Genealogy Experts

[Chucktshoes]

29 minutes ago, Daniel said:

I had to build probably three or four branches and then it found a connection and asked me to confirm and it took the two I built back to the 1400s in Europe.

Yeah, I built out all that I know. Which on my biological side is very, very little. Grand total of 3 people.  So yeah, it’s a bust for me. 

[CrosbyStills]

I have been involved in geneaological research for a few years now. Ever since I learned that since I had a grandparent born in Ireland that I too was eligible to be an Irish citizen.  Two years later, I sit here with both a US and an Ireland passport    It makes me hugely popular on March 17th, but I am, in fact, what is known as a Plastic Paddy, lol.  Irish by fact and by heredity, but not Irish in reality if the makes any sense.  Still, sometimes I feel safer traveling outside the US on an a non-US passport.

I have learned three things about genealogy:

1. My grandfather was full of $hit. Incredible liar. None of his "embellishments" were true;

2. You have to carefully vet what others have in their trees before accepting that they are in fact your relative. There are many Michael Dohertys, and it took me a long time to confirm which one was MY Michael Doherty, for example.  Sometimes you make the connection in another person's will that has a bequeathed's address attached to it and then you can confirm via historical censuses (Censi?). I had a very hard time with a pair of consecutive censuses that indicated a brother I had never heard of (Bill or William).  I also had a document requesting a headstone by a known grandparent of a previously unknown brother, James Vincent.  I had no idea WTF was going on.  Then I discovered an obit written (and subsequently published) by a known sister of that grandparent. The deceased was listed in the headline as "James Vincent aka Bill SoNSo."  That solved the mystery they were one and the same, but who the hell named James has a nickname of Bill?  That is not a diminutive nominative. Not a logical nickname for James.  I only suspect that he went by Bill to honor a sibling that did not survive childhood. :Shrug:

3. There are many dead ends. Those can occasionally get resolved by revisiting them at a later date. Discoveries of previously-unpublished or un-discovered obituaries and death/birth/marriage certificates can crack open tough nuts.

Edited January 21, 2021 by CrosbyStills

[Erik88]

@CrosbyStills good post. I've been meaning to ask you, where's Nash?

 

 

[E4 No More]

7 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

@CrosbyStills good post. I've been meaning to ask you, where's Nash?

 

 

Nash is English so they don't get along.

[Erik88]

Today I helped my dad set up his profile on Familysearch.org. He was immediately hooked. A few minutes ago he sent me an email with a screenshot from our tree. Apparently Elvis is his a distant cousin. I noticed we had a grandparent with the last name Presley and immediately thought of Elvis but I didn't think to check. This is neat stuff. 

[Garufa]

49 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

Today I helped my dad set up his profile on Familysearch.org. He was immediately hooked. A few minutes ago he sent me an email with a screenshot from our tree. Apparently Elvis is his a distant cousin. I noticed we had a grandparent with the last name Presley and immediately thought of Elvis but I didn't think to check. This is neat stuff. 

It is addicting.  Be wary of what you find though, especially from what others have contributed online.  

People can’t spell for #### these days and it does appear it’s always been a problem judging from the records of my people I’ve dug up lately.  You might be kin to folks named Presly.