Family Tree

[cactuswatcher]

Thank you to ann1962 for mentioning http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ in the comments of her last post. The first family I tried came up with new info.

Small town, small world: I have been suspicious about a family in colonial Massachusetts for years that had married brothers and sisters of my direct ancestors. Turns out I found one is a direct ancestor, completing a whole nest of family connections with them. Also just found a 21st direct ancestor listed in a book of "first settlers of New England" that I own. Nobody on the Mayflower that I know of, but lots of folks in Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colony before 1650.

ETA: I should mention that the trees on that site like most sites are "as is," meaning there will be mistakes in most of them. If you use them watch out for things like the mother dying before the child is born, fathers and sons being married to women with exactly the same first and last names, women under 12 and over 50 having lots of children, etc. Common sense is often in short supply, so try to use it yourself.

Comments

[ann1962]

That's excellent! I'm not sure if you noticed that sometimes there are many threads for one person. I didn't realize that at first because I found direct links on google. It's a great resource.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. That's how you check up on the more obvious mistakes. People do copy other people mistakes. But often someone has done the work and you can tell they have it right, because it fits with other things you know.