Made a discovery I found amusing, thought I’d share.

My family for as long as living (and dead) memory have lived in Glasgow, city folk through and through. Then when I was a teen my mum followed her heart and moved both of us to the opposite end of Scotland to an island in the outer Hebrides that she’d only just learned about months prior. My teen years there weren’t the worst but they weren’t great either. With the culture shock, isolation and economic divide, I struggled to fit in and often felt looked down upon. We were what the islanders call “incomers”. Not just incomers but Glaswegians: the -worst- kind of incomers!

As soon as I could, I left, but my family stays there still and the older I get the more I feel homesick for that bloody island and all the isolation, blustery days and Gaelic chatter I loathed as a teen actually sound really lovely to a middle aged me. I started dreaming of retiring there because even though I only lived there 7 years many moons ago, it feels like home.

Well I recently made a breakthrough while trying to figure out where my mum’s line originated from… it’s only the bloody island!! How, of all the places in Scotland did my mum choose to drive nearly 300 miles to end up living only 20 miles away from where her ancestors had to leave during the Highland Clearances?! 🤯 I guess we’re not incomers after all, we’re… returnees?

Hi,

The Diocese of Würzburg, which covers the northwestern corner of Bavaria has released the third batch of churchbooks, covering the parishes from Mömbris to Sandberg (alphabetically) online on Matricula.

You can browse the churchbooks HERE.

Some parishes have Familienbücher and a lot of churchbooks have an index built in or as a separate book, but in the end, it is on you to browse these churchbooks manually.

Hello! I recently found a relative who immigrated from Italy to Uruguay at some point in the early 1900s. She married in 1938 in Montevideo and her husband died less than a month later. She died in the 1980s and that record is luckily on familysearch. Can anyone help me fill in the gaps? Maybe any birth, other marriage, census, or newspapers? I’m not sure if she married anyone else or had children or any other relatives immigrate and would like to find out.

This is her familysearch ID: P7CM-XGH

Hello all!

Please would you help me by finding records in New York and/or Germany for my great-great-grandfather (my mother's paternal great-grandfather, Charles Freeman) from before 1888? My efforts have been fruitless for several years. I hope to learn when and where he was born and have a better footing to research his parents.

I originally made a much longer post and it was kindly suggested I repost more concisely. If you want tons of specifics you can read the original novel here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Genealogy/s/wWrpcW2Nev

Charles Freeman died 24 January 1905 in Brooklyn, NY. The death certificate is at https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/view/4070065. It states he was born about 1856 in Germany, lived at 1236 Flushing Avenue (it was actually 1235), was widowed, and lived in the US for an “unknown” amount of time. Importantly, it names his as parents and Charles and Elizabeth Freeman and states both were born in Germany. This is the only reference I have to his parents. No informant information is on this certificate. There are many articles on newspapers.com from December 1904 to spring 1905 about his death (he broke into a bar with an axe and was shot by the owner).

I found a 1900 US Census that MIGHT be for him: unemployed day laborer Charles Friedman, wife Bertha Friedman (purportedly married since 1887, but I have no other records referring to her), and 11-year-old son Charles Friedman, at 1237 Flushing Avenue.

Charles' wife (I suspect they never officially married) was Wilhelmina "Minnie" Biedermann, who was born in Brooklyn NY around 1851. She had previously married a Frank Wittenauer and had five children with Frank between 1869 and 1881, earlier ones born in Brooklyn and later ones born in Manhattan. Manhattan City Directories for Frank Wittenauer (brick mason) list him living in Brooklyn until 1877 and then in Manhattan from 1879 to 1883. I have no subsequent records for the Wittenauer family until the 1888 Brooklyn City Directory, which lists Frank Wittenauer at 60 Georgia Avenue. Importantly, this is both the latest record I found for Frank Wittenauer and also the earliest record I found for Charles Freeman, and it lists Charles also at 60 Georgia Avenue. Minnie died 1 June 1897. Her Brooklyn death certificate and cemetery burial records are under the name Wilhelmina Wittenauer (not Freeman) and state she was married.

In October 1894, Charles was in several newspaper articles. He and a George Meyer were charged with manslaughter for drunkenly knocking over an elderly man, who died from a broken hip. His name was reported as "George Freeman" in a couple of the articles. A November 1894 newspaper article that MIGHT be for Charles reports that a house mover named George Freeman was arrested for participating in a street fight.

In May of 1894, Charles, Wilhelmina, and their son Charles C. Freeman were in many newspaper articles. Wilhelmina purportedly attempted to drown 5-year-old Charles C. and kill herself. One of those newspaper articles reported Charles' name as "Charles T. Freeman" (with middle initial "T.") and stated that Wilhelmina was his second wife. This is the only record containing those two facts and I don't know if either is true or not.

The 1892 New York Census records his family as Charles and Wilhelmina Freeman with son Charles (C.) Freeman and also the youngest four of Wilhelmina's five children from her previous marriage, who are listed with their surname Wittenauer.

Charles is listed in several Brooklyn NY City Directories from 1888 to 1898, at various Brooklyn addresses and with occupations of house mover, truck man, mechanic, machinist, and carpenter. I corroborate them based on his addresses, which jibe with addresses given in newspaper articles.

The earliest record I found for Charles, other than the 1888 Brooklyn City Directory I mentioned above, is the 12 November 1888 Brooklyn NY birth certificate for his son “Charles Christ. Freeman”. It states Charles was born about 1851 in Germany, and was a machinist living at 103 Georgia Avenue in Brooklyn. The birth certificate is at: https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/view/311585

I'll be very grateful for anything you can corroborate as connecting to Charles Freeman from before this date. There are many census records and city directory listings in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and many German emigration records, dating from 1850 to 1887, for families of people named Charles and Elizabeth and Charles Freeman who were born in New York or in Germany, but I can't determine which, if any, are for my great-great-grandfather and his parents. I'll be especially thrilled to learn their original German names.

Thank you!

Good day all! This is my first post on this forum. Please let me know if I need to change my post.

I humbly beg for your help to learn about my great-great-grandfather Charles Freeman: where he was born, and who his mother and father were and where they were born. A bonus would be to learn who his first wife and possible offspring were, if he had either.

I've been unable to learn about the first half of his life and details of his parents despite 10 years of searching on ancestry.com, familysearch.com, myheritage.com, newspapers.com, statueofliberty.org, and taking DNA tests with all the major companies. I've inquired with several professionals and online groups but cannot afford the $2,000 or more they each ask to start to attempt research. I'll be deeply grateful for any research anyone may wish to do for me, or for any leads. I've spent a lot of time researching but I'm no expert and doubtless there are many resources and tips I know nothing about, so what I think is an impassible brick wall may be only a fast and simple search for you.

Here below is a very long post with everything I have learned. I apologize in advance if the length makes it unappealing to read, but I want to give as much information as I have. Two things to mention first:

1) I was raised by my mother and consider her family to be my entire family, and this man is my mother's paternal great-grandfather, so a Y-DNA test won't help me.

2) In my mother's family, at least three or four generations of men have the same, very common, first and last names Charles Freeman: my maternal grandfather, his father, his father (this is the man I'm looking to learn about), and evidently his father as well. Since my great-great-grandfather MAY have had the middle initial "T." (I’ll explain later), I'll abbreviate him CTF.

History and documentation:

CTF may have been born in Germany or in New York. If born in Germany, he may have emigrated anytime between birth and 1887, with or without his parents. I don't know if he had any siblings. His 1905 death certificate records his parents' names as “Charles and Elizabeth Freeman”, both from "Germany". I have no idea what their original German/non-Anglicized names were.

The first record I can verify for CTF is the 12 November 1888 Brooklyn, New York birth certificate for his son, “Charles Christ. Freeman”. It states CTF was born about 1851 in Germany, and was a machinist living at 103 Georgia Avenue in Brooklyn. You can see the birth certificate online here: https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/view/311585 [Note for later reference: the child's mother was Wilhelmina (nee Biedermann) Wittenauer]. The author of the birth certificate wrote multiple words on it in German, so the spelling Freemann may be due to the author's spelling bias.

The 1887-through-1-May-1888 Brooklyn City Directory lists CTF as a Truckman living at 60 Georgia Avenue in Brooklyn.

Relevant side note: Wilhelmina Biedermann was born in Brooklyn around 1851 and married a Frank Wittenauer (who immigrated from Prussia/Germany to Brooklyn) in Brooklyn around 1868. She had five children with him between 1869 and 1881, the earlier ones born in Brooklyn and the later ones born in Manhattan. Manhattan City Directories for Frank Wittenauer (a brick mason) list him living in Brooklyn until 1877 and then in Manhattan starting in 1879 until 1883. I have no subsequent records for this family until the 1888 Brooklyn City Directory that lists Frank Wittenauer at 60 Georgia Avenue, the same address that CTF is listed at in the same directory that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I have found no records for Frank Wittenauer after this 1888 city directory. I suspect that around 1888 Frank abandoned his family and then CTF moved in, or maybe Frank abandoned his family because CTF had already moved in (someone speculated to me that CTF, as a truckman, would normally have worked with a mason like Frank, so they might have worked together and/or lived in the same building already). I suspect Frank did not die but rather remained alive and married to Wilhelmina though separated from the family. My reasons:

1) The 1892 New York Census records the household as Charles Freeman and Wilhelmina Freeman, with four-year-old Charles Freeman plus four of Wilhelmina's children from her marriage to Frank recorded with the surname Wittenauer.

2) Wilhelmina died in 1897, and her death certificate and her cemetery burial record both state her name as Wilhelmina Wittenauer (not Freeman). Her death certificate states she was "married"; but does not record her husband's name, nor is there a family informant (she died in a psychiatric hospital, apparently suffering from syphilis).

I presume that if Frank had previously died then Wilhelmina's surname on her death certificate and cemetery record would have been Freeman, even if she hadn't officially married CTF with a marriage certificate. It’s also possible that CTF had abandoned Wilhelmina sometime between 1892 and her 1897 death, so her previous married surname was used by the informant for her death records.

1889-1890 Brooklyn City Directories record CTF as a Cabinetmaker at 56 Georgia Avenue. Perhaps not coincidentally, Wilhelmina's father Frederick Biedermann was a cabinetmaker and is listed in the same city directory living about one block away during these same years, and living at 66 Georgia Avenue in the 1891 Brooklyn City Directory. Perhaps CTF was working with Wilhelmina's father at this time.

The 1891 Brooklyn City Directory lists CTF as a Housemover living at 60 Georgia Avenue.

The 1892 New York Census records CTF as a Truckman living in Brooklyn Ward 26, which I believe includes Georgia Avenue, and records his birth as about 1852 in the USA.

The 1893-through-1-May-1894 Brooklyn City Directory lists CTF as a Housemover living at 59 Georgia Avenue, while another 1894 city directory records him as a Driver living at 131 Vermont Street (the reason I think these are the same one man is in the next paragraph).

In May of 1894, CTF and Wilhelmina "Minnie" Freeman and their son Charles were the subject of multiple newspaper articles because Wilhelmina (possibly suffering from mental illness) purportedly attempted to drown 5-year-old Charles C. and kill herself. These newspaper articles give their address as 131 Vermont Street, Brooklyn, which is only a couple blocks from Georgia Avenue. One newspaper article reported CTF's name as "Charles T. Freeman" and said that Wilhelmina was his second wife. This is the only document giving any middle initial for Charles. I have no idea if it's correct or incorrect, but I'm using it here to easily distinguish him from his father Charles Freeman, son Chares C. Freeman, and grandson Charles R. Freeman. I have not yet found any records regarding a previous wife/partner for CTF, though one would make sense since he was around 36 years old at the time he partnered with Wilhelmina and I don’t imagine he would have been single for the first 36 years of his life.

In October 1894, CTF was in several newspaper articles again because he and another man named George Meyer accidentally ran into and knocked over an elderly man while drunk; they were charged with manslaughter after the man died from his broken hip. It might be useful to note here that CTF's name was reported as "George Freeman" in a couple of the articles; I don't know if this was erroneous information collected by the reporter (perhaps due to his associate's name being George Meyer) or if CTF himself gave a false name (my reason for speculating this possibility is in the next paragraph). The articles record him as a Housemover living at 59 Georgia Avenue.

I found a November 1894 newspaper article that may or may not be for CTF. It tells the story of a house mover named George Freeman arrested for participating in a street fight. I speculate it may be for CTF if he purposefully gave the false name George Freeman regarding the previous month's manslaughter. I have verified that CTF was recorded as a house mover, driver, and truckman from 1888 to 1905 through the above-mentioned sources.

Note: As per Wilhelmina's death certificate, she died 1 June 1897 at a “lunatic asylum” from General Paresis (I presume from late-stage untreated syphilis). This may explain her behavior in 1894. I have no records for Wilhelmina between the May 1894 newspaper articles and the time of her death. As I mentioned above, her death certificate records her name as Wilhelmina Wittenauer (her husband Frank’s surname, not Freeman) and states she was married (but no spouse’s name is given). It’s possible that CTF had abandoned her sometime between 1894 and 1897.

An 1898 Brooklyn City Directory lists a Charles Freeman, Housemover, at 84 Central Avenue, Brooklyn. I believe this record is for my ancestor.

The 1900 US Census records a household of Charles Friedman (unemployed Day Laborer), his wife Bertha Friedman (purportedly married since 1887), and their 11-year-old son Charles Friedman at 1237 Flushing Avenue. This is about 10 blocks away from 84 Central Avenue. I believe this record is for my ancestor, possibly with a new wife/partner, and lying to the census taker to make it appear they were a typical family with husband married to wife before the child was born.

The 1900 Brooklyn City Directory also lists a Charles Freeman at 1237 Flushing Avenue. I think it could be for my ancestor because:

1) he's living nextdoor to the address at which he's recorded living in 1904 (see the next paragraph),

2) his recorded year of marriage calculates to 1887 (likely the year he partnered with Wilhelmina),

3) in his household is one son named Charles whose birth date was recorded as August 1888 (very close to Charles C.'s actual birth date of November 1888).

There are some discrepancies, though:

1) surname Friedman instead of Freeman,

2) Charles' birth was recorded as October 1863 in New York, which is about 11 or more years too late,

3) Charles’ father’s and mother’s birth places are recorded as England. (Remember this for my note at the end of this message.)

From December 1904 through January 1905 (and later), several newspaper articles report on CTF of 1235 Flushing Avenue, when he attempted to break into a saloon with an axe, demanding to be served a drink, and the saloonkeeper shot him. Charles died from blood poisoning due to his injury on 24 January 1905.

CTF's 24 January 1905 death certificate states he was born about 1856 in Germany. It records his address as 1236 Flushing Avenue (which is almost certainly an error for 1235), and states he was widowed and lived in the US for an “unknown” amount of time. Importantly, the certificate lists his parents and Charles and Elizabeth Freeman, both born in Germany. This is the only reference I have to his parents anywhere. No informant information is on this certificate; I presume it was his son Charles C. Freeman, but it's not impossible that it could have been one of his step-daughters. After CTF's death, one of his step-daughters took in her half-brother Charles C. (he's recorded living in her household in the 1905 New York Census) and the two of them apparently remained in touch as I have some photos of them together taken on one day in the mid-to-late 1940s, shortly before both their deaths (I do not know if they only met up that one time or if they had stayed in touch constantly). The death certificate can be viewed online here: https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/view/4070065.

Charles' cemetery burial record states he was born about 1857 and contains no birth location. He is buried in the same huge cemetery as Wilhelmina, but far away from her in another section. He is buried with two of his grandchildren who died as infants. Wilhelmina is buried with two of her Wittenauer sons.

Finally, I have found one record that I cannot determine if it regards my ancestors or just a similarly-named family. The 1850 US Census records a household in (Manhattan) New York’s 17th Ward of Charles P Freehman (spelled with one n), a 27-year-old chairmaker born in Germany; Mrs Elizabeth “ (ditto marks used referring to the surname Freehman from the line above), a 22-year-old born in Germany; and Charles P Freehmann (spelled with 2 n’s), a 1-year-old born in New York. The 1-year-old was recorded on the 1st line of the next page, which is why the surname was written out again.

Family Lore:

My grandfather (Charles R. Freeman) told me that he didn’t know how many generations of his family had been in the USA, but they had departed from Liverpool, England; and he didn’t know where they had come from before that, since he believed they had travelled from wherever they were from to Liverpool as that was a popular port for ships to the USA to leave from, but he speculated it was somewhere in England or Ireland. My grandfather also never mentioned any German heritage, he always told me his family was English/Irish. And it is true that his mother’s heritage was 100% English/Irish. However, I think he may have intentionally hid something from my family as his brother's children (with whom I'm close) told me that their father always told them that their Freeman ancestors were from Bohemia. My grandfather and his brother were born in the early 1920s so possibly he was shaped by the anti-German sentiment of the time. They did grow up in a neighborhood of German immigrants and attended a German-speaking church.

Speculation and Research:

I think it’s probable that CTF was married (whether officially or common-law) before he was with Wilhelmina because I think it’s unlikely he would have remained unpartnered/single until his later 30s. Perhaps that single newspaper article stating Minnie was his 2nd wife and that his middle initial was T. was actually some unusually in-depth accurate reporting.

I’ve researched every year of the Brooklyn city directories available on Ancestry until 1905, and found many listings for different Charles Freemans. Sadly, it's such a common name. As I mentioned near the start, the first record I confirmed for CTF is the 1888 birth certificate of Charles C., which lists CTF as a Machinist. There are many listings for a Charles Freeman living at 280 South 5th Street in Brooklyn from 1874 to 1887; he’s recorded variously as a telegraph operator, burglar alarm manufacturer, clerk, mechanic, and machinist. The only Charles Freeman listed in the 1888 Brooklyn city directory is the Truckman at 60 Georgia Avenue, which I also mentioned earlier. The 1889 Brooklyn city directory lists both a Driver at Georgia Avenue and a Machinist at 280 South 5th Street (is it possible the same man submitted his info to the directory at two different times because he moved and therefore came to be listed twice?). I listed above the 1890 to 1898 Brooklyn city directory listings for the person I’m sure is my ancestor CTF; in addition to him there are also listings for a Charles Freeman, variously recorded as a mechanic, clerk, and electrician, living at 54 Hart Street from 1890 to 1898. This is a good time to mention that the year of the directory is the end of the year’s period from one May to another, so the 1889 directory was good from May 1888 to May 1889, and the subscribers had to submit their information before printing time. So, I theorized that Charles Freeman, machinist of 280 South 5 th Street (in the heart of Brooklyn’s Eastern District, which was popular with German immigrants) from 1874 to 1887 became Charles Freeman, machinist/housemover/driver/truckman of Georgia Avenue (a pleasant suburb at the very outskirts of the Eastern District) from 1888 to 1898. However, I can also argue that Charles Freeman, machinist of 280 South 5th from 1874 to 1887 became Charles Freeman, mechanic/clerk/electrician of Hart Avenue from 1890 to 1898, and that my ancestor was a different individual who just appeared on the scene (perhaps immigrated from Germany?) in 1887/1888.

I searched the 1880 US Census for 280 South 5th Street (Kings County, ED 112, page 12 of 61). The address is recorded, but neither of the 2 families recorded there is Freeman, or has members named Charles or Elizabeth.

DNA:

I, my maternal grandmother, my mother, and two of my mother’s paternal 1^st cousins (my grandfather’s brother’s son and daughter) all took Ancestry DNA tests. My maternal grandfather, Charles R. Freeman (son of Charles C. Freeman and grandson of CTF), passed away before I thought to do DNA tests. I made a list of the DNA matches shared by my mother and both of her paternal cousins, then I removed from that list people who also were matches to my maternal grandmother, leaving my mother’s DNA matches from her paternal (Freeman) side. Going as far back as the DNA matches that Ancestry guesses are her 3rd cousins, the list contains only 12 matches that I can’t rule out without further research. I reached out to them all but did not get a response from any of them.

Ethnicity guesstimates, for whatever they are worth, are not too useful. My maternal grandmother’s ethnicity is completely known to be 50% German and 50% English/Irish, and maternal grandfather’s mother was 100% English/Irish. My ethnicity estimate is that I’m about 25% German and 25% English/Irish, roughly speaking, and my mother’s ethnicity guesstimate is that she’s roughly 50%  German and 50% English/Irish. If the small amounts of DNA data with their low confidence values could be trusted, they seem to speak to my maternal grandfather’s paternal line being German instead of English/Irish.

My grandfather's brother's son is the oldest still-living Freeman male descendant. He took a FamilytreeDNA "Big Y" DNA test and the results were disappointing. No Y-DNA matches for any of the levels "Big Y-700", 111, 67, 37, or 25 markers; and only 31 Y-DNA matches at the "12 marker" level. Of those 31 DNA matches, only two took "Big Y-700" tests, four took "Y-111" tests, nine took "Y-67" tests, eight took "Y-37" tests, two took mtDNA tests, four took "mtFull Sequence" tests, 10 took "family finder" basic tests, and two were listed as "autosomal transfer". Of the two people who had 700 markers tested, one appears not to know who his father was or where he came from, and the other's earliest known ancestor was a Richard Donovan 1815-1873, born in Ireland. The one man who had 500 markers tests stated his earliest known ancestor was Veit Beck, born about 1600 in Germany. I don't know anything about how to use this Y-DNA data.

Closing:

So, I’m hoping someone can connect to CTF some documents/records from before the year 1888, either in New York or in Germany. I hope to learn where and when he was born, if he had been married (and widowed?) before 1888, and really anything about his life before 1888. I further hope to learn the original names of his parents “Charles and Elizabeth Freeman” and when and where they were born, and when they immigrated to New York.

My Freeman Family Tree is public on Ancestry.com, you’re welcome to visit it at https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/118305485/family?cfpid=130176297297. Search for Charles T. Freeman who born about 1851 in Germany and died 24 Jan 1905 in Brooklyn, New York. All the documents I’ve mentioned are attached to his profile, and all the newspaper articles I referenced are saved in his photo gallery.

Thank you!

Hi ive been stuck on my 6th great grandfather Matthew davies if I could have help for his parents it would be amazing thanks!

He was born 1770 Llanfyllin,montgomeryshire in wales he married mary Thomas on the 12th of February 1793 in llanrhaedr ym mochant in wales he died in 1856 in montgomeryshire

Mary Thomas was born 1771

They had a son named john davies born 1794 died 1853 he married Margaret humphrey born 1796 died 1864

Hello everyone,

I made a map with birthplaces of my known direct ancestors and think it's endlessly fascinating. Especially with the ethnicity estimate along with it. Thought some of you might like it as well! :)

The pins on the map are colour coded:

• black pins: my mothers maternal branch
• grey pins: my mothers paternal branch
• orange pins: my fathers maternal branch
• yellow pins: my fathers paternal branch

https://i.postimg.cc/Pr4Q2TS2/direct-ancestors-map.png

https://i.postimg.cc/FsZVDNPt/ethnicity-estimate.png

A few things beyond the maps:

• Family names in the grey and yellow clusters are exclusively German. Only the orange cluster (in Masuria) has Polish (?) names in it.
• My ancestors from the grey, yellow and orange clusters all left their homes after WW2 and ended up in Holstein, Germany. That's where they crossed paths and where my parents were born. One group allegedly barely missed the Gustloff
• by todays borders all of the black pin ancestors would be within Germany. Pre 1864 (?) however, a good chunk of them would have been born in Denmark. The ones in Schleswig, not Holstein. There are some surnames in there that could be read as Danish, but that area has always had a lot of crossover, so it's probably a more diffuse Danish ancestry than 1-2 specific people.
• The branches in northeast Poland/Oblast Kaliningrad are incredibly difficult to trace further for obvious historical reasons. I don't expect we'll get much further there ever. Especially since most of my ancestors were just farmworkers and such. The yellow branch near Wrocław could yield more information if we were to be able to pursue records in person. Until now, life always got in the way :(
• Oldest known ancestor we know of was born sometime before 1524

The more I browse these maps, the more interesting I find them. Like how within Schleswig-Holstein almost everyone is from the baltic coast side, not the north sea side..

Hello! I am looking for a scan, photo, or any additional details from a New Jersey marriage record from 1910.

According to the Ancestry index, the details are:

• Groom: Joseph (Josef) Okulewicz
• Bride: Jessie Malinowski (might appear as Jennie/Janina)
• Year: 1910
• State File Number: 26468

Here is the Ancestry link I am referencing: New Jersey, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-2016 - Ancestry.com

I would be extremely grateful if anyone with access to NJ vital records or unindexed FamilySearch microfilms could look up this specific certificate number for me to find their parents' names and exact location. Thank you so much for your time and help!

It's impossible to upload them anywhere (Gedmatch, MyHeritage, Ancestry) because they moved from traditional microarray testing. Is it possible to convert the files somehow?

I know if I drop by subscription, I lose access to paywalled records. I'm aware that I can do the Preserve thing to maintain my records and just not build on them. What I'm wondering is if anyone has gotten away from Ancestry completely and how you've done it?

I have FamilySearch and use it a lot, but don't like it as a family tree builder. I got RootsMagic 12 just today and downloaded my trees into it. I'd like to merge them into one tree as the 3 trees are mine and those of my grandchildren (different maternal lines for each). Separating them was a mistake as my side and now Grandpa's side has to be done in triplicate or at least duplicate!

Today, one of the mothers decided to throw a fit that the child's DNA and tree are being done stating that the genealogy is for the purposes of stalking her! Her paranoia is as rampant as her drug use, but I digress. I should state that I only managed his DNA; dad is the custodial parent and lives at the same address (duplex). Nevertheless, Ancestry took it away. And, since the subscription is already less than budget-friendly, I'm considering my options. I'm an intermediate genealogist, have been at this 4 years and watched hours of tutorials and webinars. Just frustrated that a spiteful person who doesn't even research was able to interfere.

FWIW, no damage was done. I'd already downloaded his DNA results, his genetic matches just to the beginning of 3rd cousins, and his tree was well-established before his DNA was done. Ancestry is going to replace the genetic kit, so his dad is going to send his own (Dad's) DNA in since we don't really need his son's repeated. And, RootsMagic lets you download and sync your tree to both Ancestry and FamilySearch so I even have all of the photos from his tree (which a GEDcom doesn't grab).

TL;DR: If you've avoided or dropped Ancestry, how do you do your research? Any regrets or tips?

Hi everyone, this post is regarding a brick wall i have had since the day i started. My family tree always had a good bit of knowledge in Ireland, something not everyone has. Before I started researching, relatives knew up to my 3rd great-grandparents, Peter O'Boyle and Sarah O'Boyle. As I began to research I found more and more evidence leading for me to believe that Sarahs maiden name was also an O'Boyle. This is from sources like her gravestone not mentioning a maiden name aswell as the only marriage in her small parish during a 15 year period with a Sarah and a Peter was both the surname of O'Boyle.

Here is where it gets more theoretical, one of Peter and Sarahs sons, A priest wrote a diary. In this diary he talked about his great uncle, Neal O'Boyle and what he remembers of him. Now Neal was born in 1814. This would mean he would have to be the brother of one of Peter or Sarahs parents. I recently found Peters parents and therefore there tombstone, stating that his Father was born in 1778, it states he is burried with his brother born in 1774. For Neal O'Boyle to be the brother of Patrick, Patricks father would have had to have fathered his first child at 18, and the second to be at 58, not unheard of but unlikely. This made me believe that Neal was the brother of Sarahs father.

It wasnt until this month that I have found a clue on Sarahs parentage. After I went through the entire parish baptism records, I found a Sarah O'Boyle born to a Bernard O'Boyle and Jane Mcgee. This record was on January 24th I believe, in the year 1840. The only contradiction I have with this is Sarahs Gravestone. The stone states that Sarah was born on the 13th of January 1839. I believe this 1 year deviation could be a incorrect date on the tombstone. The only evidence I have to support this is that on the 1901 and 1911 census, Sarahs birth year changes from 1839-1841. If Bernard is the father of Sarah, it would make sense, Bernard and Neal, born in 1810 and 1814.

As of today, this is my most likely conclusion, although I did find a piece of writing in a relatives house, she has no idea who wrote it. This paper has more knowledge than I did when I first started and more than anyone else I know did. The paper states that Sarah and Peter were first cousins. This would mean that Bernard, Peters father, Patrick, and Neal would all have to be brothers, with a 40 year age difference.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can research this further or prove the first cousin theory, or any views that i have not considered?

Hi Everyone,

I am asking again for another newspapers.com request as I am completing some genealogy research and have come across an index for a relative on ancestry that links the newspapers.com. I have limited access to the website through my university and would really appreciate it if someone could get a screen shot or image for me. I am currently looking for an obituary for an Oliver Renault (d. May 18 1943 in Worcester, Massachusetts) but I am also currently putting information together for the rest of the family as well.

The information is for Louis Rainault, and here is a link.

Thanks again!

Hi everyone!

I’m trying to find the Catholic marriage record of my great-great-grandparents, Marian Witomski and Balbina Kwiatkowska. They emigrated from the Dobrzyń/Płock region to Brazil in 1890. I have their baptism records and their daughter’s birth record, but I haven’t been able to find the marriage, and I’d really appreciate help figuring out the right parish, year, or archival collection.

What I know

Marian Witomski (baptism record)

• Born March 7, 1863, baptized in the parish of Zaduszniki (act no. 20). The record seems to say he was born in a village that looks like Krajęczyn, not in Zaduszniki itself, but the handwriting is hard to read
• Parents: Baltazar Witomski and Maryanna Goleniewska (Gołeniewska)

Balbina Kwiatkowska (baptism record)

• Born February 28, 1862 in Koziróg Leśny, baptized March 3, 1862 in Tłuchowo (act no. 31)
• Parents: Walenty Kwiatkowski and Zofia Pniewska
• Later records list her as Balbina Witomska

Their daughter Teodozja (birth record)

• Born February 7 (19), 1890 in Zbyjewo, registered in Dobrzyń nad Wisłą (act no. 24)
• Witnesses: Jan Łukaszewski and Karol Lewandowski. Godparents: Jan Łukaszewski and a Lewandowska
• The family arrived at the Ilha das Flores immigrant hostel in Rio de Janeiro on December 25, 1890, on the steamer Graf Bismark from Bremen, bound for Paraná. They were registered as Russian nationals

When and where might they have married?

The marriage must have happened before February 1890. I’d guess sometime in the 1880s, but I don’t know the year or parish. I think they may have had an older child who died young, which could mean an earlier marriage than I first assumed. I haven’t confirmed this.

I’m not assuming they married in Dobrzyń or Tłuchowo, since Marian’s family seems to have lived elsewhere (Krajęczyn?) and they were in Zbyjewo by 1890.

What I’ve already searched

I’ve contacted Polish archival and parish sources and checked marriage registers from these Roman Catholic parishes:

• 1885–1889: Dobrzyń nad Wisłą, Tłuchowo, Mokowo and Wielgie
• 1888: Zaduszniki
• 1885: Tłuchowo

Nothing so far. I haven’t yet checked 1880–1884.

How you could help

• Suggest other parishes that cover Krajęczyn and Zbyjewo
• Point me to digitized registers or indexes for the 1880s
• Help with spelling variants. I’m also checking Vitomski and Vitonski, since the 1890 record is in Russian and the surname was written in Cyrillic
• Share ideas for finding an older child’s baptism or death record, which might lead me to the parish

Thank you so much for any leads!

I gathered a lot of source material from my ancestors. Birth, baptise, marriage and death certificates, news paper articles, pictures, drawings and all kinds of other stuff. I kept track of their locations.

Now I am writing a family book and wonder how best to use these references in my book and am very interested in the experiences and ideas from this group.

Can you help?

I'm trying to help a family member locate proof of birth/baptism for a great-grandparent. I am able to locate their information in the BC Archives, but the microfilm number states that the actual record is "not available at BC Archives". But when I go to the website of the Diocese of Nelson (which presides over the Rossland Parish), their archive office page states that it is "not available for individual geneaological research", but "may provide information as regulated by the Personal Information Protection Act" for a fee.

I'm trying to figure out:

1) are there other microfilms available online for search (I can't locate them on the British Columbia Birth Registrations 1872-1903 on Family Search)?

2) What the process is for requesting a copy of these records if they're not available for "individual geneaological research"?

-------------------------------------

Event Type: Baptism

BC Archives Mfilm Number: B16249 - not available at BC Archives

Event Date (YYYY-MM-DD): 1901-09-29

Event Place: ROSSLAND

Person: MARY HELEN MORIN

Person's Father: MICHAEL UNKNOWN

Person's Mother: CATHERINE UNKNOWN

Denomination: ROMAN CATHOLIC

Church Name: SACRED HEART

Other Location: ROSSLAND

Birth Date (YYYY-MM-DD): 1901-09-19

name of ancestor: Thomas Patrick Pearl

year of birth: 1937

year of death: 2007

image requested: https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/90404122/person/362355291674/media/bec641ff-eabf-466f-8670-59d6f473e036?queryId=5f998405-26e4-4864-912a-aac14bd4d34a&searchContextTreeId=&searchContextPersonId=&_phsrc=lUX122&_phstart=successSource

please put the image on a image hosting service so I can have it I'm the highest quality possible. Thank you

I was wondering if it were possible at all for someone to clip something from newspapers.com so that I can view it?

I am looking for the part about Mrs Metcalf Langmaid, or perhaps the whole page so I can see the date as well.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help, and apologies if this post is not appropriate here.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/919941929/?article=ca836b41-8a3a-4547-83d2-8cafd63346b2&xid=5907&terms=Mrs_Metcalf_Mrs_Langmaid

une bouteille à la mer. Barbe kelch Irkoutsk 1872 Sainte Geneviève des bois 1959. Elle aurait des descendants en France. J'ai essayé de contacter la personne qui a écrit ce post, mais aucune réponse. Elle a des descendants aux états unis mais ceux-ci ne répondent pas. Ce post est un peu décousu mais je suis lasse de chercher et de trouver toujours des portes closes.

Hi everyone -

Looking to get a sanity check on my research / methodology. I'm new at all of this but as most things I dig into, they have "escalated quickly." I found an old folder of my great-grandfather's, who had very good records of our family history (which only spanned a time frame to the mid-1700s). This started me down the genealogy path...

1. I put everything into Ancestry.com to start. I noticed over time, the service merged two families with the same last name (from the late 1600s) together. After researching (trolling this sub as well), I discovered that people would just find "Smith" (example) and say "yeah, that's my last name! That's my tree as well!" ...when in fact, it wasn't. It's just another family a few counties over that weren't related. Stories were passed down without verification... everyone was on the Mayflower... /s

2. I started scanning everything in that I had (photos, typed documents from my folder) and I asked to AI check everything. I used Claude Opus (now 5.5) to help me piece together information. Put up guardrails that I didn't want AI guessing at anything; I wanted concrete evidence that what it was telling me was accurate and give me explanations on it's findings. I made sure that Opus double checked itself, then ran another agent to have Fable (now 5.5) check Opus' work. Gemini - for what it's worth - is awful. Garbage. Made up stuff, hallucinated (even with guardrails in place). At one point I had GPT Astra check Claude's work (uploaded images files, PDFs, MD files, etc.). GPT found one or two things, but overall agreed with Claude.

3. AI seemed (and currently still seems) to be pointing me down the right path. It's dispelled erroneous information from saved / passed down family trees, pointed me at resources like contacting my state library for digital copies of files, had me contact other counties for digital copies of certain files, pointed me to familysearch.org to look up photo copies of images (deeds, court minutes, marriage/death records, etc.).

4. Last thing - it pointed me to Y-111 testing. AI found a major gap in our family tree (that's been passed down internal to the family, yet without any evidence to back it up). Right now, I've got a family line that goes back to the early-mid 1700s but based on evidence in hand, it cannot connect me to the family from Salem, back in the mid-1600s. AI stated that a Y-111 test (via familytreedna.com) would help settle the gap, and more. That kit arrives today.

All of this to say - am I nuts here? Anything I'm missing or going about this the wrong way? I've become completely obsessed in trying to create a solid family tree on my father's side but again, I'm new at this and using the tools readily available to me. I'm no expert at all.

Appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

I started using Ancestry back in 2012 and when I started, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I accepted tons of hints without verifying. My tree is a mess. I’ve tried cleaning it up, but it’s so difficult to remove items, especially people.

I’m thinking about scrapping it and starting over. Or should I just build a new tree without scrapping the old? Any advice?

I was recently doing some research into my great grandfather who served in the Army Corps of Engineers during WWII. However, when I looked at the “Organization” box on his discharge paperwork, I was rather confused. To me it looks to say “Co C 42nd Engr Bn” for Company C 42nd Engineer Battalion, however I couldn’t find any evidence of such a unit existing in the US Army during WWII. Does anyone have any ideas what I could be missing here? All I know is, according to his discharge papers, he was a T4 cook and served in the Aleutian Islands Campaign and the Battle of Luzon. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I am wondering if anybody may offer some assistance in my search for the ancestral origins of my ancestors, the Heideckers (spelled many way) in early NY. My ancestor, Johann Joost Heidecker appears in records from Pine Plains and Gallatin in Dutch NY beginning in the 1780s. Eventually, the family moved to Greene Co NY, before many went further west. I simply cannot find any of a similar surname before Johann. He married a palatine descendant, and seems to have perhaps been a palatine himself. Other than he, I cannot find any records of families with the surname (or even a relatively similar surname) before, except for a couple of Moravian brothers who immigrated in the first half of the eighteenth century and seem to have had nothing to do with the region/possibly no children.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hidecker-14

I've gone both to the official LDS church family center in my town and to the State Library research center, which is an "affiliate", and still not been able to access blocked records.

The LDS people said it happens now and then, and that not everything is available at the affiliate sites also.

My question: Is there a service or individuals with reliable and frequent access to the blocked records that I could give my list to and have them get the files for me?

We are headed to Mexico for the winter and I will soon lose the ability to try hit or miss visits to the LDS center, which has very limited hours in my area. Just wondering if this could be a work-around.