Where can I find family trees or records?

Here’s the background:

My grandparents on my mum’s side came from Ireland, mostly, although we have a branch of the family currently living in Verona, Italy. But my grandparents on my dad’s side come from England, and I’ve been told from both parents that I’m descended from one of the first Governor-Generals of Canada–royal bigwigs, which may mean, in short, that I’ve got nobby blood.

I’d like to find out–I’m really curious about this. I can’t really talk to my dad or my dad’s family about it, because of a big family rift that should stay private, but I was wondering if there was somewhere I can go to look up the details. Any ideas?

(For a frame of reference, I live in Toronto, Canada…)

Genealogy is a fascinating hobby, and an addictive one. The best way to go about this is for you to sit down, and draw a family tree for yourself. Start with you, then list your parents, their parents, and so forth as far back as you know. Ask elderly relatives if possible. Does your family keep a family bible? Do you have any cousins who are already into genealogy? Check out every possible resource.

Whatever you do, don’t pick out some famous or royal person and try to work downwards from them to yourself. You’ll waste a lot of time on faulty research and legends. You have well have noble or royal blood – but then, so does most everyone else of European descent.

There are a lot of sites online. The first place to start is talking with your family and obtaining birth certificates, marriage certs, divorce certs & death certs. “Interview” any member of your family that you can to get as much information you can. The first link I’m going to give you… Cyndi’s List is a great reference for sites on the web. This is the link to the LDS online information. From this link, you will be able to search what information may have already been researched on your family. You will also be able to find a LDS Family History Library near you. You don’t have to be LDS to use their records. Your family doesn’t have to be LDS to end up in their system. If someone else, maybe a distant cousin or someone may have done research and it will be online. You won’t be finding any information for living people online tho.

Use Cyndi’s site as a guideline how to begin searching and where to write for certificates if your family won’t give them to you. There are tons of places online but it sounds to me like you are still at the beginning stage where people are still living and you won’t find that online.

If you have any questions, email me. I’ll try to help you get started researching. It’s not as easy as finding it already done for you. If you decide you want to hire a researcher, let me know. I can help you with that as well as pointing you to a site that will tell you just what to expect from a professional.

I totally agree with what Mississippienne has told you. I was “bitten” by the genealogy bug in 1976 and I’m still addicted and have done research on my family as well as my husbands and I’ve had a few clients over the years. It’s a great hobby/addiction! :smiley:

Your local library may also be helpful, once you’ve figured out what you’re looking for. At least in the US, some libraries subscribe to databases like Ancestry Plus and Heritage Quest, which are good places to start with US censuses and such. I don’t know anything about the Canadian census, even if there is a Canadian census, but here in the States it’s a great tool to start with.

Every year, we count the number of televisions tuned to the Stanley Cup and multiply by six. Close enough. The hockey strike really threw us into disarray.

Just kidding. We run a detailed tally every five years.

I’ll recommend two online resources that might be helpful. One is RootsWeb, which allows anyone to uplaod their own family tree. You might find a distant relative has already done some genealocial research (as I did). It’s also a good centralized source for links to otehr online sites.

Another good place to look is the Social Security Death Index. If you’re just starting out, this could be a helpful resource it has birth and death dates (and locations) for deceased people who had a SSN.

Others have mentioned subscription-based services which will allow you to access census data and otehr vital records. There are a plethora of other resources that aren’t online, and I’ll second the suggestion that your local library would be a great place to start.

I was able to trace one branch of my family back to 1545. Other trails went cold just a few generations back. But it was a lot of fun, and I learned some fascinating family stories.

Forgot to include the link for the SSDI.

genealogy is a serious hobby of mine.

try http://www.islandnet.com/~jveinot/cghl/archives.html it will link to to various sources that may be of help to you.

and www.godfrey.org has online resources beyond your wildest dreams.

membership is $35 usd per year, and in my opinion, is worth at least ten times that amount.

here is a free canadian census link

http://census-online.com/links/Canada/ON/Lambton/

provinces are listed on the left of the screen

If you find any solid link to the UK, I can help with more specific advice about ways to progress - email me if this is (or becomes) the case

a list of former governors general, complete with biographies

http://www.gg.ca/governor_general/history/histgg_e.asp

Another good website – CanadaGenWeb Project. It has genealogical information for all the provinces of Canada, including censuses, emigration records, cemetery transcript, birth and baptism records, etc. TONS of stuff.

Do you mean that your maternal grandparents were immigrants from Ireland, or do you mean that their ancestors were immigrants? Likewise for your paternal grandparents, do you mean that they were immigrants from England, or do you mean that their ancestors were imimgrants?

The Canadian parliament just approved the release of the 1911 census of Canada. So the most recent census available at the moment is the 1901.

For the U.S., the most recent census available is the 1930. Ancestry.com has all-name indexes to the 1930, 1900, and 1880 censuses; and head-of-household indexes to the 1920 and 1910 censuses. (The 1890 census was mostly destroyed in a fire in 1921.) The index listings are linked to images of the actual census pages. Check with your local public library to see if they have a subscription to Ancestry.

:rolleyes: Try Here!! :stuck_out_tongue: