Where to start re:genealogy research
Ralph Lewis
I have had two people ask me how I amassed info on over 2400 relatives in
about 10 months. In addition to having the advantage of having two
fathers, and therefore three families, I have spent about 15 hours per week
on my hobby/passion.
However, the most important factors in my success were JewishGen digest,
phonebooks on CD, SSDI, about $50 per month on long-distance calls, Michael
TOBIAS & the REIPP initiative, and Reunion genealogy software.
JewishGen digest pointed me to some very helpful sites (such as SSDI,
switchboard) and allowed me to contact others with similar interests.
The phonebooks on CD allowed me to look up phone numbers of relatives
*real-time* as I spoke with others. In other words, if Aunt Miriam was
telling me her sister was married to Ronald Beckman in Topeka, I could use
a CD to see if I had her sister's phone number. It also let me know if I
was missing anyone (works best in the case of an unusual name.)
SSDI also helped me find out if I were missing anyone, and helped to fill
in some birth and death dates. Michael TOBIAS & REIPP found family for me
back to 1750's, and helped me locate a *huge* branch of my family.
The $50 per month was used to call people, plain & simple. I did not write
people (I read too many stories about un-responsive relatives.) I just
called. Even those who had little interest would give me their birthdates,
spouse, siblings & children. And they all seemed *more* than willing to
direct me to the one in _that_ branch of the family that either was
interested in genealogy, or at least followed what everyone else was doing.
The ones who were interested were a pleasure to talk to (for hours, it
seems.) I use LDDS for long distance & the cost is 10 cents a minute, so
$50 gets me about 500 minutes per month!
(BY the way, I have *NO* financial interest in either LDDS long distance or
Reunion software.)
Reunion has such a simple interface that I was able to enter children,
birthdates, marriage dates, second spouses, step-children, & notes &
interesting stories on-the-fly as they were being told to me. It also let
me import names & data from those other genealogy hobbyists in my family.
The charts & reports I printed (descendant, direct line relationships,
birthday lists, register reports with narratives) have allowed me to share
this info back to my relatives.
Where would I start today? First, I would send these email messages:
To:
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LIST...@MAIL.EWORLD.COM - sub jewishgen firstname lastname
(In the message body write nothing but: sub jewishgen firstname lastname)
Example:> sub jewishgen Ralph Lewis
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f...@JewishGen.org
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rei...@JewishGen.org
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rei...@JewishGen.org
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in...@JewishGen.org
(Empty subject & empty body for all '@JewishGen.org' messages, or just a
'.' if something is required)
-----
Also, I would bookmark these sites: (and visit them)
http://www.contractjobs.com/tel/
http://www.mapquest.com/cgi-bin/mqatlas?screen=wm_register&link=wm_main&uid=
609a3vc210anoqy
http://www.infobases.com/ssdi/query01.htm
http://www.mindspring.com/~dna/genealogy/
http://www.seidata.com/~lhoffman/cdlist.html
(Sorry if I gored anyone's ox by including or excluding something)
Anyone who thinks that *I* think I'm an expert, is very wrong. I have
visited my LDS FHC only twice, have never searched a cemetery, etc. I've
just had two people ask me (within about 24 hours of each other) how I
found out what I did find out...
Ralph Lewis, Harrisburg, PA - rll...@epix.net (also Ralph...@aol.com)
Researching:
CHATCHKALEVITZ (Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, South Africa) STENBECK (Unknown)
JACOBSON (Pultusk) ROSEN (Switzerland, Poland, Russia)
ROCHAKOVSKY/ROCKOFF (Slutsk,Nowy Schwertzen,Shervzna,Grosova) ROTH (NYC)
SCZUPAK (Nesne, Vilkovisk) EPSTEIN (Colorado, Kansas City)
Sventzion: MATZKIN, RUDNITZKY
Lomza: BRUKARZ/BROOKS, GOLDENBERG, CHOYKA-POLONKA
KAMYKOWSKI(Tarnow,NowyTarg,Bialystok,PA,IL,Krakow)
-=-
REMINDER: Surnames should always be posted in ALL CAPS.
Nothing else!
-=-
Kathy Spira
RalRalph Lewis suggested (among many others):
> http://www.mapquest.com/cgi-bin/mqatlas?screen=wm_register&link=wm_main&uid=
> 609a3vc210anoqy
Thanks for the new sites...I'll visit them at a later date but I've
bookmarked them. However, continuously got an error message when trying
to link up with www.mapquest.com etc. Could you get check on that one
for the address. I'm assuming that it contains maps and for those of use
that are constantly getting out the atlas and Bi-focals - it would
probably be an asset to have.
Kathy
Ralph Lewis
Well, it seems I have to extract my foot from my mouth. But first, let me
correct an error.
Mapquest is accessed at
Now, to extract my foot. It seems my previous comments were taken to mean
that I would not have to do any original research. When I said I had only
twice visited my Latter Day Saints (LDS) Family History Center (FHC), that
was misleading. I went both times to order films. Last night I printed
out darn near one whole film, it was so full of info. (Catholic baptism
records for my wife's family from Piotrkowice, Poland) Some findings I
have made, such as those from REIPP, were of family members, and at this
point are not properly researched or documented.
However, please understand why I got into genealogy in the first place.
**All I wanted to do was to send birthday cards to my cousins.** Once I
had identified all my grandparents' siblings, I then had to make phone
calls to find out about the descendants of that generation, and therefore,
identify my 2nd cousins. It was only after reading an info file
(qu...@jewishgen.org) did I realize that I should also ask older relatives
about their parents, grandparents, aunts, & uncles, conditions in Europe,
travel to the US, etc. As I found about my great-grandparents, my g-aunts
& g-uncles, I began to look for my 3rd cousins. That is when Michael
TOBIAS shared some info from REIPP (rei...@jewishgen.org &
rei...@jewishgen.org). He found info that indicated my g-grandfather was
one of 13! Boy, I'll never be able to send all those cousins birthday
cards now! By a *very large* coincidence, Steven ZEDECK wrote me to tell
me he had a ZEDECK cousin who had in his family a name I was researching.
Voila! - new connection!
I am having a blast! My wife's family - KAMYKOSKI, for instance. One
cousin asked if I've noticed the family tendancy to clam up & act as if
there's a family secret. Yeah - and that none of these first cousins talk
to each other - I've noticed. And that there are 5 distinct KAMYKOWSKI
families in the US, four are from the same fly-speck sized village in
Poland, but they claim not to be related. So, last night, I'm examining
records from Poland. (Of course they're related - can someone translate
'Agnete' from Latin - he's the common gggg-grandfather)
Several posts have asked for clarifications (what's REIPP, LDS, etc.?) Tsk
tsk, you didn't read your e-mail. (You *did* send the messages to request
the info files in my post, didn't you <grin>). Seriously, those files I
mentioned in my post will really get you started.
Here they are again. Just send an empty message to these e-mail addresses:
f...@JewishGen.org
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rei...@JewishGen.org
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rei...@JewishGen.org
-----
in...@JewishGen.org
(Empty subject & empty body for all '@JewishGen.org' messages, or just a
'.' if something is required)
One other thing. Someone complained all their relatived were dead. I got
most of my info from the grandchildren of the first generation immigrants
(Also known as 'baby-boomers'.) There seems to be one like me in most
families. I also found my 2C1R Esther ZION (nee FORMAN) who knows
everything about *everyone*! (And since she was born in 1905, she has
known everyone.) But, I also have about 75 EPSTEIN relatives in 'Kansas
City' and 'Colorado' and 'California.' Try finding a Debra Lynn EPSTEIN,
born 1951 in Kansas City, daughter of Sam EPSTEIN. (Now watch - she reads
JewishGen digest every day. Debra Lynn, we're 3rd cousins <g>)
My gosh, I've been as long winded by e-mail as I usually am by mouth!
Thanks to all!
Ralph Lewis, Harrisburg, PA - rll...@epix.net (also Ralph...@aol.com)
Researching:
CHATCHKALEVITZ (Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, South Africa) STENBECK (Unknown)
JACOBSON (Pultusk) ROSEN (Switzerland, Poland, Russia)
ROCHAKOVSKY/ROCKOFF (Slutsk,Nowy Schwertzen,Shervzna,Grosova) ROTH (NYC)
SCZUPAK (Nesne, Vilkovisk) EPSTEIN (Colorado, Kansas City)
Sventzion: MATZKIN, RUDNITZKY
Lomza: BRUKARZ/BROOKS, GOLDENBERG, CHOYKA-POLONKA
KAMYKOWSKI(Tarnow,NowyTarg,Piotrkowice,Bialystok,Krakow,Poland & PA,IL,MI,USA)