Genealogy & Stone Hunting

[Miriam C.]

to the playground Lanza. Love the avatar.

Where in VA do you need pictures? My mom and I are going sometime in the next year to Franklin County VA. Well in theory we are. Gotta get all the cars working right first.

[Lanza]

Hello Aunti M and thanks for the warm welcome!

Right now I am researching the branch of ancestors that lived in Isle of Wight County, Virginia (Smithfield, Windsor). I am not sure how close that is to Franklin, County. (Hey, an excuse to do more research!!)

My mom and I are hoping to make a road trip out there but there never seems to be a good time for us to mesh our schedules and go... so I would welcome any help that might come my way.

I hope you get your cars healthy soon. There's nothing worse than car problems.

-Lanza

[Lynn Coleman]

Hi all,

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been visiting with family. I've just about finished with my genealogy charts from my dad's side. I have a few holes but very few.

Here's a question for you all, what do you do when a person is adopted? I haven't found her adoptive parents yet but I wonder if I'm suppose to continue with that line or not. Any thoughts?

Currently, I'm wanting to search for tidbits about these folks. I'm trying to find all of my relatives who fought in the America Revolution. I've found three so far but I've been told there's a possibility of 17 on my father's maternal line.

I'm also working on how many came over on the Mayflower. I've found 7 so far. At some point in the distant future I want to take a trip to Mass. and take as many digital photographs of family houses and tombstones. I figure I probably need a month to do all I want to do.

My next goal will be to write the family history in a way that those in my family who are as excited by genealogy would be interested in reading about their ancestors.

And finally, I want to put this information on the web. I know there is software out there but I really don't like the formats of what I've seen so far. I can write the basic html codes myself, It's just a huge job and I really have to govern my time better. If I get caught up in some genealogy research, I can get absorbed in it to the exclusion of my writing. This is good because I get a lot done. It's not so good for my income as a self employed writer though.

I love the LDS site but there are mistakes there, be thorough in checking out the information you get. I noticed a few errors, like parents being 8 years old at the time their children were born. Or dying years before their children were born. Also found one who had their wedding date and death date as the same. Man, what a day that would have been. Of course the said deceased person bore children for years to come. Obviously the person inputting the information simply didn't recheck their work. They simply typed in the wrong death date.

Another thing I do, is download the early records for the town or county where I can. Things disappear off the internet all the time. I learned that the hard way when writing my first novel. I came across some information about when some folks settled in Kansas. It was an old diary. I saved my own notes on what I read. I used that information much later in another novel. The copy editor wanted to change my "date" of my story citing that no white people lived in Kansas before such and such a date. So, I went back to find my original source and it was gone. I called the historical society and they basically said, I wasn't suppose to know that information. Apparently Kansas is very particular about the history they want everyone to know. Anyway, I had to change the date because I couldn't "prove" my case, not a huge problem in the scheme of things but that taught me to keep my own digital copy of information I find on the web.

I'm also on the hunt for old books that have the family genealogy information in them. Such as Eben Putnam's Putnam Genealogy. That book was recently updated but I couldn't afford a copy at the time. I like google's google books because you can download a pdf copy of some of these old books. Like the vital records of a town before 1850 and such. But they are limited and don't have them all.

Okay I've rambled enough for one morning. I've got people I need to put in danger and then twist the plot some more.

Lynn

[fireaunt]

It is difficult to get everything on the web. My biggest stumbling block is the research done in the 1920-30's. The census is only released every 72 years, the folks doing research in the 1920-30s made a lot of wrong decisions by the 1850 census was studied. I use that 1930 study for background but it places my family in the wrong line. A gentleman, calling himself a LDS professional, continues to publish the wrong information. The local histories of the small towns, although often misinformed, are interesting to read. Unless you get it from the court house it often is incorrect. The oral family histories are fun too and put some flesh on the bare bones are often embellished and are often vanity pieces.

Even the census records can be misleading, and thought provoking. People did travel a lot and often visited family. They might be in two census for the same year.

It's fun to search and I have some letters my grandmother exchanged as far back as 1906. She lived for a hundred yeas, 1888-1988. And had a good memory. When ever she went some place she looked in the phone book and called those with the same names.

Marilyn

[Miriam C.]

Lynn, you might check the Daughters of the American Revolution for information on those who fought then.

[Lynn Coleman]

Yeah, I need to join the DAR but I've been holding off until I have a little more time and money.

Lynn

[Lynn Coleman]

Hi all,

I'm dragging up this old thread I created because I'm starting to plan a trip to New England from Florida. My goal is to do some research in NE on the family genealogy. However, with gas prices what they are, I need to be creative in my planning.

Here's what I'm thinking...

I'm looking for folks who live up to an hour away off of I-95. The first reason is for an inexpensive place to stay...say in someone's driveway with a hookup perhaps. The second is to look for ways to earn income while I'm traveling, speaking and selling my books along the way works fairly well. If anyone's interested in having me speak at their church, senior center, writer's groups, library or any other event, let me know.

Also, because I'll be in NE, mostly Massachusetts, I'd also like to make the offer to photograph some tombstones for those who are seeking such things from the areas I'll be in. I might even be able to do some other things to help with your genealogies.

Does this seem practical? I wouldn't want to impose or presume my presence on anyone but I thought it might be fun to meet up with others from this forum. I also thought it might be fun to put together a cookbook from each of the homes I visited with a picture of their teardrop and their favorite recipe. I was thinking this could be available in a pdf and downloadable for free.

Anyway, what do you all think?

Lynn

[Lynn Coleman]

Do you need pictures from New England tombstones, mostly Ma?

Boy I'm pulling up an old thread I started quite a while ago. I suppose it has to do with the fact that I've been working on the genealogy again. It looks like I'll be able to go to New England sometime this fall. I'm hoping for Sept. but I'll know better as summer kicks in.

This means I'll be traveling up I95 spending a lot of time in MA. and lower NH. I'll be tracking down tombstones and verifying some of the information I've pulled off of the internet.

When I have a list of graveyards and towns I'll be visiting, is there anyone interested in having me take some pictures for them? Let me know, I'm quite willing. Most of my time will be around the Boston area, within the 495 hub but I do have a few sites in Western Ma. and a couple in CT in the Windsor area.

I'm going to try and stay with family or friends, I'm hoping for level yards and driveways to park the Inkwell on but I'll probably stay in a few campgrounds along the way.

I'll drop the thread if no one is interested.

Lynn

[kajamelu4]

Lynn-
That trip sounds like lots of fun! I'd offer you a place to stay, but I think Oklahoma is too far out of your way!

Have a good trip!
Karol

[Eunice]

Lynn you said you were about finished with your dad's charts. How many generations are you doing? I love family history. I dont think I will ever finish any of my lines. As soon as I find a relative then I find the siblings that need to be added.
Ancestry.com is great. I use findagrave.com also.
I have used PAF from the LDS church. I think it is truly awesome that the church offers all of the family history for free. That is such a help to people who want to learn about their ancestors.

[Lynn Coleman]

Lynn-
That trip sounds like lots of fun! I'd offer you a place to stay, but I think Oklahoma is too far out of your way!

Have a good trip!
Karol

Yup that's a wee bit out of my way. And as far as I can tell, none of my relatives ever went that far west.

Thanks for the offer though.

Lynn

[Lynn Coleman]

Lynn you said you were about finished with your dad's charts. How many generations are you doing? I love family history. I dont think I will ever finish any of my lines. As soon as I find a relative then I find the siblings that need to be added.
Ancestry.com is great. I use findagrave.com also.
I have used PAF from the LDS church. I think it is truly awesome that the church offers all of the family history for free. That is such a help to people who want to learn about their ancestors.

Hi Eunice,

With my dad's paternal line we can go back to 1068. All of that work was done for me by Eben Putnam in his book about the genealogy of the Putnam family.

With my father's maternal line, I've gone back to England and that's basically where I'm ending it. The trip north will be to gather information most of the information about this line. But I still have a few things I want to do with regard to the Putnam line as well.

My mother's paternal line is sketchy but does go back to Ireland and France but these records are in French and I really need to get a lot better in my translation work for this line. The records are mainly only about the males and not the females. Unfortunately it's fairly typical in a lot of family histories.

My mother's maternal line, well that is a complete mystery. I can only go back to my great grandparents. Again it's in French but I believe my great-grandfather was an born out of wedlock and a very hush, hush story. Fortunately I found one of my mother's cousins who's done some work and he's good with the French.

Anyway, that's how far I've gotten.

Lynn

[tinksdad]

I just tried to catch up on this thread, so I may have missed it if it was mentioned. I have to find the link again that I used to access the site; but I was able to track down the original manifests from Ellis Island (and some of the other minor ports of dis-embarkation).

I am second generation. I was able to download copies of all four of my grandparents arrivals. Both trips for my maternal grandfather. He came over, got married, left his wife here and went back after becoming a citizen, and then came back again 3 years later. My mother was born less than a year later. My paternal grandmother never became a citizen because she came through on forged papers; I guess that would have made her an illegal alien.

It was a little harder to do; but I was also able to obtain copies of my paternal grandfathers Canadian military records. When he passed on in 1960, he was still listed as a deserter. He decided (without prior approval) to leave the army and get married in Buffalo, NY.

Just a little bit of rambling; but it's nice to be able to share some history with folks who have invested way more time than I have into tracking down their past.

[dmckruit]

I have used PAF from the LDS church. I think it is truly awesome that the church offers all of the family history for free. That is such a help to people who want to learn about their ancestors.

^ They do this so that you can add more anscestors to their database, and then they re-baptise your dead relatives under their "religion".

[Lynn Coleman]

Another good source that I've uncovered is early town histories. The older the history of the town, the more likely they are to have the genealogy of those first families. This has been a tremendous help in my research. I know for a fact that my great, great grandfather provided the information for Ludlow, MA. history. One of the books I'm trying to locate is a copy of that history. I have a copy that's been uploaded on the Internet but they missed three vital pages in which my ancestors were listed. Thankfully the local library has the book and looked up the information for me.

Thanks another thing, if you don't over load the libraries they are very willing to research the information for you. This week, a library researcher found the references of several of my ancestors from that town who fought in the American Revolution. My job is to make certain they are my ancestor, several men at the time had the same name. What's cool about this town is my father's maternal family were among the founding members and today there are still Bloods living there, even on some of the same land the family settled on. I can't wait to go there and look around. Can you imagine living on land your family has owned for well over 200 years? I found one house that stayed in the family for 300 years, recently the family gave it to the historical society.

Lynn