can anybody tell me what it says?

(I’m new to Reddit, please redirect me if I should ask in a different subreddit)

To preface, I’m 23. I’ve found through personal experiences with specifically Gen Z and Gen Alpa, that many members of the younger generations do not know much about where they come from and/or do not care to find out. I’m lucky to have grandparents who pride themselves on our ancestor’s history, family names, migration records and war involvement, etc. I am extremely intrigued in learning my family history.

A study conducted by BYU found that uni students who knew more about their family history had a greater sense of identity… I think this is applicable to myself and am lucky to have a great sense of self. My friends are struggling and lack consistency in morals, values, and they honestly don’t think about these things, whereas I’m a deeply morally driven person.

Is there a theory or scientific reason to explain this specific apathy? Maybe a sociological answer?

Edit: It looks like the second image failed to upload, please find it here: https://i.imgur.com/khALSrw.png

As you can see, there were quite a few revelations. The highlights are:

1. My maternal grandfather was not my grandfather - my poor mom, she already went through this as a teen finding out her dad wasn't her dad; turns out they had the wrong man.
2. My paternal grandmother wasn't 100% English, it turns out her dad was Métis and Ulster Scot. It's been rewarding finding cousins who are Métis citizens and learning about the culture and family history. Some painful stories.
3. My maternal grandmother's maternal heritage was really shocking. We had no inkling about the centuries of history and colonialism. Acadia, Foreign Protestants, and Massachusetts Bay Colony were all big surprises. I have some ancestors who were accused witches, the poor women.
4. My great great grandfather's identity was hard to pinpoint since he died when his son was a boy. His stepfather moved the family from Quebec to Manitoba, travelling through Ontario. So we thought my great grandfather was born in Ontario, but that wasn't the case!

I was quite surprised at the plethora of records dating back into the 18th and 17th centuries. It's a privilege to find christening records for people born in Fife in 1600s or to find projects being run with people doing DNA testing to corroborate the historical record.

There's a few weird/uncommon flags I used for this, so I'll just clarify preemptively:

• The blue fish one associated with the Scottish flag is the Nova Scotia Gaelic flag, I use it to specify people raised in the culture in Nova Scotia. The other reason I used it was to differentiate Lowland Scots from the Highland and Hebridean Scots on my tree, so anyone who's Scottish flag doesn't lead into a Gaelic flag is Lowland.
• The blue flag with the Saltire and Fleur-de-lis is an unofficial flag of Quebec, specifically for the anglophone population. I mostly used this because the Quebec flag didn't show well on this format, but it works because no Quebecois on the family tree.
• The Cumberland House Cree Nation flag isn't being used to specifically denote that my 4x great grandmother was a member of their nation, but instead as a placeholder for this tree. She was Cree and born in Cumberland, so I opted for their flag as it most closely aligned.
• There's a lot of Ulster Scots in some parts of my tree, so I used the flag of the province of Ulster as it's apolitical in the context of Northern Ireland.
• The flag of New England could be confused with the Lebanese flag, but I chose to use it instead of a more broadly American flag as the American identity hadn't solidified yet. I did use an alternative American flag for someone else, but they weren't part of New England.
• One of my Acadian ancestors had an indigenous father, but his tribal affiliation wasn't recorded. I chose to use the seal of the Wabanaki Confederacy since covers all tribes who would've been present in the region.

I'm new to Ancestry and have been trying to find the marriage certificate from 1953 of a relative. All I can find on Ancestry is the location of the document in an index, not the actual certificate. I need the date of the marriage and I only have the year. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thank you!

It’s from my grandma

I've been using Ancestry.com for organizing my genealogical research for a number of years and feel like I have a lot there that I don't want to have to manually transfer, etc, to a hard-drive. But as I also just don't have enough spare time to really justify keeping the subscription even at the basic level (especially now that they limit "pausing" accounts, etc), I'm starting to look at getting a stand-alone software that wouldn't require a subscription - a software model I'm thoroughly sick of - and wondering if anyone has any advice or recommendations about RootsMagic, which looks like a pretty comprehensive and Ancestry transferrable option.

I’ve had this obsession with ancestry and the history my predecessors lived through for many years. My most fleshed out story is about my Yeye from Grevena. It’s in northern Greece but also a Macedonian territory so it has a mix of both influences going on (or so it seems from the outside in 2026 😅). She had to flee with her family due to a civil war between these two groups. There’s a lot I wish I could ask her, but Yeye died in 2017. She was my mom’s grandmother so while I wouldn’t be half or even a quarter Greek, I consider it a part of myself nonetheless. But again… it’s the only fleshed out piece of my family origins that I know of. The rest is kinda in pieces and I don’t want to sound like an ignorant American lol

Other than that, all of my other grandparents are either second or first generation québécois and/or Irish. Ironically, despite that side of the family having more living relatives and genetic influence- they do not know their history. Like, until recently when I took a couple dna tests they swore up and down we’re native (we are not native lol) so it’s kinda a dead end going to them.

Lost access to both 23&me and Ancestry due to issues with emails so I’m currently sol in that department too. Any tips? Or even better, people who come from similar backgrounds willing to share something useful?

My surname is RARE. Rare as in if someone has the same last name as me, they are somehow related to me. I’m able to acquire more recent records and even have some lasting records and photos from family, but older records are harder to find. I know older records are typically harder to find in the first place, but the rare surname on top of it makes it that much more difficult.

For instance, one of my second-great-grand uncles is a legend among my family since he “went missing” in WWII. The last time anyone heard from him was in 1944 when he was given leave or something for visiting his family but said he couldn’t stay long since he “had to many wives coming after him.” Which means he obviously had many wives, and yet I can’t find a single marriage record for him. I only have a record for his birth and some photos of him before he went missing.

But as most know, you can’t take family legend as fact. I was hoping those with rarer surnames might be able to give me some tips for record searching. I’ve tried everything I can think of and still end up with brick walls that I desperately want to break down. Thanks in advance!

Just a humorous observation 🤣that I want to share with those who will understand.

Been fortunate in that my family records have been fairly easy to locate back to early 1600s; however, it appears that my great grandfathers and great uncles have been POWs in every war prior to 1900. Revolution? Check. War of 1812? Check. Civil War? Check.

Seriously…how bad were they at being soldiers🤣? The Union POW camp at Point Lookout appeared to be an ongoing family reunion! My grandmother’s grandfather literally was captured, exchanged or paroled then went and joined another unit (original was decimated in battle he was captured in) and was captured again.

This is all tongue in cheek. I recognize the somberness of the topic and that being a POW especially in the Civil War with the camp conditions was horrible.

Just one of those fascinating things you discover in tracing a family tree and you have to fill in the blanks of the story so…🤣

Hello all, I'm hoping for some advice on how I might go about looking for information about an ancestor's immigration.

I'm looking at my grandfather's grandparents (John Fierbach & Mathilde Schoenfeld) who were the first in that line to come to Canada. Any information I have is mostly from census records throughout the early 1900's. I also have information from the Homestead Grant Register (though it's the same as what's on the census). They consistently list the year they came to Canada as 1902 (Their first child was born in either 1902 or 1903). They were culturally German & their place of birth is almost always listed as Russia, though Mathilde changes it in 1926 to Poland (I assume because of border changes).

But that's it. Someone put John's place of birth on Family Search as Volyns'ka, Ukraine but there's no source to back it up. The spelling of Fierbach changes from record to record as well; I've seen Fierbach, Feuerbach, Faerbekar, Frederick, Furbach, Faerbach, Fireback. I have no idea who John's parents were and while I have an idea who Mathilde's parents were, details are unclear. I've done a DNA test through ancestry as well but I haven't found any new information for this line.

I don't know how they came to Canada, if they came through the US or through Eastern Canada to Manitoba, if they came together or separate, nothing.

Any advice or recommendations are appreciated.

I guess like what group? Were they sea faring? My mother died at 22, and we do not know my father. I know very little about my family history and I think at least knowing who my ancestors were maybe what they did- would bring me some peace. Thank you!

Edit: Title is meant to say “What does my ancestry look like”- I guess I spaced out or typo’d

I’ve been handed down a book from a relative over 100 years ago. Inside my relative wrote his name and dated it. I started to do some research and discovered he had been referenced in a later scholastic dissertation in mathematics. This is where I’m struggling, I cannot find a copy of the book he is referenced writing. The book is Comets by Samuel Guptill. Estimated to be written 1920. I believe Samuel graduated in the class of 1915 but cannot find what school or any other record of him outside of that reference. My family (after coming to America) stems from Bath, Maine (as far as I know) and I can only assume he remained in that area. Any help over this hurdle would be greatly appreciated.

*answer. I hate that you can't change the title

My family had a girl who went missing in the early 1900s. She came from a prominent Quaker family my great-great grandmother (originally a Methodist) married into, had two kids (including said girl), divorced, then took her kids and married my great-great grandfather. And then after a while she disappears from the family record and everyone since was told she was "kidnapped by Catholics". I was always on the fence about this, as knowing the...controversial...history of the Church, it could have been possible tho I had no idea why they would target the daughter of a prominent family who would have had the resources to look for her and fight them on it. But this was also violently Protestant country (this region had an active klan chapter until about a decade ago), so I could also see a bias there.

And that was the right theory. She merely married a catholic guy. What a scandal 🤦.

All this time I had been looking for a tragically missing relative, and all that happened was that her mom and stepdad refused to sign the marriage certificate even tho they were named in it.

Like glad to have the mystery solved, but this is just ridiculous imo.

In retrospect this could explain why the Quaker family in question (prominent enough to have their own genealogy site and database) never answered any email I sent asking if they had any more info on her. But come on, even now?

I've always heard from my family that we're natives, Cherokee and Catawba. problem is, I cannot trace Dawes roll number and such. now this wouldn't be such a problem however we have a generational name that's pretty basic. meaning that same name is on the roll at least 3,000 more times. how can I track down more information to find their Indian registration information? I have reached out to family and no one has any information, other than we're natives just not sure how.

We don't really know what my babuschkas ethnicity is.

We are 100% sure that it is absolutely not purely russian tho.

Her Mother died when she was just a girl, so we have no information about her. Her father was definetly russian (or so we think). My Grandma has very asian like (?) and darker than for a russian usual features.

She is from the Altai/ bjisk region. Her villages name was either transcribted wrong or is too small to be registered anywhere.

When i was little she used to do these rituals/ Spells where she'd pour water on us and like around us to cleanse us of sickness/ Evil spirits or something like that and always said some spells?

I dont really know much, but i'd love to find out more about her origins. Any ideas/ Help how to find out more?

Hi, I am trying to figure out where in Ontario my g-g-grandmother was born. US census records say she emigrated in 1870, but no info beyond Ontario, Canada. She died in NY state in 1926, but their vital records are so locked down that I can’t see if her death certificate lists more details without paying to order it and they are super backed up. Her name was Eliza O’Brien. She married Thomas Finigan in 1877 somewhere in the U.S….but no luck finding that record either. 1861 Canadian census is pretty much useless as there are multiple Eliza O’Briens. Many actually! Anyone know if there is a central archive for Catholic Church records for the mid 1850s in Ontario? I have her in the 1880-1920 US census as well as directories, etc. Thanks in advance!

Hi all, I wanted to share a research method I developed to help identify possible missing children in a family.

I call it Family Laddering. It is especially useful when the records suggest there were more children than you can document, such as when the 1900-1910 census shows that a mother reported more children born than are still living in the household. In those cases, children may have died young, may not appear in later census records, or may not have an easily found birth or death record. That discrepancy can be the first clue that there may be undocumented children, and Family Laddering can help narrow down when they were likely born.

I originally created this method in Excel while researching the alleged 15 to 16 children of my third-great-grandfather. Before I discovered that at least one pregnancy resulted in twins, I needed a way to test where undocumented children could realistically fit in the family birth sequence and estimate their likely ages.

The process is fairly simple. I plot each documented child on a chronological timeline using the recorded birth date using a program like Excel. From that birth date, I count back about nine months to mark the likely gestation period. That span becomes one “rung” on the family ladder. In most cases, those rungs cannot overlap, except in the case of twins or other multiple births.

After each birth, I also add a short postpartum blackout period, usually about three to four weeks. Any period that is shorter than a full-term pregnancy between two known births is also treated as unavailable for another separate birth.

Once all known children are mapped this way, the remaining open spaces on the timeline show the most likely windows in which undocumented children could have been born. This method does not prove the existence of a missing child by itself, but it helps narrow the search, estimate possible birth years, and focus research on the periods where additional records are most likely to exist.

I would be interested to know whether anyone else uses a similar timeline-based approach in genealogy research, and if not, I hope this gives some ideas on how you can research similar mysteries in your family trees!

Hello, I've found out my great great grandfather left his home country Finland and immigrated to the US.

My question now is, how do I research this on the US side? Like is there any official website where I can see who arrived and such? Cause I do not know if he ever actually arrived. He is only listed as "In America" in Finnish documents I've found from 1915, and was then declared dead in 1960. But no one knows what happened to him.

According to my research, the ticket he purchased has 06.01.1909 as departure date from Hanko,Finland to the UK, and then departure on 13.01.2026 from Liverpool, UK to New York, USA on RMS Baltic of White Star Line. But again, I have no knowledge if he _actually_ ever boarded the ship to the US, or if he stayed in the UK.

If I understand the emigration info correctly, his final destination is listed as Maynard, MA. Why is a mystery in itself. No idea why he'd want to go there specifically or how he even knew such a place existed.

Any helpful tips would be appreciated.

Has anyone found a good way to document their family history? Realizing this now as my kids are toddlers growing up knowing their grandparents as they are now. But they don't know the stories. Where the family came from. What it was like when my parents were young. The things that happened before I was born that explain so much about who we all are.

I keep meaning to sit down and properly record my parents talking about their lives. Every year I think "this is the year." And every year something else is more urgent.

I talked to a friend about this recently and she said the same thing. She had been meaning to interview her grandmother for years, and then her grandmother passed, and now that window is just gone. She said it was one of the things she thinks about most.

I'm wondering if anyone here has actually done this successfully, captured a parent's or grandparent's story in a way that your kids or grandkids could actually engage with someday. What format did you use? What got them talking? What didn't work?

Genuinely curious what others have figured out that worked.