Are you related to me?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

How’s this for pathetic? I’m tired of banging my head against the wall researching genealogy on the web, and I don’t have the time or money to travel the country looking this stuff up, so what the hell, I’ll bug all of you.

Here are the family names I’m researching; if anything looks familiar, please feel free to ask questions or visit my web page! Gosh, it would be cool to find out I’m related to a Doper :slight_smile: So to speak :wink:

My father’s genealogy
His father’s family
Barber Family Line Includes Barber, Durrin, Johnson, Hopkins, Boutin, Braman

His mother’s family
Hodgdon Family Line Includes Hodgdon, Lockwood, Childe/Child/Childs, Hoskins/Haskins, Springer, Teeters, King, Millard

My mother’s genealogy
Her father’s family
Zimmerman Family Line Includes Zimmerman, Zimmermann

Her mother’s family
Mullins Family Line Includes Mullins, Flowers, West, Bell

My husband’s genealogy
Saunders Family Line Includes Saunders, Mahoney, McCorkle, Cooper, Ellis, Nadeau, Demaer, Rodden, Woollard, and Oglesby

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

The Kat House
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2

Nope.

But I share your frustration.

My ancestors arrived from Poland in the late 1800’s. Talk about brick walls!!! So I thought I’d offset that by also researching my husband’s family, all of which have been in the US for several generations. HA! My mother-in-law’s father was born in Tennessee before that state required the filing birth certificates. What fun!

“I feel your pain”

3

I don’t see any surnames we have in common, Gr8, so I can’t help you that way but have you tried Ancestral File from the Mormon Church or the International Genealogical Index (IGI)? They are both intended as repositories for genealogies. You’re bound to run into some connection on at least one of your lines.

If you’re interested let me know and I can get you more info, although I’m a relative neophyte myself.

“pluto … a seriously demented but oddly addictive presence here.” – TVeblen

4

I don’t get out much, but I have visited http://www.familysearch.org/ and have turned up a few leads there. Nothing is verified yet, but it’s a start.

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

The Kat House
Join the FSH Muscular Dystrophy Webring

5

FWIW, searching surnames will make you crazy in a big hurry, and will yield false leads by the bucketload. Start with oral family history and gather all the full names, places, and relationships you can, then be patient as a saint as ye work backwards.

U.S. Census data on individuals is available from the 1910 census back (1920 data will be released soon, and was due in 1992); INS will provide naturalization data; Ship’s manifests are on micro-film at the National Archives for a nominal fee; Even where birth records are not recorded, death records and marriage records can be found to fill in the blanks; for U.S. citizens the SSA will make data available provided the individual you’re searching is deceased; and it has been my experience in doing this kind of research that not only were our forebears more religious than we, but that the various churches tend to keep better records than the governments, especially in places like Poland and Ireland.

I hope some of this is helpful.
Dr. Watson
". . . blood will tell but often it tells too much . . . " – Don Marquis

6

Yeah, I’m doing the best I can but the problems with the oral tradition is that either the people that know it are dead, too busy to share, or have gotten some of the details messed up. Still, I publish all I have on my pages so maybe something will look familiar to someone else.

I have had some good luck with the internet. The LDS Family Search page has turned up some info and I have met some cousins through my web pages, but when their info contradicts the family’s oral tradition, then I get stymied trying to figure out who’s right and who’s wrong. If only I could travel! I found just yesterday that the Muskegon County Genealogical Society in Michigan has some info on my Great Grandfather Barber, so maybe they’ll be able to help me or I’ll be able to help them. I’m firing off a letter to them today :slight_smile:

Thanks, everyone, for you suggestions :slight_smile:

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

The Kat House
Join the FSH Muscular Dystrophy Webring