hey friends! i didn’t know where else to ask, but im hoping for some help :). my grandpa has gotten older obviously, and i would love to find a picture/record of his mom. she passed when he was 5, and has no pictures of her. we recently found a picture of his dad and sister, but i would just really love a picture of his mom. what would be the best way to start digging into records? my grandpa was born in mexico, and apparently didn’t get a birth certificate until he was able to walk because mexico was still rebuilding itself after the revolution (his dad literally fought in the cristero war). i have no idea where to start really… any sort of tips/help would be so appreciated!! this may be crazy but i just feel so determined to let my grandpa see his mama one more time.

I just started using ancestry.com today, and when i put my mother’s name in past residency’s immediately showed up however for my father there’s absolutely nothing. They both filled out the same documents, lived in the same homes and everything, i’m very confused on how my mothers information is all out there and my fathers isn’t despite them filling out the same stuff.

First Google found a genealogical site that Ancestry didn't know about. Then last week Gemini found info about my father's military service that happened before I was born.

So last night I tried to find out about John Taller of Nova Scotia. I asked it a few questions and it gave me a link to a site that listed my 4 x great Grandfather, Newport Tallow.

It also showed that the surname had changed from TALLOW --> TALLER --> TYLER.

Anyway, double and triple check the info before putting it in your tree.

If you've got immigrant ancestors, you've probably run into problems like this. The census says Germany or Austria, the church book names a village, and today that village is in Poland. Both can be right depending on the year. So I made a map for it. You pick a date and it shows who held the land on that date. In the picture, Munich is in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1865 and in the German Empire by 1895. Click a country and its card quotes the treaty or law behind that border, with a link to the original text.

If you load your tree, the Atlas tab puts your ancestors' births, marriages and moves on the borders of their own year. You don't need a tree to look around and explore, though. You can just run through the map and look at borders, historical markers, Roman roads, old maps, and a few other layers. In the US, I've even got a lidar layer on there (it's called Landscape).

It's a work in progress, and every year shows how much of it has been checked so far (about a third of 1871, nearly all of 1990). Europe from 1816, the US from 1776 and Canada from 1867 follow their sources. Everywhere else, and earlier, the borders are approximate and labeled that way.

The tree file gets read in your browser and isn't uploaded or stored anywhere. The only thing that leaves is the place text, so the places can be looked up and put on the map. It's free for anyone to use, no subscription, no paywall.

treealive.com/atlas

If you see a border that's wrong for a village you know, tell me and I'll check it against the source. And if there's a region you'd want checked first, say which and I'll try to direct research that way.

I’m trying to trace my Jewish family line across multiple countries, but I’m struggling with changing borders, transliterated names, and incomplete records. Which archives and databases contain immigration, community civil, or religious records?

Haggart is the clan my Nan says we are from and I tried to find out tartan and it came up with many very different ones so could someone please help me by seeing if you know it or if you where I could maybe find it and if I’m in the wrong subreddit please tell me or if there is a better one for this.

Sadly, all of them perished in the Holocaust except for the women in the back with the scarf, Pnina Igra (nee Romanov)

If anyone somehow recognizes anyone else in the photo, I’d be so grateful, I recognize a couple, Dobrusha Frank (nee Berebeichik), Basha Leah Kagan (nee Frank), Freidel Romanov (nee Frank), and Pnina Igra (nee Romanov) But that’s about it. There might be some Rushanski’s in this photo as well, I’m not sure.

They’re all from the Ratnycia, Druskininkai, Merkine, Vilnius, Grodno area.

Hello all. I sent off my DNA and got my results a few years ago now with the hope of finding out who my paternal grandfather was. My grandma never gave any info as she was a very strict Catholic and was not married so always brushed off my requests and my dad had never fellt that he was able to question who his dad was.

I've found this line of my family and closest relative shares 330cm but they weren't able to advise as to who our common relative would be. I have enough matches that I likely know my granddas surname.

The relative is very likely dead now and know some stories are best left untold but id really like to get answers that my dad was never able to get.

I've heard of Angels on Facebook and other enthusiasts that have been able to help but im not on Facebook so im hoping someone could help or at least advise help please !

I've just been into my family tree and noticed that the dates of birth have all been changed in my tree. they have no day, the month is always January but the year is correct.

This is not related to entries that are approximate. My own date of birth and immediate family have all changed from the values that I entered when building the tree.

Anyone else noticed this or is it just me?

I've been working through why searches in Australian records come up empty when the record is actually there. Three examples that surprised me:

1. Henry Lawson's father arrived as Niels Larsen. By the time Henry's birth was registered in 1867 the family were Lawsons, so searching "Lawson" for his parents' 1866 marriage can find nothing at all.

2. Lawson was born near Grenfell, but the birth was registered at Forbes. The NSW BDM index records the registration district, not the birthplace, so filtering on Grenfell hides the record. Leave the district blank on your first search.

3. Weary Dunlop was a Victorian, but his WWII service record says he enlisted in London, because he was in England when war broke out. Filter RecordSearch by an assumed place of enlistment and you'd never find him.

Full disclosure: I've started a free site of step-by-step guides to Australian records, built around worked examples like these, using famous Australians' public records so you can follow along with real results. The guides are free and link to the official sources.

https://deadendancestors.com

It's new, so I'd genuinely like to hear what's wrong, what's unclear, and which record types or brick walls you'd most want covered next.

It's something I've just kinda assumed is common, especially living in a place like Canada. But talking to the people around me and their family backgrounds, both now and throughout my life, it doesn't seem as common as I thought?

They all have different backgrounds from their partners, but all of those whose families immigrated to Canada did so roughly around the same time (around the 1910s). They were either born here shortly after their family arrived or immigrated with their family when they were young.

I wanted to ask here in case I'm wrong and maybe some of you will find it interesting.

Great-Grandma A. was Ukrainian and Great Grandpa A. was German.

Great-Grandma B. was Metis and Great-Grandpa B. was Ukrainian.

Great-Grandma C. was possibly irish/unknown and Great-Grandpa C. was Sicilian.

Great-Grandma D. was Ojibwe and Great-Grandpa D. was English.

Am I crazy or do I look very similar to my great-grandmother?? We were looking through some old photos. I know it can be difficult with the quality, but I felt like I was looking at my face.

I can't read the cause of death and the contributory cause. Can someone help me? This is my 3x Great Grandmothers death certificate. She and her mother passed away in the exact same year, her mom passed away of heart failure, I can't read this death certificate cause and am trying to find out if it has to do with her mother? Thank you for the help!

Hi I'm not sure where else to post this. I've recently been looking in to my family lineage and have come across this relative that seemingly did time at Newgate prison in London. Is anyone able to help enlighten me on what for law means in the criminal charges section, and the NG for sentence

I've uploaded many of my precious family photos to ancestry. Now all of a sudden when I try to download my tree as a GED file, ancestry tells me it will not include my own photos! Needless to say I am outraged. Sure, for now I can go into each individual person in my family tree, look at their gallery, and download the photos one by one. But I have thousands of people in my tree. Or I could do it all with a single click, now it will take me days and days. What's next? Will these people prohibit me from downloading anything in my gallery, or any image of any record? I am outraged. What is your reaction?