WOW!!!!! This is awesome!

[Stop_the_War]

I just recently found out something really cool. Through some searches on genealogy sites, I managed to trace my family back 10 generations to John Matthews (born 1749, died 1800) who was a Revolutionary War Veteran, Pvt., in the 3rd MD Regiment.

I thought it would be cool to share this with everyone here.

[LiberalVoice]

1. Cool!

Were these pay sites or no...I've always wanted to learn more about my lineage but didn't wanna have to foot the bill :P

[Stop_the_War]

2. they were free sites n/t

[LiberalVoice]

5. Anyone specific? nt

[Stop_the_War]

6. well I don't think they will be much use to you because

they are personal genealogy sites that people made themselves.

[Auntie Bush]

3. Way too kool! Congratulations!

[HamiltonHabs32]

4. what site?

whats the url? I wouldn't mind giving it a shot

[Stop_the_War]

7. kick

[Buns_of_Fire]

8. Congratulations! You're now eligible to join

the Sons of the American Revolution. (I didn't look too far around the site, since I'm not eligible for membership. Apparently, most of my male Revolutionary-War-era relatives were arrested and hung for horse-stealing. :shrug: )

[classof56]

9. That is very cool!

A relative of my father traced his mother's ancestors back to the Revolutionary War--but they were Tories who split for Canada when the shooting started, later resurfed in Iowa, after which one of them fought in the Civil War. Glad yours stuck around to fight the Red Coats!

I've engaged in some geneology searches. Quite time-consuming and addictive. Kinda like DU, now that I think about it! :-)

Tired Old Cynic

[Ironpost]

10. My grandfather was a soldier in the Civil War

[almostfamous74]

11. Nice!

My father has traced our lineage, at least here in America, back to the 1630's, when our ancestor who had the same last name, landed in Boston from Ireland/England. I know that I have family members who had fought in the Revolutionary War, which is pretty cool to me. We've had the same last name sine coming to America, which puts the pressure on me to have a boy as there has been one in every generation since then : )

[Maine-ah]

12. that is so cool!

I spent about a year working on my husbands paternal line, it was easy to start b/c we had 5 generations buried in the same cemetary down the road from where my father in law lives. His farm has been in the family for generations. From there I used some websites and other genealogies, and I traced back 32 generations! It gets confusing, but keep working on it! Good luck!

[WarNoMore]

13. I've spent a lot of hours in this endeavor.

There are way too many sites that have gone commercial, i.e. paying for information that was once freely accessable. Anyway, to help me trace various "brick wall" ancestors I also go into history of the particular area I'm looking. As I know that some of my ancestors founded the Primitive Baptist Church in northwest Mo., it has led me to search what religion they practiced before they became Baptists. This has led to research into the other religions that existed in that time period and the 2nd Great Awakening. If you like history, it can be quite interesting. By the way, the early Baptists were very much for the separation of church and state.

Besides finding many ancestors that served in *all wars* of the U.S., (that's one reason I get so worked up with Ollie North) and his phony-baloney patriotism), I guess one of the most fun facts I found is that some of my ancestors started the Burma Shave signs.

[LiberallyInclined]

14. my great great great great great grandfather served under Andrew Jackson

in the creek wars.
you might have heard of him- his name was Sam Houston.

i was able to trace my lineage back to some irish farmer in the early 1600's.