Ancestry
 

I just came across ancestry.com yesterday. It is a place where you can start a family tree and reseach gov't records for ancestors.

Has anyone here researched their ancestry? How far back were you able to go? I only got to my great great grandparents. My great grandparents signed the census of 1910.

On a side note, I am also researching the Jews from Spain and how they migrated to Latin America and the new world starting in 1492. 1492 was the same year that Columbus left for the new world and that the roman catholic inquisition was happening in Spain. Thus the reason for the Jewish migration to Latin America. There are serveral websites about crypto jews in Latin America. Two of my grandparents last names are listed as spanish jews from the records of the inquisition. Any comments?

Re: Ancestry
 

interesting history there dedicated, glad they came to the new world to escape the inquisitors, dt

Re: Ancestry
 

Where did you find the information on the spanish jews?

Re: Ancestry
 

there are several websites. one of the main ones is sephardim.com. It lists all of the spanish surnames that are jewish. sephardim is the name of the jews from Spain and Portugal. you can google it for more info. also a wikipedia article with more links. What part of Latin America are you or your husband from?

Re: Ancestry
 

Spain. My husband's last name is Moraga.

(as a side note, so is mine now!) :toofunny

Re: Ancestry
 

Moraga is one of the names listed at sephardim.com. It is referenced in the book "Sangre Judia" by Pere Bonnin. I just ordered the book on line from Barcelona. $28 plus $44 for shipping. The home page of sephardim.com seems to freeze up all of the time so try this direct link to the "M" page of last names. http://www.sephardim.com/namelist.sh...&search=search go to bottom of page to find name then use number to the right of name to find the reference book.

Re: Ancestry
 

I just accessed the website and did a quick review of it. My husband will LOVE this. I saw Moraga listed and and I also saw his mother's maiden name - Rivera listed as well. That is the side he would be interested in researching from the jewish aspect.

Re: Ancestry
 

Mine has already been traced.
DEGRAFFENRIED, THOMAS P., History of the deGraffenried family from 1191-1925.

Re: Ancestry
 

Great news! Glad I could help. My last name should be Rivera also. I have grandparents with Molina, Maldonado, Pagan, Vega and Diaz. Did the home page work for you? It always freezes up for me, don't know if its dialup or not.

Re: Ancestry
 

wow that's awesome, 1191? who did the tracing for you and what kind of records did you use? were they family archives?

Re: Ancestry
 

The records from the book are fairly easy to trace as the deGraffenreid name is well known in the local area of Switzerland where they came from, just outside of Bern. Baron Christophe deGraffenreid came to New Bern, in 1710 and his son stayed in America when he went back to Switzerland. I went to Worb 2 summers ago and took pictures of most of the grave stones there, and the pews with deGraffenreid carved into them at the church in Bern. It was pretty cool.

Re: Ancestry
 

ancestry.com is great and also cindyslist which may be spelled with a "y" instead of "i". It has been awhile since I have done any research. I love to do it, but it is very time consuming. :)

There used to be a chat room for generalogist that was helpful to ask questions from folks that do a lot of the research.

Re: Ancestry
 

just found cyndislist, thanks for the info.

Re: Ancestry
 

Welcome.

She also used to have a lot of links that were helpful.

Re: Ancestry
 

I researched my mother's family a couple of years ago. I used Ancestry.com, and a state library that had a lot of genealogy records. The baptism records of the Catholic Church were very helpful. I traced the family back to the 1500's in France. It was my Christmas gift to the family at an annual family gathering. And I agree with Ester, it is very interesting but very time consuming.

Re: Ancestry
 

I was able to open the ones that I tried. I didn't have alot of time when I was looking at it. He has an ancestry book at home that one of his aunts did a few years ago. I need to get it and compare it with what I can find on that website.

Re: Ancestry
 

My aunt did our family tree years ago. She got it back from my grandmothers side to 1700 and my grandfathers side she got back to 1500. She went over to Norway and did a lot of research.

My father's family we are not so good. We are just to the 1900's with them. So now we have to try & find some more about them.

Re: Ancestry
 

Rootsweb is another great genealogy site.

I've researched the Stuckey line of my family back to the early 1700's.

My Whitcomb line has been done already by people better than myself. They've got that line back to the 1300's.

I've only been able to get my Harper line back to the early 1800's, but found some really, really interesting material on them.

I can't go any further back than the late 1800's on my Hosler/Chavalier line. I've hit a brick wall that will not move on that one!

And I can't even make my self start out on my Smith line. I look at that as hopeless. Part of the Smith line includes the Croninger/Groninger line tho and I've got that particular branch back to the late 1700's.

If you get really interested and want them, let me know. I have lots and lots of websites for general genealogy. Good luck on your research.

Re: Ancestry
 

I just started looking at websites yesterday. I've only gone 4 generations back. I don't know what kind of searches I need to do next since Puerto Rico was captured from spain in the 1800's (I think). I need to check on that tomorrow. Do you know of any websites that specialize on catholic records from puerto rico or spain?

Re: Ancestry
 

That's better than More agua...

Re: Ancestry
 

:club:club

Re: Ancestry
 

The best place for you to start is on Cindy's list. There is an abundance of links of there that you can follow.

Also be sure to check out familysearch.org. That's the website for the Mormon church. They are huge in genealogy, so they have better records than anyone in the world. In fact, if you have an LDS church near you, it would be worth your time to go there to do research. They are always very willing to help you. You can usually research at their facility and then if you need something they will order it in from Salt Lake City for you to see. Most of that is at no charge to you except for the price of copying.

If you happen to live near Fort Wayne, Indiana (I don't know where you are, so I'm stabbing in the dark here) they have the second biggest genealogical facility in the world - second only to Salt Lake City. I've been there many times. Definately worth the trip. When you go, ask for help. The librarians are very knowledgeable. They will teach you how to do the research and even help you figure out what you should be looking for.

I'm going to see if I can find some direct links for you now. I'll let you know if I can find something :)

Re: Ancestry
 

try this site. It looks good. I don't know how much of it is not in English tho. You'll have to find that out. I didn't explore too much :)

Good luck

Re: Ancestry
 

I am an 11th generation descendant of Heinrich Felix Merkel, My son is the 12th generation.

Here is our family history as recorded by Rev. Herman F. Vesper of St. John's Lutheran Church, Canajoharie, New York, 1931.


MERICKEL FAMILY MIGRATION AND NAME HISTORY

The first of this family to come to America, arrived in the year 1710. They came as refugees from the German Palatine. Their trek to the New World had led them by way of Holland and England.

The name was originally spelled Merkel or Merckel and pronounced in German as "Mare-kil". The Palatines settled among, and intermarried with, the Dutch in Ulster County, New York. Here they soon were using the prevailing language which was Holland Dutch. (At Kingston chuch preaching was in Dutch until 1809).

The reasons behind the flight of our ancestors from the Palatine regions of Western Germany are given in the story set forth in the "Van Kocherthal Records", written in 1931 by Rev. Herman F. Vesper of St. John's Lutheran Church, Canajoharie, New York.

In 1673, twenty-five years after the "Thirty Years War" ended in 1648, Louis XIV of France began his marauding expeditions for the purpose of exterminating the Protestant heretics. Destructive raids laid waste to the Palatine countryside. This ruthless pillage continued until 1688 when the French King himself entered the land "to make it a wilderness" as he declared.

The villages, towns and farms of the Rhine regions were pillaged and burned, and their inhabitants tortured, ravished or slain. Few escaped the country. Those who survived were spared further horrors when, in 1705, England, Holland, Sweden, and Prussia intervened and threatened reprisals unless this carnage ceased. The way of Spanish Succession followed (1701-1713) but it touched only lightly on the already devistated country.

Added to the horrors of the war, there came further to harass the unfortunate Palatines the unusually severe winters of 1703 and 1709. Vineyards and orchards were blasted by the cold. Birds froze on the wing, fires failed to warm the shivering populace. Also, there came ecclesiastical regulations that made still more unbearable the life of these "poor, protestant, Palatines."

Their only salvation lay in migrating to other lands. The first group of 41 (men, women and children) left for England by way of Holland in 1708. They were led by the Rev. Joshua Von Kocherthal, a Lutheran minister, whose wife and three children were among the refugees. In London, they petitioned Queen Anne for permission to sail to one of the British Colonies in America. Hearing of their extreme poverty the good Queen granted them each a shilling a day towards their sustenance until a decision was reached.

England desired to expand her frontiers in the New World, so transportation for "these honest and laborious Palatines" was arranged on the British ship "Globe". A special act of naturalization made them "denizens of the Kingdom." (It is perhaps for reasons of gratitude that some of their immediate descendants, in the days of the American Revolution, seemed to have Tories and British sympathies-even to the extent of moving to Canada."

It was just 88 years after the voyage of the "Mayflower" that this first group of Palatines set sail. They landed 60 miles up the Hudson River and built a town they called "Neuberg", now called Newburgh, New York. Queen Anne supplied them with agricultural implements and foodstuffs for one year. In exchange, the Palatines were to supply lumber for the Royal Navy.

A year later, when pastor Von Kocherthal returned to England for additional aid, he found 3000 refugees there. They were living in tents on the Black Heath of London. The queen acceded to his wishes that they too be sent to America to join the others. This time a whole flotilla of vessels was needed. They sailed from London in the month of January, 1710. Among the ships was the "Globe", making it's second crossing with Palatine refugees.

For months this fleet of sailing ships with human cargo was tossed about on the stormy winter's sea. At least one ship was wrecked and 470 immigrants died during the voyage. Another 250 succumbed after landing in New York on the 14th of June, 1710. After a period of quarantine on Nutten (now Governor's Island, they proceeded upriver and settled on both sides of the Hudson, above Neuberg (New Town).

As time passed, some of the settlers moved on into the Schoharie Valley of New York and into parts of Pennsylvania. In the next few years Palatines migrated to the new land. Some of the ships landed at New York and some at Philadelphia.

One of the towns settled on the Hudson's west bank was West Camp (now Saugerties) near Kingston. Here the minister who worked with Pastor Von Kocherthal was Dominie Haeger of the Dutch Reformed Church. It is in the records of the Dutch Church atWest Camp that we first find mention of the name "MERKEL". It was here, on December 26, 1711, that a baby born on the ship "Globe" was baptized. It was Johan Adam Merkel, son of Fredrik Merkel and Barbara Alman.

We have no record of all the names in that second massive migration of the Palatine refugees, but from the baptismal record we know that Fredrik Merkel and his wife, Barbara, arrived with them.

Re: Ancestry
 

Thanks, but you didn't post the site. I'm emailing a genealogist at tracingthetribe.blogspot.com.

Re: Ancestry
 

LOL! So sorry! I guess my brain just went on vacation. Anyway, here it is...........

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~prwgw/

Re: Ancestry
 

very interesting might have to do this myself, yep

Re: Ancestry
 

ancestry.com has a 2 week free trial offer. after that you can use other websites.

Re: Ancestry
 

YEs this is another great research site.

Re: Ancestry
 

A couple of areas to consider searching:

1) Cementary records
2) Military records
3) Morman records
4) Census records
5) Ship records

Margie yes please post the sites you have found.

Thanks

Re: Ancestry
 

Some of these are just for fun. Others are for serious research. It'll probably take me several posts in order to do this......................

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

Re: Ancestry
 

This is a good one for figuring out a birthdate if you have a tombstone that says "May JOnes, died 5/14/1008, age 68 years 4 months and 3 days"

http://www.searchforancestors.com/utility/birthday.html

This one is just for fun........

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.c...s/thefunny.htm

I think you might have to pay a subscription here. I can't remember for sure tho...

http://www.gencircles.com/

http://www.genealogical.com/index.php

http://www.familyhistory101.com/map_census.html

Re: Ancestry
 

http://www.hackerscreek.com/formula.htm

This is an awesome site even if you are not into genealogy!!

http://www.animatedatlas.com/movie.html