Genealogy searches

[LMT]

I want to do a little sleuthing and find out about my mothers side of the family.  I have name, birth date, death date, and not much more.  My mother died when I was little and there is no other family to get the information from.

What are the good web sites?  I don't mind paying for some information, but would like to keep it as reasonable as possible. 

Any genealogy buffs here?  I will take all the tips and help I can get.

[ItsaDuc]

My mom did a bunch on our family years ago. She got pretty far and found all kinds of relatives over seas. I'll check with her and see if I can get some of her sources.

Erik

[hbliam]

My wife always says, "What, are you on one of those motorcycle websites again?", so I laughed when I saw this. "Honey, come here, this post is for you."

My wife is a genealogy nut (has found about 2800 of her relatives) and finds stuff for people all the time. She is also a member of a couple expensive genealogy sites. She said to PM me the info you listed and she will see what she finds.

She also said the site she uses most is ancestry.com.

She found some of my relatives as far back as 1600.

[LMT]

Thanks.  I will get the info I have together and send a PM today.

Mary

[hbliam]

Thanks.  I will get the info I have together and send a PM today.

Mary

T4

[Smiling End]

One of my relatives did a very extensive search, all the way back to the 1500's, on my mother's side of the family.  Unfortunately no one can find any of the copies that he made for all of the family members.  They're sure it's in his house but he's in his 90's and apparently you can see where he moves through the trail of dirt and dust he's worn into the floor so no one wants to go looking around. 

[FatguyRacer]

+1 on Ancestry.com

I found out quite a bit using the free trial membership. I found out that I have a great great grandfather on my mother's mother's side who was a Civil War vet on the Confederate side from a Texas regiment. After the war he became a surveyor. One my mother's fathers side I managed to trace backed to find im a decendant of one of the original Sons of Texas. The irony here is that i dont really like Texas all that much (yes i've lived there). But the really funny bit is that even farther back, all those Texans in my tree are decended from ancestors who lived in Baltimore during the 18th century.

[Smiling End]

+1 on Ancestry.com

I found out quite a bit using the free trial membership. I found out that I have a great great grandfather on my mother's mother's side who was a Civil War vet on the Confederate side from a Texas regiment. After the war he became a surveyor. One my mother's fathers side I managed to trace backed to find im a decendant of one of the original Sons of Texas. The irony here is that i dont really like Texas all that much (yes i've lived there). But the really funny bit is that even farther back, all those Texans in my tree are decended from ancestors who lived in Baltimore during the 18th century.

Does ancestry.com give you just the name or do they give you info about the person?  It sounds from your post that they give you info.  If that's the case that's pretty cool and I'm gonna have to try it.

[hbliam]

Does ancestry.com give you just the name or do they give you info about the person?  It sounds from your post that they give you info.  If that's the case that's pretty cool and I'm gonna have to try it.

You get most of the good info when you find an obiturary.

[LMT]

You get most of the good info when you find an obituary.

Unless it is  my mothers obit.  Lists my sisters and I plus my paternal grandparents.   I knew all of that already.  I did the form for her SS# application and am sending snail mail to the funeral home for any records they have.

Your wife has been a great help.  I'm glad she has such a useful hobby.

[hbliam]

Unless it is  my mothers obit.  Lists my sisters and I plus my paternal grandparents.   I knew all of that already.  I did the form for her SS# application and am sending snail mail to the funeral home for any records they have.

Your wife has been a great help.  I'm glad she has such a useful hobby.

She is quite the nut about it. She probably spent an 1.5 hours on your deal last night and would have liked to do more but needs that info you are getting.

[FatguyRacer]

Does ancestry.com give you just the name or do they give you info about the person?  It sounds from your post that they give you info.  If that's the case that's pretty cool and I'm gonna have to try it.

Name and plenty of links to things like census records and war records. The US govt kept track of repatraited CSA soldiers after the war.

Census records helped to track down a few tidbits about my Polish side too. But whats really cool is on the internet there are links to Ellis Island records too. My grandfather Krawczyk was fresh off the boat in 1917. He changed his first name from Valentino to Walter when he came to the USA.

[LMT]

Name and plenty of links to things like census records and war records. The US govt kept track of repatraited CSA soldiers after the war.

Census records helped to track down a few tidbits about my Polish side too. But whats really cool is on the internet there are links to Ellis Island records too. My grandfather Krawczyk was fresh off the boat in 1917. He changed his first name from Valentino to Walter when he came to the USA.

I have looked at the Ellis Island site too.  My paternal side is Polish and came in through there in the early 1900's.  It listed that they spoke no English.  I remember my grandparents and all the other people their age yelling back and forth, up and down the street in Polish.

[Smiling End]

I started messing around on ancestry.com and it's been pretty cool so far.  I myself don't have a lot of info on my family (like maiden names of grandparents and stuff) but even without that it's been pretty good going.  I haven't signed up for anything yet, even the free membership, so I'm not getting too far but I may do that very soon.