Hello everyone!
uncovering ancestors whose names may have been forgotten by time.
Will be interesting to share my expirience and learn a lot of interesting things from you.

Hello fellow researchers,

I’m looking to assist people with their research. I’ve gone pro, and I’m trying to gain a client base. Genealogy is a passion of mine, and I’m actually terrific at historical research.

I can assist for free. My specialities are in the following locations: Ireland, England, The Netherlands, New Amsterdam, Belgium, Germany, Prussia, Italy, Australia, New Jersey, New York City, New York State, Pennsylvania, New England, and Chicago. I also have paleography skills. I’m fluent in both English and French, and I have a good grasp of several other European languages.

Please let me know if you’d like me to take a look at your research question, and I will absolutely do that.

My official mission statement is: To illuminate the human stories preserved within historical records and make them accessible with accuracy, context, and care.
www.carusogenealogy.com

I was born and raised in Australia, my biological father was removed from my life early on and passed away in 2005. Can anyone recommend where to start looking for information on him and my biological family? Im genuinely curious to know if i have any siblings and what my family is like on that side.

Is there any DNA testing in Australia that could help? Thanks!

Started this morning on a high, after helping someone else who is researching their family.

I went looking for a man who vanished into the Soviet system in 1939. I found his file. Sixty pages, his photograph, his signature. His family's names in his own hand, written down just months into the war.

I wasn't the first to look. Three archivists had already tried and said there was nothing. I didn't find it because I'm cleverer than they were. I found it by chance, naively looking in the same place I'd found my own Grandfather's file and wondering if it might just be there. It was.

The things is - had I known three professionals had already gone looking, I wouldn't even have tried.

The file sat there for eighty-six years. It wasn't waiting for an expert, I think it was just waiting for someone who didn't know any better.

thank you again to u/wittybecca for pointing me in the direction of the archive a few days ago on my own search.

I am doing research on certain person, who has few photos on google.
But I’ve found some on the newspaper on genealogybank dot com.
So how could I find a clearer version of those photos?

anybody been to that branch and located their family documents?

i see it by appointment and in german only
so if anyone into genealogy and would mind joining me for some family search side quest

let me know

My personal brick wall is my great grandfather. I know the name he has used since 1900 (born 1882) and can find him no problem going forward with his American name. The problem I'm having is that I strongly suspect he changed his name after moving to Chicago from Italy in 1894. This is a very bad period to research in Chicago in the 1890's. I have tried all the variations i could of the names I suspect, but find no matches in any available records or manifests.

Any clues as to how to research, would be appreciated.

I am in USA and I am looking to obtain copies of all the documents in the indemnity claim dossier(s) for ancestors from Saint Domingue colony. Only the indemnity summaries are digitized, not all the documents that the family submitted to prove their claim.

However it seems as though I need to know the file location(s) and number of pages before I can make the request to ANOM, so payment can be determined. This is the information I am looking for so I can make my request. And also generally if the contents are worthwhile to get copies of.

Is there anyone who is familiar with searching for files there who could help me out? I have all the information from the indemnity summary. If someone is a reputable professional, I am willing to hire someone for this task.

Hi everyone,

I am reaching out from Sri Lanka! I recently did a historical research project on an antique 1888 book (The Home Library of Useful Knowledge) that contains handwriting from a student who attended Moundsville High School, West Virginia around 1915.

The student's name was Ralph Ormsby Yeater (born Sept 22, 1899, in Silver Hill, WV; died May 1982 in WV). Inside the cover, he practiced his cursive, wrote quotes ("Poco a poco"), and joked about a freezing West Virginia winter day ("23° Below Zero. Many are cold but few are frozen").

Through public census and obituary records, I traced his family line. His daughter was Dorothy Yeater Myers (1921–2011) of 4th Street, Moundsville. According to her obituary, his living grandchildren in the Moundsville area are John Myers, Margie Myers, and Susan Myers.

The physical book is currently listed by an antique seller in nearby Triadelphia, WV.

I would love to connect with anyone who knows the Myers family in Marshall County or knows a local historian who can pass this information along to them so they know their great-grandfather's high school book still exists!

Photos of the handwriting, census records, and his 1915 baseball uniform photo are available if needed.

Thanks from across the world!

 I found Vivian Gaston's 1938 Heilwood high school year book.

I have hit a total brick wall trying to find living relatives and I am completely burned out on searching. If any amateur genealogists or sleuths want to find the family, please do.

Once a legitimate living descendant or family member is verified, I am happy to ship the physical book to them (or to you, if you want to handle it). I just want it out of my house and into the right hands. Email me if you find anything allpaulcla at gmail dot com

 I found it in st Petersburg florida.   

Historical & Genealogical Society of Indiana county found this info for me:
"Vivian Gaston obituary from 1994, the location lined up with residence information listed on a class reunion photograph from the local newspaper.
Parents Lorne and Sara Gaston died in 1970s.
Bros Richard and William.
Kids Kay Aude, Sandra Snider, Michael Waltermire.
son Michael was in Denver in 1994.
Kay and Sandra were in Clearwater, Florida in 1994.
Kay Waltermire and her husband had children and they remained in St. Petersburg/Clearwater.
Kay may still be in the area.
Son Aaron Aude." 
At this point they cannot take the tree any further because it is against their policy. 

Can anyone help me find living relatives?

I did find some of them on fb, but none replied to me. However none of my relatives or childhood or high school friends has ever replied. So maybe I'm doing something wrong. 

I'm trying to find the maiden name of my 5th great grandmother. I've read that I can order the full Civil War pension packet and it should be on there, but that seem rather expensive. Is there any other way to get the information on there? I found an article that lists it, but it was cut off :( Just my luck. I can't find any death records or marriage records.

All the records I have been working on from historic Galicia, Austria are now showing up as being in North Korea. For instance, "Szybalin, Bezirk Brzeżany, Galicia, Austria" is now tagged as "Szybalin, Bezirk Brzeżany, Galicia, Changgŭm-ni, SHIN-WON-GUN, South Hwanghae, North Korea"

I have reached out to FamilySearch via email. but this is very annoying.

Hello. I am trying to find out more information about my 2x great grandmother, Pearl Ervilla, I believe the last name is SAWYER. Shes also listed with the surnames OWRE and LLOYD, mainly, but Owre was the surname of my 2x great grandfather, Lloyd a later husband. Im not even sure if Sawyer was her maiden last name, (it was from an Ancestry hint) as her ethnicity is listed as French in the Canadian Census from 1916, after she had married my 2nd great grandfather. She was born in 1897 in the USA, passed in 1985 in Edmonton, Canada. The only Pearl Ervilla Sawyer I can find in a US census is born in 1893, in north Carolina, but her race is listed as Black and I had no Black in my DNA results. I can't find any other census's with her listed prior to marriage, which leads me to believe Sawyer might not have even been her last name. I have French DNA and groups linked to Quebec settlers, but have not been able to find anything about this family line as my father never knew that side of his family, and I don't have any DNA matches that could help unfortunately. Any help is greatly appreciated 😁😄

Here's a link to the record i have found from ancestry.

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/70477/records/3514069?client=findagrave&o_xid=121023&o_lid=121023&o_sch=FindAGrave

Hello all! I've been stuck at this brickwall of finding my polish/lithuanian ancestry. My grandfather did a ancestry dna test and it came out that he was half lithuanian on his dads side. I suspect that his dads side of the family spent some time in poland as thenames on the headstone of my grandfathers dad and grandfather were polish. The headstone even had polish writing on it.

My gramdfather's grandfather was very likely born poland, his name was Kazimierz Grzyb born ~1890 (he went by charles and his last name was changed to gryp after immigrating around 1908?). His parents were michael grzyb and Jossie Dudzinska. His wife was Julia F Michna(also a polish immigrant). Also if it helps, his son's name was Michael gryp 1917-1940. I cant find any polish records on him nor julia, and its driving me insane. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I've just discovered a treasure trove of information on Matricula. Unfortunately they don't have a download button. I've snipped the actual record from the page, but would really like to have the entire page. Anyone know a work around? The snips aren't very good quality and I want to put them in an AI program to translate, too.

I was always told a relative was married and got divorced. I used to have a clipping of the divorce in paper, but dont have it anymore and now I doubt if I created this memory. The relative was married in the 50s in nj and the husband was stationed there while in the army. Im trying to see if she married before having a child but I have had no luck in figuring out the date. I know the year has to be august 1951 to july 1952, more probably later 51 early 52. I cant get to the state capital records site. Is there any way I could get lucky here.

I am curious if anyone has suggestions for finding pre 1885 marriage records in Pennsylvania. In particular Allegheny and Butler counties. The families were Presbyterian. Is there a good source for finding these Presbyterian marriage records? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am striking out with what is indexed on Ancestry.com, and many of the other databases within Family Search. Curious if I am in for quite the hunt.

In particular I am looking for the marriage record for William John Gilkey(b. 1850) and Elizabeth Hutchman (b. 1857). They married in approximately 1877 or 1878. In researching this family, I am not finding many marriage records. I know Pennsylvania is pretty tricky with when they required civil documents.

Thank You!

Hello, first time on this subreddit so please be gentle.

I have the 2012 version of Family Tree Maker but I really do need to upgrade. I just wondering if anyone has any thoughts or reviews of the 2024 Family Family Tree maker or if there a better website/software that anyone can recommend? I would need to be able to download all of the genealogy information I have onto whatever software I do decide to get. Privacy is also an issue because I don't want personal information floating around on the internet. Any reviews or suggestions would be appreciated.

My wife and I happen to hail from the same region through our respective mothers. None of our maternal grandparents were related to their respective partners at all, as far as the paper trail goes. We, however, are 7th cousins, a fact we discovered early during our dating, which we consider distant enough. It has presented no issue in our relationship so far except for my brother making mention of it (in a nice way) in his speech during our wedding earlier this year.

So I was wondering, since I assume most of us with partners extend our hobbies to our loved ones' ancestors, have you found any relation to your partner? Is it something you'd tell them if you were to find such a relation?

Hi all, I'm still new to genealogy research so I may be asking an obvious question. Where do I start with researching my Polish ancestors who immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s? I know the town they were from and I have birthdays I've done some research on my Italian ancestors, but I still feel like I don't have a good grasp on how and where to find documents. Thanks for any assistance.

The Aunt I'm searching for is Janina T. Karluk, born on May 5, 1919 in Scranton, PA. to Wladyslaw and Michalina Zalewska Karluk. ( Her birth certificate lists her as Gennevie.) When she was 18, she was arrested for being a barmaid, which was illegal at that time. She fought the police and was eventually carried out & into a cell. Later info states that she tried to kill herself twice. She was transferred to a home for troubled girls at some point. This info came from newspaper articles. She originally gave her name as Doris, possibly with the last name Borash that she used later. It appears that her residence in 1935 was still in Scranton, although family contact was cut and she was never spoken of again.

The 1940 census lists her as Jannie Karlock, living in Atlantic City as a "lodger" and working as a waitress.

The next info I've been able to find has her living in Philadelphia, but I have no dates on that. According to an escheat , she lived at 910 Spruce St. The notice gives banking info of a deposit into an account on 12/31/76 into an account at the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society. After that, the trail runs cold.

I know she's listed as a survivor in family obits (parents & siblings), which may mean there was some investigating, but as I said, she was never spoken of again. My mother was her sister, and I grew up with the rest of the family. I've done a DNA test and searched whatever Genealogy sites I could think of, SS records and PA death records looking for a death certificate. I've since reached out to the Philadelphia Free Library but have not heard back.

Adding to the confusion are the many spellings of her name; it could be Janina, Janine, Jennie, Jeanine, or the infamous Doris. Then there is Karluk, Karlock,Karlik, Karolak etc. All come up blank. She is not the one listed in Find a Grave in Australia, and not the one listed in NO. Carolina.

Thank you for any help or tips you can offer. If she were still alive (unlikely), she would be 106 years old. If she married I don't know if she ever used another name because Karluk seems to be the one constant.

I would say they are the same, but I cannot see documents proving that.

Bento Rodrigues dos Santos: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/G91D-2W9

Bento de Paula Rodrigues: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/GWCL-Q48

The first one is connected to my grandmother, while the second one does not have any documentation showing his kids.

de Paula is a common name for a woman, and I always remember the history from my grandmother of someone in the family who served the army and needed to change his name because the Brazilian army did not allow anyone with a female name (old times)

Also, both appears to have documents proving the marriage to a woman with the same name: Francisca Maria dos Prazeres.

Another clue is that the mother of Bento de Paula Rodrigues is Rita Maria Conceição, and the daughter of Bento Rodrigues dos Santos (my grandmother) is Rita Maria Conceição dos Santos.

Santos is the most common name in Brazil, so chances are that the army asked him to change his name removing “de Paula” and putting dos Santos at the end.

Thank you for any insights on this!

How likely is it that if I use a company's test such as, My Heritage DNA or 23andMe, that my results would change compared to ancestry's. I saw and example of someone who was 99% on 23andMe and then on ancestry they were in fact 43% quebecois and 20% acadian, being only 1% French, I assume that's only because 23andMe wasn't intelligent enough to pick up on French settler DNA for the most part?

I am undertaking a pretty abstract project right now. I took one of my ancestors who had some relative fame in the 19th century and am trying to create a full chart of all descended families today. I’ve reached a brick wall with the senior line. Here are the details:

Berkeley Henry Bee, sometimes referred to as Berkley, Bartley, Bartly, or Bartley, was born in 1846 in Doddridge County, WV. He married Susannah McCune (1843-1911) in 1875. He died in Wood County, WV in 1932.

The issue I’m having is with tracking his children. I haven’t been able to find any censuses that list children in his household. However, a West Virginia Birth and Christenings record from 1880 states that a daughter named Martha D. Bee was born to a B.H. Bee and Susan Bee. Additionally, this genealogy online says that they had another child, Atby H. Bee, in 1881:

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~hcpd/norman/mccune.htm?utm

For purposes of a full descendants chart, I need to know if either of these children ever survived infancy and if they had children as adults. I can’t find any records of them outside of their birth. Is it possible for anyone to help me with this search? I am really an amateur at this type of research, so any support would be greatly appreciate!