So What's New With Your Search

[Lyra Luminara]

A while ago I found out that not only am I english, but irish and scottish as well. Not very interesting, I know, but I was excited. Because I had thought that this one surname and the people connected were german...but now I'm pretty sure it's scottish. craziness.

[AShruleEgan]

This weekend was rather productive. I have located some of the family of the daughter of my great-grandfather (my avatar). We knew nothing of his daughter except what her name was. I have added 19 more names to the family tree, bringing the total to 728 and once I get together with some of this side of the family, I will add many more names.

This find, has filled in a very big void in our family tree. Hopefully, they will have some answers for me pertaining to some of the other relatives that I know existed but have nothing on.

Once again, it pays to keep plugging away at all the information that is out there. Something may just pop up.

[dfilpus]

Was doing my standard searches and came upon my grandmother's obituary. Actually, it was my grandfather's second wife, who had vanished out of the family when my grandfather died. This means that the last of the grandparents that I had known have now died. She had a family of her own from before she had married Grandpa, including a couple of kids, a handful of grandchildren and a slew of great-grandchildren. However, the obituary said nothing about a former marriage or the kid's father. There are secrets there.

Another search came up with a genealogical record indicating that that Grandpa's father had been married in Finland for a couple of years. His Finnish wife died and he left for America. He married again and the American Filpus family started. The record in a very extensive family tree involving hundreds of individuals in both Finland and America. To this family, G-Grandpa was just an uncle married into the family for a short time and disappeared. I was able to convey to them what happened to this uncle. Now, I have the option of adding the hundreds of individuals to my family trees, or just the wife, with a pointer to the other records.

This has been a mixed set of findings.

[Lyra Luminara]

Lately I've been kicking much butt in the family history.
I'm back to my great great great grandparents--translated back to the 1815-1820s. And unconvered two new surnames.
My great great grandmother had 9 kids and was taking care of them all at age 50 by herself! One daughter was a governess for another house. Another was sent to london to be a housekeeper for a family and apparently the head of the house got her pregnent and it was this big scandal and she had to be sent home. Pretty interesting, I'd like to find out more about that story.
I've hit another wall right now and I just need to find online access to censuses from England from before 1850, anyone know where?

[CelticRoz]

Lyra! Did you happen to see some of the genealogy sites that were posted in "Best Websites for Genealogy?" Hopefully something there can help you.

Here is the link:

http://www.celticradio.net/php/forums/inde...?showtopic=2524

[AShruleEgan]

Just poking around on the White Pages website on Sunday and punched up a name that I had been searching for, for over 30 years. The town was very close to the last address that we had for this relative, so, figured I'd call and see what happens. Turns out, it was her and she has a wealth of info for me.

When she was growing up, her grandmother (daughter to my avatar) would take her around the country and meet all the relatives. She has met most of the 11 children of Patrick (avatar) and Honora and has many stories to tell me.

I thought I would have to travel to Long Island, N.Y. to talk to her but she has informed me that she is moving to New Jersey next month and she will be only an hour away.

Because of the hour long conversation I had with her, I suspect she will fill in a lot of blanks and clarify some confusing info that I have.

Looking forward to this meeting.

[CelticRoz]

Holy cow, Mike! How so wonderful is that? You must be thrilled to death! Keep us posted on what you find out!

[AShruleEgan]

Rose, I printed out an entire copy of the family tree for her to read over (49 pages) and shipped it yesterday. I'll give her time to look it over and get moved to New Jersey and then she can fill me in on what is wrong or missing.

I sent along a pile of pictures for her. She had mentioned that she remembered seeing a picture of Patrick Egan (my avatar) hanging on the wall of her grandmothers house. When I told her that I have the picture, she got all excited and wanted a copy of it. She didn't know what happened to the one her grandmother had.

Probably some time in January before I get a chance to sit down face to face with her but I may need to make an occassional phone call and ask her a few questions.

[CelticRoz]

Wow! That is just so exciting Mike! I am so thrilled for you to have found someone in your family willing to exchange info. My family has not been so willing. Well they have been to a point. My 6th cousin wrote a book our family and I had to pay $50.00 for that, but it was worth it as I found out a lot. Now there are a lot of other questions that go unanwered in my family and I go on these genealogy sites asking for help and all they do is seek help from me! So I am feeling a little discouraged right now. But, you are an inspiration by sharing your story! Keep it up!

[AShruleEgan]

Was on Ancestry.com again searching some of the names that the family is associated with and came across a new post that had to many similar family names.

Turns out, she is related in a totally different way then I had thought. My grandfathers brother, Patrick Egan, had a wife and we never knew her name. The twist to this is, the new relatives grandfather is the brother to Patrick's wife.

The way I was looking at it originally, Patrick had a sister, Mary, she married a Greaney(don't know his first name) and I was figuring since it's the same small town area and a lot of the same last names are being used in her post, that we had a match through Mary.

Once again, it pays to read everything. Never know where you will find the next connection.

[CelticRoz]

In the past week I have had three cousins contact me through ancestry.com. They saw my post in there about our ggggf who we are all stuck on and trying to find out information on him. One of our distant cousins thinks she may have found his father as she found records of a James Sutton applying for pension from the Revolutionary war! He states his place of birth is in the same county as would be his son, our ggggf, if indeed it is him. We have several James Suttons in our family, so it could indeed be him! We have been emailing each other this past week nearly every day exchanging information. Pretty exciting!

[AShruleEgan]

To follow-up on my last post, I have since added another 24 names to the family tree. That brings us up to 799.

The original contact I had, gave me her sisters phone # which is not far from where I live and we talked for over 2 1/2 hours. She filled me in on much info and told me many family stories. We would have stayed on the phone longer but it was already 11 PM and we both had to work in the morning. We plan on getting together very soon, since we are less than an hour drive away. She's already said she's coming to the Jack Frost Celtic Fest in May and will be joining us in Bethlehem in September.


And the search goes on.

[dragonboy3611]

One thing that annoys me is that all of the sites for genealogy and the such, you either have a limited free membership, have to pay upfront, or have to make a username that only has very, very limited access, and it just is much better to upgrade, but with the upgrade you have to pay!

Of course, I know it must cost alot to keep one of these sites open...it's just not in the Budget to register in this site that I wouldn't use all the time! Just post once, and hopefully get a response! Of course search around too....

Anyone know of a reliable and free site for genealogy/Ancestery?

[CelticRoz]

dragonboy, did you see on the top of the front page where it is listed "Best Websites for Research?" I use Rootsweb and ancestry.com. Sekmet could probably help us more though, since that is her expertise!

[dragonboy3611]

Alright, I will check this out. Thanks CelticRose!