family history...........................?

Jasper Mangel: Yes, I have been doing my family tree and family history and have over 2,900 names listed so far, and many more I will be putting on the list soon. I have a princess on one of my distant lines. Also, the Family in Tasmania is a well known Fishing Industry Family (but I live in Melbourne and have little to no contact with my Tasmanian side). I have found that oral family history often does not match the facts. It is part of the Oral history that the first of my line (family name) that came to Australia was a buccaneer off the Madagascan Coast who owned two ships and who was caught by the Royal Navy and given the option -- Go to Van Diemans Land (Tasmania, Australia) or hang by the yardarm. Naturally he chose to live and went to Tasmania. The truth is that he was really a convict transported for theft. I have a number of convicts in my tree. That same person, Richard, married twice. two of his children (a son and a daughter) married the brother and sister of ! his second wife. SO, he had a sister-in-law who was also his daughter-in-law and a brother-in-law who was his son-in-law. The same family names keep appearing in the marriages on a number of occasions with marriages of second cousins or second aunt/uncles etc. It has become a bit difficult determining the exact relationships at times. It was common for people to have many children from two or three marriages so 18-22 children is common. Girls married young, and I have several that married when they were 13 and 14 (legal and common back then) which would have been around the time the girls reached mensus....Show more

Cherry Stampka: If you expect to find your family tree all prepared and correct on any website, you are viewing it wrong.Look for websites with records, not necessarily family trees. I don't care if the family trees are on Ancestry.Com, Rootsweb, FamilySearch.org, Genealogy.Com they usually don't have documentation to back them up. They are usually submit! ted by folks like you and me, the subscribers. Even if you see! the absolute same information on the same people from many different subscribers, don't think for one moment the information is correct. Too many people copy without verifying. The information can be helpful as clues only as to where to get the documentation. Genealogy is about records/documents.Here is a link with 50 links to websites, some free and some fee. Those that only have family trees I feel aren't worth a tinker's curse. http://www.progenealogists.com/top50genealogy2008....I believe Ancestry.Com has the most records online than any website. Now you still must distinguish between the records they have obtained and put online and their subscriber submitted family trees.If you find it too pricey, your public library might have a subscription to it you can use for free. It might be wise to use it at your library and get use to it before paying for a subscription. When I go into their website, I prefer to go under "old search" on the right on a bar on top. That w! ay I can pick out specific records I want to check on and not waste my time with things I don't care to check on at the time.Not all records are online but the ones you find will save you time and money.Also don't expect to find information on the living as that can be an invasion of privacy and can lead to identity theft. FamilySearch.org has a pilot program where they are putting Mormon records online. The Mormons have the largest genealogical collection in the world, not just on Mormons. I believe once they are through with his program they might put all the other genealogical websites in the shadows. They are trying to get people online to volunteer to help transcribe the records. The website is http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.h...But the first thing you should do is get as much information from living family as possible. Find out if any has any old family bibles. Ask to see and make copies of birth, marriage and death certificates.Depending on the ! religious faith, baptismal, first communion, confirmation and marriage ! certificates from their church can also yield parent information.Interview your senior family members and tape them if they will let you. I won't say that they won't be wrong on some things. However, they might get into telling stories of bygone days you wouldn't write down and in those stories can be clues which will later help you solve a puzzle. People who have done this say they have gone back and listened to the tape again after doing research and heard things they didn't hear the first time around.A good source is a Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. In Salt Lake City they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their FHCs can order microfilm for you to view at a fee of about $3. I have never had them to try and convert me nor have I heard of them doing that to anyone else that has used their resources. A lot of their volunteers are not Mormon. Just visit thei! r free website, FamilySearch.org, to get the hours for the general public to the nearest Mormon FHC....Show more

Darrel Stele: lots. try ancestry.com to start

Dulcie Edis: http://www.ancestry.com/?o_xid=21837&o_lid=21837this is a great, easy, FREE site(:

Virgil Loatman: You can't find your family tree (well sometimes you can - but how do you know that dippy old Aunt Mary didn't make half of it up?) you have to construct it your self by looking for records and evidence.Best free sitefamilysearch.orgBest pay siteAncestry.comBest site for useful world wide linkscyndislist.com...Show more

Dorethea Beaston: Talk to your relatives. Ask them to tell you stories about their lives and the lives of their parents, etc.