International Geneology Research

To hire a professional that knows what they are doing is expensive. When I was looking for someone the cheapest I found is about 20 bucks an hour with a min. of 2 hours.

Heck that about pays for my Ancestry.com membership for a month. For Local stuff you could do it yourself, or If you like I could help you out. For Ireland and Czech, if you facebook there are groups out there that might be able to help you.

If you want to do the local yourself I'd be more than welcome to help ya out and give u some hints because nothing beats doing it yourself and discovering stuff yourself. I have personally traced my family back to 1835. And found out my father's side was a big part of helping developing Sylvania, Ohio and has many references of the family in Books.

Congratulations on finding your roots! Thanks for the tip about facebook. I hadn't thought of that. I placed on ad on Cleveland.com asking for info about the maternal side and had a break through there. A total stranger found my maternal grandmother's maiden name ( which I never knew) and her siblings. I found her Czech immigration record last night on ancestry.com

The Ireland side is pesky. My Dad had five siblings and my grandfather had seven siblings and most of the names were the same! I go around in circles. I simply can't find any record of my great grandfather. I think its because I found all of grandfather's siblings living together in an orphanage in a census record. The only reason I know its Irish ancestry is because my brother had his DNA on FamilyTreeDNA.com and it all come back with Irish roots. Virtually all of it. I never know that either. And, frankly the Irish bit explains some family temperment traits, if you believe that sort of thing.

I'm especially grateful for the offer of help. I may message you here.

You might try using the Mormon record available online. They've got millions of records. http://www.archives.com/GA.aspx?_act=combo&klp=GA01001&cam=209&gclid=CPvMhIWRl7ICFahFMgodPj8AYg

I couldn't find anything on my great grandfather either until the 1940 Census came out. Not even the 1930 when my grandma was already born, still can't. I have polish on my mom's side and Irish on dad's.

On FB join Random Acts of Genealogical kindness (RAOGK) they are a volunteer group that will help you in other states with info for free.

Also Join Find-A-Grave. They also have a page on FB. Never know what you may find. I actually found pictures of my 4x great grandfather's tombstone on there.

Ancestry.com's FB page is helpful.

GenForum is great for surname research.
http://genforum.genealogy.com/

Google's newspaper Archives are also very helpful for the Toledo Blade and The Toledo News-Bee obituaries and possible stories.

FamilySearch.Org is a great reference for Ohio Death Certificates until 1953 and even Ohio and Michigan marriage records until about 1920

Locally the Toledo Libraries Genealogical department is superb. They have a lot of microfilm for newspapers and a lot of cemetery records to find out exactly where your ancestors are buried in a specific cemetery.

One last tip. You can learn a lot from obituaries. Spouses, children, even maiden names if the woman has any living male relatives.

Even if you have to save up Ancestry is only 20 bucks a month for the U.S. part and maybe 40 for the world. It's well worth it.

I wouldn't bother with Archives it's usually a waste of money and they like to pull the bait and switch. Meaning if you search without a membership they will say they have a record for that person in that specific area but when you get the membership it's a completely different person in a completely different area, if they have it at all. I had the membership and dropped it and demanded a refund, which I had to fight for and they finally gave it to me when I told them I would report their business practices of baiting and switching.

FamilySearch has pretty much the same records and it's free.

My mom was recently contacted by someone in California who found us via the interwebz. Seems they were having a birthday for my grandfather's cousin and were looking for more information about the family. Well, we didn't have much, but they were able to flesh out the family tree a little bit, including some pictures of my great-great grandmother, who apparently dumped my great-grandad and his siblings in an orphanage and took off. I don't know about anyone else's family trees, but mine seems to be full of drunks, orphanages, nervous breakdowns and early deaths. I find it somewhat interesting, but not enough to go anywhere past the point at which my forefathers came over. I guess I figure that I am who I am, not who my great-great-great-great-grandfather was.

Ace, that's true but if it wasn't for your great great great great grandfather you would be here as you to accomplish what you have. I just find it interesting to see what my ancestor's have done and what they came from.

Yes, Ace_Face it ain't always what you want to know. My Dad was dumped by his father along with his brothers and sister. My Dad took responsibility for his baby sister and worked to pay room and board for her with a family rather than put her in an orphanage. He, at times, slept in corn stalk shelters in farmers's fields to save money while he put himself through school. I had an "Aunt Minnie", a great aunt, who was a prostitute in downtown Toledo in the mid 1940's. Boy, would I like to know more about her!

But even knowing all this, and the terrible hardships and tragedies, it is part of who I am. People with great faults and great courage. My paternal grandfather walked off the farm and left his children to fend for themselves. My maternal grandmother immigrated from Czechoslovakia with her sister when she was just 17 yrs old to make a new life.

Ifrost2125 - your help has been absolutely invaluable. I knew of none of the resources you posted. And I will stay away from Archives. The search begins anew.

And thanks to you as well, pete.

Holland,

That was just to get you started lol. I have a ton more that I have found useful one way or another in my research. I Sent you a message on your microblog with my email address in case you have questions.

Holland, not to be indelicate, but if your great-aunt Minnie was "active" downtown in the 1940s, there may be a few people around who remember her. That's a whole new topic: how would you get info from shady ladies and men-about-town who are currently in their 90s?

If you are looking for help in Toledo use the Lucas County forum at http://genforum.genealogy.com/oh/lucas/. For other Ohio counties change the last word in the URL.

I can check obits and naturalizations for you in Cleveland. I'll need the name and approximate date of death.

if u don't mind can i take u up on that offer Fgordon??? My great grandma was from Cleveland. Her parents and siblings all stayed there when she moved to Toledo with my great grandpa.

I'm a complete genealogy geek. I've been working on both sides of my family for about 35 years now.

Have fun, and hope you find what you're looking for!

lfrost2125 or anyone else, you can email me offline at E3UPCR at aol dot com but please put Lookup in the subject line. I've had Ancestry U.S. for 14 years and it is invaluable to me.

Holland,

I forgot another source.

http://www.mundia.com/us/

It's ancestry's free site where you can start a family tree for free.

Holland, When we were in Dublin we went to The National Library of Ireland. They have a whole floor dedicated to nothing but Irish geneology. There are tons of people there to help you and they are soooo nice. I came home with about 150 pages on my family and it cost nothing. Google the library for their email

Thanks! We were in Dublin years ago when I knew nothing about my ancestry. I've gotten all the way back to the early 1700's. It seems that my ancestors were a protectorate of the Morrison clan in Scottland and were supposedly of the Cimiri tribe, one of many tribes of the Celtic race. So, Scotch-Irish. Every day has had revelations, incuding being distantly related to a revolutionary war soldier buried in Waterville.

I had no damn idea. Absolutely none.

See it's so much more fun when you find all this stuff on your own. I've had a 5x great grandfather that was a Lt-Col in the Revolutionary war, a 4x great grandfather that was in the war of 1812, and my great great grandfather fought in a few regiments during the Civil War and was a Pow for about 6 months, then of course I've had relatives in WWI, WWII, Korean War and Vietnam.

Holland, there is a professional genealogist in Swanton, named Jana Sloan Broglin. I heard an interview with her a while back where she talked about a great aunt who was either a madam or a prostitute. I'm not certain if the aunt was "active" in Toledo, but I did find Jana Sloan Broglin's Facebook page and she's giving a talk at the Erie County chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society this month. The name of the presentation is "Hookers, Crooks and Kooks." I thought I'd mention it in case it was something you were inclined to check out.

You can find more information on her at her website. There's even a link to the research she's been doing on her aunt (last link in the left side column).

Good luck with your research! I have to set mine aside for a time now that the fall semester has started, although I'm not getting too far away from genealogy. My term project will (hopefully) be on metadata and genealogy records--if I can find enough information out there to write a literature review.

ifrost - can't you become a member of a descendants of the revolutionary war group of some sorts? I believe I saw that on the show on WGTE.

Molsonator,

Yes Sons of the American Revolution and females can become members of Daughters of the american revolution.

For Sons of the American Revolution Regular membership is about $110 a year or Life time is one time fee of $900.

Very cool. Did you do it?

In the process of saving up for the life membership. Have all my documents in order and the app filled out. Just waiting till I get the money together.

valbee - Well I'll be! I'll try to make the lecture. My "Aunt Minnie" lived upstairs over a business right in the downtown. I guess those stairs were pretty busy. I met her once when I was very, very young and I remember a lot of red beads that hung from a doorway as a curtain. When my Mom found out my Dad took me there, she exploded. That's when I first learned what a prostitute was, secretly listening at the kitchen door while my mother went on a major rant. What a hoot to think of that now.