My most valuable research websites: genforum and ancestry mssg boards

[Lefty48197]

I have had countless success using these two forums, and I've met literally hundreds of distant cousins using them. I even attended a "family reunion" with about 100 attendees, almost all of us having met on the internet!

The family members I have met have sent me countless documents, photos, stories etc. My favorite part of genealogy is finding old photographs. I've been sent photos of gr gr grandparents, and even a few gr gr gr grandparents dating back to the Civil War era. All because of the power of the internet!

When you go to one of the websites, you can post queries in national forums, state or provincial forums, county forums, there are even surname forums. Look for that obscure family name in the surname forums, and don't be surprised if it's there! Be sure to post your queries in the surname forum and the county forum. If you don't know the county, then post in the state forum. When your research takes you overseas, post in the Irish forum, or the German forum. Then go to the County Cork forum, or the Mecklenberg forum. They're all there.

I have had the most success posting in the U.S.A. county forums. You can get to them by going to the state forums, and looking for a link to counties. If you're looking for somebody in Green Bay, WI, for instance, then you go to the Brown County, Wisconsin forum, and post your query.

HINT: Put as much valuable information in the heading of your post. Then add as much information as you can in the main body of the post. For example: In the heading, you should post something VERY DESCRIPTIVE like, "John and Annette Wilson family, DePere, WI 1860-1890". Then in the body, you write something like, "John and Annette were married in DePere in 1862. Their children were ____ ___ ___, born in 1863, ___ ___. Daughter Susie married Frank Jenkins, and they raised their family in Green Bay. Son John Wilson Jr. married Bridget, and raised their family in Allouez, WI" etc. etc.

You'd be amazed how many people post things with titles like, "Need help with my family research". Those posts are a lot less likely to get read by a distant cousin, than the one with the very descriptive title!

I just cannot overstate how helpful these websites have been to me in my research. It's beginning to look like there isn't one single branch of my family that I can't connect with, and that's NO exaggeration!

Here's the forum at genealogy.com:
http://genforum.genealogy.com/

Here's the forum at ancestry.com/rootsweb.com
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/script/main/rw

Best of all, both forums are 100% FREE!

Anybody else had any success stories with these forums? I've used others, but these two are the biggies. Have you had any success with the other forums?

[CBHagman]

1. I found three cousins that way.

My second cousin and I have been e-mailing back and forth for about two years and swapping information. We "met" on a surname board.

Recently I've gotten in touch with a second cousin once removed, and he and I are just starting to get down to family lore trading and e-mailing photos.

While I don't discount the huge, huge value of sites like Familysearch.org and the requirement for old-fashioned research (i.e., mailing formal requests to vital records offices and so forth), the message boards have been very helpful in confirming relationships and just getting the connections started. In another age, I doubt I would have been able to locate many of my second, third, and fourth cousins without A) doing lengthy and serious investigations and/or B) running for public office. :-)

Hey, they say the fastest way to get a family history done is to run for office. They're always telling us Bush and Kerry are related (Poor Kerry).

[Cooley Hurd]

2. I cracked my Hurd family line via the Ancestry.com boards...

...via a message from a distant half-cousin. He has possession of the family bible with all of the handwritten names and dates on one of the endpages. Rootsweb, in general, is a wealth of free info, as well as the USGenweb sites, and associated state and county sites.:thumbsup:

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Yep, Lefty...me too.

I've found around 5 or 6 cousins this way. All of whom have been really generous with their photos. As have I.

One cousin sent me the first photos I'd ever seen of my Crittenden line. Absolutely amazing photos (someday I'll post them in the cool photo thread.)

My one GGgrandfather was a cripple, and had this amazing photo taken when he was old with a crutch slung across his lap. Because of that photo she sent me, I was able to ID another photo I'd inherited from my aunt. It was a long shot of a house with lots of little people standing in front of it-- but they were so small I couldn't ID any of them.

No names on it-- I didn't even know which branch it came from. Until I had my husband blow it up. In the very front we could make out an old man sitting in a chair with a crutch slung across his lap. Bingo! Crittendens!

Another cousin sent me the first and only picture I'd ever seen of my GGG grandfather, Melchior Smith, and his wife Jane Fish. THAT was thrilling.

And one more cousin sent me a studio photo of 4 of my Smith Ggrandfather's sisters in all their late 1800s finery. A fantastic picture.

I've had to start scrapbooking to do something with all these amazing photos and documents I've gotten. I've just finished my first 6 pages, and they look GREAT. Maybe I'll post some pictures of THEM too.

Genealogy and scrapbooking go together very naturally. Everyone should consider it. After obtaining all this stuff, you don't want it just sitting in a drawer, do ya?

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