1 day versus 17 years

[preciousdove]

I started looking for my Norwegian ancestors in 1986 and I spent 17 years just recently doing a major update on my Ancestry 14 day trial.

In 2000 I started on my new daughter-in-laws Swedish genealogy (in anticipation of grandchildren) and it took me about a month at the Historical Society, by mail and online.

When I was half dead with undiagnosed MS and misdiagnosed Lyme and my grandmother was dying in 1988 I decided to research in ernest I spent a lot of Saturday afternoons at libraries. In 1994 we replaced our Commodore with a PC and I discovered Electronic Bulletin Boards which eventually offered USENET groups. When the WWW was proposed (I have the BBS message I should frame it) the genealogists online embraced it, many originally from Rand Corp and historical societies, university history departments and other libraries. I worked on Prodigy and GE to start. Rootsweb was born out of a need to reduce spam, lock out trolls and increase reliability. Rootsweb at one time in the early 1990's had the second largest built from scratch servers on the internet, GE (General Electric).

As an aside. The BBS network and later the fledgling WWW was supported by porn later gamers. (The Virgina colony the survived largely because someone stole some tobacco seeds from the Islands and it became THE cash crop because of growing demand in Europe. The Virginia Colony was a business and it was otherwise a financial flop) On BBS there were two entrances regular and adult. We ignored the "other side".

Fast forward to 2005. I had an ggAunt who married three times, never had any children and traveled around the country setting up Gibson restaurants at train depots. Hard to trace where she was. She died in 1954. Two days ago I decided to take her second husband with an slightly unusual Swedish name and the fact that I knew where they were married and see what I could come up with in a day online. I found his parents birth records in Sweden, the passenger list where they came over, where the Naturalizations were done. That led me to the name the family first used here Anderson and the census records prior to 1900. They were from a state with extensive records on Ancestry so I could have done descendants to 2002. Obituaries. Plus I learned that on older brother was a contractor and built county courthouses. His work was subject of a newspaper article early this year. All in one day!

That extensive a genealogy in 1990 would have cost at least $3000 from a modest professional genealogist taken at least 60 days because of the cost of travel and procuring the documents. I could have gotten scans of the original documents from Ancestry for mini membership $99 or $199 for the year. As it was I got a lot for free. Unbelievable!

[fudge stripe cookays]

1. Wow! We're living parallel lives!

The MS and ancestry.com part, that is.

I just diagnosed in late June. I've been busting my butt the last 6 years searching for my Smiths, but SERIOUSLY busting it since January.

I persuaded reprehensor to let me have a free 2 week trial this weekend. I HATE ancestry for what they've done to free genealogy, but I'm hitting brick walls again until some of my newest batch of death certificates start showing up. I wanted to try it to see what I came up with.

I found a HUGE cache of WWI draft reg cards for my grandfather and about 5 or 6 of his cousins, birth information for a BUNCH of my newly discovered current day cousins up in Minnesota, birth info for some older cousins born in California, and more information for a branch I wasn't sure was in Alberta, BC, or Washington State. I found them in Everett, WA in 1930.

I love my Godfrey memebership, but they only have 1 state that I need posted for the 1930 censuses, which was REALLY beginning to annoy me!

I'll grudgingly admit I'm glad I did this. But I'm still canceling next Thursday before they charge me. Remember to call them 2 days before the expiration date or they'll still try to charge you! :-)
FSC