This week’s question is about how you got started in genealogy. I believe I was in my late teens when I asked my great-grandmother questions about her family. I’d found questions in a book in the library, and as I asked her, I recorded her answers.
Oliver Family; Jesse Oliver, Elizabeth Oliver (nee Clark) (back), Beatrice Oliver, and Mabel Gladys Oliver (my grandmother)
I continued this interest in my early 20s when the mini-series Roots first aired in 1977. In fact, my friend, Thomas MacEntees, post on Facebook about Roots made me think about my start.
I did work on my genealogy for a while, but in the 80s, I started a family, and there just wasn’t as much time left for genealogy. So I put the questions and answers my great-grandmother gave me in a box.
When did you get started, and what made you start?
If you’ve been doing genealogy for a long time, here’s another question. How are you preserving it? I store all my photos, videos, audio recordings, and genealogy on FOREVER. Need help? Drop me an email HERE.
If you like this and other articles you’ve seen, then never miss a single one. Sign up and join the hunt. I’d love for you to be part of the “pack”.
I started doing genealogy to find information about my mother’s father. My maternal grandparents were married in 1917 and he died in 1919 before my mother was born. I had very little information on him when I started. I’ve found that he had a paternal ancestor who served in the Revolutionary War.
That must have been so hard on my grandmother.. Having her husband die so soon after they married.
I am the oldest daughter of the oldest daughter of my grandmother who ended up acting as “mother” to her large family when her mother died. So it seemed natural that I should take over keeping the family records.
Also I have always been interested in geography and I really wanted to know exactly where our immigrant ancestors came from. I learned Latin and German in high school and college, so I had the tools for the search as well.
Judith, I’ve learned so many things while doing genealogy. Geography and history are just a couple. Having those other languages would be helpful for sure. My lack of knowledge of German is part of the reason I’m not as far back in my one line. But I’m working on it. Happy hunting.
First interest was around the age of 12 or 13. Seven paternal and six maternal aunts and uncles, scores of cousins. Tried drawing a tree to keep them all straight in my head. Quickly learned my grandparents on both sides and father were not interested and would not talk about it. “That’s in the past.” Quit until 2010, 5 years after my retirement.
Robert, It’s hard when family members aren’t interested in genealogy and they are some of the people you could turn to for information. Glad you’re back on the hunt. Happy hunting.
I have been always interested in doing family research, but never knew where to start.
I had a 2nd cousin, on my paternal side, in the 80s tell me about some of the research that he had done with his mother had done, and was going to give me some of the information, which he finally came through after I had gotten into family research 20+ years later.
About 2005, my last two maternal aunts were “fighting” over an obit of their grandmothers. The one who had possession of the original didn’t want the other to have it to make a copy because it was too fragile. So. I figured out how to contact the county in Iowa where she passed away and was able to get a new copy along with quite a few obits of other relatives.
At about the same time, Ancestry was providing a month’s free subscription with AOL – the rest is history. Also Helps to live in Salt Lake City!
Lisa, I’m glad you were able to settle the family “fight”. Yes living in Salt Lake help I’m sure. I only get to go there once a year for RootsTech but I try and make the most of it. Happy hunting.
I started doing Genealogy in Aug.1982 after my dad’s family celebrated their 50th family reunion and my dad’s mother’s family also had a reunion that Aug. My Aunt was into genealogy to and she took lots of notes at these reunions and I ask her for copies of her notes!! I had a girlfriend that was into genealogy and when I would visit her she talked about all the cemeteries and places she was visiting and my husband got interested in finding out when his family came to his hometown after I came home talking about all these places my girlfriend was going!!!! That was 41 years ago!!!
Carol, you must have amazing information. Going to a 50th family reunion and doing genealogy for 41 years that’s fantastic. So many years of family history. Happy hunting.
Yes, I do have an amazing amount of information and even published a book on my dad’s family in 1993 and went to Germany in 2002 with my twin sister. That was not to do genealogy but our ‘tour guide’ was a distant relative; [she would not tell me how we were related, only that we had a common grandfather from 3 hundred years ago]; and she had done genealogy for a long time and several of my dad’s second cousin corresponded with her in the 50’s and 60’s!!!! So yes, I had a wealth of information to start with!!!!
You’re lucky I don’t think anyone ever did genealogy until I did. At least I haven’t found anything.
I was about 50 when I had time to really enjoy the research for genealogy. I am an only child and was very curious about my family, on both sides. The most interesting tidbit was my mother always said we could join DAR, and she was right. AND I DID.
Lindell to join DAR is quite the achievement I know because my friend just got hers. It was only recently that I discovered that I just might have a line that could do this for me. I just need to get busy and do more research. Happy hunting.
When I was growing up, I lived 3 houses away from my paternal grandmother. She would take me on her lap and tell me stories of growing up in the 1880’s and 1890’s. Her father had been an Indian agent, taking children from the reservation to the government boarding school. He also had a stage coach stop/station for Wells Fargo.
Her grandfather, a Quaker, believed so strongly in the cause of the Union that he volunteered for the Army during the Civil War. He was wounded, and died of those wounds 33 years later.
I kept asking ” who was his father? What did he do?”
My mom’s family was from Italy, and lived across the country from us, so it was harder to talk to them. And my grandparents died before I was a teenager.
I joined the local genealogical society at 14. Was a founding member of two others as an adult.
I paid a genealogist in Italy to track down cousins, and got to meet them last year. A dream come true.
Why do I do genealogy? I want to find out who they were.
Frances, what interesting family lines you have and to be able to walk in the footsteps of your ancestors in Italy would be a dream come true. I agree I want to find out who they were. Happy hunting.
My maternal great Aunt Irene passed away and left me with her box full of family tidbits. She had been a librarian all her life and passed on the thought that somehow we were related to Sir Francis Drake. At the same time my paternal Aunt Dorothy was wanting to earn more about our Wilson family. This was in the early 1980’s and I have been going strong ever since.
Judy were you able to prove or disprove your Auntie Irene’s theory about Sir Francis Drake?
When did I start? Officially about 1980. Unofficially, when I was a teenager. I was always interested in who my relatives were. We had annual gatherings with my Mom’s family every Thanksgiving (her parents, her siblings, and their children). This gathering required the rental of halls and each year we alternated between Washington State and Oregon (the family lived along the I-5 corridor from Seattle, WA to Grants Pass, OR) Now, the family gets together one weekend in July for camping. My Dad’s family (which was very small – his parents and his sister) would get together on Christmas Day for dinner. I never knew my Dad’s Father’s family – never met them. We would meet with his Mother’s family and I’m still in touch with one of the cousins.
I did a lot of research trips in the early 1980’s but marriage and family ended those (unless as a family we happen to be in an area of interest). Then I did most of my research on my half-day at our local LDS Family History Center (then Library)) with my Aunt (my Dad’s sister).
My son got interested when he was a teenager and working on a Boy Scout Merit Badge. He has since helped out, especially with online research and some on location research.
Preservation – I’m scanning most of the documents onto my laptop. Back-up to the cloud and an external hard drive. Photos are few but those that are identified are also being scanned. Paper copies/photos are being kept in family surname binders.
I’m currently working on writing up my Dad’s family history, including the stories he tells us. My Dad is now 86 and I’m in my mid-60’s.
Besides my family, I’m also working on my husband’s family. Now that I’m retired, I can devote more time and we can take road trips.
Marcy you are so lucky to have your dad there to help you with the stories that you are collecting and super luck to have a son interested in joining you. I love when you can collaborate with others. Happy hunting.
I was always interested in people and their stories. I was the kid that went around visiting all the “old” ladies in the neighbourhood (they were probably younger than I am now!) My sister had been to England, where my Dad’s family came from, and had brought back what I thought was my great-great-grandfather’s obituary. It intrigued me so when I made my first trip to Britain in 1982, I went to Whitby to see if I could find out more about William, the Harbour Master. I discovered that my sister had brought back two lines(!!) from the end of his obituary and that there was so much more to discover and tell. That was it, I was bitten! I’ve researched on and off over the years since. What I need to do now is get it organized so someone else can benefit. I like the idea of ancestor cards for the younger generations. I may give that a try! Thanks for asking this question!
Barbara, That’s what I love about genealogy too. Learn who they were. Their stories need to be told. Keep up the good work. Happy hunting.
My interest and investment of time and money into genealogy is somewhat 3-fold, each chapter began about the same time as the others.
First off, in the fall of 2003 my brother and his wife adopted a baby girl. When they announced to my parents that they were naming the baby Sarah, my Dad almost broke into tears. “That was my Grandmother’s name” he exclaimed.
In all of our years, Dad had never spoken of his grandparents – his grandmother had passed long before my dad was born, and he was just a young lad when his grandfather passed. So when this news broke, I got to thinking that someone had better start figuring out who and how we were related. So that started me on the maternal side of my father’s family.
about the same time, a gr daughter of my Dad’s Uncle was also working diligently at collecting names and building trees. When I saw the tree she had published I was horrified to see the mistakes – many names mis-spelled, children born to the wrong parents, my grandson was now my sisters child, and the errors continued. Once again, I jumped in to make the corrections!
Part 3 followed quick on the heels of 1 & 2. My maternal family had been collecting names and scattered (and also unsubstantiated) information for several years and “publishing” it into a booklet that was updated for each reunion and shared amonst faamily. In the spring of 2004, the family member in charge of the information had a computer failure, and thanks to not having not shared the electronic info with anyone, or having a back-up of the close to 1000 names, we were left with the daunting task of recreating the family records. As luck would have it, I was on long term disability with a knee injury and the ony way I could sit was with my leg resting on a bar stool! So, once again, I stepped up to the plate – er — computer! 😉 Between one other cousin and myself, and with help of my Aunt who had a keen eye for detail, we contacted each and every family that we had contact info for and sent them a copy of the records we had on file – and once again, got the shock of lives when we discovered countless errors and lots of misinformation. But we diligently plugged away at entering all this correct to the best of our knowledge, info into the software.
From then on I was hooked. Juggling a full time job and everything that life throws at us, I dabbled as time permitted, Since I retired in the midst of COVID in 2020, I have been able to devote a lot more time to tracing and documenting our family connections. With 3742 names in my personal tree, there is still not enough time in a day, a week, a month or a year to get it all done, but would not give it up for the world.
I am going to make sure that what I share with others,and leave behind for my descendants is as accurate as possible, by collecting and adding as many sources as I can find! I
n the words of a couple of great genealogical mentors
“Genealogy without documentation is Mythology!”
As I was reading this Marie I can feel your passion. You are the right person and for this important job. Happy hunting.
My father and grandfather were great storytellers. I started keeping notes about the stories in my early teens and later decided to find out if the stories were true, So I started my investigation when I was in my early 20’s. I had no idea how to go about that but I went to the place my grandfather was born in 1967 and met a lot of my cousins and Grandpa’s siblings and started asking questions. It just built from there. Eventually, I heard about the LDS and went to the library and learned about researching, joined a genealogy group, and picked up some skills. I kept a lot of notes and after I got my first computer I made a database to start organizing my material. When the LDS when online and I went online and things really moved along for me. I took computer courses and genealogy courses and the rest is history as they say. So I have invested 50 plus years in finding out if Dad and Grandpa were telling the truth or just great stories. I was some of both and I treasure them all.
What a great story and Donna you have contributed much to the genealogy community as well. Thank you.
I started 4 years ago at age 72 to learn about my dearly beloved grandmothers. My maternal grandmother didn’t talk about her family. I didn’t even know her maiden name. I wish I had asked more questions.
After taking a DNA test, I discovered a half-cousin who has become my dear friend. As I continue to research, I’m sure to make more discoveries.
Patricia, I think we all have that whoa…that we wished we’d asked more questions. You might be interested in something I’m doing. I’m making ancestor cards for my grandson and niece and nephews. https://blog.familyhistoryhound.com/2023/02/sharing-your-genealogy-in-a-new-way-part-one/
I’ve to have met so many cousins that have become friends through genealogy and DNA. They are the best because they love the thing you love, genealogy or if it’s through DNA then if they don’t love genealogy they have an interest in where they came from. Happy hunting.
I started when I was twenty and my grandma had died a year and a half before then and I wanted to honor her.
Debbie, I’m sure you did and many more in your family. Happy hunting.