amandasgramma

I tell you -- it's the most fun ---right up there with quilting!!! I tried researching family over 30 yrs ago and had NO luck! It was miserable ordering microfische and waiting for it to come, then putting my eyes out at the library looking and looking and looking. So I quit. My brother and I got to talking last fall about our father's family. All we knew was his name, his father's and his mother's names. By knowing dad's birth year, we guessed at his mother's birth year. Sitting around one day last fall - 3 nights before a 4 month winter vacation -- I googled her name with quotes & the year -- "Sarah Belle Martin", 1880... I found a site in genealogy.com that had BOTH my grandparent's family line -- clear back to about 1400!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it!!! And the person that put in the info was dad's cousin! Unfortunately, he's apparently died since the input. Then last week I started again....Now I've found even MORE...clear back to Conn Cetchathach -- the King of Ireland....in about 175-195!!! Yes...NOT a type-o -- 175-195!!!!!! The internet is AMAZING!!! I'll be doing more research.....and double-checking, but this looks pretty darn good. It isn't just names put in by a jerk....this one has references, etc. To think -- my dad's ancestors were barons, lords, and kings!!! And all this time, we thought he was just a hillbilly!!!! ROL!!! :D
Anyone else have an amazing experience finding ancestors?

Sheila Elaine

Wow! That is great to know where you came from & to have that lineage has to be wonderful to know.

Eddie

Hi, Dee,

I do genealogy as well, and have done so for about 30 years now. I love it. It's like working a humongous jigsaw puzzle. I can trace my own surname back into Scotland in the 1500s.

Born2Sew

Oh, it is so addictive. You never find a place to stop.
I have close to 10,000 individuals in my database. It's funny actually, my mom's grandma was a Cook, my husbands grandma was a Cook. I figured hey, as many of them as there are in this country, what are the odds that they would be related. Well, fact is stranger than fiction.

I am still not certain how they are connected, but they both originated in Laurens Co, S.C. It gets even more complicated in that my Cook ancestors maternal grandmother (a Henderson) left my husbands ancestor in her will. It is indeed a puzzle for which I have yet to find the missing pieces. Meanwhile, I keep telling dear hubby we are cousins...go figure.

Charlee

I've had a sub to Ancestry.com for years, along with Footnote! :)

Love genealogy!! One of my ancestors was considered a Pilgrim...and I have a special love for the skeletons in the closet! :lol: Have lots of those!

Let me know if you want me to snag anything on Ancestry for you...I've found your Sarah Belle in the 1880 census already! ;)

earthwalker

Tis a very interesting thing indeed...there are many in my family who are avid ancestral investigators, so I tend to leave it to them. Interesting what gets uncovered, especially the scoundrels! My mother's family come from Ireland, my father's from Devon/Cornwall and his mother's from Portugal. Our Irish connection is well documented....the heirachy system of "kingship" in Ireland is quite unusual, quite unlike those in other countries. I love history as I think a lot of quilters do. Any famous quilters in anyone's line?

Barb_MO

I love geneanoly too. In fact gave up quilting for two or three years because I became addicted to family research.

marsye

I started researching mine about 20 years ago until it consumed me! My grandmothers maiden name was Thatcher. Some family members has traced our family back to Margaret Thatcher. My brother calls her "Aunt Maggie" :lol: Do you see a family resemblance? ;)

clem55

Marsye, you, your avatar and your comments make my day!

shaverg

I don't do it for myself. But I have been helping a friend. We just took a trip to Charleston, SC. to try to find info on her Grandfather. We think we found him. It has been very interesting and a very big mystery. She thought her ancestors were from Hondurus and now find she has a grandfather that was probably mulato and Great grandmother was a slave. It is definitely interesting. I know most of the heritage on both sides of my family so really haven't had a interest for myself. I have always had info back to my Great Great Grandparents in NC, because land and family have stayed for in the same place for generations.

It is fun, but sometimes gave me a headache trying to put the puzzle together. LOL