Some help with genealogy please?

**Coemgen** · 27th September 07, 10:10 AM

I know everything about my father's birth - the date, place, his mother's maiden name (Gallaher), even her brother's name! Still, nothing. I've even met her! She divorced his father and remarried; won't tell us anything about the father.

Until I can devote a really large amount of effort into a search, which I can't, since I'm a college student, I'll just be content with knowing that my forebearers came from Prussia, the Rhineland, Switzerland, and Alsace.

**Shawnesse** · 28th September 07, 06:09 AM

I have seen that some people are having trouble getting records that are earlier than 1600 A.D. You look at Tax Records. My late mother used some of them. She also got one line back to 464 A.D. in England. Rather than go after Birth Cert. go after Death Cert. easier to get them.

**Arlen** · 28th September 07, 10:27 AM

My Dad's grandmother was adopted.
We just went to the council for the area she was adopted in and they pointed us in the right direction to find out who her parents were.

**gilmore** · 28th September 07, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by Arlen

My Dad's grandmother was adopted.
We just went to the council for the area she was adopted in and they pointed us in the right direction to find out who her parents were.

In America it is (or was) very different. The laws vary from state to state, but adoption records are usually sealed, that is, can't be opened without a court order.

**gilmore** · 28th September 07, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by Coemgen

I know everything about my father's birth - the date, place, his mother's maiden name (Gallaher), even her brother's name! Still, nothing. I've even met her! She divorced his father and remarried; won't tell us anything about the father.

Until I can devote a really large amount of effort into a search, which I can't, since I'm a college student, I'll just be content with knowing that my forebearers came from Prussia, the Rhineland, Switzerland, and Alsace.

I wouldn't wait. The easiest, simplest way to obtain genealogical information at the beginning of one's research is by talking to the oldest relatives/ancestors you have. Once they are gone, getting the same info they could have given merely by being asked for it can become very time consuming and expensive.

**Coemgen** · 28th September 07, 01:58 PM

I've already talked to them. I know (as I have said) all there is to know about my mom's side of the family, and about my dad's adoptive family, that there is to know. In any case, my mom's father and both my dad's adoptive parents are dead, and his biological mother won't discuss his biological father. So, I can safely wait a while to invest more time and money than I have now.

**cessna152towser** · 30th September 07, 01:17 PM

I posted a thread recently about my grandmother, who was adopted. I found that her birth certificate recorded the names of both her natural parents and I was able to work back from there. Here in Scotland there are only statutory death records from 1855 and birth records before that date normally only record children who were baptised so it can often be difficult to go back very far. I can only get back to about the late 1700's with my own ancestry from the town of Paisley where there are a lot of births and marriages not recorded and for those that are the information is often too sparse to confirm it relates to the person you are looking for, and not someone else of the same name, but as my wife's ancestors came from a rural area I have been able to trace some of my wife's lines back about a further hundred years.
Ancestry.com can be good if it finds a link to someone else's research which has brought them back to a common ancestor with you, but is not always reliable as some of them appear to have relied on a lot of guesswork.

**gilmore** · 30th September 07, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by Coemgen

... So, I can safely wait a while to invest more time and money than I have now.

Go to www.ftdna.com. Click on Surname Projects and see if there is one for your surname. If you join through the project, the 12 marker Y chromosome test is only $99, about the price of an inexpensive kilt. The results would be the same for your father as for you, so either of you could do it. In fact, it might be better for your father to do it, since his DNA is a bit less likely to have mutated than yours. Perhaps other relatives might be interested in helping with the cost if that is an issue.

If there is a 12 out of 12 match in Family Tree's database, you could then think about their testing more markers in your sample (they are kept for 25 years) and thus determine how closely related you are to the person(s) you match with.

You can also post the results at www.ysearch.org, where results from different companies are posted, and see if there is a match there.

Once you are armed with this knowlege, your biological grandmother might come around.

ON THE OTHER HAND....she may have other reasons for not being candid with you, reasons that supercede your curiosity. To give you an example, I had a friend who learned only after her mother and all her aunts and uncles were dead---except for one aunt who told her the story one night when she was drunk--- that contrary to what she had been told all her life, her biological father was actually her mother's brother.