Posted on 08/24/2009 7:43:38 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
Genealogy online has been taken over by business. Most databases aren’t available as they were before without subscription. And many of those subscriptions are pricey. A person could go broke if relying mostly on online services.
I dropped out of genealogy a few years ago from hitting a dead end. Then yesterday, in doing a quick search regarding my Godfather, I came up with two interesting links (one discussed above and another) that got me going again; at least for a little while. We’ll see how far this goes...
Genealogy is a lot of fun, but it can become very
convoluted when you are trying to find some of the older links.
I had to quit doing it for a while. I couldn’t remember which
direction I wanted to go!
I started in 2001 when my mother passed away. She had a book with names and dates, so that gave me my first clue. I discovered a cemetery in Chicago where I suspected my great grandfather was buried, and wrote them. they sent me a package of information, along with a letter of inquiry from a woman claiming to be a descendant of my great grandmother’s line. I never knew she existed.
Came to find out she and her husband were both deceased. But further work provided a number of relatives of her who I contacted. One was given that descentant’s file cabinet full of genealogy data, much of it pertaining to my family. That relative actually mailed me a box full of family data going back to Germany.
That’s one of the good stories. There are far more that wind up dead ends...
There are many dead ends! I did discover some cousins I never
knew existed, and that’s a good thing! My dad never talked
about his family, and there were all these people....
I might start it up again if I ever can find the time...or
all my paperwork! LOL!
Well, good luck. I've found that getting away from it for a time, then returning, allows a fresh look at things that can make all the difference. It's happened to me before, and probably will again...
You are inspiring me to give it a shot!
PJ is probably rolling his eyes at these posts! LOL!
Nah, he's busy filling up my Twitter page...
LOL!
That reminds me to go look for him there! :D
Look under pjcomix...
Thanks! I tried pj comix with a space and it didn’t work! LOL!
Hey, hey! I just received a Facebook reply from that woman I referred to in post #58, and she’s definitely a second cousin or something. I’ve replied suggesting she requests a friendship, then she can get my email address so we can correspond that way. I don’t want our family stuff going on through Facebook. Once I hear from her, I can send her my gedcom file.
It appears Facebook DOES have its uses for genealogy research...
That is very cool! I hope you can get lots of information
by corresponding with her!
Most of the posts on Twitter are are a bunch of useless navel gazing crap. However, because of the sheer volume of the posts there are a lot of great research nuggets in there. Just use the Search function to weed out the useless stuff. Like using a sluice to get rid of the useless dirt when looking for the gold nuggets.
And what makes you think I'm not looking for dirt?
Only kidding...
Well, I just emailed my gedcom file to her. She has other relatives in my general line that share information so something may very well come out of this. Yeeeehawwwww!
AWESOME!!!
You have family! LOL!
Yeah. Whod'a thunkit. There are people willing to acknowledge being related to me... Huh!
LOL! Hope you find out lots of new stuff from your new cousin!...or whatever her relationship!
Cousin is just fine. I'm not into "relationships"... :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.