Today, I decided to attempt to find my ancestry. I didn't take the normal route and pay Ancestry.com $150+ fees. Instead I was able to find online discussions and within 4 hour's I was able to research the family back to 1790. At this rate, I expect to be back to Adam and Eve by Christmas.

 

It might be easier than some with your unique last name, Glenn. There were about 50 "Jacobs" (the first in my line to come over to this side of the pond) with my last name that lived in in Lancaster County, PA, in the 1700s....so it's a little more complex

OTOH, I have two leather bound volumes that my old-maid aunt put together back in the 1960s/1970s....so it's a pretty good base for more detailed research. The real software and access to extensive databases of immigration and census records is probably worthwhile...if you want to put together a professional product for future generations, etc.

Getting back to ancestry.com and their Family Tree Maker is a project that I'd like to do in the next year or so. A "teaser" trial subscription is often available for more like 50 bucks or so.

 

It turn's out one of my Aunt's who everyone in the family had thought
died somewhere in France during WWI, didn't. Her GG Grandaugter has been researching the family tree for 15 year's and I stumbled on to her online chat's. I'm not certain why she dropped off the map, but the GG Grandaughter says that the family disowned her after she married a common laborer. I don't know what that is all about, but the family, including my dad, had tried to locate his sister for year's. It turn's out that the last living soul, my Uncle died just a few Month's ago at 99. The lost Aunt died in Florida in 1961. Kind of a tragedy, but fortunate for me because the GG Grandaugter has the family tree all the way back to 1790.

 

If I am not mistaken a few years back the "Church of the Latter Day Saints" took it upon themselves to digitize the records from all of the immigrants that passed through Ellis Island during the "good old days".

I did a search for my Father's Father and did not find him there.

 

^My family all came from France. They arrived in New France which is Quebec.

 

Glenn,

Don't worry. I like you and will not hold that against you.

 

I have the first volume published about my father's ancestors from their origins in Yorkshire, England up to 1897. My paternal grandfather is in that volume. Very interesting history. Since the family home is a historical site in Dedham, MA (1634), it's possible I can contact the curator for more recent info. However, the second volume has never been done, even though promised some years ago. Some family members are doing research on the time after 1897, so I may see something down the road. I'm not doing anything myself.

 

Glenn, I've done a fair amount of family history, etc. and have a book of my mother's lineage back several generations. We seem to dead end in the Native American history area due to a lack of recorded data. My father's history, however, goes all the way back to 1350 in Chew Magna,Somerset,England.
If you are serious about your research, you really would probably benefit from at least one year's membership in Ancestry.com. I did that and it produced a plethora of material that I've used to unravel threads that will probably take me more years than I can count to fully research. The Church of Latter Day Saints has taken on this ancestry project and done a very very good job of compiling information.

 

[QUOTE=valentine,Dec 13 2010, 08:33 AM]If you are serious about your research, you really would probably benefit from at least one year's membership in Ancestry.com.

 

My brother-in-law is into this. I have a pretty good idea of my ancestery and that is enough for me.