I am trying to do a family tree.But i am stuck, Are there any McElhinneys out th

Question:

I am trying to do a family tree.But i am stuck, Are there any McElhinneys out there. Thanks.?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Yes! There are a lot of McElhinneys out here. I've just taken a quick look at the UK Electoral Roll and it shows "over 200"!
Two Hundred is the limit of my computer's ability to count!!
Do yiou have a common family first name? For example in my father's tree, there is a William in every generation; in one of my mother's branches, there is always a George and a Benjamin.
Do you have a particular part of the Country in mind - records are a little different in Scotland from England, while in Ireland, some have disappeared altogether.
Have you thought of joining a Family History Society relevant to the part of the Country from which your ancestors come? You may find a member who has already done part of your tree - it happens.
I belong to the Bristol FHS and on their web site I can go into the Members' Interests and find other members searching for my family names in that area. Try www.geansreunited.co.uk there are millions of people doing there family trees, ask for help you will get it. Try www.familysearch.org or just a plain old fashioned google it. I hate this time of year. People sit down and watch the TV show "Who Do You Think You Are?" and then have this great idea that they'll sit down and research their family tree, and pretty soon they then realise that it isn't half as easy as it appears to be on the telly. You can't just walk into record offices and libraries and have your research presented to you on a plate. The system just doesn't work like that. It's the BBCs fault really - they make out that family tree research is quick, simple and cheap. It is neither. Any serious researcher will tell you how many hundreds or thousands of pounds they have spent on subscriptions to websites and purchasing birth marriage and death certificates or travel to out-of-the-way record offices and libraries in far-flung parts of the country. I'd love to say it is simple, but it's not. It's only simple once you know what you are doing.

I'll probably get loads of "thumbs down" for being negative or something, but that is the reality of it all. Sure, you can pay people to do the work for you, but kind of defeats the object and the challenge of it all anyway. We all begin by knowing nothing. Two years ago I knew sod all about genealogy. Now about twenty reference books on the subject later I am fairly well accomplished and have managed to get back on at least a couple of lines into the 1500s. It hasn't come cheap though, it takes time and money, and one of the worst mistakes you can make is assuming that absolutely everybody with the same surname is related to each other. It amazes me still that there are people out there think that everyone with the surname Robertson is related to the same man who lived in a small village in Perthshire in the 1400s. When it comes to genealogy, a lot of people have some very wild ideas, and think the whole thing is a lot easier than it is. It won't happen overnight. If it does, you'll be one of the lucky ones.

Genes Reunited is one of the better sites, but the information on those trees is only as good as the person doing the researching, and if my experience on there is anything to go by, a good many are completely bogus. Trees get passed along so far, no-one is ever really sure who did the research in the first place. Even if someone gives you a pile of research, you should always check it yourself for accuracy. There are people out there who go on the Mormon IGI site and take details off it to put on their trees without actually checking it.

This is all aside from the point though. If you are stuck, WHY are you stuck? Do you just not know how to use websites like Ancestry and find the appropriate entries to order birth marriage and death certificates, or have you got further back than this and are stuck in the pre-general registration years of 1837? Are we talking England and Wales here, or is McElhinney a Scottish or Irish name? If you have Irish roots then I'm not at all surprised you might be having trouble, but what kind of trouble can we help you with? Be a little more specific and there are people on here who will be able to help and advise you. No-one is going to sit and do you whole tree for you or spend money on your behalf without recompense, but if you give some idea of where your "brick wall" is, then those in the know will be better able to advise you. As it stands, your question is far too random and lacks clarity.

That's the truth as I see it. Yes, it might be blunt, but I'm not going to sugar-coat the truth or lie to you. Genealogy is great and can get enormously addictive, but one thing it isn't is simple. Help is always available from people who have been there and done it, but you need to be a hell of a lot more specific to get that help, and in all honesty there are far better forums than Yahoo Answers with far more knowledgable people. Try the message boards on Rootsweb, or even the boards on Genes Reunited. There are loads of people out there who will offer decent help and advice. How far back have you got? Have you spoken to your relatives to get information? All I can say is that your family is likely to be from Northern Ireland. It might be an idea to go on Ancestry.co.uk and see if there are any other people researching your name.

Good Luck There are 431 McElhinney's listed in the phone books nationwide. Based on experience this probably represents several family lines. There are over 1,000 published trees, many are overlapping.

SSN Death recoards, nearly 400.
Census notations, 2361 entries
Birth, Death, and Marriage entries, over 2,100
Over 800 passenger notation

So this line is a bit too big to simply try shouting out. I'd recommend going to your local library and using the ancestry website (my favorite). McElhinney
Irish (mainly Ulster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Choinnigh ‘son of the servant of (Saint) Coinneach’ (see Kenny).

Check the names Kinney, Kenny, MacGiolla, Choinnigh, Coinneach, etc.

go to http://www.ancestry.com

sign up for a free trial membership, then go to the learning center, then click on the first link at the top that says Learn Helpful Information and Interesting Facts, etc... then go to name distribution and type in a name like McKenna and see where they are located, and follow the leads.

Hope this helps. I don't know but you can research this on the web or the library