Genealogy

What are you trying to accomplish and where is your frustration?

I just peeked at your tree, and discovered that it contains only you. I recommend that you build out your tree as much as you can.

What are the options on your narrow list?

By "build out your tree as much as you can", I mean build it out according to the family data that you have at hand right now.

Hello Josh,
I doubt that posting a photo is going to yield any results. I would suggest as the others have to add more information to your tree, and perhaps also take a DNA test and see if you have any close matches. For the DNA test, I would suggest either Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com or Familysearch.org. Of the three, Familysearch.org is the only pure DNA testing site, and doesn't require a yearly subscription to let you access the site from time to time.

I think DNA test is gonna prove true relations easiest

There’s not many people around me and there’s many holes. Maybe it’s something that I wasn’t supposed to look into but I feel an obligation to know for the future.

Do as Lew Miller suggests., that’s sound advice. Good luck

I have taken the DNA test and have it linked so I’m curious why it’s not able to seen. I have it linked also.

I have a MyHeritage built out that runs into royal lineage and had confederate civil war historian professors ask my of my lineage which linked me towards my genetic resemblance. There was a lot of German royal family and I am from an area known for its mining many years ago.

Is anyone interested in looking at my family tree to help me understand through the private person disconnects and just what it is that I have was important enough for me to not know of my lineage good or bad. Had a lot of unexpected and unusual experiences since I dived into the family tree process and MyHeritage and geni are different in what they claim.

I’m just confused is all and trying to protect the ones around me.

Hi Josh,

As others have pointed out, there isn't a lot of information in your post about what you are trying to do or what you see as the options. I do feel for you, most of my life has been about multiple options and trying to figure out which direction was best (I'm pretty sure this holds true for just about everyone:).

I see that you have a few people on your tree. Apparently some are alive and they can likely provide you with some clues. However, your first step is simple; identify what your objective(s) are, both long and short term. As an example, you may have a long term objective of identifying when the Small family immigrated to the U.S. A shorter term objective might be interviewing living Small family relatives about what they remember about family members; parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins... If your family is like mine, all of their remembrances won't likely be 100% accurate, but they do provide some core of information about the family, locations, key dates, and relationships.

Secondly, mine the information available on the various genealogy sites. Using the information you already have there is likely a wealth of information about those people with clues to others. Marriage licenses, obituaries, births, census, etc. all can provide ready information about family members and provide leads to other sources. Also, don't forget newspapers. We joined newspapers.com and have found a gold mine of tidbits that have led us to interesting facts and research directions we probably wouldn't have taken otherwise.

I noticed a couple of people suggested DNA. Remember their are three kinds of DNA tests; autosomal, Y and mitochondrial. All lead you in slightly different directions. I can't speak for others, but in my case (I've done all three) the results have been interesting but not super helpful. Autosomal matches have either taken me to people that I already had in my tree or knew where they fit in or with no obvious path to matching up ancestors. Even long conversations have not helped clear up these dead ends from seemingly closely related ancestors. Y-DNA has give me few hits, none of which carry my surname and only two of which had the same surname. Same story, conversations with various of the most closely matched have turned up no commonalities. Mitochondrial DNA has had a ton of hits, again with very few matching up to anyone in the tree (and this tree is extensive having been professionally done with significant add on findings from us amateurs).

Biggest thing is, when you hit a roadblock turn around and find an alternative path!

Ed