GENEALOGY Experts

[Rosie]

So, I have been voted my family's (on my mom's side) next historian. I've done a lot of research on my own but, I've also been given a lot of valuable information and this has me very interested in my dad's history which I have only traced to my great grandparents on his side. So, I'm wondering what resources other than the usual ancestry.com and it's related sites you all have used. I'm having lunch with my great aunt later this week in order to gather as much info as possible but, I'd like any tips or suggestions you all have. In particular, I'd like to know if census information is available for free anywhere. Thanks in advance.

 

[Nathan Flowers]

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Census information is available, and much of it is online through various databases, such as Heritage Quest (available to me at home via my county library, which uses my library card number for authentication).

If you're in NYC, the NYPL has access to Heritage Quest and a ton of other resources, including census microfilm, from inside their library. You'll probably want to visit the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, which is located inside the headquarters location of the NYPL at 5th and 42nd.

http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/lhg/research.html


You've started on the right track, which is to begin with what you and your family members know. Now you need to go to the resources that can show you more. Librarians up there should be more than willing to help.

 

[Novella]

I know you asked for sources outside of Ancestry, but I thought I'd mention that every library I've been to offers a version of Ancestry free (although if it's the "Library" version you'll not be able to view much more than the census records. I was super disappointed when I realized this as there are a few nonlocal newspaper articles I'm after). Once I also went to the genealogy research room at a NARA (National Archives and Records Administration nara.org I think) regional facility, and there were both Ancestry and microfilm for use for free there. If you have money to travel to the area you're researching, that's great too. Where one segment of my family was for awhile there is a local genealogical society and when I have the time and money I'd like to go visit. I've always lived states away from where my ancestors are from, which is sometimes frustrating (I won't even get into the huge brick walls I hit when I try to do internet research on my Japanese grandmother, especially because I don't know any Japanese.).

There's also Genweb ( http://www.usgenweb.org/ ), which can or can not be helpful. There are some free records on the site, but it's only helpful if someone has entered the data for the county you're interested in. If you're able to find someone else who is tracing a branch of your tree it helps immensely. I was surprised to run into a distant relative online who was also doing genealogy research and she helped me by e-mailing information that she'd come across that I found to be useful/interesting.

One of the best advice tidbits I read somewhere was to start from the present and work your way back, no matter how interesting a further back family may be. I always get antsy and want to skip over generations without fully looking into their details and that's really slowed me down/tripped me up. Good thing you have your great aunt to talk with - the only bad part about the census records is that they're only available now from 1930 and back and so having information from relatives on recent family history is useful.

 

[Etienne]

Hi, Rosie, I am not a Mormon but I have been told that the Mormon church has a HUGE database of virtually every person who has lived in the states. My mother-in-law has done some researching through them, I believe. Shouldn't be hard to track them down on the net; best of success to you!

 

[Novella]

Hi, Rosie, I am not a Mormon but I have been told that the Mormon church has a HUGE database of virtually every person who has lived in the states. My mother-in-law has done some researching through them, I believe. Shouldn't be hard to track them down on the net; best of success to you!

Can't believe I forgot about that - try FamilySearch.

 

[Rosie]

Yay! Thanks so much you guys. You have helped me so much! I did go on ancestry last night and I found so much just through their records. I was up until like 7 am retracing people and even found my grandfather's WWI registration card! I found a census report from when my daddy was 4! It's just so unbelievable. I'll use all of your valuable info, thanks so much again.

 

[Tourbillion]

Rosie, my mom and I pay for the Ancestry membership, so if you need a lookup I can try (my time may be the problem, genealogy is a time-sucker). Getting information is pretty easy, but proving it is difficult and expensive.

I've found that posting on the gene discussion web board helps, I get email from "cousins" all the time (today in fact). Local historical/genealogy sites are good too, the people are usually pretty helpful.

 

[Rosie]

I paid for ancestry last night. I figured since I'm home for another few weeks, I'll use this time to really jump start my search. I'm bumping into the problem of not being able to go back very far because my dad's family decended from slaves so, I can for the moment only go back to about the 1880 census. The lack of birth certificates is also a problem. My mom's side were free earlier so, they have more of a "paper trail" which made things easier for me. Which boards are you using Tourbillion? I'd love to check them out.

 

[Tourbillion]

There are a few, but the main one is on ancestry.com. You can post information you are looking for, and though you have to give a good description, names, dates, states--preferably in the title to get good results, people are pretty helpful.

I've received scans of gggg-grandmother's photos, links to charts going back really far, people asking what ever became of cousin so and so (i.e. my great grandfather).

Also if your maternal line is of African origin, there is a special genetic genealogy service that does a pretty good job of telling you what part of Africa your family was from (africanancestry.com). There are companies that specialize in Native American too (I thought that I was part Native American, but apparently I am about 6% African American, my mom and I are still try to figure that one out, especially since you can tell from my avatar that I don't look too AA).