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GENEOLOGY
westf27 - 12/6/12 at 05:58 PM

Anybody done this family tree searching.Keep getting asked for loads of money and not sure before committing which sites are good.

as always locost solutions and recommended sites welcomed.
steve

steve m - 12/6/12 at 06:39 PM

My family name is extremley rare, and irish, So wifey and i about 15 years ago, went to Ireland to find out more
and came home with nothing !
yet seaching on sites like dogplie raised numurous hits, and were mostly ME!

We could of paid 1000,s to get the same results

steve Mu.....y

jollygreengiant - 12/6/12 at 07:02 PM

I've used Ancestry.com mainly over the past 6 years or so, also used local (to paternal ancestry) camdex. Not done too bad so far, (paternally) even though most common surname (generically) of Taylor. I've got back so far to someone born about 1640ish in Little Thetford (Grunty Fen, YES, Grunty Fen). Maternally has been a different matter, narrrowing down WHICH John Brown in the London area has been a bar-steward, so I'm kinda stuck at grand parent level there.

I have looked at most other sites so far and I think ancestry is possibly the better one, although you can do it without signing up by using National Archives, it will still cost you to look and see if you are looking at the right document, but searching the records is free.

flibble - 12/6/12 at 07:13 PM

My aunt did ours back 3-400 years (I think), pretty sure she's not got t'internet so must've used other resources, I shall ask what she did

JoelP - 12/6/12 at 07:18 PM

My dad did ours (his side really) back to early 1600s, about 20 years ago. Not sure what exactly he did but it involved a lot of trips to leeds town hall/library looking at microfiches.

cs3tcr - 12/6/12 at 07:38 PM

I've used Ancestry and managed to get back to about 1700 with some help from a handwritten family tree my dad had made up. Luckily the UK info has most of what i was looking for, but on my paternal side i've come to a dead end with the Canadian/pre-Canadian records. I wish i could find out when the MacLellans left Scotland and landed in Nova Scotia.

rusty nuts - 12/6/12 at 09:11 PM

Nought wrong with Grunty Fen, Almost my neck of the woods. SWMBO has got back to about 1700s on her side but my side is a bit vague (must be all the interbreeding?)

mcerd1 - 12/6/12 at 09:23 PM

quote:
Originally posted by jollygreengiant
I have looked at most other sites so far and I think ancestry is possibly the better one, although you can do it without signing up by using National Archives, it will still cost you to look and see if you are looking at the right document, but searching the records is free.

thats what my mum uses most of the time, she's got about 200 - 300 years back on most sides of the family now
(although its a bit easier in scotland becuase the records go back further and are more detailed....)

jollygreengiant - 12/6/12 at 10:45 PM

quote:
Originally posted by rusty nuts
Nought wrong with Grunty Fen, Almost my neck of the woods. SWMBO has got back to about 1700s on her side but my side is a bit vague (must be all the interbreeding?)


Now't wrong with Grunty Fen at all, just made me giggle like a little school boy when I first read it. Just kinda proud of, that along my paternal side, they were ALL born in Little Thetford upto and including my Dad. They (the men folk) ALL married girls from a maximum of around 15(approx) miles away (about a days travel to and from market?) from home except my dad who grew up in West Ham (married a girl from Wimbledon). They were ALL Agricultural Labourers (yes I've had the Polish jokes) except my Dad and Grandpa. Also Generally speaking, up until the 1900's they were having families of upto 15 kids in a tied farm cottage, popping out about 1 a year but with overall good survival rates (mostly). So just think of 15 kids in a hovel similar or lower than the farm cottages in BBC's Larkrise to Candleford.

And for the history buffs, 1640 is around the time of the Parliamentry uprising of Oliver Cromwell and Ely/Little Thetford (throw a stone from Little Thetford and you could almost hit Ely) was Cromwells base of operations/power base.


Edit bit
Oh and all I had was insults from my sisters and my Dads birth certificate (his mum was illiterate, signing the form with her mark, an X and witnessed as her mark).

[Edited on 12/6/12 by jollygreengiant]

CNHSS1 - 12/6/12 at 11:01 PM

I looked up my family tree once....




And found most of them still living in it

morcus - 13/6/12 at 01:02 AM

My Mother does alot of that kind of thing, the main benefit she says she gets from using the sites she uses is software for arraging everything as the one she uses is very good at keeping things in order, she does have a degree in anthropology though and does alot of leg work and correspondance. The thing is that when you start you might be lucky enough to find someone else who's done alot of work for you, like This which is my geneology going through my maternal Grand father which was made by someone I don't know who is somehow related to me, I would be in the 13th generation but I'm not on the list.