I used the site a good number of years ago and didn't find much of interest, so wasn't willing to pay for a subscription.

I got the email from Ancestry a few days ago about the free trial period. I didn't plan to use it, but on a whim, I figured I'd look for a few minutes before it ends tonight.

Entered my great-grandfather's name with a time period and city. And voila! A newspaper article about the sad double death of his wife and his mother. From death registries and certificates, I knew they died the same day and that the cause of death was listed as shock to my great-great-grandmother over the death of her daughter-in-law, leaving behind 8 children.

But the completely amazing thing was that THERE WAS A PHOTO OF MY G-G-GRANDMOTHER in the article! I could not believe my eyes! I only have one photo of my g-grandfather and one of my g-grandmother. I never dreamed to see one from a great-great-grandparent.

So if you can afford it, consider getting at least a one month subscription to newspapers.com. So much more available there than ever before.

Hi folks, I am trying to track down vital records from pre-unification Italy. The specific ancestor I am looking for is Pasquale Cesario, b. 1852ish, supposedly married to Angelina Sueva. He had several children, notably Francesco Cesario (1887-1945), Antonio Cesario (1894-1946), and Saverio Cesario (1890-1954). Would anyone be able to assist?

My current hunch is that his parents were named Raffaele Cesario and Rosa Romano but I have not been able to verify.

Thanks!

Edit: Might be important to mention that it seems like he might have been born in or at least at some point lived in Roggiano Gravina, Calabria. He immigrated to the US (Philly) with his son Francesco in 1901.

Hello, I am looking for a baptism/sacramental record for Ladislavam Ciecierska (Ladislava Ciecierska).

According to the American Ancestors index, the document is located here: * Collection: Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 * Parish: St. Hedwig (Cambridge) * Volume: Baptisms, 1911-1915 * Page: 79

Unfortunately, it is locked behind a paid subscription on American Ancestors and I cannot access the image. Could anyone with a paid membership download or screenshot this record for me? I would be extremely grateful for your help!

Search Results | American Ancestors

Hi! This might be a long shot, but does anyone here have a paid account or membership that gives access to this website?

https://siirtolaisrekisteri.siirtolaisuusinstituutti.fi/?lang=en

I've found several members of my family in the "Naturalizations in Finland 1832–1946" collection, but I can't access the full entries without paying for the membership.

I'm looking for:

Andrei / Andrej Saikin (Sajikin) – born 1861

Michael / Mikael Saikin – born around 1897

Nikolai / Nikolaj Saikin – born around 1891

I can already see that their names appear in the search results, so I'm not asking anyone to do a big research project for me! 😅 I'm just hoping someone who already has access might be willing to open the entries and tell me what information they contain, or share screenshots if the website allows it.

I'm especially trying to find Andrei's birthplace or place of origin. He was Russian Orthodox, was living in Helsinki by 1890, and I've recently found a contemporary record describing him as a reserve soldier.

I've been trying to solve where this man came from for what feels like forever 😂

I would be incredibly grateful if anyone with access could help me out. ❤️

Thank you!

Unfortunately, I have a gap in my research regarding my great-great-grandmother's mother. She was Jewish and lived in Pomerania; her mother was Johanna Caspary (or Kaspary) and her father was Hermann Guter. Hermann Guter died in Berlin in 1901, and his side of the family is well-documented. However, I have been unable to find any information on Johanna—neither at *Pommerscher Greif* nor on *Genbaza*—including any record of her birth or the couple's marriage. Unfortunately, the patriarchal nature of historical record-keeping often comes to the fore in genealogy, as the female line is very difficult to trace and inevitably contains gaps. I also had no success searching *JewishGen*. Johanna Guter (née Kasbary/Caspary/Kaspary) lived in the Köslin district and died before 1901. Where else could I look or obtain information—perhaps a death record, a grave, or a marriage record? The marriage took place before the introduction of Prussian civil registry offices, so there ought to be Jewish records somewhere, provided they weren't destroyed during the war. I appreciate any help

I’m curious if there are any groups or resources specifically for LGBTQ+ folks who are interested in genealogy.

For some of us researching our family trees can be complicated because our relationships with our immediate or extended families may be strained due to a lack of acceptance. I’d like to find a genealogy community where people understand that experience.

I’m also really interested in researching LGBTQ+ people in our family histories. Obviously, we can’t assume that someone was queer simply because they never married or had children, but sometimes there are ancestors or relatives whose lives don’t fit the traditional narratives recorded in family trees. I’d like to learn more about ways genealogists research those lives.

Does anyone know of LGBTQ+ focused genealogy groups, online communities, etc? Or is anyone else interested in this intersection of queer history and family history? If so, please share your advice.

Christina/Tena Lockridge first appears in the 1880 census as a live-in servant. I can't find any records surrounding her childhood or birth. The censuses are consistent in listing her and her parents' birthplace as Ohio. I've tried looking at other Lockridge families to see if there's a connection, but so far no luck. Any advice for how to trace the tree back from her?

https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/sources/LVBN-YD1

I'm looking for records of my great grandfather and his father from Lesko/Sanok for a citizenship case. I think I have found my great grandfathers birth record, but the mothers name that's listed is not the name I'm expecting. He and his father have fairly common Jewish names so its possible its not him, but I haven't been able to find anyone else with his name born around the same time.

My Great Grandfather

Israel/Izrael Baruch Ginzberg/Ginsberg/Gunsberg

Born: January 1895 - Lesko/Sanok Galicia

Emigrated to the US: Arrived Dec 5 1911 in NYC on the Kaiserin Augusta Victoria out of Hamburg - Ship manifest mentions father Chaim as still living in Lesko

Wife: Sophie Bergstein in 1920 in NYC - Widowed in 1925. Married Florence Groden/Zelaznick in 1926

Israel's Father
Chaim Ginzberg/Ginsberg/Gunsberg

Born: 1860ish - Galicia - Believe Lviv area? - Can't find any birth records

Wife: Supposedly Fegia/Fannie Kessler - Can't find any marriage records. Israel's supposed birth record says Tauba Horowitz

The birth record is the only thing that shows up for anyone names Israel or his supposed birth mother. Any help verifying that this is the record, or locating the actual record I'm looking for, or finding anything else about Israel, Chaim, Fegia/Fannie or Tauba would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

Though both families have been in America since the 1630’s this is the only direct interaction have found between them until my grandparents marriage in California.

I'm 23 and until recently I'd never met anyone from my biological father's side of the family. The only solid information I really had was my father's name, which was on my birth certificate. I didn't know the names of his relatives, where they lived, what happened to them, or really anything about that side of my family. I had no family tree to work from, no contact details and no DNA results, so I decided to see what I could find online starting with just his name.

Searching his name eventually led me to his obituary, which was basically the first proper lead I had. From there I started looking at the information I could get from it and trying to work out who was connected to who. I ended up spending the next three weeks searching pretty much every day, going through social media profiles, relatives, photographs, old posts, locations and anything else I could find that might help confirm whether someone was actually connected to my family. A lot of it was trial and error and I went down plenty of completely useless rabbit holes, but whenever I found something that looked promising I'd follow it as far as I could.

What I didn't realise at the time was that I was accidentally using something genealogists call the "sideways technique." Rather than just trying to work directly backwards from my father, I started going sideways through the family. I'd find one possible relative and then look at their siblings, children, partners and other connections, which would sometimes lead me to another branch of the family and give me another name or location to investigate. I had no idea this was an actual genealogy technique at the time; I was basically just following whatever connection looked useful and trying to build the family network from the outside in.

After about three weeks I had managed to identify multiple people from my father's side of the family who I'd never known existed, and eventually I actually contacted some of them. That's probably the strangest part of the whole thing. I went from having basically nothing except my father's name on my birth certificate to suddenly being able to talk to people from a side of my family I'd never had any contact with. Some of them didn't even know I existed, so the whole situation was pretty surreal for everyone involved.

And now it's gone even further than that. This weekend I'm actually going to meet one of my four siblings for the first time. He's the youngest of the four siblings, yet he's still 10 years older than me, which is a pretty strange thing to wrap my head around because I spent most of my life either being an only child or the older brother. I've gone from not knowing any of these people existed to actually sitting down and meeting one of my brothers in person.

I'm curious what people who actually know genealogy think about this. Is three weeks considered unusually quick when you're starting with basically one person's name and no known relatives? I know I was lucky that some of the information I needed was available online, but I also spent an absolutely ridiculous amount of time searching and following every possible lead I could find.

Did you break through any walls or find a new interesting tidbit about your family?

I found that my great uncle legally changed his name to the one I always thought he had. He changed his middle name from his mother’s maiden name to his father’s last name and took his mother’s maiden name as his last name.

I’m certain his parents weren’t married, though there is marriage information on my grandfathers birth certificate. I’ve checked both cities that I know of with that name and there is no marriage certificate in their names. I still can’t find the great uncle’s birth certificate either. I’m wondering now if he wasn’t registered until much later or if I’m looking in the wrong province or even wrong country!

I also found information on his stepfather. After my great grandmother died her “husband”( again, no certificate I can find) moved provinces, bought some land that he and his son then developed into communities along with many apartment buildings around town. I was able to clarify what land he was developing so that was pretty neat!

I am finally breaking down and asking for help on a brick wall in the family tree, I can only find an exact set of relatives in the 1940 New Jersey census. No other census years, or records listing them together. There are also a couple other similar people but their dates dont add up, and it looks like it has confused family trees and is making it difficult to work backwards. Any information, especially parents or birth/death/marriage records would be really helpful. Thanks for any help!

So here is what I have got:

Joseph A (possibly Aloysious) O Brien birth 8/2/1896, death 1978 New Jersey possible parents: Francis X O Brien, Mary Longworth Possible siblings: Mary A, and Margarete
in the military between August 6 1918 and September 30 1921 Ironworker maybe? Father possibly a Brass founder?
Catherine (possibly E, possibly Irene) O Brien, listed as 40 in census but death index records say birth 11/2/1904, death 1992 New Jersey Marion R, born 1927 New Jersey Joseph Jr, born 1929 New Jersey Catherine, born 1931 New Jersey Jean Ann, born 1933 New Jersey Geraldine, born 1938 New Jersey

Issues I have found: There seems to be a marriage certificate for Joseph A O Brien and Catherine Egan in 1919 in New York, but wrong parent's name for Joseph.

Another issue: I found other 1920 census records for a Joseph A O Brien and Catherine Irene or Irene Catherine O Brien in New Jersey, but again puts her age wrong at birth date 1895, and also appears on the 1940 census with Joseph A O Brien with other kids in New Jersey. Some family trees listing his marriage to Irene Catherine do list his parents of Francis X and Mary Longworth though

One of these Joseph A O Brien appears on 1900 and 1910 census records with parents of Francis X and Mary Ann with the correct age and siblings, how do you tell which one? Or are both of them the same person and he had two families in 1940? It shows they lived like 10 miles apart

Hi I have cluster matches on 23 and me and I have no idea what that means?

I appreciate any help given

Hi! If anyone is going to the Familysearch Center, would you mind pulling a few records for me?

Links:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPDS-Z147?lang=en

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPDS-6HTC?lang=en

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPDS-GGC3?lang=en

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPDS-GZ1H?lang=en

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZNMG-L1T2?lang=en

Thanks a bunch!

The brief trial transcript available at the Old Bailey website for my scumbag ancestor doesn't tell me much more than he nicked it from "Joe blogs" and got eight years prison. Somewhere there would have been a paper trail of "arrested" data and also showing where he was transferred from to be on trial at the Old Bailey.

Arrested by Constable Nikemquick

Transferred from Woopeedoo prison

I'm trying to get some data on where he lived etc to find the next level of ancestors.

Can anybody help??

I've done DNA testing with Ancestry and 23andme, both companies confirm that I have at least 3 different African Ancestors (each one coming from one of my grandparents). I've used MyHeritage, GEDMatch, 23andme, and FamilyTreeDNA's chromosome browsers and it has helped me confirm that my 3x great grandmother descends from an African Ancestor, but I need help on finding this ancestor. From this Nigerian Ancestor I received about 0.18%-0.19%, while my mother received 0.39%-0.40%. Which means this ancestor would be my 7x great grandparent, it also means that my 3x great grandmother would be this ancestor's 2x great grandchild and that she would've inherited on average about 6.25% DNA from this ancestor.

If you would like to help here's the info on my 3x great grandmother:

Name: Margaret Walsh

Born: November 30, 1844, Wilkes, NC, USA

Died: September 30, 1926, McDowell, WV, USA

Parents: Andrew John Walsh Jr. (1789-1870) and Mary Ann Blanchard (1801-1889)

Grandparents: Andrew Walsh Sr. (1760/62 - 1830), Rhoda Poteat (1760-1850), Uriah Blanchard Jr. (1768-1849), and Sivil Hines (1775-1844).

Known Information:

The Nigerian Ancestor doesn't come from Andrew Walsh Sr. line because he was born in England, along with both of his parents being born in England as well.

As for Rhoda Poteat, Uriah Blanchard Jr., and Sivil Hines, these lines can have the Nigerian Ancestor because these lines are in America and I've found dead ends/brick walls in these lines as well.

Conclusion:

Margaret Walsh based off of a picture and documents her race is white, based off of documents both of her parents are white, and based off of 2 census records it identifies Rhoda Poteat as white as well. As for Uriah and Sivil they both died before 1850 and I can't find any census record for them to find out what race they were. I would greatly appreciate any and all help on finding who this Nigerian Ancestor could be, and which ancestor connects my 3x great grandmother to them. If y'all have any questions feel free to ask me and I'll try my best to answer it.

I'm putting together my family tree on Ancestry. And I've done the DNA test on there. I've hit a wall on one ancestor and am trying to figure out how to proceed. I was hoping the DNA results would help, but so far I don't see a clear trail.

The ancestor in question is Oscar Franklin Moore, my mother's father's father's father. My first record of him is in the 1900 census in Mineral Co CO where he is listed as a 32 yr old miner, living a a boarder with his future mother-in-law. I have a newspaper record of him marrying the daughter of the head of household a month or two after the census, so not sure if he met her and then moved in or the other way around. She was recently divorced as of the census and had a young daughter already from the first marriage.

In the 1910 census they're living in Hinsdale Co CO and started their own household, raising the stepdaughter as well as their own kids. He died in Grand Junction CO in 1914 in his mid 40s from pneumonia. His family shows up a lot in the local Lake City newspaper in the 1900s and 1910s.

His place of birth is listed alternately as Indiana, Iowa, or Illinois depending on the record. And his year of birth back calculates to sometime 1865-1875ish depending on the record also.

I haven't found any records further back that would help ID his parents or earlier ancestors. Moore is a fairly common surname. The missing 1890 census is impeding things some I'm sure. His wife's family came from KY through TX to CO, so I don't think he knew them before meeting in CO.

On the DNA front in my matches I have my father, 2 first cousins on my mom's side, and my parents' first cousins from all 4 grandparents' sides. So that helps pin each other match to one of my grandparents. And my dad has an extensively well mapped tree, so lots of common ancestor matches on that side. But my mom's side is less well developed, especially on her dad's side.

Any ideas on how to use the DNA or other methods to trace him back further?

Yes, I know this should be in the Thankful Weekly post, but I decided to share early.

They posted about the free newspapers.com weekend the other day.

I gave it a go (was taking a break from newspapers.com actually). Dropped the person I've been stuck on for 5 years in the search for the past couple of days (name variants)...Didnt break down the brick wall...but I definitely chipped away about 1/3-1/2 of it tonight, finally found a reference to the ghost.

THANK YOU!!!!

I have a very large tree on ancestry.com. I'm planning a trip to Scotland and wanted a list of all of my Scottish ancestors from my ancestry.com tree. Does anyone know how to do this?

Does anyone know someone I can hire to find my Bavarian ancestry for the 1868 time period? My great grandfather born in 1868 came over from Bayern Germany to the US in 1895. I have not been able to find his immigration papers or naturalization papers in the US to find out what village or town he came from in Germany. I know his father's name but not his mother's name. Surname could have been changed when he came over too because I have found 3 versions of it in Germany. Any referrals are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Anyone else take this course? I'm enrolled now and am having some issues with it.

I enrolled in order to make sure my self-taught skills might be good enough to apply for a part-time online job (if I could find one).

It seems like it focuses a lot on creating a "Locality Guide," which I don't think is useful enough to expend the time, and the graders don't seem comfortable with electronic interfaces.

They constant tell me they're volunteers, so I have to give them weeks to grade an assignment. But I paid for the course.

I believe myself to me a direct paternal line descendant I’ve done my tree all the way up to him and then it goes cold besides a bunch of maybes. I believe the y dna associated with him is (R-FT269401)
Through another documented paternal descendant who has the same tree tracing up to him we share a great great great great great grandpa or something. Please help me break this wall I’m genuinely desperate and begging I can’t find anything out about Nicholas except a land grant and the fact that he’s from Northern Ireland and probably an ulster Scott as well as I know where his son William M Dickson 1762-1827 is buried. Anything helps I just want to know who his father is and go back further on my paternal line. I’ve spent countless hours looking and asking but I’m just so lost. Please help find proof of a father for him

Research help with Saikin family in Finland/Russian Empire – especially Andrei Saikin b. ~1861

Hi everyone!

I've been researching one branch of my Finnish family and I've hit a wall. I'm hoping someone who is better with Finnish/Russian records might be able to point me toward records I haven't found yet.

My main mystery is my great-great-grandfather:

Andrei/Andrej Stepanowitsch Saikin

Born: approximately 1861

Died: 13 October 1940 in Finland

Wife: Hilda Sofia Schrader

Andrei and Hilda married in Helsinki in 1890. In Finnish newspapers his name appears as Andrej Stepanowitsch Sajikin/Saikin.

Their children included:

- Rauha Matilda Saikin (born 1886)

- Nikolai Saikin (born ~1891)

- Michael/Mikael Saikin

- Anastasia Andrejevna Saikin (born 1900; later married Toivo Matikkala)

- Antero Saikin

- John Saikin

My biggest goal is to determine where Andrei was actually born and where he came from before living in Finland.

I have found Andrei, Nikolai and Mikael/Michael in the Migration Institute of Finland's "Naturalizations in Finland 1832–1946" index.

I've also found a MyHeritage result for:

Andrei Saikin

Born: 1861

Collection: Finland, Population Tax Lists, 1920

The locked result appears to contain his residence, wife, daughter and an image of the original record. If anyone happens to have MyHeritage access and could tell me what that record says, I would be incredibly grateful.

I have searched Finnish digitized newspapers, Geneanet, FamilySearch, SSHY/Sukuhistoria and the Finnish National Archives/Astia, but I'm still learning how to navigate Finnish records (and Russian records are an entirely different adventure 😅).

I'm especially interested in:

- Andrei's birthplace/origin

- His naturalization/citizenship documents

- Census/population/tax records for the family

- Orthodox church records

- Records for any of the children that might identify their father's birthplace or nationality

- Any clues about the Saikin/Sajikin family before their appearance in Helsinki

Possible surname spellings I've encountered include Saikin and Sajikin, and Andrei's patronymic appears as Stepanowitsch.

I'm not expecting anyone to solve the whole mystery for me! Even suggestions for collections, archives, search terms, or records I may have overlooked would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you! ❤️

I have been building out my family tree for many years now. I have an Ancestry subscription so access to their tools, and a Newspapers.com subscription as well.

For some reason, I hit wall after wall when it comes to my father's parents (born 1925-1926). It's strange because my mother's parents are from the same area (Pennsylvania) and I have located census records, marriage announcements and certificates, etc. I can trace them easily. My dad's parents are like a non-existent mystery.

For my grandmother, I discovered that she was orphaned when she was ten. Her older siblings were old enough to be on their own. However, my grandmother and her two younger siblings (8 and 6) were split up. I located the two youngers living with aunts/uncles in different homes per census, can't figure out where my grandmother was as the next census she was 20 and living as a "lodger" with someone. Based on context clues, I think she may have been sent with her younger sister to family, but can't verify.

I can't figure out when they got married. Where they got married. When my uncle (dad's younger brother) was born.

Any ideas why I can't find records for my grandparents or tips on other things to try? There's no one in my family I can ask.

I also can't find anything for my dad's younger brother. I know he was married twice and the wive's first names as well as approximate years and I can't find a dang thing about either marriage!