family reasearch the lazy way

[cellio]

I am somewhat curious about who my various ancestors are, but not curious enough to do actual research. It looks like things just got easier: tonight I received email from someone doing genealogical research who appears to be a cousin on my father's side. He provided enough correct information (and Google fodder) for me to believe he's not an identity thief, so I told him who's who in our branch of the family. He has promised to share what he has collected. Sounds nifty.

And I now know the names of my paternal great-grandparents, which I previously did not.

(Funny bit: he said he found me via my LJ (if he has an account I can't find it), but he seemed pretty sure that I wasn't a relative and (my inference) had married into the last name. He didn't say and I didn't ask, but I assume the Jewish content is what steered him wrong.)

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Good luck with tracking down your ancestry. There are parts of this project for myself that I really need to do more with...

[cellio]

I found the following sequence interesting:

Year N: great-grandfather came to US
Year N+1: grandfather born
Year N+5: great-grandmother and grandfather came to US

I knew in principle that it was common back then for families to be split up for a while as funds were accumulated to pay for transport. But it still surprised me. And I'm guessing that grandfather was a parting gift, so to speak, given the timing. Did my grandfather really not meet his father until he was four? Yikes.

My grandmother was born in the US but her father was not. She always spoke with a significant accent, so I'd wondered if she had been born overseas, but no.

Actually it was that and

[tc-tick.livejournal.com]

The fact that you are using your maiden name. I added you as a friend, though there isn't that much of interest on my lj...

Re: Actually it was that and

[cellio]

Hi and welcome. :-)

My husband and I talked about the name thing; neither of us saw a reason for me to change it (and he said he wouldn't change his were the situation reversed). I'd had it for a while and gotten used to it; I'd also published under it. While it might be tempting to make it slightly harder for people to turn up the folly of my youth (if they met me under a different name), I decided the benefits outweighed that.

Re: Actually it was that and

[tc-tick.livejournal.com]

My wife and I had the same discussion (she was 40 when we married) and she decided mine was shorter, the initials were the same, and hers was very common, so she changed it. My sister decided to keep hers. Yeah, I noticed your name turned up on google.

Re: Actually it was that and

[cellio]

Not surprising about Google. I've been on the net a long time, longer than the rest of the family. (After all, I got the username just about everywhere. :-) )