So due to process of elimination and constant checking, I have figured out who my Father’s paternal grandparents (both deceased). I matched to several cousins on both sides of the grandparents, but the living cousins were not close to that branch. It looks like their three sons (one of which would be my father’s father) may also be deceased, but that’s uncertain. I don’t think that my closet match, which is probably my first half cousin once removed is even n ancestry anymore. So how do I find the grandchildren/great-grands to see about family medical history? That’s mostly what I want to know, although some anecdotes about my recent ancestors would be appreciated.

I'm writing a short book for family members, and I would like to have an index at the back. Is there any program that you can put in your GEDCOM file, and have it spit out a list of all the members, just the names (e.g. without dates, etc)? Preferably alphabeticised, but if not I can get ChatGPT to do that.

Half of my family came from the 'Russian Empire', what appears to today be Ukraine, Poland and the Czech Republic. I've been struggling to find various birth certificates or other files from the 'old country', but I haven't discovered much.

It does appear that some birth files have been put online (from Ukraine and Russia), but they are cyrillic: I'm wondering how others have navigated this? It's one thing to search in a different language, but cyrillic characters seem a bridge too far! Is there some tool or technique that has helped you?

On a related note, there are loads of files in Ancestry labelled, Orthodox Consistory Church Book Duplicates, 1734-1930. Does anyone have experience with these? Is it possible that they might include someone of Jewish ancestry, because civil institutions were weaker? Thanks so much for your tips!

I keep getting emails from genealogybank for deals. I have been looking into my family history as a sort of hobby on sites like ancestry and myheritage. Would genealogybank be worth it? Especially since alot of my ancestry is Japanese, and not sure id genealogybank is only US type records.

I'm after other opinions as to whether I'm just getting carried away or if my imagined scenario is plausible. This is in England.

The background of my 2x-great-grandmother Sarah B has always been a bit of a mystery. Through work done by others I know that in 1861, at the age of 8, she was a boarder at the home of Joseph T and his family in a tiny village about 10 miles from Liverpool, with her place of birth being listed in the census as Liverpool. In the 1871 census she was a servant in a house about four miles away, still with her birthplace listed as Liverpool. In subsequent censuses her birthplace was listed mostly as the village where she boarded when she was 8.

This was all that was known about her until 2015 when the 1939 register was published online and listed her DOB in 1852, and from there I was able to find that she was actually born in Liverpool, with only her mother listed in the birth certificate, one Ellen B.

In the 1851 census, in the village where Joseph T lived, there was a house nearby where a servant by the name of Ellen B lived, aged 41 and unmarried. On Sarah B's baptism record there is a John B recorded as her father.

My thought is that there being an Ellen B living in the same tiny village (population c.100 in 1851) as a random 8yo girl with the same surname boarding with her neighbours, and whose mother has exactly the same name, is too much of a coincidence. Ellen B was still a servant for the same family in the village in 1861 and 1871, although her age is given as four years younger on those than previously, so if she is the mother of Sarah B she somehow managed to keep her job (and de-age four years).

I'm after other views on this. Is it reasonable to assume that the Ellen B who was Sarah B's neighbour growing up was her mother, and that the John B on her baptism record was fictitious? Or is it more reasonable to assume that it's just a coincidence that there are two unrelated Ellen Bs involved, and that the real mystery is how Sarah B came to be living away from her mother in a seemingly random village where her neighbour just happened to share her mother's name?

Or do i need premium for that

Or can i just buy a dna test kit make a free account upload the dna and have matches in my free account family tree

Hello, I wanted to ask here before I send an official request over to the Gasconade historical society. I just don't have the funds ATM.

Anyways, I'm looking for information on a Reverend Lorenzo Carroll. It seems in 1889 in Hermann, Missouri he was tried and convicted of beating his son, sadly. The article also mentions he was found guilty of "a great many other things."

The word in the family is he was a con man. We can't find anything else on him. Only his poorhouse pension listed out in the papers over the years and a few census records.

Said article lists a Justice John Burns who convicted. A Sheriff Schlockly and his Iron Hotel was where the sentence was served. Lorenzo was born somewhere between 1832 and 1840. Maybe in Tennessee, maybe Missouri. I have searched high and low for his find a grave as well. Can't find it there either. To put in perspective, I can find his children but not him or his wife. He was married to a Nancy Glandon/Glander.

Thank you all so much! As a warning, Hermann is a German town, so some articles may be in German.

Edit: As an aside if the record is readily available on Ancestry or FamilySearch, I have seen it. I only say this so I don't waste anyone's time, thank you so much!

Id love to get a dna test done and see which parts of the world I'm from. My genetics is mixed across a lot of different places so defining my ethnicity has always come hard, but as someone in touch with my ancestry it's important for me to know where my family originates.

However, i have no interest in keeping my ancestral information backed up in a cloud somewhere. Id prefer an option that lets me get my results, preferably save them, then delete it from their systems entirely. No selling or sharing, no connecting with other distant family who may of taken the test.

Anyone got suggestions on a good testing service that matches this?

It's Friday, so give yourself a big pat on the back for those research tasks you *finally* accomplished this week.

Did your persistence pay off in trying to interview your great aunt about your family history? Did you trudge all the way to the state library and spend a whole day elbow deep in records to identify missing ancestors? Did you prove or disprove that pesky family legend that always sounded too good to be true?

Post your research brags here!

Hi all!

I have a pair of ancestors: Balogh Gábor (1884, Szamosszeg, Szatmár county, Hungary) and Bacskó Etelka (1887).

Gábor's parents were Balogh János (1856-1938, Szamosszeg; his own wife already passed away before his own death) and Kun Juliánna (?).

Balogh János's parents were: Balogh János and Filep Juliánna.

I'm trying to find Kun Juliánna's parents.

So far my biggest guess is Kun Ferencz and Kósa Juliánna, because they lived in Szamosszeg, and their daughter was born near János's birthdate (plus because I have a dna relative on 23&me with the surname Kósa on my paternal side like these ancestors).

But these aren't enough to draw conclusions and I have a lot of doubt, while not finding anything decisive. Can anyone help me on this? Thanks!

I'm having a lot of difficulty researching my mother's side. This is a bit of a spill, so bear with me.

My grandmother was born in Poland, that is 100% true. Her general accepted birth year (like 90% chance) is 1935, though a document was found with a listed birth year as 1933, though we think it may have been her sisters. I don't want to dox my family, so I'll just say my grandmother came out to Australia in the 60s. That's about where the certainty stops.

My mother never knew her real father. She has said somewhat conflicting accounts of what happened and is extremely tight-lipped about the whole thing so it's very hard to ask her.

Almost nothing is known about my mother's real father identity. No name/surname, nothing. My mother has said he was German (again, unconfirmed) and that he was killed in a motor vehicle accident shortly after her birth (also unconfirmed, though it is generally accepted he died. Ran off is possible, but this has never been mentioned, only that he died).

What I'm about to say is not confirmed, just hearsay. So, many of the details aren't known, but based on what I do know either my grandmother had a fling with a former German soldier in the years following the end of the war and didn't marry, which I heard may have been common (confirmation on this?). Another is that she married this man in Poland, had my mum, and then the man was killed.

Complicating this even further is the lack of certainty that my mum was born in Poland or not. Her birth year is known - again, not going to dox myself but it's in the 60s - near the same time my grandmother came out to Australia. She is very tight-lipped about it, I've asked her before and don't get much. From what I know my grandmother either 1. came out to Australia on ship with my baby mother and then remarried, or 2. my mother was born in Australia and my grandmother remarried. My grandmother's second marriage was almost certainly in Australia. My mother has no Australian birth certificate, though, if that adds any credence to the Polish birth theory...

There are no photos of my mother's father, either. It's like he never existed (see next paragraph). The only possible photo is a photo of my grandmother and a man at some dance event, but the man's face is scratched completely out. I don't know if that is him, but there would have had to have been a reason he was scratched out.

I have thought about the possibility that my mother's father may never have existed at all, and that my grandfather who I knew was her real father. I discard this on the basis that word of him not being her real father has been mentioned several times, so it would be odd to say if it wasn't true.

So, that's where I'm at. All I know is my mother's name, my grandmother's name and maiden name, and her re-married name, as well as her parent's names. The town where my grandmother was born is known. Looking at records is difficult, and from the major ones, Polish and English, almost nothing that I've looked at seems to yield.

Any advice or insight would be much appreciated!

I'm trying to confirm details of my own ancestry.

I have family stories of being involved with the Battle of Hastings and a connection with Queen Katherine Parr but it's so difficult to find connections.

I do know that my 2x great grandmother was Mary (Granny Jarrett) who was presented to the King and Queen in 1925 in Bristol.

I understand we have a connections to the USA.

Hi

I'm just searching for worldwide family members.

Pre-1906 did Buffalo not report vital statistics to New York State? And if so, can I infer that's why no Buffalo records show up on the New York State birth/marriage/death indexes for that time period?

I'm trying to hunt down a marriage certificate for a 1899 marriage that occurred in Buffalo. I've seen a digital copy of the marriage record from the church. The marriage is not found on the New York State Marriage Index.

I just want to determine if a civil record exists or if I should focus all efforts on getting the church record. I requested a genealogical search from Buffalo Clerk but they are molasses slow...

In Michigan.

My grand uncle was in the State Hospital system and I have record of him being alive in 1950. I cannot for the life of me find an obituary anywhere and online death certificates aren't available since they aren't 72 years old yet. I have his date of birth, parents names, birth location. I'm beginning to worry that if no one was with him at his time of death that he's lost forever now.

Me and my friend are both related to this guy, Emanuel Gonzalez who lived in New Amsterdam, Kingston specifically, in the early 1700's, and we can't figure out his origins. He is self-described as a Spaniard, but he has also been described as a Huguenot, and also described as being Dutch. Some speculate he was working with the Dutch East India Trade company, others speculate he was a Sephardi Jew escaping Spain and traveling with the Huguenots to the Netherlands, and others think he was Dutch and lied about his origins to gain social status. I was wondering if anybody else had him in their tree and had any conclusive information on the guy

He came over to New Amsterdam from the Netherlands with my Huguenots ancestors and that's all the conclusive information I have

I’ve been trying to figure out my dad’s genealogy for years. We have a very uncommon surname, and very few relatives. His dad apparently really didn’t talk about where he came from, or about his family as no stories were ever passed down about them to me. I’ve asked my dad’s siblings and they don’t know any more than I do. Trying to look them all up, I’ve gotten as far as my great grandfather. The trail completely ends there. I used Ancestry to search, and even my hints are empty for him. He’s listed on the 1905 Camden, New Jersey census, it lists his wife and ends there. His census says he was born in Italy, and there’s no immigration records. My 23andMe genetics do align with that Italian heritage. I even found a much older 2nd cousin, but they haven’t contacted me back in the years since I messaged.

I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot lately, so I’ve been trying again. I just feel completely stumped.

My grandparents divorced in 1948 in Ohio, and after that my grandfather disappeared. He had some troubles with the law and either left town or avoided the family entirely. I am trying to find his death record, and so far, I have had no luck. I am thinking I need to expand beyond Ohio, and I want to search records that have no information about his birth year, parents etc. I believe that if he died away from home, there wouldn’t be any info when he was found. Any cool ways to search deliberately for records with blanks or unknowns?

Edited: I have searched for him in various databases using the information I have. He has a somewhat common name, so I am looking for a way to exclude all the records that have the information about parents and birth year. For example, suppose there are 1000 records with his name. I don’t want to go through all 1000, I want to narrow it down to those that lack a birth year.

I'm currently researching Julius Georg Heinrich Tess and family. Julius married his first wife, Dorothea Elisabeth Christiana Kröger, in 1853 in Buffalo, New York) His brother, Jacob, marries his wife there the same day.

They settled in Muskego, Waukesha County, Wisconsin. They had seven children together. Three died in the month of August 1863, at ages 8, 6, and 2. I've scoured the newspapers, but I can't find the cause---my best guess is a childhood illness, like measles.

Dorothea died giving birth to their last child in 1866, a son who survived her by one week. As many widows with small children did, Julius remarried sometime before 1869 to Sophia Kastner. They had three children, one who died at eight months. In 1872, one of Julius' daughters from his first marriage died at age 8.

At the end of his life, after ten children and two marriages, his will states that he has four children and a surviving spouse. I know this isn't uncommon, but it is so sad to contemplate a life that held the death of so many young children.

What I'm looking for

I don't have a marriage date for Sophia and Julius. It's not helpful that Ancestry keeps giving me information on Julius' brother and son instead of him.

Sophia Kastner is listed in the following places:

1880 census where she is listed as "Sophia Tess" age 43, living in Franklin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wife of Julius Tess

1900 census where she is listed as "Augusta Tess" widowed, age 64, living with her youngest son Herman, again in Franklin, Milwaukee.

The most unhelpful document yet: The 1870 birth certificate for three children, Ricken (f), Lina (f), and John (m) listing Sophia Lich, Sophia Lich, and Sophia Kastner as the mother's name before marriage. Even more confusing, the dates for the girls' births are before Julius and Sophia are married. Birth Certificates

Despite having this document, I have yet to find the 1870 census record for this family.

I'm almost wondering if this doesn't represent a kind of adoption? Ricken and Lina were born to Julius and his first wife. Along with Gusta (Augusta, born 1852) they were the only children that survived out of the seven from the first marriage.

I found Julius' will, which names his wife as "Augusta Tess."

1901 Death certificate Confusingly, this lists her name as "Christiana Dorothea Augusta Tess" age 65. This is strikingly like the name of Julius' first wife, Dorothea Elisabeth Christiana.

There's a newspaper article about her death, but it speaks only of "Mrs. Julius Tess."

Was there a second wife named Sophia, and then a third, named Augusta?

Sorry for the length---many thanks for any help.

I wanted to share this link: http://aalt.law.uh.edu/Indices/CP40Indices/CP40_Indices.html

The system is a bit clunky to get used to but documents thousands of English legal cases from 1349 until 1596.

For anybody looking past the beginning of formal parish records in England (from 1538) this is a great place to start. Another great place (probably better to start) for the same purpose is the online National Archives: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Familysearch is great but is a mess in England in the early modern period, this documentation can often make the picture far more clear due to the huge amount of cases documented.

[State of Georgia] I was born on a military base in Georgia while my dad was on active duty. I was the honeymoon baby and on my original birth certificate, it listed my birth mother. Fast forward to when I was 4, she was caught cheating multiple times over and Dad divorced her. When I was 7 dad remarried and a year later mine and my [half] sister's birth certificates were amended to list our stepmother as our mother. I've already called GA vital records and they [multiple people] have said that it's not possible to get a pre-amended copy. I lost my original copy in a fire 6 years ago, 3 years before I got into genealogy.

Is it too far of a stretch for me to amend it back to the original information? None of the lineage societies I want to join accept DNA evidence (yet) and in WA state where I was raised and "adopted" adoption records are sealed and my attempts to unseal my records have been unsuccessful. Has anyone attempted to revert their amended birth record to its original information?

I have tested my maternal grandparents and the two of them only had my mother. Grandma didn't have any other kids but grandpa had a few with his now widowed wife.

Thanks in advance!

My grandmother is of Japanese descent, and her father served as a Japanese soldier based in Bicol (Philippines) during World War II. She is now 85 years old and has been searching for her father's whereabouts since she was a child. According to her account, his name is Saburo Goya, and he hails from Nagoya City, Japan. We have some documents that my grandmother obtained during her previous inquiries about her father's whereabouts (a sworn statement from her parents' neighbor with a small detail about the whereabouts of her Japanese father). We have already asked the local government in Bicol for any available documents related to her (her parents' marriage certificate or her baptismal record), but no records have been found.

Is there any possibility that we may find any relatives of her father in Japan? We just want to obtain any available information about her father before my grandmother passes, so she can at least complete her identity.

When looking at wikitree I see DNA connections and members names with a % of DNA.

Then I've found my 3rd Great grandfather and it says No Known Carriers of ------- DNA have taken a test. But I have and I've uploaded it to the website, so how do I link it?

I could use some assistance finding some information in this document. This should be the processetti package for Vito Cascia (father D. Vincenzo mother Crescenzia Romaniello) and Clementina ("Maria Clementina Saveria Gaetana") Albano (father Luigi mother Benedita Supino). I believe the packet starts on page 696 and goes through page 706. The right side of page 698 looks to be on page 704. The scanning and bleed through are pretty bad, and the parts close to the center are cut off.

The facts I am looking to find are Vito's birth date (I believe he was born around 1820 but I haven't been able to find any record from 1818-1821 so I was hoping to pinpoint an actual date to search in records), and anything about Vito's mother Crescenzia Romaniello. All of the other records I have found that mention her only list her name. I have no idea of her date of birth or death, or her parent's names. Her husband D. Vincenzo was born around 1777, so I estimate they were married around 1797 and started having children around that point. I believe Vito to be one of the later children but I have not been able to find any other siblings in the records I have searched (The records available only start in 1809 and most do not contain an index, so it is going page by page, very slow!)

I thought I would ask for a second set of eyes to see if I missed any of these details in this packet. It seems strange to me that his date of birth wouldn't be included somewhere, or the name of his Romaniello grandparents. The first block of page 698 looks like it might have Crescenzia's father's name but it is hard to read.

https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ua18546829/LDXVZaG

Thanks in advance for anyone taking a look!

mtdna N1b1

I am adopted from Romania and did a dna test 5 years ago and the results showed me as having 50% Arab, Egyptian ,and Levantian. 25% European, 25% South asian. From what I understand, N1b1 is quite rare and is linked to Palestinian arabs. Based on what i was able to find through family members and dna relatives, I have Arabian, Palestinian, Egyptian, and Syrian. I would like to know why, as someone born in Romania, would have such a high Middle Eastern percentage. Any advice or thoughts on this would be greatly appriciated! Cheers 😊

What are your favorite sources for finding information on your ancestors? Either online or offline? I'm currently limited in my abilities due to finances, but I'm hoping to expand my research in the next year or two. I'd consider myself a beginner/intermediate researcher and I've been putting my tree together since 2021. I have a lot of family from England, Norway, and Massachusetts, with a few wild cards thrown in there (Husband's side of the family is Russian and Mexican as well as English). I'm currently limited to Ancestry with a world-wide membership and Family Search's free database, which definitely limits the amount of records and things I'm able to find. I also know not to trust Ancesty's hint system blindly, and I've been working on correcting info I've previously put in my tree by verifying all the records I can. I'd love to know of any other good sources or tips for increasing the accuracy of my research. Thank you!

I have pieced together my biological paternal branch by connecting shared cousins to each other at various points along the branch. There are multiple people that could be my grandfather’s father, but I’m sure I know who his grandfather was.

Is there a process in DNA circles for a 3’rd party to review and “certify” or verify that is an accepted industry standard? Cousins are not so receptive of my u traditional methods, I sense.

My family has an heirloom family tree that has been copied and added to since 1088. I inquired about such documents on the subreddit of the area my family came from, but was met with rudeness and hostility. The few civil replies explained that such family trees are a quaint old fashioned thing that nobody is interested in any more.

I don’t know if there will be any official records I can cross reference against, as the current country did not exist when my grandmother left and a period of instability followed.

I saw a few posts about this that were a couple years old or older and wanted to chronical my own experience. I would love for people to comment their thoughts and whether I'm correct.

I discovered my great grandfather (John) was born on 10 October 1880 in County Mayo, Ireland according to the civil birth registration. Oddly, I later found his baptismal record that shows he was born on 24 June 1880 and baptized that same day. All other information on this baptismal record matched up (e.g., father, mother, mother's maiden name, residence) so I was pretty certain I had the correct person. This created a question as to which birth date was correct. I originally figured the baptismal record was incorrect since it could have been a reproduction that someone transcribed incorrectly. I feel this was a mistaken assumption though. Searching on this sub turned up that it wasn't uncommon for parents to, for whatever reason, not register their child's birth until months after the child was born. Since Ireland imposed fines on individuals that registered their children after three months (according to Google so take it for however much that's worth), some parents would lie about the exact birth date of their child to avoid fines.

That explanation works well for my great grandfather. However, he had a brother (Patt) that I only today broke a brick wall on that's a bit of a different situation. According to the civil registration, Patt was born 12 March 1875 but according to the baptismal record, he was born 25 February 1875 and baptized the next day. Since the period for registration that I looked up was three months, what could have been the reason for registering with a different birthdate for Patt? Was the registration time period changed between 1875 and 1880? Maybe the parents didn't know how long the registration period was and thought they already missed it so they lied about Patt's birth date? Has anyone come across this and have thoughts?

Earlier posts I saw showed a registration that was a couple weeks after the child's birth date and made a one day mistake in the birth date. However, this registration appears to be only about three weeks after the birth and registered the birth as being four days prior, which clearly the parents knew was incorrect.