• New here? Register here now for access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Plus, stay connected and follow BP on Instagram @buckeyeplanet and Facebook.

Genealogy

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
Buckeyeskickbuttocks said:
@NJ-Buckeye So, I decided to do some research down my grandfather's line and got to my great, great, great, grandfather who was born in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. You indicated that German records are fairly good, but where do I go from here? Ancestory.com? Just curious if you know of any resources (preferably free) that I could use. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

It would probably be best to do the ancestry trial (just remember to cancel before they charge you). Once you've built your basic tree and the trial has expired, you can go to a library and use ancestrylibrary.com from their network (it actually works with osu campus ip addresses too, I believe). With the tree you already created in another browser, you can fill things in pretty easily for "free".
 
Upvote 0
Buckeyeskickbuttocks said:
@NJ-Buckeye So, I decided to do some research down my grandfather's line and got to my great, great, great, grandfather who was born in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. You indicated that German records are fairly good, but where do I go from here? Ancestory.com? Just curious if you know of any resources (preferably free) that I could use. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Ancestry has a 2-week free trial. They may also have some special free access running for Memorial Day week-end. They do that kind of thing pretty often. There's another new site that's been advertising on the History Channel, too.

The one thing to be cautious of with Ancestry (probably applies to similar sites, but it's the only one I've used): Really look closely at dates given in links, esp. once you get back more than a century. It appears that any link other people post is just accepted without any cross-checking. I found links to names where they had people "married" who were born two hundred years apart from each other. Same kind of thing with offspring--dates that weren't humanly possible.

There's a lot of interesting stuff on Ancestry--guys who participated in the crusades, the occasional King of Denmark or ancestor of Princess Diana, etc., but I take all that with a large grain of salt. Just too many ways for those links to be incorrect--it only takes one leaf from the wrong tree, and off you go chasing a goose that's really a platypus (not to mix my metaphors, or anything).

The thing I've been tempted to do is the DNA profile on Ancestry. They give you not only a breakdown of your ethnic make-up, but also link you if there are other people who've taken the test and have related DNA.

Personally, I prefer tracing back all family lines as far as possible. They're all part of you, after all. Never know what you'll find. I was tracing back a line from my in-law's side and thought a name of a sea captain from the 1600's sounded awfully familiar. Went looking back through other links I'd already done and found his name repeated. He'd had a son and a daughter. Turned out, a few centuries down the line, a descendant from each of them had ended up marrying.
 
Upvote 0
Buckeyeskickbuttocks said:
Yes, a lot of people in France going through my great grandmother's side, as well as my great grandfather, which I forgot to mention. My grandfather's side hails from Luxembourg, but getting the line to Europe in the first place has not been something I've explored yet as I was overwhelmed with my grandmother's line.
Click to expand...

Luxembourger? I'm first gen Lux on my moms side. Do you know where in Lux your family is from?
 
Upvote 0
My friend was adopted and recently did a DNA test. It came back with a match with somebody who is likely her uncle.....and he has a whole family tree on ancestry.com. I've narrowed down the family tree to get the likely mother's name.......but it's generic like Smith (it's not Smith). Anybody have any tips in finding the birth mom going off of name and the mother's brother's/father's/mother's name (my friend's uncle's/grandfather's/grandmother's names and locations)?
 
Upvote 0
BuckeyeNation27 said:
My friend was adopted and recently did a DNA test. It came back with a match with somebody who is likely her uncle.....and he has a whole family tree on ancestry.com. I've narrowed down the family tree to get the likely mother's name.......but it's generic like Smith (it's not Smith). Anybody have any tips in finding the birth mom going off of name and the mother's brother's/father's/mother's name (my friend's uncle's/grandfather's/grandmother's names and locations)?
Click to expand...
Facebook?
 
Upvote 0
BuckeyeNation27 said:
The last names are too generic to be able to just search.
Click to expand...
But Facebook doesn't just give you a white-pages list of names, it uses its algorithms to try to link your search with the right person - and in fact there are lots of stories about it linking unrealized relatives together, possibly even due to its facial-recognition technology etc algorithm etc.

But besides FB, having gone through a similar search not too long ago, I think you just have to pound the pavement, so to speak, go down whatever list of names you have, just follow your hunches and start spamming Smiths with genealogy emails. Really a name and region is enough no matter how generic the name, but the only way to really know is to find a relative who likes to talk.

I determined my dad's birth parents over the past few years, and even though his surviving half-siblings essentially refuse all attempts to contact them, I have a picked up a couple of nice older probably-relatives who now like all my FB pics.
 
Upvote 0
BuckeyeNation27 said:
My friend was adopted and recently did a DNA test. It came back with a match with somebody who is likely her uncle.....and he has a whole family tree on ancestry.com. I've narrowed down the family tree to get the likely mother's name.......but it's generic like Smith (it's not Smith). Anybody have any tips in finding the birth mom going off of name and the mother's brother's/father's/mother's name (my friend's uncle's/grandfather's/grandmother's names and locations)?
Click to expand...

Add all parties you can positively identify as having ever possibly originated from a common location as contacts on your phone. Even if all you have is first name, last name, city, and state, add them as contacts. Have your friends do this too. Then use Facebook normally. Facebook's PYMK (person you may know) algorithm may fill in the rest.

https://gizmodo.com/how-facebook-figures-out-everyone-youve-ever-met-1819822691
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top