Any Ancestry.conm addicts on SD?

[David Rose]

So I recently started working on my family tree and joined Ancestry.com as well as buying their Family Tree software. It's been very interesting to say the least to see the many directions families have taken then and now. I was actually surprised to be able to confirm my English roots tracing my grand and great grand parents families back to Yorkshire and various parts of England. LOL...now I understand my attraction to B.I.D.K.A (just kidding)

So with that said are there any other members fascinated with tracing their ancestry? Do you use Ancestry.com and like their search tools and found their databases helpful?

[Eddie]

Looks like a cool site, will give it a try.

[lee1]

I just signed up yesterday. Weird.

[Jennie]

I've tried it with no luck. I have 4 half siblings I can't find.

[David Rose]

For inquiring minds, the Family Tree software ($25) comes with a "membership" to Ancestry.com. Not sure if it is the same as having the online membership or if the $155ish/year online membership is even needed. The online version starts with a 14 day free trial to take it for a test drive, but I went with the software first to store my copy of my tree on my computer with all copies of supporting records that I came across.

In addition, I've found numerous cousins and distant family already on there with family trees, which gave me a jump start. It pays to double check their work; especially, if they don't include citations and sources. I've been able to find most Federal census, military records, and newspaper obituaries, marriage announcements etc to support my work so far...at least domestically. I may try the international or "World" membership sometime, but I don't think it's worth it for now.

If you do get into it and have any questions about how to use the software, you can try me. I've become quite the wiz with the search features and have had good luck with finding newspaper articles.

[RKeiger]

I can trace back to Gen. Thomas Carter in the Union Army. From there someone wrote a book tracing Jimmy Carter's ancestry all the way back to Alexander the Great so I think I'm good without spending the money.

[David Rose]

I can trace back to Gen. Thomas Carter in the Union Army. From there someone wrote a book tracing Jimmy Carter's ancestry all the way back to Alexander the Great so I think I'm good without spending the money.

Good for you. In my case, too much leg work when I could get most everything I need from one site.

[Skip]

how does this work?

i am sure of the steps on how you find your family here..

[Tito]

I wanted to try this but.....

Putting aside any racism.

I've had some doubts that it would work well for me. I am of Puerto Rican decent and I'm thinking Puerto Rican records are probably not as good as American records. Most of my tracing back I would imagine would have to go to Puerto Rico first before anything else.

Does anyone know if Ancestry.Com can do as good a job tracing back into carribean islands like PR?

I had started the process but then I quit the susbcription before the trial ended. felt like I was going to get taken for my money.

[David Rose]

how does this work?

i am sure of the steps on how you find your family here..

Regardless if you use the software or just work online at the Ancestry.com website, you start by adding basic family information that you know such as Names, birth dates, birth place, city/state of residence etc. into our Tree, which ends becoming an organizational chart mapping out your family members. You can start with your immediate family, grand parents etc to build your basic tree structure and then begin searches using Ancestry.com's various databases. Even if you choose to use Family Tree 2011 software that just came out for download, you can link your web search to their Ancestry.com databases. I have found that searching for Federal Census records and local newspapers for the individual in question is a good way to start. The Census reports are available from 1850ish through 1930 domestically and you can find the snapshot of the current family members at that time and whatever the Census report contains. The Census questionnaire varied and became more detail by the 1900s.

I found starting with grandparents was easier given the availability of information from the early 1900s and worked forward and backwards from there. If you're lucky to know the name of the local/county newspaper, your search criteria will pinpoint names, dates etc highlighting them in the respective newspaper where these names appear...if they appear. For instance, I enter my grandparents names, married or maiden, year born, city lived, and in the general "info" cell I entered "Obituary". You then will get a snipit of newspapers where the name you're searching for will be highlighted and if you recongize it as being the family member you're looking for... click on it and read the full version of through actual newspaper. It will bring up that one page of the newspaper, but you can move forward and backwards to look at other pages such as when a story was continued. Not all newspapers are available though and for me they stop around 1972 at the moment. Ancestry is always adding to their database. It's really great when you find an obituary of a family member because this provides a wealth of information to add into your tree and build from there.

General searches will help you find Social Security Index records that will include actual birth dates, month/year deceased and social security numbers as references. Sometimes you don't know the exact birth date or deceased dates of your grandparents and these SS Indexes will give you that. The more information you gather and the more varied your searches, you will come up with even more information.

I've found high school graduation class rosters, honor roll postings, marriage license application announcements, wedding ceremony postings, subsequent birth announcements, military registrations cards for WWI, WWII, etc.

The search engine is pretty nice and it will bring up specific and similar names and places for you to browse through. Sometimes less search info is better than more, so play with what information you enter into your search criteria and you will get varied results. Even better a lot of these searches will allow you to merge the data and media snapshots into your tree without having to retype data detail. Nice! I have collected over 500MEG of media snapshots of historical images of newspaper pages, stories, military registration cards about my family members.

Keep in mind that on occasion, you may discover things you may not want to know and should keep to yourself in the event it may cause a family feud.

I hope that helps for a start.

[David Rose]

Let me take a look at the available databases for Puerto Rico and get back to you.

I wanted to try this but.....

Putting aside any racism.

I've had some doubts that it would work well for me. I am of Puerto Rican decent and I'm thinking Puerto Rican records are probably not as good as American records. Most of my tracing back I would imagine would have to go to Puerto Rico first before anything else.

Does anyone know if Ancestry.Com can do as good a job tracing back into carribean islands like PR?

I had started the process but then I quit the susbcription before the trial ended. felt like I was going to get taken for my money.

[David Rose]

You're right Tito. I don't see any databases for Puerto Rico at this time, but when I notice any adds, I'll keep you posted.

I wanted to try this but.....

Putting aside any racism.

I've had some doubts that it would work well for me. I am of Puerto Rican decent and I'm thinking Puerto Rican records are probably not as good as American records. Most of my tracing back I would imagine would have to go to Puerto Rico first before anything else.

Does anyone know if Ancestry.Com can do as good a job tracing back into carribean islands like PR?

I had started the process but then I quit the susbcription before the trial ended. felt like I was going to get taken for my money.

[calihawker]

I got interested a number of years back but have never used the site. My mother was adopted so that's a dead end but my fathers side has a very rich and documented Hawaiian heritage. Extremely cool reading! I'm descended from a chief Hoolue of Kohala who joined Kamehameha in the battle for Maui. For those of you that have been to Maui, my ancestor was at the infamous Iao valley in the late 1700's.
I have 50 or more documents tracing our Hawaiian history, one of the most significant is when the family sold thousands of acres of coastal land between Lahaina and Kihei to the Dole corporation.

David, you have me interested now to trace the other half of my fathers heritage and my family name which goes back to the Azores.

Thanks!

[David Rose]

VERY interesting! Let me know how you make out. I'm having a difficult time with my mother's side of the family, but no one famous that I'm aware of at this point. My grandfather came to the US directly and memories in the family are fading given he died in 1940 in a car accident. I've only found the 1930 census so far and it has conflicting information on it from what living relatives are telling me. So at best, I may uncover some big family secret, but I doubt it. I'd be happy with a really good family cook book though.

[MeganMowat]

I got interested a number of years back but have never used the site. My mother was adopted so that's a dead end but my fathers side has a very rich and documented Hawaiian heritage. Extremely cool reading! I'm descended from a chief Hoolue of Kohala who joined Kamehameha in the battle for Maui. For those of you that have been to Maui, my ancestor was at the infamous Iao valley in the late 1700's.
I have 50 or more documents tracing our Hawaiian history, one of the most significant is when the family sold thousands of acres of coastal land between Lahaina and Kihei to the Dole corporation.

David, you have me interested now to trace the other half of my fathers heritage and my family name which goes back to the Azores.

Thanks!

Aloha calihawker,

I descend from the same family. I have this exact story in my Genealogy Book. I'd love to connect. I still reside here on Maui, in Lahaina! Let's figure out a time to connect and we can discover more of our family history together!