Face Book Genealogy pages
For the what it's worth catagory, I have had a great deal of luck finding family, ancestors, etc., on Face Book. I am subscribed to several famly and county groups, and have gotten in touch with lots of cousins I didn't even know I had.
If you're interested, just use the FB search feature for genealogy and/or add state, county, or surname. My groups are Alleghany, Botetourt, Craig, and Halifax counties of Va., Va. genealogy, WVa Gen., Marshall Co, WVA, and surnames are: Blair, Craft, Caldwell, Elmore, Hancock, Huffman, Leach, Harris, Robinson, Terrill, etc. It really helps to be working with all the cousins on these family groups.
One of the Caldwell cousins found a Chancery Court Record for Craig Co, Caldwell v. Caldwell that proved the existence of a 10th child for my gg. grandparents, Benjamin Richard and Sarah Becker Craft! Needless to say, it was a great discovery and cleared up the mystery of the 1860 census which listed a Susan Craft, age 30, with Alice and Ida (6 and 3). As far as we knew, there was no daughter named Susan, so we had no idea who this person was and/or how/if she was related. As it turned out, the father of the children was a Caldwell, and was the petitioner for the Caldwell v. Caldwell case!
Hope all of you will have as much luck with FB genealogy as I have. Happy hunting!
= new reply since forum marked as read
are having good luck with finding relatives on Facebook genealogy pages...
I joined a French Canadian group and am feeling frustrated at not seeing any of my own family names.
And here in the DU genealogy group it mostly seems to be English ancestors
I found my great grandfather on there. Seems he was a well-known judge in Texas during his day. His house has been restored and there is an entire website devoted to him.
Found him on a simple internet search -- Name with date of death and there he was, picture and all.
My late brother was going bald. Bald doesn't run in my late father's side of the family; never knew about my mother being she was adopted until recently (the great grandfather I found was her grandfather -- mission accomplished for me; finding out WHO my mother was!!).
However, said great grandfather was about half bald. Now I know where that came from! 
I frankly do not care for Fakebook at all and furthermore, (especially after finding out today that someone has gone and taken pictures of the graves of my grandparents that I certainly knew; who did this anyway?). My family was a small one and I've yet to find anyone looking for me. 
I plan to not renew my ancestry.com acct. I'm done for now I'd say.
Too much bad info. and the story thing is a nightmare IMO.
I figured out WHO took those pictures of my grandfather and grandma's graves. They are both buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, CA being my grandfather was a WWI veteran.
In any event, I checked the person out that did this and it is someone closely related to my first cousin, an old decrepit nosey, greedy woman that I have nothing to do with. She hated my father and my grandfather and when I told her my Dad had passed away she replied, "Oh good!". 
She also bilked me out of a load of money in 1975 as my grandma had left me enough money to go to college, money I never received. Said "cousin" lied like a dog and swore as a witness in writing that my grandma had left no will. I have this document I also have my grandma's will stating that she wanted what money she had to go to my brother and me to attend college!
Maybe I should POST that will on ancestry.com! 
Angers me something fierce ever since I found that will (after my mother died). I've been wanting to go after her for perjury as you can just bet that she got a cut out of that deal from my late uncle, the one that the lie began with. My grandmother was her aunt -- that is the connection.
As for the adoption, I got lucky on that one as most old records in Louisiana do not exist due to fires that have occurred over time, especially anything at all to do with an adoption, much less a mixed-race adoption (my mother was part Native American and was adopted by a member of the tribe that she too was affiliated with are my findings).
I found mother's first cousin and sent her a Christmas card and she called me on the phone and she knew that my mother was for real but was unaware of the fact that her aunt had borne a child out of wedlock in the 1920s so it was a slight shock. Said cousin has written an entire book about this family, a very old American family.
That was my mission and the yield is tremendous. I've traced mother back TEN generations and I too "qualify" to be a DAR should I care to do so but I do not; DAR = Daughters of the American Revolution which is a big deal to some women out there it seems.
Anyway, back to the pictures of the graves, at least I figured it out. I suspect the only reason those pictures were taken of the graves of my father's parents -- it is because my grandma was the aunt said old decrepit cousin and she has no pictures of her, that much I know (she wanted one and I hung-up on her). 
Last edited Mon Sep 2, 2013, 01:38 PM - Edit history (1)
She wrote it in the 1990s I believe (the research began in the late 1970s). She is now in her 80's and bears the same rather unusual middle name as my late mother changed hers too which is "Nel". There was also an aunt that had the same first name as my mother too.
The surname was a common one and it was given to my mother at birth as her middle name which was changed to "Nel" later as my mother thought it to be a boy's name and didn't like that; hence Nel. It was that middle name being shown on mother's semi-bogus birth certificate I have that sealed the deal with my cousin in Indiana being that name was the surname of my mother's mother and also her own mother's surname.
My mother was part Cherokee and that is why she was given her mother's surname. The Cherokee follow the matrilineal line, hence the reason my mother was given that middle name; the surname of her real mother. That cinched it for me and as for my cousin, she had some idea about Indian blood but has yet to face it sadly.
I asked my cousin if she was surprised and she said, "No not really". She went on to tell me of the aunt I mention above and how they never knew she existed until she was quite old (like 70+ years). The aunt had all of these pictures and gave them to her, complete with rather extensive notes, all of which are now part of the book she wrote. I've encouraged her to have it published but she won't respond on that idea. It is over 100 pgs. long and needs some editing (like adding my mother to it!).
Said old aunt found lived to be 96; my cousin's mother (my other aunt I never knew) lived to be 94. My grandmother only lived to be 63 however. Too bad she didn't live in to her 90s like the other two as maybe we'd have found her. Seems she was living in New Orleans the entire time married to a man she'd known for years (according to my cousin in Indiana) and bore no children via him. He likely knew of the adoption of her sole child that no one ever spoke of. My findings indicate that the people that adopted her knew my mother's real parents as the brother of her foster father in found in the 1900 census living up the street from them in a small town in Missouri where they used to go every year to "pick cotton" I was told by my cousin.
That is why my cousin knew I was for real and she sent me a copy of her book, complete with pictures. It was indeed a genealogist's dream come true -- the whole thing!
I'll never forget it, she called me on Christmas Eve in 2008 and said, "Hello, this is your cousin in Indiana calling." I almost fell over. She sends me a Christmas card every year and she has email too! 
and now as for that liar of a cousin I have ...
Either she herself or one of her nieces/nephews took the picture of my oh so hated grandfather's grave. I'll never get over my still brewing anger that I have against that decrepit woman after what she has said and done. My father told me many years ago when I asked about her that she was, "Just plain no good." He tended not to say things like that about people, esp. relatives. He was right, she is "Plain no good" indeed.
She is very well off owning property a plenty in the San Francisco bay area. However, she also owes me close to $100K and owes my brother $100K too the way I figure it, being she perjured herself to assure we'd never receive what grandma wanted us to have; money to go to college with.
I have a picture of grandma's parents that were born in Germany. It appears to be a wedding photo, one of those old tin pictures taken in the 1880s or so I'd guess. I'm sure she does not have a copy of that!
I kind of hate ancestry.com these days needless to say. I'd have found my mother without them really being I've been searching for her identity (as had my late mother) for many many years and was very close to finding out the truth at the time mother passed away (2001). Her real mother appears in the 1930 census in the city my mother was born in, so yes, I'd have found her soon enough. It is too bad that the 1930 census wasn't released quite yet when she passed away.
I swore on mother's death bed that I'd find out who she is. She wanted to know how I'd go about doing this. I told her, I did not know but I would never stop searching until I found out!
Mission accomplished I'd say eh? 
I'm really glad that you know and also, really even happier to know that you found your brother! That is great!! 
I'm with you on this one.
It is the cruelest thing that can be done to a person by not telling them who they are. They have every right to know and as you put it, it doesn't matter what it is. You just want to know!
And, yes, you are right again, today it is a lot easier to find out than it was in the past when people would say just about anything to be rid of you with your *questions* so to speak.
Best of luck with your research as it continues on ... mine likely will anyway as now I have some people that are contacting me (father's side of the family). Just recently I heard from my relatives in Ireland I never knew I had. They live in Kilkenny and they were hoping to find that relative "said to be on the west coast somewhere" that left Ireland during the Great Famine years.
Well, they found me and I have two new cousins that found me now, one in Massachusetts and one in New Jersey!
Cheers! 
People rarely find roots from those who left Ireland during the famine years. Records were rarely kept on the very poor Irish, not even church records. I guess they weren't considered entirely human at the time.
That is so exciting!
