New to genealogy, advice???

Have you tried the new 1911 census online at
http://www.1911census.co.uk/

Have you tried the new 1911 census online at
http://www.1911census.co.uk/

Thanks--yes, have done, and it's fantastic.  DH and I did searching on his family.  On my side, my great-grandfather emmigrated to the US in 1884, but I can use it for the family members who did not emmigrate.

My SIL's been tracing our family ancestry and as half of my family's from Germany & Czecheslovakia (Czech Republic) she says she's getting stuck on that part of our family.  Does anyone have any recommendations for searching there?  Any sites to recommend etc?  (Our family doesn't speak / read Czech.)

I won't go into detail as to why she's getting stuck, but its an internal family issue...

I can't help, but just wanted to say I understand the getting stuck part, although I'm sure the reasons for that are different.

I don't know any birthdates on the British side of the family, other than that of my two grand-parents, both of whom were born after 1911.  I know their parents' names, but the names are just too common!  One of my great-grandmothers was named Mary Campbell!!  Her husband's name was George Brown!! lol.  It's not easy tracking people who have those kinds of names when you don't know when they were born or where in the British Isles.  There are loads of Mary Campbells who were born in the year range I can pick for my great-grandmother, but without a little more info about her, it's really hard to narrow it down from the hundreds of people with that name born in the same time period...she was born before 1911...

I'm a bit late so hopefully someone will see my note and it might help.  My mother got heavily involved in family research.  Once you start you can't seem to stop.  Its just too interesting.  She started with a site called cyndi's list.  I would guess its www.cyndislist.com.  It has an amazing amount of information on it.  Check it out.

Hi there,

I'm not sure if you've used this great LDS search engine, but I've been able to trace my family tree to AD62 so far. Good luck!!

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp

I wrote about it here:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=43232.msg604914#msg604914

I'm not sure if you've used this great LDS search engine, but I've been able to trace my family tree to AD62 so far. Good luck!!

Not to sound rude, but I'd take some of that with a grain of salt.  A good genealogy will have everything verified.  However, it is really difficult (if not impossible) to verify anything but royalty before 1500 or so.  The other hard part is, assuming you're originally American, verifying immigrants on both sides.  I found information giving my wife's family somewhere down the line (apparently her parents were distantly x20 related) which linked her to the Plantagenet line through an illegitimate daughter.  From there, the line went all the back to 700 BCE with Egyptian pharaohs, which is dodgy at best (I'm sorry but Herod the Great of Bible fame was not a forefather to later Roman emperors, British royalty, etc).  Well, I also found out that the link between my wife's super-great-grandmother's birth certificate was a forgery concocted in the 18th century to give legitimacy to some political family, and there was verifiable link to the Plantagenet line.  It's a really cool thing to have for conversation ("hey, did you know I'm related to Julius Caesar?"), but do try to verify it (and don't go on So You Think You're Royal, please!)

Not to sound rude, but I'd take some of that with a grain of salt.  A good genealogy will have everything verified. 

Actually, I've already had it all verified, stamped, and just awaiting the DNA from my maternal line. This was traced on my maternal side, and her family were original members of the LDS Church from Vermont when it was founded. The Church has full time researchers and the best geneology records in the world. All the records are in a huge vault in Salt Lake City. The website is newer, but someone uploads the vaults, so you may be able to find some ancestoral lines there. You can also go to Salt Lake and research through the vaults in person.

Sweet.  Now that's cool!  My aunt has used the LDS in New Orleans, but they didn't turn up anything that wasn't already in the French Catholic records for my side.  On my wife's side, we're stuck with some immigrants who don't have any records of coming over here (so we can't trace the European side).

I did research for a couple of years, mostly with Ancestry.com.  I found a lot of info by looking through the online censuses.  It was due to scanning through a census that I discovered my gggg's left Ireland in 1851 and also had their occupations. 

I also posted to the message boards by surnames (I think these were on ancestry.com) and contacted distant relatives doing the same research.  We exchanged info and I got a LOT of info this way. 

When we get home from Uganda and get settled I'm going to start again as I hit a deadend with several ancestors. 

I have heard people say that about LDS, and apparently it worked out for my girlfriend's family tree.  So, I went online and it didn't yield any results.  And I haven't looked where any LDS churches are in the UK. 

I found this information for you.
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp
I hope it is helpful.
Jim

I've been researching my mother's side for ten years and it is a slow process.  All I can say is one has to be careful of some information found on the internet, even Ancestry.com and LDS and especially the message boards.  And when looking at other family trees who seem to be related to you, I've found that some people simply copy other trees and it just creates a big mess.  One link in my chain has us related to Daniel Boone which is NOT true!

Names can be difficult also.  The name Elizabeth, Sarah, Sally, Betty among others repeat ad infinitum and can make my life extremely difficult.

The way I go about it is backing up my information with census records, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, etc.  Those items are difficult if not  impossible to come by and can be expensive, but when you find a gem like that it is very rewarding.  My gg-grandfather served in the Civil War and a "cousin" of mine purchased a copy of his military records which contained a wealth of information.

Genealogy is a slow process and can get expensive.  One really needs to dig deep to get the truth.

Anyway, good luck in your research.

What kind of info is available at an LDS center that you can't get via the Family Search website or with the paid subscription to Ancestry?  There is an LDS family center in Leeds that I would visit if I thought that they had access to information I'm currently looking for, but I think I actually need the marriage certificates for a couple of gg-grandparents to confirm maiden names and their parents' names. 

I signed up for ancestry.com and will at least do the two week trial.  I actually found quite a bit of stuff on one bit of the family.  It's really a cool site, much better than i first thought.  I spent way too much time on it last night.  I can see I'll be totally addicted to this before long.

I'll have a look around for reunion and see if i can find a version that will work for my computer.  Thanks!

It can be very addicting on Ancestry.  One thing I did was look on area called "Public Trees."  I thought why not, but I was not expecting to really find anything.  Wow, was I in for a shock to find that someone in Scotland had already done a family tree and my family was just one minor branch, but after double-checking the info/dates, etc., it helped me trace us back to the early 1700s.  My great-grandfather was from Somerset, and now I have contacted the Somerset Archives, and that will involve going there in person.  But, any small breakthrough will seem incredible.  I am still amazed at all the different surnames that we are connected to.

Good luck, it is really a fascinating journey.