Genealogy

Jon Foster · 07-03-2010, 12:47 PM

Anyone here into Genealogy?

I've been playing around with it for several years and feel that I'm still learning the basics. I've found some amazing things but I've only scratched the surface...

If you have any tips or tricks you'd like to share feel free to post them for us. There can never be enough good sources of information to fall back on.

My current family tree is hosted and created by Family Tree Maker here:

Jon Foster's Family Tree

Jon.

JDtech · 07-03-2010, 02:58 PM

Pretty cool. How does one get started with this? Does Family Tree Maker somehow look up your ancestors?

jcjacob · 07-03-2010, 03:35 PM

I would love to know more about it.

Other than my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and siblings, I know nothing about my family history.

I also have no clue even where to begin, so pointers would be most welcome.

Jon Foster · 07-03-2010, 10:49 PM

I honestly know nothing and I've been at it for too many years. I started with Family Tree Maker and signed up for the Ancestry service a few years back. I don't have a membership now but maybe when I get back into it heavily again I'll spring for the high end membership.

As for getting started, I bought FTM shortly after I got married. Loaded it up and put my wife and myself in. Then I added our parents and siblings. From there I added the grandparents we knew about and then I was stuck. When I was laid off from the telecom industry in 2004 I started to get interested in it again. In early 2005 I started visiting all the funeral homes and churches I could find in the neighborhoods where I grew up. One day I found a bunch of Foster's at a funeral home. I was allowed to hand copy everything they had on file for each person we thought was related to me. That was the day I learned my grandparents full names (on my dads side). From there I went directly to the graveyard and found the burial sites of my grandparents. I got all the information the office had there as well. When I got home I signed up with Ancestry and started searching. I was on a roll for over two years straight. Many nights I stayed up all night researching. I found lots of relatives I never knew about. I found old pictures with unknown people in them and posted them online. I sent letters to addresses I found and cold called every name I could find in every US state and Canada.

I've come a long long way in a short time but now I need to learn about doing research in other countries. Hopefully without having to travel to them somehow.

One of the most effective tricks I found to verify relatives is pictures. I post most of what I find and compare them to pictures my perspective relatives have. When they match we back track the pictures on both ends until we can find the direct link. It really works.

We also visit grave sites when we can find them. My wife had a picture of her grandfather leaning on a beautiful family marker. Nobody alive knew where or when the shot was taken. We searched for the marker most of the time we've been married. Then one day it was standing in front of us. The graveyard it was in had all sorts of relatives on my wife's side. Everything from civil war soldiers to women and children. One grave was even fresh (within a year or two). It also had flowers on it! What a lucky find. I make flyers and keep them with us when we are on the hunt. So we stuck one in a baggie and tied it to the headstone. A few days later we had an e-mail message from a new found relative. That connection hooked us up to another part of the family we never knew about. I think over 30 people in fact.

My wife is English and we've been able to track her family (on her dads side) back to the original Border Reivers in northern England. The oldest family member dates back to the 1200's. The English apparently take their genealogy pretty serious.

Ancesty is a good search tool but expensive. Census records are usually a gold mine of info and the other online sites can be a huge help too. Public records are nice but hard to get and very expensive too. Things like social security (SS-5) applications can give you some good tips and death records are nice to have but they are generally filled out by living people after the person you are interested in is dead. Use the info on them with a grain of salt and be ready to find discrepancies in them. Newspaper articles are excellent for research too.

We also photograph all the grave markers we find for future reference and record the locations of each one with a GPS. Having the GPS locations have helped us countless times so far.

Here's a picture of my wife's grandfather leaning on the marker.

And here's my wife leaning on the same marker the day we found it after spending over 15 years looking for it.

Jon.

07-03-2010, 12:47 PM	#1
Jon Foster Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: White Lake, MI Posts: 149	Genealogy Anyone here into Genealogy? I've been playing around with it for several years and feel that I'm still learning the basics. I've found some amazing things but I've only scratched the surface... If you have any tips or tricks you'd like to share feel free to post them for us. There can never be enough good sources of information to fall back on. My current family tree is hosted and created by Family Tree Maker here: Jon Foster's Family Tree Jon. __________________ Members don't see ads in threads. Register your free account today and become a member on Tech Today Online, gaining access to posting privileges, contests, free plug-ins and other downloads, unlimited online storage for your photographs, reviews, free marketplace listings, and much more.

07-03-2010, 03:35 PM	#3
jcjacob Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Doylestown, PA Posts: 159	I would love to know more about it. Other than my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and siblings, I know nothing about my family history. I also have no clue even where to begin, so pointers would be most welcome. __________________ -John

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07-03-2010, 02:58 PM	#2
JDtech Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 308 Blog Entries: 1	Pretty cool. How does one get started with this? Does Family Tree Maker somehow look up your ancestors?

07-03-2010, 10:49 PM	#4
Jon Foster Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: White Lake, MI Posts: 149	I honestly know nothing and I've been at it for too many years. I started with Family Tree Maker and signed up for the Ancestry service a few years back. I don't have a membership now but maybe when I get back into it heavily again I'll spring for the high end membership. As for getting started, I bought FTM shortly after I got married. Loaded it up and put my wife and myself in. Then I added our parents and siblings. From there I added the grandparents we knew about and then I was stuck. When I was laid off from the telecom industry in 2004 I started to get interested in it again. In early 2005 I started visiting all the funeral homes and churches I could find in the neighborhoods where I grew up. One day I found a bunch of Foster's at a funeral home. I was allowed to hand copy everything they had on file for each person we thought was related to me. That was the day I learned my grandparents full names (on my dads side). From there I went directly to the graveyard and found the burial sites of my grandparents. I got all the information the office had there as well. When I got home I signed up with Ancestry and started searching. I was on a roll for over two years straight. Many nights I stayed up all night researching. I found lots of relatives I never knew about. I found old pictures with unknown people in them and posted them online. I sent letters to addresses I found and cold called every name I could find in every US state and Canada. I've come a long long way in a short time but now I need to learn about doing research in other countries. Hopefully without having to travel to them somehow. One of the most effective tricks I found to verify relatives is pictures. I post most of what I find and compare them to pictures my perspective relatives have. When they match we back track the pictures on both ends until we can find the direct link. It really works. We also visit grave sites when we can find them. My wife had a picture of her grandfather leaning on a beautiful family marker. Nobody alive knew where or when the shot was taken. We searched for the marker most of the time we've been married. Then one day it was standing in front of us. The graveyard it was in had all sorts of relatives on my wife's side. Everything from civil war soldiers to women and children. One grave was even fresh (within a year or two). It also had flowers on it! What a lucky find. I make flyers and keep them with us when we are on the hunt. So we stuck one in a baggie and tied it to the headstone. A few days later we had an e-mail message from a new found relative. That connection hooked us up to another part of the family we never knew about. I think over 30 people in fact. My wife is English and we've been able to track her family (on her dads side) back to the original Border Reivers in northern England. The oldest family member dates back to the 1200's. The English apparently take their genealogy pretty serious. Ancesty is a good search tool but expensive. Census records are usually a gold mine of info and the other online sites can be a huge help too. Public records are nice but hard to get and very expensive too. Things like social security (SS-5) applications can give you some good tips and death records are nice to have but they are generally filled out by living people after the person you are interested in is dead. Use the info on them with a grain of salt and be ready to find discrepancies in them. Newspaper articles are excellent for research too. We also photograph all the grave markers we find for future reference and record the locations of each one with a GPS. Having the GPS locations have helped us countless times so far. Here's a picture of my wife's grandfather leaning on the marker. And here's my wife leaning on the same marker the day we found it after spending over 15 years looking for it. Jon.