ANSWERS: 29
  • I have been tracing my family tree since I was 17 (now am 50). For a long time, I didn't get beyond 10 generations, but then I hit a jackpot. Trying to find the birth of an ancestress, I put a post on a site. I got an answer telling me that she was what iscalled a "gateway ancestor" ie is she is a common ancestress for a number of West Country families, and that her ancestry contained a number of Plantagenet descents. The tree suddenly blossomed (on this one line alone) to include most of the nobility of England, and most of the ancient royal lines of Europe. I have at lest 30 different proven descents from Charlemagne (this is not uncommon. Mathematically, all people of european descent are descended from Charlemagne; it's just proving it that is the problem) Then, through Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III a thin red line snakes its way back,through Hungary, Croatia, Byzantium , ARmenia and Georgia, to central Asia and to Xian in China, the start of the Silk Road. As I say, this is not a unique descent. Hundreds of millions of people have it. But being able to prove it is a real thrill...
  • I once had to trace my "blood line" for a school project. I am adopted so I drew a big tree with just my name on it because I didn't know anything else. My teacher was not amused but I brought it to the principal and said the assignment was discriminatory. My teacher specified over and over again "blood line". I got an A. =)
  • yes we have been trying to piece together our family tree,luckily alot of history was already known by elderly relatives the rest was done by internet,so far have got back to 1760.
  • My grandfather tried, he only was able to trace back about 200 years. Records were lost in a church fire. When I tried, I had help from distant relatives in England.
  • The family association that's been tracing our family tree was started in 1881! Since then, an incredible amount of research has been done and our database now has over 30,000 people in it (ancestors and descendants). Our line traces well into the 1400's into England, but then things get a little fuzzy. Now, with familysearch.org and ancestry.com and a number of other resources, this type of research can be done so much easier! -- http://www.familypulse.org
  • I tried but my father was adopted and can't find anything..the church he was baptized in burnt to the ground along with info. The people who raised him are dead..when my father was alive he never wanted to talk about his past so it''s a dead end.
  • I have tracked some parts of my family back to the 1500's. Before the PC, I would go to the LDS library and research from there but now I rely mainly on ancestry.com, genealogy.com, and familysearch.org . I also use rootsweb.com but that is mainly user-contributed and it's hit and miss for me. For research within the 20th century, I found a lot of info on local government websites, especially if the person died within the last 30 years.
  • My brother has information dating back to the 1600's
  • I tried to help my grandma once it is really hard because guys kept marrying women that had the same name after one would die and naming there childran the same after one would dye. I did find out though that our last name really is not coates that was a lie but not sure what it is.
  • A cousin of mine trace back six generations. It was a great discussion.
  • Family History up to the 1600's.
  • Ancestors.com - I just found the family tree and going to check on it in a little while -- Over 3000 people have added messages on it - I can't wait to read up on it + 5
  • Grandparents only and only on my father's side to his father. I had the entire blasted thing written out by him but it was stolen in the early 80's along with EVERYTHING from my childhood. My mother's side is even more difficult because Rromani of that generation and earlier are not recorded in writing and were not usually birthed in hospitals (neither of my parents were born in hospitals). Any memory of them is passed down orally within the Clan. I do not know her maiden name, however, I am being put in contact with my Clan in Romania. One of the Elders say they remember my parents! My paternal grandmother's family is completely missing... they left Romania a bit before the Holocaust. We can guess what happened to them. I am going to have quite the task in retracing my roots but that Elder can help. :)
  • I can trace 1/16th of my roots to Massachusetts around 1640. It's from my mother's side of my family. All the rest is Ellis Island stuff. So I guess my family name goes as far back as the turn of the last century :( You can thank the Nazis in WWII for that.
  • My uncle got us back to A.D. 379 as the decendants of Nial of The 9 Hostages in Ireland.
  • I traced my Father's side back to the 1700's before I got bored. His family was Mormon, so they've been pretty thorough. My Mom is from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and I am a member. We have information back to the forced march from Mississippi, but not before that. We have our own family cemetery in Oklahoma.
  • When researching your family tree, the biggest cost usually comes from the purchasing of certificates relating to your family. Governments and record holders, generally charge a fee for gaining access to those records, this can cost anywhere from $15 to $30 depending on certificate type and where you are buying from. In the United States this is a governed at the state ad county level, so I cant really give you full costs for these but my estimates above are about right. In general records of births, marriages and deaths in the U.S. are only available from the late 19th century onwards, as it was only at this point that there was any requirement to store records at all, and in fact prior to this time there was no requirement to register these events. Prior to this many people just did not see the need to inform anybody of births, or other events. In the U.S. you are also going to find that due to rights of privacy laws, you may at times struggle to get copies of certificates unless you can specifically show you are related to the person in question. This means you may have to prove who you are and how you are related. Therefore I recommend that before you get started you talk to family, search through any documents to see if you can find any of these documents. This will save you time and money! The best source of records in the U.S. is the church and the censuses, these tend to be pretty comprehensive and you will find most of your information this way. So having no managed your expectations for making your family tree, I am going to tell you there is actually quite a bit of information out there for you, and that there are possible solutions to the problems faced when doing family tree research in the U.S. In fact there are lots of sources of free info, but you will have to spend more time gathering the information The Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) - The church have an extensive set of records relating to most countries, and specifically to the U.S. that they have gathered from churches and parishes. Much of this is available for free at http://www.familysearch.org. They have birth, marriage and death records, copies of the censuses available, all for FREE! However you may find at times some information is missing, and sometimes you will be informed that there is a record available but it hasn't been transcribed, in which case you will have to ask them to provide a copy. This can be done by visiting the local LDS center, but this is all explained on their website. Cindy's List - http://www.cyndislist.com/ - A huge resource of information, broken down by state and counties, with literally thousands of links. The only issue with this is, it can be quite difficult to navigate, and you can spend hours trying to find everything!!! However if you dont want to spend money, you are going to have to spend more of your time searching! Rootsweb - World Connect Project - You can put in your ancestors name in the search for and it will check millions of existing records for the name. HeritageQuest Online - Usually only available via subscription, but your local library may have access for free. Includes census and other key information. Interment.net - Free Cemetery Records Online - Two million records taken from literally thousands of cemeteries across the globe. US Genweb - The original and biggest resource for US genealogy. Ancestry.com - Offer a free 14 day trial USGenWeb Archives - This is the link to the search engine that will search through every single US record without having to visit each states site, absolutely invaluable. Well hidden so under used by most people. US Social Security Death Index - Easy to access database, the SSDI has 64 million records of people who have died after 1962. Searches return birth date, death date, residence and inheritor. Ellis Island Records - Nearly half of all American immigrants arrived through Ellis Island, New York. Theres is easy access to ships' passenger manifest records from 1892-1924. You can view and print out digital copies of the original manifests and photos of the ships. Illinois State Archives - Free databases available from the Illinois State Archives, includes marriage records. Castle Garden Online - Search by name and time period for immigrants who landed at Castle Garden (1830 - 1890). Geneanet - The database has 85 million names taken from free Web sites around the world. Michigan Genealogical Death Indexing System - 170,000+ Michigan death records from 1867 this free genealogy resource index death records upto 1897 Kentucky Vital Records - The Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics in conjunction with the University of Kentucky have transcribed 3 million state vital records for Kentucky. Utah Census Search - Free search tool for the Utah federal census - 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. GenCircles - Global Tree - A popular place for searching and submitting family trees using GEDCOM files. Over 32 million surnames can be searched and cross matching of other trees is possible. Obituary Central - If you need death records for the U.S. or Canada, then the search tools will make things easy. Pennsylvania Digital Archives - The Pennsylvania Archives Records Information Access System have over 600,000 records digitized. Maryland State Archives - Free Genealogy Indexes - Maryland State Archives site has lots of great info on it. Oregon Historical Records Index - Free index of surnames and other entries compiled from a selected list of records held by the Oregon State Archives. Simon ---------------- http://howtomakeafamilytree.weebly.com http://howtomakeafamilytreefofreeuk.21publish.com
  • I made one once that went back to the 1850's.
  • We had to do a family tree in eighth grade. I can't exactly remember how far back it went, but I'm thinking 1700's.
  • 852 A.D. My martial arts grande master has family records that go back to 312 B.C.
  • I didn't make one, but my Uncle (really cool guy) was only able to go back to the late 1800s. My direct heritage is Prussian, and most of the records were destroyed due to a couple of pretty serious wars in Europe.
  • I just started a genealogy class tonight. I don't know how much it's going to help (the instructor is a piece of work) but hopefully I'll get far. I already know from family that my great grandparents came from Hungary (with romanian heritage) on my mom's side when my grandmother's older sister was little, and that my great grandparents (or maybe their parents, I'd have to look) came from Poland, but the mother of the great grandmother was from Ireland. This class is mostly based on searching in the U.S. though, and I don't think the instructor ever touched a computer, so I'm wondering what I'm going to get out of it, but it was only $40, so I'll stick it out the next 4 weeks!
  • Yes, I've had my ancestry researched by a ancestry service and they were able to get back to 1578 Durham, County Durham, England. I'm still researching, but the surname gets hard to follow.
  • Yep... I used memories from my parents, and grandmothers, my grand-aunt's history of her side of the family (see http://www.orangefrogproductions.com/ofp2o_family_001.shtml , and http://www.orangefrogproductions.com/ofp2o_family_999_wmm_s00.shtml ), information from our local library (my father's family was from around here, where I now live), Ancestry.com (extensively), genealogy message boards - at Ancestry and elsewhere), Google, and various other websites - see http://www.orangefrogproductions.com/ofp2m_links_genealogy_aahome.shtml . I also research all my ancestors' siblings, their spouses' families, etc. Myself, I have the majority back to about 1850 or so, a few back to 1800, and a couple of lines back even further, one to before 1712 (my first cousin once-removed's husband's line), and one to before 1700, and a branch of that line through my 7th GGM, back to before 1193, to my 26th GGF (my maternal grandmother's line). My grand-aunt had the majority of my mother's line back to the early 1700s or before, and I've been able to find many of those in her family lists back to at least 1850. ;-)
  • I've gone back to Adam & Eve. I use sites like rootsweb.com and familysearch.org.
  • Yes, actually I've been doing it as a project for school which I have to hand in on the 10th of december. I got to the 11th generation, which is around 1700 in my case. I mostly looked up documents in the civil register and archives from cathedrals, but I don't know if it works the same way where you are (I'm spanish). Also, there's a web page that may help you, because many people have put their own trees there and you can search for gateway ancestors. It's called geneanet.org
  • I have traced my mother's side of the family but I can't trace my father's side. My family will not tell me. All I know is that my great grandmother immigrated from Germany in 1945 and my grandmother was born a couple of months later. I have no clue on who my great grandfather was.
  • you have to use all your families knowledge on your tree and church records as well as naturaliztion papers cemeteries records and I got back as far as 1296 and still going how about you?

Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC

Answerbag | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy