at 09:42 PM
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comfrey, where did you get copies of birth and death certificates and marriage certificates and land stuff??? did you have to go to courthouses to get those? The courthouse here is supposed to have records from the register of wills office online, but i think their server has been down because haven't been able to get it to come up in the week that i've been trying!
Also, I think that my great grandparents on my mother's side did not naturalize because I can't find them on any ship records. Of course....I don't have a clue as to when they came over...i don't know if they were young children, or older. All I know is it was before 1905 because my Nanny was born in that year in NJ. I can't find them at all on any census records either....and I have looked for hours and hours on that. I look for them on census records under other names since I know that sometimes when the people made copies of the census records, they didn't read the handwriting correctly.
Something funny....one of Stephen's ancestors has her name as a different name on each census record for 30 years! LOL!! His great grandfather's given name is one thing, but he then used that as his middle name later in life....talk about making things difficult!!!

Triss...I PMed you with some info.

#152412 October 25th, 2006 at 10:28 PM
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you might want to call the county in question and ask for the website address for that area...i know, in my own searches, it's sometimes difficult (even impossible) to get to the right page without having the actual website address.

census records will not always show listings for people if they were renting (i don't think the landlords always provided name info years ago - i'm not sure if it was even required. then or now).

if they had social security numbers, you can look the death info. last known address as well as date of death is usually listed. i don't have the website addy on this computer...you can get a link to it from ancestry.com. although it's a pay site, you can do a bit of basic searching and get to some links and get some info before they require that you join the site.

i haven't joined it yet...still working on gathering as much info (on my own and from other family members) as i can before i pay for the membership...don't want to waste to much time, or money. i figured, if i work in conjunction with a few other people, who are also trying to do this, that we can get better results and much quicker by being organized beforehand.

this kind of thing is a big undertaking!! especially when you don't have people around to ask for info (when i did, they couldn't remember details).

#152413 October 25th, 2006 at 11:53 PM
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Got that info Jenn! Thanks!

I need to send a letter to my Grandmom and Aunt to find out who has done legwork on the family so far. Then I can go from there.

#152414 October 25th, 2006 at 11:55 PM
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yeah, but it is FUN! I love to search and search for hours and the WHAM! There it is...right in front of you...the person you were looking for! but your right, it is really hard when you can't ask people questions because they either don't know or aren't there.

#152415 October 26th, 2006 at 01:17 AM
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Here is the link to the Social Security Death Index

Also if you go to this site Roots Web

Scroll down the page and You'll find death indexes for California, Kentucky, Maine & Texas.

Ancestry.com is a very good place, but it cost to search on their site.

About birth, death & marriage licenses...It depends on the years, but most can be obtained from the state for a small fee.

Census records can help to determine when your ancestors might have came to this country and where they lived, where they were born, how many children..etc.

A good place to start is the 1880 census which you can search for free 1880 Census

Then from there you can go back or forward...The census records that are available go 1790-1930 (the 1890 census was mostly destroyed by fire and are not complete) they were taken every 10 years, but some states had a state census which you might also be able to access....If you have a Family History Center in your area (Latter Days Saints) They have all the census and more for you to research for free and anyone can go there and research.

If you have a specific area you need info for, let me know and I can provide some links to get you started in that area. I have been doing this for many years and have done many of my friends families and even a few for pay. I always glad to help someone find their family roots.

#152416 October 26th, 2006 at 01:31 AM
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More about Birth, Death & Marriage records....you can go here to the Records Page and scroll down until you see all the states listed, each one will provide a link to that stats info about how much it cost, what years are available etc...most of them you can download a form to mail in or you can order on line.

#152417 October 26th, 2006 at 07:05 AM
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Comfrey, I have a SS# for Stephen's great grandfather. It was issued by the Railroad Board. I am going to send a request to the Railroad Retirement Board for the information, but I cannot find a request form. Do I just write them a letter telling them what I want and include the check? I didnt see anything on their website about what form to send or if there was any. Railroad Retirement Board-genealogy research

#152418 October 26th, 2006 at 08:27 AM
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Jenn...I read everything on there and I could find no reference to a request form....So that would mean you have to write (or type & print) out your own request giving the info they require...I would give as much info as possible to help them find the record..like if known: Full name date of birth/death and what is most important is the SS#, also state that you have enclosed XXX amout of money by check, your name, address and phone number, Also you might want to add that this is genealogy purposes, so they know why you want the record.

#152419 October 26th, 2006 at 09:06 AM
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I do geneology too. I'm so glad to find that you all do this too.

#152420 October 26th, 2006 at 09:51 AM
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comfrey, thanks....that is pretty much what i decided to do. I printed out the SSDI information that I pulled off of ancestry.com it has name, last residence, birth date, death date, and SSN....also it states that the SSN was issued by the RR board.

So, after fighting with my brain for HOURS.....HOURS, mind you!!!....I finally figured out that this guy that i was searching for had 2 wives. I was going nuts because I kept on find information on him with one woman listed as a wife....and then him with another woman listed as a wife. I couldn't figure out how someone could have screwed up a name THAT badly.....yeah....2 different wives. Of course, the 10 children that he had that i had listed under one woman......yeah, they were the other woman's kids......so then I had to change ALL of that info....oy!

Stephen's great aunt, Wenda, also does genealogy and has a bunch of his mom's side of the family done. She has copies of a bunch of stuff that she is going to send me....I can't wait!

#152421 October 26th, 2006 at 09:54 AM
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TK, what sites, programs, etc. do you use??

#152422 October 26th, 2006 at 10:09 AM
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Genealogy is so much fun and very educational...Another thing you will run into often are names misspelled or more then one spelling for that Last name, so when you get stuck on a name, try a variation of it..On first names alot of people used their middle name instead of their given name, or simply their intials like J.D. and most people never knew what their name was except JD...then you find a reference to John Douglas So&so...hmmm is this JD????? Then it gets really fun...so anything that you can prove with documents/records verifies that you are correct or maybe not so correct after all. Another tip also...before 1900 (and some early 1900's) Women alot of time listed as a middle name was their maiden name...Like instead of Mary Jane Doe, it was Mary Smith Doe...smith being her maiden name...so that gives you another clue. Cemetery records also helps you with date of birth and date of death for those who's birth/death wasn't required to be recorded. Oh..I could talk about this for years...I just love genealogy!!!!!

#152423 October 26th, 2006 at 08:32 PM
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is there a reason that I'm seeing alot of "Mary" and "Martha" names being interchanged??? There is someone in the tree and in the family Bible her name is Mary....but in ALL of the census records and other records I'm finding, her name is written as Martha..what's the deal?

#152424 October 26th, 2006 at 09:52 PM
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That is one of things about the name thing...Her given name was probable Martha and everyone called her Mary or Mary might have been a nickname or middle name. In one of my families...the father's name is Walter as is one of his son's...but the dad always went by Sonny and the son always went by Ray, in both cases it happened to be their middle names, but most people never knew that both were named Walter....And in census records they are listed as Walter. Another good source of info are old obituaries, which usually list the living relatives and the parents of the person...In most cases you can get copies of obits for the copying fee.

#152425 October 27th, 2006 at 08:59 PM
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Now, if I want copies of the obits...and I know exactly when they ran and such, how do I get those copies if I'm 5 hours away? Do I have to go to the paper or the library in that town?...or can I call or email someone there???

Yesterday i was messing around and found someone else's tree that merges into mine. Well, this person has done some extensive work and has sources listed and everything....its awesome. I was able to use all of his information and go back another 200 years on that particular branch. He has alot of obits and wills in his information and whild I have those copies of that stuff from his information files, I'd really like to get actual copies of the obits instead of just "computer typed" copies.

Also, where do I go to get copies of a ship's manefest? I found a person on a passenger list, but again, its just typed.....I want an actual copy of that page.

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