Ancestry.com...worth it?

[sbroomheadsr]

Be careful relying on the information posted there. Privately submitted family histories are often ripe with errors and inaccuracies. Several such submissions managed to absolutely butcher branches of my family tree with their incompetence, and now it has sadly been disseminated by dozens of unsuspecting and less than diligent researches within their collateral family trees.

I whole-heartily agree. At one point my g-g-g-g-grandfather was his son. I used the Mormon site and some others to find marriage, birth, and death records to help verify. That got old g-g-g-g-grandpa out of his bind but it took some digging. You just have to question every link and try to check with other trees and other sites.

I started and stopped this work several times in the past because I could not go any farther back than about 1810 on my fathers side. Then some census/church records were opened/made available here in the US and in England and Scotland and that got me a little farther. It was only until earlier this year that I had the patience to find those sites that had this new treasure of information to sift through.

The thing that caught my eye was how a name would become so well liked to be passed down over many generations, especially for the ladies. For my family, Lydia was the name passed along to many, many girls.

[slothead]

I used the Mormon site and some others to find marriage, birth, and death records to help verify.

You mention the "Mormon site." Could you elaborate on just what exactly that is? I've used Mormon libraries in the past, but in almost every case (except in Salt Lake) you had to place an order that had to be sent to Salt Lake and they had to ship the microfiche or whatever to the local library. I didn't know they had a specific site (but that makes all the sense in the world). They are indeed the experts in the field, so if they've got a site, that has to be a gold mine!

[sbroomheadsr]

You mention the "Mormon site."

The site I found associated with them is http://www.genealogy.com.
Another site I used was https://familysearch.org

I hope these help.

[room2ndfloor]

Lydia[/B] was the name passed along to many, many girls.

In my family, too, there is a Lydia in every generation. The name honors Lydia, who was the first European Christian, baptized by St. Paul near today's town of Philippi in northern Greece. She was a merchant, trading in the costly purple dye extracted from cochineal shells.

I was baptized at the same location as Lydia, at St. Panteleimon's Church in Philippi.

Many families have traditional names. Among Scots, the names James, Robert, and Alexander are popular because of historical importance.