I find genealogy quite fascinating. Once you get into it, it's almost like an ongoing hobby that gets more fun as you manage to find more info about your ancestors.

Mom and I have done quite a bit of research on our ancestors, but we still have quite a bit of research to be done.

So...have you been working on your family tree?

Do you know where your ancestors came from or are you one of those people who never really bothered to ask about them? Have you done any genealogy related traveling?

No Ingrid, I've never researched my family tree. But it's something that's always intrigued me, so I'm sure I will in the future ;)

I haven't done any of the work myself, but ohter people in my family have and we have a book, must be 500 pages tracing my family on my fathers side back to the 1600's when they came to Massachusetts, from England. It lists everything right up to now

I don't know much beyond my grandparents, but have always thought about looking. I've been told I am related to the former mayor of Cincinnati through my materal grandmother. My mother's parents died when she was young and she was raised by her father's sister who isolated them from her mother's side of the family. My great aunt was a very manipulative person and left my mom with some emotional baggage. :no:

My oldest sister has a lot of materials on my Mom's side of the family. They have been in the U.S. since the late 1600s. I haven't gotten a chance to look at it. As a matter of fact my Mom called me to see if I got in touch with her to look at it but I haven't been able to. The materials included a geneolgy book and information written in a "bible."

I have done a little bit of research on my own with regards to my Dad's side of the family. My grandfather was born in Wales around 1885 and came to the U.S. in 1902. In Wales he was a railroad fireman. He fought in WWI and had a song written about him "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag." Prior to going to war he married my grandmother the night before he joined the army. Both of them had previous marriages and each had children. His Dad was born in Wales in the 1850's and his Mom was born in Northern Ireland around the same time. That is the extent of my research so far.

My Grandmother's Dad was full blooded Sioux Indian and had a picture taken with Sitting Bull which was one of only a few that were taken of him and is in the National Archives. Many of my Indian relatives died in the Battle of Little Big Horn.

I love doing research like this even hard to find stuff.

Here are the lyrics to "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag."
Pack up your Troubles

First Verse
Private Perks is a funny little codger
With a smile a funny smile.
Five feet none, he’s and artful little dodger
With a smile a funny smile.
Flush or broke he’ll have his little joke,
He can’t be suppress’d.
All the other fellows have to grin
When he gets this off his chest, Hi!

Chorus (sung twice after each verse)
Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile,
While you’ve a lucifer to light your ***,
Smile, boys, that’s the style.
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worth while, so
Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile.

Second Verse
Private Perks went a-marching into Flanders
With his smile his funny smile.
He was lov’d by the privates and commanders
For his smile his funny smile.
When a throng of Bosches came along
With a mighty swing,
Perks yell’d out, “This little bunch is mine!
Keep your heads down, boys and sing, Hi!

Third Verse
Private Perks he came back from Bosche-shooting
With his smile his funny smile.
Round his home he then set about recruiting
With his smile his funny smile.
He told all his pals, the short, the tall,
What a time he’d had;
And as each enlisted like a man
Private Perks said ‘Now my lad,’ Hi!

My oldest sister has a lot of materials on my Mom's side of the family. They have been in the U.S. since the late 1600s. I haven't gotten a chance to look at it. As a matter of fact my Mom called me to see if I got in touch with her to look at it but I haven't been able to. The materials included a geneolgy book and information written in a "bible."

I have done a little bit of research on my own with regards to my Dad's side of the family. My grandfather was born in Wales around 1885 and came to the U.S. in 1902. In Wales he was a railroad fireman. He fought in WWI and had a song written about him "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag." Prior to going to war he married my grandmother the night before he joined the army. Both of them had previous marriages and each had children. His Dad was born in Wales in the 1850's and his Mom was born in Northern Ireland around the same time. That is the extent of my research so far.

My Grandmother's Dad was full blooded Sioux Indian and had a picture taken with Sitting Bull which was one of only a few that were taken of him and is in the National Archives. Many of my Indian relatives died in the Battle of Little Big Horn.

I love doing research like this even hard to find stuff.

Here are the lyrics to "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag."
Pack up your Troubles

First Verse
Private Perks is a funny little codger
With a smile a funny smile.
Five feet none, he’s and artful little dodger
With a smile a funny smile.
Flush or broke he’ll have his little joke,
He can’t be suppress’d.
All the other fellows have to grin
When he gets this off his chest, Hi!

Chorus (sung twice after each verse)
Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile,
While you’ve a lucifer to light your ***,
Smile, boys, that’s the style.
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worth while, so
Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile.

Second Verse
Private Perks went a-marching into Flanders
With his smile his funny smile.
He was lov’d by the privates and commanders
For his smile his funny smile.
When a throng of Bosches came along
With a mighty swing,
Perks yell’d out, “This little bunch is mine!
Keep your heads down, boys and sing, Hi!

Third Verse
Private Perks he came back from Bosche-shooting
With his smile his funny smile.
Round his home he then set about recruiting
With his smile his funny smile.
He told all his pals, the short, the tall,
What a time he’d had;
And as each enlisted like a man
Private Perks said ‘Now my lad,’ Hi!

That is very cool! I really don't know much about my Dad's side. I think my Nana's family was french and My Buppa's family one side was from England and the other from Sweden. My maternal Grandfather's family landed on Ellis island in April of 1910 from italy. My Grandmother's family was from Portugal. I believe the Azores. Noone in my family really talks about my Grandmothers Mother for some reason. Whenever it's brought up there is a lot of whispering and subject changing. My family is strange. :lol:

I got really into genealogy about 6 years ago, but after a couple of years, I had gotten exhausted with it. I did manage to connect to my dad's side back 10 generations in some lines, and about 6 on my mom's. I even had some success with my wife's family lines. Some of my stuff is still on my website (http://www.geocities.com/nolanbuc/genealogy.html).

It's a fun & educational hobby that's easier than ever with the internet, but it can be time-consuming if you are doing it on your own.

Yeah, I traced my family tree on both sides. Traced my Dad's side back to when they came to America in 1832 from France. Traced my moms side back to Spain in the late 1700's. One of my ancestors fled Spain for Mexico, because he was wanted for piracy.

I traced my family tree once. It goes around in a circle.:p

I'd love to know about my family but It seems like it would be too hard. My Father never likes to talk about his parents, he didn't have a happy childhood and I don't have any Grandparents on either side left to ask!

I have family trees done on both sides of my family.

On my dads it goes back to 1860 to present. I believe my surname is French.

On my moms side it goes back to 1899 Italy.

Yup, my dad and I worked on ours (http://dobson.150m.com/tree/tree.htm), Earliest ancestors we found were both from my dad's side of the family.
One from 1621 in England
and the other in 1681 in Germany.

If you visit graveyards, you can also find a bit about relatives...especially if you know where they are buried.

I started my research in 1987 as a class project. I wrote to my grandfather's sister and she provided me with some names of her sisters and brothers (they had a HUGE family of about 12 kids.) And both of her parents (I later found out also had HUGE families.)

I got back into it hardcore researching (hanging out in courthouses and graveyards) in the mid 90s. Then I got married teh first time, and my first husband forbade me to go anywhere without him (he kept me on a short leash) and he had no interest in family research, so I gave it up. I got divorced and went back to researching again. lol Then I got married again, and now I drag my hubby to various courthouses and graveyards with me. :laugh: He's such a patient guy!

Although, like Nolan, I'm kinda burnt out on researching for now. It was alot easier when I was still working at the library, now I've moved a couple hours away and it's more difficult to research from afar.