[Talk Host]

Is there anybody involved in searching their Genealogy?

[jdean]

The are many people in The Villages searching their genealogy. There are over 200 members in the The Villages Genealogical Society alone. Visit their web page at http://www.villagesgenealogy.org for more info. Their are other genealogy clubs/organizations as well, like the Daughters of the American Revolution to name one.
The Villages Genealogical Society Webmaster can be contacted at vgsinfo@earthlink.net

[Avista]

I"ve been working on my families genealogy for years.

[bestmickey]

I've done some research, but have only gone back ~3 generations on the maternal side and only one generation on the paternal side. Haven't even completed the generations in these instances. I should get back to it.

The main thing I was hoping to find, I already found. Having an interest in the Civil War, I was hoping to find some Civil War ancestors. I did! My Great-Grandfather (GG) and his two brothers were in the war. They emmigrated from Germany in the 1850's and served in different local (to Albany NY) units. One brother was killed at the Battle of Cold Harbor. He was safe and secure serving in the 7th NY Heavy Artillery, helping to protect Washington DC until 1864, when Gen Grant needed more infantry, and his unit was sent out to the Battle of the Wilderness. Interesting to discover that my GG and one brother were buried in an Evangelical Protestant church that was only 4 blocks from where I lived while doing the research. (Sorry, I'm sure this was more than you wanted to know. A "yes" in response to your question would have been sufficient. I'm not so sorry that I'll erase everything, however. ;D)

[Avista]

I have my father's family going back to the 1500's in Alsace. I also have a family member who was in the 24th Illinois regiment (Civil War) out of Chicago. This was a German speaking regiment. My husband and I have visited most of the battle fields where he fought--and we have tried to visit the same month the battle took place.

[eujaynia]

I've started this post 3 times! I'm trying not to get lengthy.

With that said, is there a reasonably priced genealogy software out there one can purchase? Seems I can't find squat in public records, everything leads to, "BUY THIS to find your ancestors!" kind of advertising.

I don't know the names of my paternal or maternal grandparents parents. My mother was born (I think) in Alabama. At least that's where we went to visit her brothers and sisters all my life, up into my teen years. Once I had my own family, I never saw them again. Now, that both my parents are gone, this is proving to be extremely difficult.

Any thoughts welcomed!

Rebekah (aka eujaynia)

[gigi22]

Originally Posted by eujaynia

I've started this post 3 times! I'm trying not to get lengthy.

With that said, is there a reasonably priced genealogy software out there one can purchase? Seems I can't find squat in public records, everything leads to, "BUY THIS to find your ancestors!" kind of advertising.

I don't know the names of my paternal or maternal grandparents parents. My mother was born (I think) in Alabama. At least that's where we went to visit her brothers and sisters all my life, up into my teen years. Once I had my own family, I never saw them again. Now, that both my parents are gone, this is proving to be extremely difficult.



Any thoughts welcomed!

Rebekah (aka eujaynia)

You might want to go to ancestry.com Check your local library to see if they have a special library membership. Then you can go on their computers and access all the information without paying. You might want to start with the census information...start with your parents and work backwards. Roots.web is another good site. Go to your local genealogy meeting and someone can help you. I went to one at my library and someone had a membership to ancestry.com and found my husband's maternal great grandparents for me! If you live in TV, I'd go to one of their meetings. Someone mentioned The Family Tree program. I love it for organizing my information. I was really into researching genealogy for awhile, but I've gotten away from it, since we're planning on moving to TV...now I go on the computer and look at TOTV! Best of luck to you, Rebekah!

[Avista]

I use rootsmagic (http://www.rootsmagic.com). It has a trail version you can try out to see if you like it before ordering it. That's what I did.

[bestmickey]

Originally Posted by Avista

I have my father's family going back to the 1500's in Alsace. I also have a family member who was in the 24th Illinois regiment (Civil War) out of Chicago. This was a German speaking regiment. My husband and I have visited most of the battle fields where he fought--and we have tried to visit the same month the battle took place.

I've also visited a number of battlefields in the same month the battle took place. I used to be a Civil War Reenactor, portraying a woman with the Sanitary Commission. I did many of the 125th anniversary reenactments. It was great fun, excepting camping in a canvas tent with no running water or acceptable bathrooms. Just try getting a hoop skirt into a portajohn! :yikes: Wasn't easy. :

[Avista]

Oh BestMickey, That's wonderful! We've been to many reenactments. Learned so much .

[GomerPyle]

Yes

[Sgt Mac]

Yes back to 1500 in england and then NJ 1675 I have tons of it
Da Sgt

[graciegirl]

Yes. I got back as far as a pirate and a lady of the evening and decided to lie about my background

[cabo35]

After I retired, I started research through ancestry.com. They were helpful with accurate Ellis Island documents for my family. I also have a picture of the ship my great grandparents came across on. The biggest gift I received was from a man in Sarasota who saw some of my information on ancestry.com.

He asked me if I could confirm my grandmothers maiden name and what ship she came to America on in the 1800's. After confirming, he revealed we were in fact distant cousins and he sent me a professional, extraordinary, 128 page document tracing my mother's family history back to 1729.

As is turned out, through that information, we discovered we were related to friends we made when one of our sons was playing football with their son. ....and the world gets smaller.

[dalecrenshaw]

Originally Posted by eujaynia

I've started this post 3 times! I'm trying not to get lengthy.

With that said, is there a reasonably priced genealogy software out there one can purchase? Seems I can't find squat in public records, everything leads to, "BUY THIS to find your ancestors!" kind of advertising.

I don't know the names of my paternal or maternal grandparents parents. My mother was born (I think) in Alabama. At least that's where we went to visit her brothers and sisters all my life, up into my teen years. Once I had my own family, I never saw them again. Now, that both my parents are gone, this is proving to be extremely difficult.

Any thoughts welcomed!

Rebekah (aka eujaynia)

I have been doing my genealogy for 15 years, and did not have any information other than the names of my Grandparents. I now have over 12 generations on my family tree, going all the way back to Jamestown, VA and then back to England. I would suggest starting with the website http://www.Familysearch.org

Put the name that you are searching in the search box. You can start with your parents name, then your Grandparent's names. It will give you a list of people with the same names, their birth dates, where they were born, when they died, when & where they were married, etc. You need to look at each of those names and determine which one is your relative. The census information is particularily valuable in that it tells you a wealth of information; such as the year and address of where they lived, other family members that were also lliving in the house, their sex, ages, occupation, where they were born, where their parents were born, etc. etc. Once you get some information, you can work backwards by searching the other family members that our on the census. You will gather more and more information and eventually connect all the dots.

You can also search:
http://www.rootsweb.com
http://www.genealogy.com
http://www.ancestry.com

A lot of these websites are paid websites, which can get pretty expensive, but they also give you a lot of free information. . I started my research by going to these websites and going to their "Message Center" which is free. In the "Message Center" they have a search box usually called "Forum Finder". You then enter the surname that you want to search; such as " Spahn". It will bring up the "Spahn Message Board". You can then search within that board to find information about your family.

Another great source of information is: http://www.heritagequest.org
A lot of libraries are members of this website and you can check wtih your local library and see if they have free access to this website. It will give you lots of information.

Once you have some information, you can buy a program called "FamilyTreeMaker" which is a really valuable tool and it is a place to keep all the information that you have gathered.