Just wondering if anyone else is searching their family history. My family could care less about the subject and I wind up getting discouraged because I don't have any fellow genealogist to chat with about the brick walls and such.

Sarah

My mother was raised Mennonite and she has books that trace both her father and mother way back to Switzerland. My Dad was adopted. My husbands Dad's side has the family traced back to family in Germany.

My dad's side of the family can be traced all the way back to the 1500's. Mom's... well... not many people on my mom's side of the family are interested in geneology, unfortunately. I find it interesting, though I don't spend much time on it myself.

At one of our local community colleges (Hagerstown MD) they have a non-credit course for this very thing--you could check with the ones in your area.

Hey I just noticed that your from DC--my two kids will be at the DC101 Chili cookoff on Saturday.

Sarah, have you posted at any of the genealogy forums? I've met a couple of distant cousins that way with whom I've been able to exchange information. Even if your immediate family isn't interested, chances are you have a second, third, or fourth cousin out there in Cyberspace who could help you out.

Oh, yes, I've found several distant cousins. It's so much fun when one pops up. But then real life gets busy, you know how it is...lose contact...lose steam. I've got a couple queries out right now for 2 people I saw had info that might be in one of my lines. Hopefully they still do family history stuff.


I recently had an email from someone that is distantly related asking for info and I got the bug again to search.

I plan on hitting the National Archives in a couple weeks just for fun to see if I can find anything.

Sarah

I have been tracing my family tree for years. It is a hobby of my Dad and I, something to do together. We actually found out we are descendants of Sir Isaac Newton! Being a teacher, I usually get more done during the summer, than during the school year, due to lack of time.

yesh i have been tracing my family history too. it is very interesting what i am learning. i want to know everything so i can pass it on to my kids when they grow up.

Yep! I love tracing my family history.

I've tracked my dads side back to 1500 and have recently started in on my mums. A lot of my ancestors on dads side where convicts so its a little tricky to find much on them past their trials in England. Only a few were free settlers.

Mums side on the other hand are descended from Gentry so it should be somewhat easier once I sink my teeth into it.

My proudest gem however was being able to collect photographs of all my dads male ancestors from the first "emigrant" (he was a convict who became a mayor lol). I am going to be making a scrap book detailing the direct line of descent with the photos - its uncanny being able to track the facial traits in them all even though its over about 175 years.

Sorry...I tend to get carried away with this. I just love it hehe.

Livi

I have been working on my ancestors. My Dad's family came from Ireland (one of his ancestors is General Philip Sheridan of the Civil War who came here from Ireland with his parents and siblings) I have quite a few generations of my Dad's parents traced but my Mom's side is much more difficult. I've been trying for years to find more on her side but keep running into dead ends.

Someone on my dad's side put together a family history from the first settler that came over in my family, Thomas Chancellor. Im not sure when that was, I think the 1700's, but it goes all the way up until present. I know I am Irish (a VERY proud Irish ), Scottish, German, English, and a little Cherokee (someone in my family married a full blooded Cherokee about 3-4 generations back.) But thats as far as i know. I LOVE history and geneaology, but i dont have the resources to do much with it.

My immediate family isn't really interested. I have one line where someone has researched it back to the 1700's I think.
The lines I'm researching now are HERRIMAN, FISHER, EMMITT, CHILES, mostly in the NE KS-SW MO area, well really the 4 state area, OK and AR also. Many of my people were miner/farmers. It's interesting how they did it, they would plant their crops and then go work in the mines until it was time to bring it in. The wife and kids took care of the day to day life on the farm.

To me, it makes history come alive, to think about what life was like for them in the past.

What geanology software are you using? I use PAF, the LDS one- Personal Ancestry File. It's easy to use and free.

I'm a complete genealogy nerd! And most people in my family couldn't care less! LOL
I've traced parts of my dad's family back to the 1600s in Germany (they didn't even know they were of German descent) and other parts to England and Ireland and found we are descended from a Jamestown settler and member of the House of Burgesses.
On my mom's side, I've gone back to 1066 in England, and some others in France, Scotland and Holland.
I've also uncovered ancestors who fought in every American war from the Revolution to Iraqi Freedom and found soldiers on both sides of the Civil War.
Ah, I could go on forever!

I went into my family history some, and when my dad's family found out about it a few 'asked' me not to...lol...turns out our great grandfather wasn't our real great grandfather...hehe. Here we've been thinking for years that we're lower-middle class when we should have been middle-upper class, but our 'real' great grandfather wouldn't claim our branch. Blah...all in fun...lol.

I did find out that the last man hanged in our county was hanged (hung?) because he killed my great uncle on my mother's side.

Haven't messed with it in a few years though...we moved and I lost access to the historical files and such there.

Kim

I understand completely. I've found that my grandmother was molested by her stepfather and sent off to a big city to have the baby and place it for adoption when she was 15, she later took up with a much older man and had several children with him only to find out that the much older man never intended to marry her because he had a wife and children somewhere. I read the divorce papers, it's quite interesting. Even after the divorce he still didn't marry my grandmother. Later the children were taken and placed for adoption. I'm still trying to find the court documents about the case. I keep getting, "adoption records are seeled."


My mother was adopted, her adpotive father named her after his first wife-whom he had divorced several years earlier. His 2nd wife wasn't too happy about the name but they kept it anyway. I found it out a few years ago and told my mother, she was like..."oh, that's why Mom always sounded like she was mad at me when she called me by my name"

Sarah