Hints on Family History

   So my last post I talked about researching family history. I am still at it and have made some great finds. By joining some of the many Facebook pages that have groups of people related to or from the areas that my ancestors came from I have been able to see photo's of faces and get info I may have never found on my own. I had joined a few of the pay for sights years back and although it was helpful I found many of the people on those sights to be very stingy with their research.I can understand some of their feelings as many people who did research for profit were accessing their info and then selling it. I have found the Facebook pages to be much more like a family sharing our ancestors and their info. I have also found that I get stories about the people from those that knew them or have a parent uncle aunt etc who knew them. I find I am getting a much better look at who these people were from these groups than I ever did with the pay sights.

   Find A Grave is a new free sight that has tons of info.photos,obits and locations of burial paces. Also on this sight there are links to others like wife,parents, and children. It is a great sight to check out if you have not heard of it before. The sight covers graves all over the map Europe,USA etc and i was able to find some graves in England I would have maybe never found else where.

   I have also had luck with a new trend called found photos that have many sights and blogs popping up. These blogs and sights are where people load up pictures they have found in the trash, garage sales,flea markets etc. Some of the photos have info written on the backs others have no clue as to who the people are or where they where taken. They post the photos in hope a family member will see them and be able to put a name to the face. I found two ancestors by scrolling through these sights one photo at a time,

   I have also found that if I have a name and a birth date etc I have had luck when entering that info into google and was surprised the info that would come up on said person. I have also lucked out with google finding photos of people by just entering their names in and looking around at what comes up in the search area.

   Never underestimate the hord of pics etc that Mom Grandma Uncles Aunts have stashed away. If you ask they may share and often you can find a wealth of info hidden away in a box. Also never forget to ask the older people in the family to tell stories about the ones they knew often they will give you a hint that can unlock info for the past.

  Many people do not understand my need to know who I came from and I find it hard to put into words to those that do not have the same addiction to delving into the past that I do.I am sure they have hobbies or things they like that I just can not fathom why so I tell them the same way I tell people bungee jumping you have to try it before you knock it.