Before I left TSCC, I was fascinated by family history. I wasn’t fascinated in it for Temple work, but simply because I truly enjoy learning about my ancestors and where I come from. I had a distant cousin who had our family tree expansively done, it was impressive. I enjoyed seeing ancestry I didn’t know about until then. However, now that I have left TSCC, I don’t have access to these records and I’m pretty sure they passed away. We lost contact. Is there any other way for me to gain access to such information without having to remember all the details myself?

You don't need to be a member of TSCC to have a guest membership to Family Search dot org. Just sign in for a guest membership.

Then you can research your family tree to your heart's content. While away !

You can even add and update, and edit family history details and records as needed.

ETA: I'm learning as I go that the more I study my family tree the more I'm learning about the inaccuracies and inconsistencies of the Mormon history record keeping. It isn't all as accurate as they like to say it is. You have to really sort through and compare notes to try and keep things on the up and up because much of it is not all there.

When I received in the mail last week some genealogy from a LDS cousin whose late husband was an excellent record keeping genealogist who was not LDS but better by far than most LDS genealogists are at record keeping ... is when I discovered some inconsistencies with not only the LDS records but also Ancestry and Geni and Myheritage sites as well.

His genealogy matches not only actual sources but confirms DNA matches with our known ancestors.

It's pretty shocking but maybe not so much because when I was going through the process of becoming a Daughter of the American Revolution, Washington DC said repeatedly it does not rely on the LDS sources as material sources. Now I'm beginning to better understand why.

It also makes me appreciate the diligence and hard work of those genealogists who put in the time and effort to prove relationships that went over and above the call of duty when they didn't have to to help people like me they don't even know become members of these organizations.

My late cousin was a Son of the American Revolution. I tip my hat to him for letting me know of my Swiss ancestry. Without him I still wouldn't know where that came from. And his lovely wife for sharing it with me. She and I are cousins also through the same branch of the same family tree. Small, small world. :)

You can also sign up for a free membership on Geni.com but it is limited as to what you might find from it. However being as I recently paid for a geni subscription I must say I'm disappointed that it hasn't been more promising than I had hoped it would be in terms of being able to access records. It links to other sites and wants you to pay for other memberships instead of the one that I just paid for. I'm like what the heck is this all about then? I want my money back lol!

I have found some information, but again it is quite limited in scope, and not what I'd been anticipating there would be in terms of useful data.

I still do genealogy as a hobby. Some lines are a lot easier to follow than others. It really depends on where your ancestors came from. I'm back to the 1700s on all but one lines. In some countries, the records don't stretch back that far or are damaged.

What really frustrates me is the stupidity and laziness of some people. I've worked really long and hard to find some of these people, and then some idiot changes that with a couple of clicks. One of these morons started changing the details pf people I knew when they were alive. I really wish they'd teach geography properly in American schools - either that or they learn to read a map.

Family Search is extremely bad for that.

The other problem - partly my own fault - is that too much of my family research is lateral now. So I find remote cousins etc, instead of going up the lines.

Digitizing genealogical records has to be one of the biggest services the LDS has done for the world. It has been very useful to researchers and historians.

Jordan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I still do genealogy as a hobby. Some lines are a
> lot easier to follow than others. It really
> depends on where your ancestors came from. I'm
> back to the 1700s on all but one lines. In some
> countries, the records don't stretch back that far
> or are damaged.
>
> What really frustrates me is the stupidity and
> laziness of some people. I've worked really long
> and hard to find some of these people, and then
> some idiot changes that with a couple of clicks.
> One of these morons started changing the details
> pf people I knew when they were alive. I really
> wish they'd teach geography properly in American
> schools - either that or they learn to read a
> map.
>
> Family Search is extremely bad for that.

This is what has really irked me about Family Search. It's a mixed bag. Some of it is really helpful until it deviates and goes off on tangents. Like when I found out earlier this year from a revised DNA test that I'm almost 40% Swiss. It is nowhere on my LDS ancestry recorded. That's because the Mormon genealogists made up our Swiss ancestors came from England rather than do their due diligence and come up with the correct information they came from Switzerland. As a result, many family history sites that borrowed from Family Search now report their having come from England rather than Switzerland! It is really perplexing! I can't complain either because I'm no longer LDS and don't do any of the temple work, but if I did they'd mark me as a complainer and I don't want to go there.

But it was Daughters of the American Revolution who told me that's why they don't use Family Search or LDS records because of so many mistakes they make. If I relied on that as my only sources I would never have discovered my Swiss ancestry. It was the DNA test and a distant cousin that brought me that information. My Swiss ancestors came to America much the same way the early Pilgrims did. To escape religious persecution from back home. They were early Mennonites and such, who moved to places like Lancaster, Pennsylvania where the Amish and some Mennonites still make their home today.

>
> The other problem - partly my own fault - is that
> too much of my family research is lateral now. So
> I find remote cousins etc, instead of going up the
> lines.

My ancestry records are a mixture of both lateral and lineal. But that depends on what branches I'm searching. Some stop short. Most of them I can trace to the 1700's. Some go back as far as 1300's and earlier. Those are the old English lines typically. Or European.

>
> Digitizing genealogical records has to be one of
> the biggest services the LDS has done for the
> world. It has been very useful to researchers and
> historians.

Agreed. My mom contributed a lot to those records from her own research. She did hers the old fashioned way, before there were computers and such. She started doing genealogy at the age of ten, years before she converted to Mormonism. By the time she converted, she'd already amassed quite a few names she submitted to the data files. An old German Jewish family tree mom acquired from a distant Jewish cousin in Phoenix when I was a child, I have since found it online. It is identical to the same one/s prepared by our ancestors who were book printers and publishers of Hebrew prayer books and the Talmud. They made enough for their posterity in the years leading up to the Holocaust. Some of the names on the tail end of the tree were alive by the end of the 19th century. Many of those perished in the Holocaust, if they didn't escape the invasion.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2019 11:51AM by Amyjo.