I am trying to trace my family history back to the 1700's. I have a lot of information that a cousin gave

Question

me. I think that most of it is correct, but there is one "generation" that seems strange. I have looked at the family history sites that come up from Google, but they all seem so complicated, I don't know where to start. Can you tell me of one that can answer a simple question for me?

Answer 1

If the part that you are stuck on in you research is as far back as 1700 then the web based sites such as ancestry.co.uk won't be able to help as their online records don't go back that far,,, so you should go to the local studies dept or records office in the place these people were living,  as all the info is on micro fiche .  Otherwise Ancestry is a great site got family history back to 1750 on there.

Answer 2

http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/d...

will answer most of your simple questions, if the question involves "when and where?" for someone who died in California 1940 - 1997, except

1) The surname, father's surname and mother's maiden names are sometimes mis-spelled or truncated.

2) Once in a while the first and middle names are reversed.

3) Once in a rare while the age at death doesn't match the age you get by subtracting birth year from death year.

ALL the genealogy sites are like that - created by humans and thus subject to error. I picked it because I use it a lot. You didn't mention a date range or a country, so I figured any of the 400,000 I picked would be wrong anyway.

To take another example, the Mormons put the 1880 census on-line.

Back in 1880, your 3rd great grandmother took her best guess at where her husband was born, where his parents were born and how he spelled his first name. She might not have gone to school. She might have been speaking around a wad of chewing tobacco. She may have been drinking. She may have offered the jug to the enumerator.

He wrote down what she said in pencil and took it (and hundreds of other little slips of paper) back to the office, where he fillled out the official form with a fountain pen. He may have taken a little sip of something to keep his whistle wet. He tried to remember what that little note he made on the rough copy meant. He probably wasn't a college graduate either.

100 to 120 years later a Mormon, who isn't drinking but may be working late at night, with an old pair of glasses, looks at that 1880 census and types what seems reasonable.

Today you call it up and there is your 3rd great grandfather, filtered through:

1) His wife

2) The enumerator

3) The Mormon Volunteer

and maybe John Barleycorn as well.

You might want to verify your cousin's work with the census, at least, if you are in the USA. The Family History Center near you has free access.

How you start is by working backward one step at a time, verifying all you can.

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/f...

and

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/...

are the biggest free on-line data bases. Neither is infallible. There are bulletin boards devoted to specific surnames and specific counties in the USA. You could search them.

Write if you'd like specifics.