Genealogy / Family Trees

[Jason]

My brother and I are trying to detail our family tree at http://www.geni.com . Sadly, all my grandparents are dead so I can't go as far back as I'd like. My grandpa Erhardt would've been a great source of information, but he was affected by Alzheimer's before I had an interest in family history.

Does anyone else have an interest in genealogy?

[lilmikey]

My brother and I are trying to detail our family tree at http://www.geni.com . Sadly, all my grandparents are dead so I can't go as far back as I'd like. My grandpa Erhardt would've been a great source of information, but he was affected by Alzheimer's before I had an interest in family history.

Does anyone else have an interest in genealogy?

very much so. I would like to go to Italy and see if I have some distant relitives still living. I dont know if they ALL came over here

[ayfan]

My mom has done extensive research on our family geneology. She's been working on it for years and years. And I've gone with her on many a trip to various cemetaries, libraries, little hick towns all over southern New England. She's the researcher and I'm the family photographer. I took all the pictures of the old houses, headstones, and whatever else she insisted we get a picture of :P . And I am the microfilm queen! (whenever she drives the machine, I tend to get motion sickness *barf* from way she starts and stops the machine)

My favorite geneology trip was when we all went to Ireland to check out where part of the family was from. We found the actual piece of land the house used to be on.....very cool!

So as fascinating as it all is, and as much as she wants my sisters and I to get more involved, I don't think I have the patience to do something so tedious and time consuming. Especially when you find an error and have to lop off a whole chunk of the tree.

But I do like hearing about when she finds out some new information.

[Jason]

Well, Sarah, thankfully your mom's doing it for you.

[BeGlorifiedInMe]

I spent quite a bit of time backtracking my dad's family tree. My older sister did quite a bit on our mom's side of the family, but very little on my dad's. Both of his parents came to the US from Sweden, but we had been told that the family name was German in origin. When doing the geneology research, I discovered that our family name was Dutch, not German. Seems back in the dark ages, some blacksmiths moved from what is now Amsterdam to Bavaria, and a few of their descendents moved to Sweden in the late 1600's. At any rate, tracing that particular name was very "entertaining" to say the least. Following my grandmother's family line was very easy in comparision. But no surprises in that family tree. Just some very intertwined branches.

[lilmikey]

I think some of my family on my dad's mother's side came over on Ellis island but we couldn't find any record of it. My grandfather's family had native american roots so they've all ways been here.

[Aussie3rddayfan]

There is a great big fat book in the loungeroom at my place that details EVERYTHING about the background of my family since coming to Australia in 1856 from Gateshead, England.

Curiously, the city seems to have 'borrowed' the plans for one of their main bridges. I wonder where they got that idea? Hmmmm..........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/images/2006/08/07/terry_cavner_tyne_bridge_ 470x297.jpg

[HotWireD]

Gatehead is a nice place, but I have issues with it - everytimne I drive through I get lost!

It is a bit strange because once I have realised I am lost I pull over to gather my thoughts and every time I see a big arrow in grafitti on the side of a house (the same house) which I follow and - hey presto - within two minutes I am on the A1 motorway on my way home ( I live 200 miles south of Gatehead next to the A1. I imagine that the 'locals' are fed up being stopped by people who are lost. The bridge in your picture is the one I cross the River Tyne on and it leads into a one way system.

I purchase old Holy Bibles and lots of them have family trees in the front - I post the details on geneaology sites so that people can get the information.

Some of the births go way back to the sixteenth century!

I am going to look on google earth and see if I can find the location where I always park up exasperated.

[Light Hearted]

I was hatched and then my mother flew the coup. ;)

[danbos]

I think they're kind of cool to keep track of. I don't know mine too well, but I know I've got ancestors from the Netherlands, Sweden, Transylvania, and France for sure. It was kind of cool though...a few years ago I was in Romania and while we were in a hotel in Cluj-Napoca, I picked up the phone book and found a few people with the same last name as my grandma's maiden name. Her side of the family is the one that comes from Transylvania, so they could be distant relatives.

[lilmikey]

I have some native american heritage. This could be where I get some of my prejudice from(its a small part of me that I dislike and am asking God to remove) because of the fact that that native americans were just that native which means they were here in America to begin with

I also talk with my hands alot so that could come from the Itallian in me. I have seriously always wondered why I can comprehend Itallian so well, I can read it and understand it a little (compared to other languages that is)

[ZippyApplePants]

I was hatched and then my mother flew the coup. ;)

That's c-o-o-p dimwit.

I think they're kind of cool to keep track of. I don't know mine too well, but I know I've got ancestors from the Netherlands, Sweden, Transylvania, and France for sure. It was kind of cool though...a few years ago I was in Romania and while we were in a hotel in Cluj-Napoca, I picked up the phone book and found a few people with the same last name as my grandma's maiden name. Her side of the family is the one that comes from Transylvania, so they could be distant relatives.

None of them were named Dracula were they? :D

I like studying genealogy. Since I have no relationship with my Dad's side of the family I know nothing about their family history. :( I know quite a bit about my Mom's side though. If I remember correctly we go back to the Mayflower in America. Going farther back our ancestors came from England, Scotland, Wales, Denmark and maybe more. I like to say that our family is so big we don't have a family tree we have a family forest.

[Light Hearted]

That's c-o-o-p dimwit.
My mom was a non comformist.

[RevZeek]

Jason, a lot of libraries subscribe to Ancestry.com and you can access those databases from inside the libraries.

That's how I've done most of the research into my family history. Then again it has been very difficult to track a John Johnson who was an orphan in 1865 in south Carolina! But I have made progress.

[Jason]

Thanks, good idea ... but I don't get out much.

[BeGlorifiedInMe]

You can do some searching on Ancestry.com without charge. And they frequently offer a 7-day or 14-day free trial of the service. They were helpful with quite a bit of my searching. It was from Ancestry that I learned about the "origin" of my dad's family name.

[Jason]

You can do some searching on Ancestry.com without charge. And they frequently offer a 7-day or 14-day free trial of the service. They were helpful with quite a bit of my searching. It was from Ancestry that I learned about the "origin" of my dad's family name.

Thanks!

[ZippyApplePants]

My mom was a non comformist.

That explains a lot.