Ancestry.com

[moosmom]

I am HOOKED!!! I signed up for a 2 week trial period and have already found my mom's history. I never knew that my maternal great-great grandparents came over from Scotland. My maternal grandfather had a sister and a brother I never knew I had.

I just started my Dad's side of the family. My Dad had a brother (I already knew this) Donald who died in WWII at the age of 19 and is buried in Luxembourg, Germany.

I'm trying to compile as much info as I can in the next 2 weeks so I can copy them. I certainly can't afford the yearly fee of $155, so I'm plugging away.

My Dad also had a relative who ran a bar in Chicago. He went to Florida and commited suicide.

I am blown away. Why? Because a few years ago, a psychic, who didn't know me from a hole in the wall, told me that someone in my family had killed themselves, but she wasn't sure who. She thought it might have been my uncle Donald. It turns out to be the relative that ran the bar in Chicago.

Holy crap!!!

[Laura's Babies]

WOW! That's amazing! I might look into that when I get back from work next month!

[Randi]

Donna, that is so interesting! No wonder you're blown away!

I have also been trying to find out about some ancesters in USA. So far I've only found information about one of my grandfather's brothers, who emigrated to USA, and his four children. I have not succeeded in finding two other brothers and a sister. I used this site. check it out!
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Sear...set_search.asp

[moosmom]

Ancestry.com has immigration records as well as birth certificates, marriage licenses, etc. I found my Dad's naval records and his marriage certificate to my stepmom (ugh!!),

[Killearn Kitties]

You'd better be careful, genealogy IS addictive. Before you know if you will be trying to scrape together that subscription fee.

You are right to pack as much as you can into the free trial. Good luck in finding out even more.

[moosmom]

Thanks KK. That's exactly what I'm trying to do! I'll let you know what else I find.

[happylabs]

Very interesting. I will definitely look into that. How do they have all of this information? I am intrigued.

[Grace]

It certainly can be addictive.

My paternal grandfather came from Scotland - I have his original birth certificate and his father's citizenship papers - all from the 1800s.

[Karen]

How do they have all of this information? I am intrigued.

Birth and death records, and marriage records are public information. Places figured out that people would like to be able to access it via computer, so put in the time, effort and money to get it all online!

[Genny]

that's really cool...I've always wondered about relatives and like who were they what kind of life did they live, ya know? But I did find out years back that my dad's great great grandparents were indians...weird huh?

[sirrahbed]

I did the ancestry.com trial last winter and loved it!! Yes be sure and save everything that you gather as a *.ged (gedcom) . If you go to familysearch.org that Randi mentioned, you can download their free genealogy software that will let you look at all of the entries you were able to gather. You can even store your family information at the LDS familysearch.org (Latter Day Saint) site.

I would love to take out the subscription service and do some more searching - maybe this winter!!

[Randi]

I will take the oportunity to thank you again, Sirrahbed for all the information you sent last year about life at an Air Force base. At the time, I didn't pay much attention as to where this relative had been stationed before (Missisippi), but since I now have a friend in Missisippi, I'm curious to find out where he was stationed. There can't be that many Air Force bases, though.

Had a look at ancestry.com also, and I did find the same person there, but it had less information than the other site - that is, until I sign up and pay.