Researchers genealogy forum, how long have you been researching your family hist

Question:

Researchers genealogy forum, how long have you been researching your family history. I have been doing mine?

for a couple of years now, so why aren't I any good at it. I dont know if its worth carrying on searching, I really need some help.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I've been interested for 50 years. When I was in 8th grade I sent off for the pay records of the fellow family legend says was my gggg grandfather, who fought in the revolution. If that counts as research, I've been researching for 46 years.

I've gotten more involved as the Internet has made a wide variety of resources available and a good genealogy program (Roots Magic) made it easier to keep track.

As to why you aren't good at it, it could be bad luck, lack of practice, lack of resources or lack of interest. I lost interest in skiing the second time I spent a semester on a cane and never looked back.

Fly fishing, stamp collecting, Civil War history, skeet shooting, square dancing and genealogy are all hobbies. The world won't end if you don't find that link to Charlemagne.

When the LDS 1880 came out I spent 1 - 3 hours a night, 3 - 5 nights a week for 3 months looking up everyone I had to see what they were doing in 1880. I got pretty good at finding people on the LDS 1880. My brother practiced his hook shot for an hour every afternoon, when we were younger. He could beat me at 1-on-1 games.

If you live in the USA, there is probably a Mormon church near you with a Family History Center. Go there and talk to a volunteer. They love helping people. It would be like having one of us sitting next to you, instead of typing, except they are politer than I am and don't drink as much as I do.

I can't answer if it is worth it. That's your call. I would suggest you give a FHC a try. They don't try to convert you. The volunteers at mine don't even mention religion unless you ask them about it. Keep at it. If you run into a brickwall on one family line, set it aside and work on another.
I have found the message boards on Ancestry.Com and Genealogy.Com to be very helpful at finding distant relatives. I go under location not surname.

Don't try to work on all your family lines at one time. I just started mine got back to about 1802, but that was from my great aunties family bible i cant make any sense of the online records. Have you tried Genes reunited. you can make your tree,and if it crosses over with some elses it will let you know. you have to pay ￡9 for 6 months subscribtion if you want to swap info with the other people. I dont think any one does though because my tree has definite matches with other trees and the dont communicate. Shirley T is correct i also find the Rootsweb forums useful. I have been researching my tree for 20 years and its addictive once you get going. Don't be too adventurous pick a branch such as say your maternal grandparents always work backwards and never assume you are related to a person with the same name even if its rare. Ask your mother or father depending on which branch you start on little bits of family info at a time never overwhelm a relative with hundreds of questions at once.

I still get my parents saying but we told you that no you didnt is usually my reply having been looking for a person for two years. There are all sorts of records to look at but if you live in the area where your family is based they should be on your doorstep. Look to see whether you have a Family History group in the area your library may be able to advise you or look on the internet for the area you are interested in and see what comes up.

All the census 1841 -1901 are available on line if you are willing to pay out a little bit of money and are serious about your research I found Ancestry.co.uk year membership very useful and they have a lot of records online.

Try and get yourself a book on the basic how to from your library, once you get into you will find the absolute joy of solving a family mystery which may have been around for years. Oh and don't expect to find someone famous in your family its always nice to think so but any family rumours on those lines are usually just that.

Please enjoy its the best hobby I ever took up. I've been at it since 1992, still learning, Find your self a Good book, that will teach you the basics, learn to think around problems. good luck and good hunting 7 years and still growing. You sound frustrated... and getting a 'break' on some line is one way around that. Makes you more optimistic.
I started research over 20 yrs ago. Especially 'here' (online) people tend to groan at me, if I suggest using sources that are not online. My perspective is different (I suspect you have noticed)... using offline, original sources is a HUGE help, in terms of knowing where to find the unanswerable. Don't get me wrong.. I use the internet for hours. But I also am more aware of what is NOT online, and how to get to it.
So a lot of it lies in your expectations. Those who are only willing to work online, often say "I can't find it, it does not exist". The next week, someone puts on their boots, dodges the livestock to get to an abandoned cemetery, and finds the answer.
None of us can define how much it really matters to you.. or as Ted points out... maybe it really isn't your cuppa tea. Or, maybe you just need to pick one of those brick walls and focus on brainstorming for alternative ways to break through.
If simple encouragement and "you can do it!!" is the key, hey, I'm happy to send it along. If you are in the UK, you could think of joining the Family History Society relating to the County from which your family came (mostly!).
For example, my family were in the Bristol area from the early 1700's for my father's line, and my mother's from early 1800's. I am a member of the Bristol and Avon Family History Society, although I live in Worcestershire. I am also a member of the Somerset & Dorset, and the Devon Family History Societies.
The biggest FHS in the Country is the Birmingham & Midlands one.
The Societies publish up to date lists of all the names being researched by members and there is a good chance that one of them may be researching your family already! It does happen.
They also have web sites, so I can call up "Bristol Family History Society", up will come the web site and one option is to click on "Members Interests"
You might also try just asking Google for your surname and add the word "Family".
One name I know that is very productive is about a family called Boddy which originated in Crediton, Devon. A guy called Mike Matthews has a site called "Boddy Parts" and it traces the Boddy Tree right back to the 1500's.
Another guy from the Devon FHS has written several books which are actually family trees about a north Devon family called Cole - he has traced over 6,000 cousins of varying degrees!
There is a lot of help out here if you know where to ask. I have been researching for over 15 yrs and some days I feel the same way. I'll tell you what helps me. When I first started I bought a book called Unpuzzling your past by Emily Croom. It's about $20 now and worth every penny. It takes you from start and walks you thru researching etc. Excellent book. When I get stuck I go back to the book and look at the section I'm stuck on. Sometimes it helps sometimes it doesn't.

Oh yes it's worth carrying on. When you get that break thru that you've been waiting for you'll be like a kid at Christmas with all those packages under the tree. Every time I find something I feel that way.

Tell us where you are stuck and maybe we can help you go in the right direction. Feel free to email me if you like. 29 years and counting. There are great breakthroughs every year on one line or another. In the last 6 months I was able to make definitive links on my great-grandfather's parents using some pretty interesting pathways. He was orphaned at the ripe old age of 9 and sent from Prussia to America. I never gave up hope of finding information on his parents and voila! the Prussian Marriage Index suddenly appeared and I found them using sketches of information from his marriage license. The best part is that I proved 80 years of family folklore completely wrong. Now I'm heading for the 1700s and loving it.

That line only took me 28.5 years to uncover. Never give up hope. You'll refine your research methods through trial and error. The beauty of researching dead ancestors is that they tend not to go anywhere on us. They lay patiently waiting for us to uncover their secrets. I am really new to genealogy in comparison to the rest of the regulars that have answered, I only decided to start rooting around when I registered with yahoo in June 2006, I had cared for my mum up until her death a couple of years ago, as well as having a disabled husband and son, I really didn't have a moment to spare for genealogy, or anything else really. Having my mum living with us was a real bonus for me, she had so much to tell me, I couldn't not do the family tree really.
I am getting help with our son now so that's an help. I can do my studying ( open university course), in between caring for the two of them, and looking after my dogs. I want eventually to become a 'probate genealogist' , I know I have to study, but I really want it, and I wont give up on my dream. In the mean time I shall answer as many questions as I can, as honestly as I can, but always be polite in my replies.
I really do admire Ted Packs knowledge, what an extremely learned man he is. There are many I admire, there's one person who is being rather nasty towards me at the moment through emails, I wont let that stop my gallop though.
If I were you fizzyhead, I would have a little break away from your desk, sit back and take stock for a few days, I promise you'll come back to it with fresh eyes. If you are in the UK I would be really happy to help you if I can, I'm pants at the USA stuff but I will try if thats where you are.
If your'e in the UK there are the family history societys popping up in just about every town and city. There are the Mormon family history centres in most cities, we have one in Nottingham, it's excellent, they are really nice helpful people that run the one here. They have helped me a couple of times, theyr'e amazing.
If you need any help to get you re-started please just ask, there are lots of people on here who do an amazing job, and there are those of us who are willing to try to help, no matter what the abusive emails say. 14 years and I love it.