Anyone into genealogy research?

[Badfish740]

Being a history major I've always been itching to know where I came from and know very little. My Grandparents on my mother's side are both dead, my father's mother is still alive, but I just haven't had the chance to really sity down and talk with her much lately. There's about half a million sites on the internet and I have no clue where to start. I'm a little leary of committing a lot of money to one site because I've heard that a lot of them say they have a ton of records and then really don't have much. My senior research paper was about Michael Collins and the Irish War of Independence, and I did a lot of background research about the Feinian movement in the 1850s as well. Judging by the surnames that I do know of my father's family- Kennedy/Potts on my Grandmother's side-and that they've been in this country (as far as I can tell) prior to the turn of the 20th century, I'd like to find out if they were still in Ireland around the mid 1800s.

I know a lot of you guys do a lot of graveyard hunting so I was wondering if anyone had really gotten into researching their own family tree.

 

[Teegate]

Can't really give you the answers you want, but have you gone to the Ellis Island site to see info on relatives landing there. I used it to find info on my wife's family, and was even able to get a photo of the ship they arrived on. Pretty cool!

Guy

 

[BEHR655]

My wife uses a program called Family Tree Maker. There are various costs for this depending on how many cd's it comes with and you can always buy more according to your need. The cd's are things like old census data, marrage records, birth and death records, etc. Family tree maker is associated with, I believe, Ancestery.com. If you give them even more $$$ you have access to more info.

A free source of info are historical societies. If you know approxamately when your ancestors came to this country you can find ship passenger logs and such. Also your old aunts and uncles may have old photos, etc.

My wife has been working on her's for about 4 years now and has really found a lot of info. She has found that she is related to half the Pineys ever to live. Some of the names in her tree: Joe Mulliner, uncle of Anne Ridgeway who is my wifes great great etc grandmother who was a Quaker preacher in the 1700's and mentioned in many Pine Barren history books. There are also Sooys, Birdsaws, Shinns, Oliphants(sp?), Haines', Gaunts and an Ong. She has not been able to figure out if it is the same Ong as in Ong's Hat. Another name is Pharro(sp?) which is a name listed as being one of the owners of the Eagle Tavern. Again, she is not sure if it is the same man. Oh yeah, her maiden name is Kay and is related to John Kay, a big name in Haddonfield and Cherry Hill (Delaware Twp.) history. A section of Delawre Twp. used to be called Kay Town.

Steve

 

[Tom]

Steve,

I have been using ancestry.com and genealogy.com - they are affiliated sites. I have been doing it for over a year now and have found quite a bit of information. A couple of good free sites are rootsweb.com and the Mormons site www.familysearch.org.

Good luck. It can be quite fascinating.

Tom

 

[Badfish740]

Actually a lot of my dad's side of the family comes from Columbus, Browns Mills, and Hedding. The surnames of my great grandparents are Potts, Montrey, Hall, and Kennedy. Around Hamilton Twp. in Mercer County I never really ran into too many people with those last names at all, but I met a guy from New Egypt (now works up here in North Jersey with me oddly enough) who knew a lot of Potts' growing up.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Apparently my mothers side of the family came from England in the 1600-1700s and there is not a lot of records of them. My fathers side came from Europe but I have not found out too much info on them. I am more interested in my mothers side of the family anyway.

I do believe that I am related to the man who ran the swamill at Howell Iron Works.

 

[aserdaten]

Genealogy Research

You can go to the nearest Mormon Church's family history center (in one of their churches) and request census information on microfilm (microfische?) which they will provide for a nominal cost. If you know the soundex number for the last name of the person you are researching, it will make it easier. Some states, like Florida, have this number on drivers licenses. Someone in the history center might be able to find this out for you if you can't determine it. Naturally, cities/towns to be researched are necessary. Remember, census records are available only up to and including 1930.

This method is sort of a hands-on approach to genealogical research, but you have somebody right there who should be able to answer any questions you might have. The pay sites on the internet can always be utilized, but those people drive you nuts trying to get you to buy more and more services.
Some newspapers (like the Trenton Times) can provide you with copies of obits going back to the early 1900's at least, and for a minimal charge. I went through a civic association in Trenton to obtain the printed account of my grandfather's death. By the way, the most important names in an obit back in 1906 were those of the pallbearers. How times have changed!

 

[LARGO]

Badfish,
Research, research, research !!!! All of the above & more !!! There are plenty of mediums for this that cost you little to nothing. Go back, way back, we all do when you think about it. This last couple hundred years ago is a drop in time bud. I was thrilled to find that one of my direct descendants was the very clergy that married George & Martha W. !!
Got back into the 800's to find that my descendants were land barons !!
( still can't figure out Just how valuable swamps were unless it was for the moss ) At one point there was a mass exodus from England to parts of France due to the fact that they were getting killed in the streets because the family name bared too much a resemblance to a hoard of land pirates.
The original passage to here seemed to have a little to do with a religous infrustructure change that made it healthier to come across the lake.

So pursue... and keep going. As far back as you are able.