Genealogy

All details here:

https://www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/dna/2025-ancestral-origins-coming-soon

Image with the new regions shared by Ancestry on instagram

NRS refuses to enter into an agreement with Ancestry.com, saying it would lose 3.7 million pounds in revenue if the records became available on the website

Being in this hobby you study a lot about your local history, you learn to tell fact from fiction, you learn about the good and the bad. Does anyone else ever feel good or bad about their ancestors actions?

I had a great great grandfather who was in a moonshine gang who was involved in a shootout with federal officers and one of them was killed. Reading the newspapers and being related to the gang side of it is interesting to me. The marshal who was killed had his great great grandson involved in a ceremony a few years ago in honor of the marshal. I thought about contacting him but never felt right about it. Even if it wasn’t my great great grandfather who pulled that trigger he was still there, he was still involved.

I’ve got a great uncle who was hanged for his crimes and a legend in our area.

I’ve got a 5th great grandmother who lived to a 101 and have countless stories told about who she really was and how she created the largest family in my area.

From the good to the bad I never knew these people I couldn’t stop them from their bad or help their good but they’re related to me. I know them through what they left behind.

Inspired by my reaction to finding out a newspaper clipping I was looking for months was sitting on a fellow family genealogist’s Facebook page for over a year

Even if you can’t find a record online doesn’t mean it’s not out there. I visited my local courthouse and dug up dozens of records that I couldn’t find online. We have an online index system which makes things so much easier. Some documents weren’t digitized but had their location marked. It made going through 150 year old books a bit easier. So next time you’re having trouble finding that document check your library, courthouse, historical society etc.

Hello all

I’m back at trying to get details on my 3rd great grandmother Jane I’ve made some good progress and have put together a not happy but seemingly correct timeline.

It appears she was in a relationship of some kind not married or at least I can’t find a record of it with my Great grandfather Wilson from sometime around 1891 through 1892. I can confirm through records she had 2 children with him in this time. Robert my second great grandfather in October 1891 and Polly my second great grandaunt in May 1893. he had children with another woman Cordelia. A set of twins were conceived around October 1892 and born in July 1893. The other women he went on to marry in September 1892 and have many children with.

Assuming my dates are right. Polly was conceived sometime around August 1892 and born July 1893. The twins were conceived sometime in October 1892. born in July of 1893.

From what I can tell is they were in a relationship from 1891-1892 and broke apart shortly after Polly was conceived and married Cordelia in September of 1892. I’m aware marriage was traditions were very different in the 1800s than now but assuming I’m correct he had 1 child and another on the way with Jane. Then left her and then married Cordelia about a month after this.

If none of this makes sense and I’m all over the place it’s 2:30 and I’ve been at this for 2 hours so my brain is a bit scrambled. Let me know if this makes any sorta sense, any mistakes I made, or any theories you may have to help me out.

Oh yea turns out the other Jane who had no data on her like this one on the other part of my tree is actually just my 2nd great grandaunt by marriage and not the same one I’ve been researching because that would be too easy.

Thanks for reading my ranting and maybe one day I’ll finally solve this

Doing genealogy got me interested in headstones and cemeteries. I have a side job where I clean headstones and this gives me a reason to visit a lot of different cemeteries. I’ve seen lots of types but the saddest are the abandoned ones. The worst was the one right next to a well maintained and visited one. In my area it’s a mix of family owned and a few privately owned. A privately owned is usually very large and full of headstones but usually the grass is cut, waste picked up etc. family owned are usually smaller and it can vary on the level of care. Sometimes the family maintains it the best they can or hire someone to. Other times the family doesn't or can’t. I’ve also seen some unique or sad headstones. Ones larger than most people, some small plaques in the ground and the saddest sights to see. Ones so old and damaged the name is practically or totally gone or in one case only the top part of it remains in a ditch line near the rest. In the end I’ve seen a lotta things at cemeteries. If you live in a place that has an abandoned cemetery contact your local government, historical society, the family who owns it Etc and offer to help if you’d like. Please never just show up and start trying to help without permission you maybe trespassing or doing accidental harm which could land you in hot water.

I don't work for Ancestry.com or have any financial interest in the company. I just thought I'd share this a) in case anyone has been thinking of registering but doesn't want to pay full price, and b) as a record of when paid sites offer discounted memberships to avoid paying full price—usually they have sales around major holidays, such as Memorial Day or July 4th in the US.

There are excellent free sites, such as FamilySearch.org, but for some people, Ancestry.com has records not found on other sites.

If you're uncertain whether it's worth paying for a membership, try searching their records first. Ancestry will show you possible search results. Also try searching FamilySearch.org to see if you can find the record for free on that site.

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One Man, Two Identities: How Salvatore Giovanni Riggitano lived his life as John R. Prevost

On May 13th 2025, a team of researchers from The Genealogy Discord successfully broke through the Prevost brickwall in Pope Leo XIV’s family tree, via a WW1 draft card.

At the same time, a team at Ancestry.com arrived at the same conclusion independently via an Alien registration record.

Article by Ancestry.com: https://www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/entertainment-and-culture/pope-leo-xiv-sicilian-roots

Paper by The Genealogy Discord: https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdiscordgenealogy.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F05%2FPope_Leo___Case_Study.pdf

Youtube livestream with members of both research teams: https://www.youtube.com/live/kZcRfBdB2Ls

people move around a lot. plus, i heard a lot of french people have taken ancestry dna tests and have gotten most of it in england and northwestern europe. i’ve also heard that in france, most dna testing like this is illegal.

I’d like to print and frame a family tree. There’s a million diffrent templates online and I’m looking for some recommendations

Didn't see any posting about this. Gramps 6.0 was released on March 20th.

So as many are aware the DNA testing company 23 and me has declared bankruptcy and users data is at risk of being sold off to the highest bidder. This thread is for discussion about this debacle

urgent information!!!

Guide by California attorney general on how to request a data deletion

During the last in-person class I taught at RootsTech, on Saturday afternoon, I asked attendees which tech announcements they were most excited about. The answers included Ancestry’s upcoming clustering tool, FamilySearch’s new catalog, Ancestry Networks, and the FamilySearch Together app.

These are just a few of the many exciting announcements made at RootsTech 2025! It’s fun to see so many companies announce new technology that will help us with our genealogy research.

Here are a few of our favorites:

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Networks are private workspaces where you can collect and organize information about groups of people who interacted wirh each other - godparents, friends, neighbours or associates.

The linked PDF and video explain how it works.

Currently available to ancestry.com Pro Tools subscribers

Hey all! I’d like to share a tale of mine from a few weeks ago. I’ve been on a few years long hunt for my 2nd great grandmother and I thinking I'm finally starting to narrow down where she was buried at and who she was. Anyways, I had gotten a tip from another relative of mine who does genealogy and went to look in this local cemetery. Around my area, cemeteries with stones going back over 150-200 years ago are quite common, and as a freelance headstone cleaner, I’ve seen quite a lot in my area. The one I went to was on the side of a hill, so it wasn’t the easiest to get up, but it had dozens of headstones. After searching for a while, I was unable to find the particular headstone I was looking for. I did, however, find some of my other relatives who I had no idea were buried up there.

After I got back, I went to update the cemetery’s Find a Grave page because it had no photograph of the sign. While doing this, I found another cemetery nearby, which I believe has the stone I’m looking for. When I get a chance, I’ll go and look, and I’ll update the community if I have any luck.

Hello everyone!

I’m looking to get some help with this community if you wish to apply inquire below!

In the genealogy world you go to a lot of strange places. One of these for me is abandoned cemeteries. I always feel bad finding these places. Not only is a piece of history lost someone’s family member has been lost. I have a few cemeteries tied to my family that range from grass mowed, people visit to up on a hill where only a few people a year visit. I clean headstones as a freelance cleaner as well so I’ve seen places that had none of my family either.

Thanks for reading my bit of a rant there and I’d like to say one more thing if you find an abandoned cemetery (on public property be careful not to trespass) report it to your local historic society they may be able to help and try and help save history and people’s memory by using find a grave.

This is something I’ve wanted since I started running this community. I was wondering if anyone knew of any service like this that existed. I’m aware of FOSS genealogy tools like GRAMPS, but I believe that a federated service could work well for genealogy. I believe that this would be useful for increasing free access to useful genealogy tools like records, newspapers, online family tree builders, and more.

Anyways if anyone knows any services or can think of other ways federation could help genealogy I’d love to hear!