Ancestry/Genealogy

A lot of the hints are garbage but some will save a lot of time. Problem with my lines is that most of the easy stuff was done a very long time ago.

Check online - I know the Family Search has been trying to set it up so you can order microfilm and other things online, pay for them to be delivered, and have them waiting when you go to the local Family History Center. I haven't made it to the local one yet - I had knee replacement in May and go back in late July for the second one. Because of my knees, getting places has been nearly impossible so that resource will have to wait until I am fully healed an mobile!

Please start keeping track of the documentation NOW! It's easy to be lazy but you will pay for it when your tree is larger and more complicated. I've found it easier to zoom in on the digital copies to read the old documents. I can put them into an editing program, play with the contrast and brightness and bring up faint or hard to read images. Then I can zoom in and make the part I'm trying to read larger on my computer monitor.

I've only had luck with my Quaker ancestors in Ireland and that is mostly from third party sources, such as an old source about the sufferings of the Quakers and how they were penalized for not being members of the state church. Even so, very few of my Irish ancestors have any documentation.

Canada is a pain - most of the provinces did not do census until 1861. I've got one ancestor who says in census that he was born in "Lower Canada" in 1817. There is an immigrant with the same name who arrived in Canada that year and I think that could be his father, but there are no parish or vital records to prove a connection. I'm still struggling with my Canadian branch and may never get anywhere with them.

I really hate when ancestors disappear at census time! Especially when they're in the same place the decade before and after. I've read through entire counties looking for missing ancestors and still did not find them. Sometimes they were just missed by the census taker or away at the time it was taken.

Good luck!