gramps advice

[Scott]

I've been working on my genealogy for a few years and I want to put together a report .pdf or possibly a web page, so that I could share this with my extended family.

So I'm curious has anybody else done this, and if so what sort of privacy/problems did you run into. Did anyone in the family get upset?


Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

[Gina]

I would like to know too. I have been using this website for my research http://www.ancestry.com/home/mbDefault.aspx

[Scott]

Yeah I've found the World Tree to have a wealth of family data, I've also had good luck with just plain old Google.

[phantom_patriot]

I've had great luck so far on my father's side of the family. A cousin did the research a few years ago and his work has been my jumping off point. Having a rare surname is a plus too (6975th in frequency). I've found the origin of my family name. A Norman knight who served under william the conquerer during the Norman conquest named Robert de Criel.

Feel free to check this website if you're interested it's a cracking good read.

www.clarencecurl.com

[Jerseyhighlander]

It definitely helps to have a rare surname. One cold stormy boring Saturday night back before the WWW when search engines were text based I dropped my mother's maiden name into an engine and was taken back by the number of hits -- over a thousand as I recall (It turned out that two members of the family headed two state departments of correction and were the subject many lawsuits). Having grown up believing that with the exception of those cousins who married and moved out of state the family lived in the hills of northern New Jersey. Not so, it turned out that I have extended family in most every state and across Canada.

Others have taken an interest in the family and started getting together every two years to meet and compare notes. Two brothers in Indiana have taken advantage of their retirement years to document the family and have as I recall some twenty thousand cousins in their database. Not sure what program they use but is sure makes tracing an individual's lineage easy. To date, they have been able to trace most everyone they have found with the family name back to our immigrant ancestor -- he apparently adopted the name after he arrived in America.

Google has been a good source of information for me. To answer Scott's question, I recall reading that if a person is living you need their permission to include them in a online geneology. As you might assume, if they are no longer living their permission if not required. If I can find the source, I'll pass it along.

[Jerseyhighlander]

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

I think you'll find the following helpful:

http://genealogy.about.com/library/blstandards-share.htm

[Jerseyhighlander]

Scott,

Assuming you're planning to trace the family back as far as your research takes you, try to follow up on any information you find. I really hadn't plan to research my maternal grandmother's family because the anglicized name was much to common even though I had a fairly good idea who the immigrant ancestor was. I had also found a webpage created by a local historian in NJ who had researched the family extensively; however, I could not make a connection.

Last year, playing around on the Internet, I first discovered my great grandfather's name; then I ran across a message posted to a Rootsweb message board back in 1999. On a lark, I e-mailed the poster and weeks later received a response. Turned out that she's a second cousin whose grandfather moved to California in the early 1900's. She was able to correct the information I found on the LDS Familyorigin webpage which led me to my great, great grandfather who it turned out was my missing connection.

It also turned out that my second cousin's current husband's grandfather moved his family to California in the early 1900's from Maryville, TN. It's little tidbits like that that make it interesting.

[Scott]

Well thanks there Jerseyhighlander for the info I've had good luck with my Fathers side making it back well into England, the first Cardwell in my family line, in America was an indentured servant, a barrel maker. He paid off his servitude and we were farmers after that until my father's generation.

We did have the civil war touching our family as well. The following is one of Granfathers on my Mothers side of the family

COMPANY B - OF 61ST MOUNTED INFANTRY - NORTH CAROLINA
Preston Reed fought for the Union in the Civil War, where he lost an eye and went from Private to Quartermaster Sergeant.

BURIAL OF PRESTON REED: Preston Reed Russell died at his home as his widow indicated, NANCY TURNBULL HELTON REED, without the examination or death certificate being filed. The family buried Preston Reed. Preston is said to have had a fear of being buried too deep and made them promise to bury him shallow. They covered the grave with rocks. He was a Quarter Master Sergeant of the Union Army, who lost a left eye to the cause. He is supposedly the half-brother of JACKSON REED/RUSSELL. His line of Reed's is called the 'Short, fair haired Reed's' by the elders of the community, who contrasted physical attributes with JACKSON'S taller, darker haired, blue-hazel eyed clan. They lived within 1/4 mile of one another and were each summoned as witnesses in several different cases in the community.

[Randall]

My aunt in Georgia has been tracking the genealogy of my biological-paternal family. I don't know what all she's using.

[trancendyce]

try Midol and less caffeine...
oh it said "gramps"... never mind.

[Scott]

I like Aleve... course I like the cramps

The sun goes down and the moon comes up
I turn into a teenage goo goo muck.