If you have a spouse, half-sibling or a step-sibling, would you...?

Question

...spend your time and money researching their side of the family tree? It's not like it would affect yours if you didn't.

I've been lucky, and my mother-in-law has already done my partner's side. I think it's important for when you have kids, so that they know where they come from too.

I have a half brother, and I want to research his side (my stepmum's family). Not for me, but for him - if he wants it in the future.

I don't have stepsiblings, but I don't think I'd bother with going further back than their grandparents.

What would YOU do, and how far would you go to research them?

Answer 1

(First published in Missing Links: A Magazine for Genealogists

The Petunia Press

Volume 7, No. 13, 31 March 2002)

I took up the grand chase about 35 years ago, after talking with my grandmother about some silver spoons her great-grandfather had made from 12 silver dollars for his daughter's wedding. I have gotten more involved since Al Gore invented the Internet, and now have collected information about 4,113 individuals, which I have put on RootsWeb's WorldConnect, GenCircles, and my own Web site.

A lady found one of her ancestors on my site and wrote: "Are the persons listed on this Web site connected in some way? I am anxious to find out even more about my ancestors . . ."

I replied, "Yes, they are" and gave her more detail than she expected.

I started with my direct ancestors. I added my wife's direct ancestors for our children's sake. People with one child look incomplete, so I added everyone's siblings. Since the surest identifier of someone is his/her spouse, I added all the spouses I could find. I have some half-siblings. If two or more siblings married into a family, I try to have their parents to show they were indeed siblings, not just people with the same last name.

By now we were losing our second-best cat whenever he hid in the front yard, and the neighbors were asking if I wanted to borrow a lawn mower. My first cousin's son was the only one of his generation (our children, all my nieces and nephews, all of my first cousins' children) to show any interest in my hobby, so I worked on his line too.

No one likes to paint fences, and one of my sisters-in-law may or may not have been related to Ulysses Simpson Grant, so I added another line.

The Indians kidnapped my brother-in-law's fifth great-aunt in 1793. I started microwaving dinner so I would have time to work on his line.

A lady gave me a memoir about life in Nebraska at the turn of the century, written by Hazel Cady, who lived in a sod house, went to a one-room school and killed rattlesnakes with a stick. Hazel may or may not be related to my Cadys. The only way to find out was to trace her line.

I'm still working on it. In cold weather no one notices if you don't change your socks daily, which gives you five minutes extra for more important things, like dead relatives. A lot of people ask if I'm related to another Pack they know, so I am slowly gathering the descendants of Samuel Pack, born about 1755.

Finally, my son's best friend may be related to John Wesley Hardin, the famous gambler, drunk, philanderer, and outlaw. If he is, it will give him bragging rights beyond compare on the sixth grade playground. The only way to find out is to start tracing, so I'm doing his line, too, although I haven't posted the data yet.

The more people you meet who do genealogy, the more normal I'm going to appear.

Answer 2

Like HSK's mama, I've being researching for so long that I rarely find anything new on my own family but I help others for the fun of researching.  I started researching long before PCs and the Internet, so I copied out by hand anything I found for the surnames I was researching and usually included a lot of the neighbors, too. This "whole-earth" approach helped me and over the years most of the names I copied out are now connected to my family tree.

My pedigree will never lead to someone Royal, but my  family history -- all the cousins and halfs and married-ins -- have added to the lives of my ancestors and to my descendants. I don't want any of them to be forgotten.

Answer 3

Hi,

I have been doing genealogy since 2000. I always try to go back as far as I can within the united states no matter what their realationship is to me. I am actually doing this very thing right now for my son. Let me explain my son was born out of wed lock, so I am doing his (my son's) bio father's side which is a challenge as his father was adopted as well as his father's mother (grandma) Also my son's father had a child with another woman before me, but I am having a difficult time locating that birth mom. No matter what we are all related in some way all the way through history of man. I think it is just a personal pref. if you want to go ahead, if not then don't.

Answer 4

I believe that the family tree, is exactly that, like a tree, it is not a pole ! I've been working on my own, and other's genealogy for over 30 years, I will follow any and all lines, and the branches off of all of those, it is a part of the enjoyment and challenge of a great hobby ! It is fun when you find marriages of today reconverging several generations back, you can also find that someone you have perhaps known as a friend for many years is in fact a cousin 6 times removed !

Answer 5

I have only just started out doing my side of the family - my husband is not at all interested in his side of the family.  So at the moment I am just concentrating on my own side.  Although it would be interesting to find out about his side at same point.

Answer 6

When you have been researching for as long as some of us have, you tend to research practically any line that comes your way just for the sheer love of research.  I have enjoyed researching my spouses lines and I have even researched lines of aunts and uncles related only by marriage. When I do grab a line to research it,  I typically ride the wave as far as I can easily, but won't usually invest great amounts of financial resources to do it.  It keeps things interesting to learn about other family members families.  It sometimes makes you realize more about why they are the way they are.