Anyone traced their family tree?

[cailin maith]

I did this in 2000. I was looking for my dad as he left when I was a baby so I never knew him. I went to the registry office in Edinburgh and managed to find his birth cert. I also traced a few family members back to 1700.

Once I had this, I put an advert in the local paper in Edinburgh and within 1 week I had a call to say that a woman knew where he was. He was in Oregon, USA and had been for over 30 years.

I also found out that I had a half brother. When I got home that evening, I got a call out of the blue...."Hi, my name is Mark, I guess we are brothers"...which was a tough call as you can imagine.

He gave me my dad's email address and I sent him an email with the subject line of "Hey, long time no hear!"

The wait was agonising, I can tell you. It was mazing to get a response thou as one of the things that goes through your mind is "what if they don't want to know?"

I flew out in April 2000 to go spend some time with him after 33 years...the strangest trip I can imagine....

It turned out he was Director of IP Engineering for the largest Telecoms Company in the world and a very clever man.

He died in March from ALS so my thoughts to anyone thinking of looking for anyone, especially family, do it soon because you just never know when it is too late...

Wow - well done for being so brave.... After the guy Board Game Geek said about finding out he was adopted and all the chat that initiated, I've thought about looking for my mother but.... still can't decide.

I'm dead pleased it worked out for you.

[Bear]

Thanks for the advice guys, good to hear ancestry gets votes - this is the one I have joined.

interestingly I'm not getting results on the searches I'm making even though I'm sure I should be getting hits.

keep persevering!

[DS23]

I'm dead pleased it worked out for you.

[cailin maith]

Ah tulipe - sorry..... two feet straight in there!

[rootsnall]

About to start

Any tips, advice, good resources?

You need to track down an ancestor to the 1901 census ( latest released census ) to get yourself started. Name, age and a good idea on where they where living and you should be able to find them. I think you can get access for a fiver to various websites were you can search online, I'd do that before shelling out on any subscriptions. A rare name will help a lot, a common name and you may struggle.

[Bear]

You need to track down an ancestor to the 1901 census ( latest released census ) to get yourself started. Name, age and a good idea on where they where living and you should be able to find them. I think you can get access for a fiver to various websites were you can search online, I'd do that before shelling out on any subscriptions. A rare name will help a lot, a common name and you may struggle.

This is exactly where I have been struggling.

I have name and area living for the 1901 census and I'm getting no results!

[TheFaQQer]

It's frustrating when the family changes the name.

I nearly lost the trace of mine when for some reason they changed it from Saxe-Coburg-Gothe.

Charlie Teck.

[rootsnall]

This is exactly where I have been struggling.

I have name and area living for the 1901 census and I'm getting no results!

Try derivations of the surname, ages, place name, or think of possible mistakes that could of been made when it was transcribed and search on them. They may also have been avoiding the census man so try the 1891 or 1881 census.

[rootsnall]

It's frustrating when the family changes the name.

I nearly lost the trace of mine when for some reason they changed it from Saxe-Coburg-Gothe.

Charlie Teck.

I think we could be related ! What colour is your blood ?

[WotNxt]

If you have any Scottish relatives then I can certainly recommend www.ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk as a fantastic site. It is relatively cheap and has loads and loads of searchable scanned register pages.

Also just try Google searches for your ancestors names as there are a fair few people out there who publish the results of their own research and you may find a match. If you do then these are a gold mine of information.

Additionally, if you have a Mormon in the family anywhere then get in touch with them as they all research their "pedigree" and generate vast amounts of useful data for research purposes - I believe many of the genealogical websites are run by Mormons.

I managed to discover that I descended from the McGregor clan (who claim to be the original line of Scottish kings!) and also from a Norman Conqueror. Also may be related to Grace Darling (inspiration for the founding of the RNLI) but not been able to make the link just yet.

Good luck in your search and I hope you find it rewarding.

ps. I would also recommend GenesReunited which is useful for comparing notes with others as it automatically looks for matches between members' family trees and gives the ability to share trees and discuss connections with other members.