For years I have been wondering about my ancestry. Researching our family’s roots and creating a family tree is something my Mom and I have been talking about doing for a while now. Somehow, we have never found the time to get started on it. Getting the opportunity to partner with Ancestry.com on the #surnameproject was the kick in the pants we both needed to get started discovering our ancestry and the meaning behind our family name.
That first night, after creating an account on Ancestry.com, was a real eye opener to our family history. Once you start discovering things about relatives, some you don’t even know you have, it quickly becomes addicting. My Mom stayed up that entire first night working on our family tree.
My Mom never knew her own father, so that is where we started. She has his name, but other than that we knew nothing about him or the rest of his family. Within 15 minutes of exploring on Ancestry.com we learned a lot, including that Mom had a half-sister that she didn’t know about. Sadly, her sister is now deceased but we are hoping to connect with some of her children. We also learned that one of my Great Grandfathers was a farmer in Texas and was once injured in a shoot-out.
Then we came across an image of another of my Great Grandfathers from my Grandmother’s side of the family. Mom and I both immediately noticed that my son is the spitting image of this man. It’s amazing how much they look alike. Luckily, one of my Mom’s distant cousins has already been on ancestry.com and has done a lot of the legwork for us, including some old family images that she has uploaded.
Ancestry.com has given us easy access to a variety of public records like my Grandfather’s World War II draft record. I am quite certain we would have never otherwise located these bits of history.
We have only just begun our family tree, but have already learned so much about our family. I look forward to expanding the branches of this tree to include my Father’s side of the family, and also my Son’s family from his Father’s side who immigrated to the U.S. from Italy.
What do you know about your last name? I am so grateful for Ancestry.com free trial I received and the chance to discover more about the origin of my family’s last name.
Free Trial Offer from Ancestry.com. Right now you can get a FREE Trial with Ancestry.com to explore the origins and meanings of your last name. Learn more about this offer.
Ancestry is the world’s largest online resource for family history. Ancestry strives to fill the fundamental desire people have to understand who they are and where they came from. With a unique collection of billions of historical records, including handwritten historical documents and state and local government archives, Ancestry is the perfect place to learn fun and interesting facts about your family’s tree.
Thank you to Ancestry.com for sponsoring this project.
Vanessa says
August 20, 2014 at 4:58 PMCongrats on your success with ancestry.com! I really want to try this and always enjoy reading about my family history and continue to learn more about my ancestors. A great read, thank you!
Kendra says
August 20, 2014 at 6:03 PMI am lucky that my parents have done my ancestry way way back. It is fun to look and see how, when, and where they lived.
Lisa Jones says
August 20, 2014 at 6:39 PMI Love This Site I Used Found Some Of My Relatives In Italy!!
Kungphoo says
August 20, 2014 at 7:24 PMI wish it would have worked for me.. i just could not find anyone on either side..
Taylor says
August 20, 2014 at 8:27 PMThat is so cool! I would LOVE to try it out!
vanessa: thequeenofswag says
August 20, 2014 at 8:40 PMI’ve always wanted to use Ancestry.com to trace back my families ancestries. I know it goes back to Spanish Royalty.
Donna says
August 20, 2014 at 8:58 PMI used Ancestry.com a few years ago, but couldn’t find much at on my paternal side and nothing on my maternal side. I’d love to give it a try again.
Touristmeetstraveler says
August 20, 2014 at 8:58 PMI’ve used ancestry online to discovery family I’ve never known I had.
Tracy says
August 20, 2014 at 9:20 PMThis is so neat! I would be up all night too. I’ve never tried it but it have always wanted to. I hope you can make some real life connections from all of your work.
Kathy says
August 20, 2014 at 9:27 PMI would love to do a little research into my family. I love how easy it is these days.
Mrs. Mashed Up says
August 20, 2014 at 10:49 PMBeautiful old pictures! I used this site to help me research my family history. I found my grandfather’s signed WWI draft card! 🙂
Liz Mays says
August 20, 2014 at 11:43 PMI’m having so much fun digging into history. How wild that you have a shootout injury in your past!
Amanda Love says
August 20, 2014 at 11:43 PMI’ve tried this before and couldn’t really find anyone since most of my family aren’t from the US.
Michelle F. says
August 20, 2014 at 11:58 PMThose are some great pictures. I have been wanting to try that site out.
Franc Ramon says
August 21, 2014 at 2:40 AMIt would really nice to get to know our lineage through this site. I’ll try to see how accurate it is.
Roch says
August 21, 2014 at 2:41 AMIt’s great to know about my ancestors so I’m definitely trying out this web application (even in trial version). Funny how you’d learn that your family looks the same even across generations.
Bonnie @ wemake7 says
August 21, 2014 at 9:08 AMI’ve dabbled with Acenstry.com but couldn’t find much years ago. I wonder if I could now. It would be cool to see my history.
Rosey says
August 21, 2014 at 10:35 AMSo cool to discover unusual things you’d not think of as being in your family history. I think this would be fun to do.
Holley says
August 21, 2014 at 11:09 AMGreat post! I love genealogy. I haven’t had the time to do too much research lately.
Robin (Masshole Mommy) says
August 21, 2014 at 2:14 PMI think this is such an awesome website. I would love to look up my family history!
Mary O'Malley says
August 21, 2014 at 2:50 PMI think that it’s fun to learn about family history. Thanks for sharing.
Nicole says
August 21, 2014 at 3:13 PMmy mom did this for our family and found out that we’re distant cousins to Amelia Aerhardt (spelling?)
Jaime says
August 21, 2014 at 4:13 PMMy family tree has been researched and it’s amazing the information you can come up with. How crazy that you have a family member injured in a shoot out. I can’t believe this site has THAT specific information!
melinda says
August 21, 2014 at 4:25 PMI’ve always thought about doing something like this. I don’ tknow my bio dad so it would be really hard
Lisa Bristol says
August 21, 2014 at 4:40 PMMy dad uses Ansestory.com for all his research. He loves how easy it is to find all the great info on his family.
Tiffany Hathorn says
August 21, 2014 at 7:04 PMI have always wanted to learn more about my family’ history. COol that you were able to.
Lindsey @ Redhead Baby Mama says
August 21, 2014 at 8:00 PMI’ve been doing genealogy for years now. I’m actually related to Shakespeare!
Janel (A Mom's Take) says
August 21, 2014 at 8:34 PMI love looking at old family photos. I’ve retraced some of my family history using Ancestry, it’s addicting, and fun! My mom didn’t know her father either, but she knew is name, but not sure of the spelling. That’s always hard when you don’t know the person you are looking for too well.
Ann Bacciaglia says
August 21, 2014 at 10:07 PMMy parents have been using this website for years. It is a easy site to use. We have learned so much information.
Elizabeth Copeland says
August 21, 2014 at 10:46 PMI’ve spent some time perusing our family history. My grandad has traveled widely to find out more info about our family, to see actual birth/baptism/death records.
Mickey C says
August 21, 2014 at 11:02 PMI loved using Ancestry.com when I had a membership. I ended up getting my mother a membership too.
Dawn says
August 21, 2014 at 11:32 PMI’m definitely going to be joining Ancestry.com. It’s amazing what you can learn about your family!
Janeane Davis says
August 22, 2014 at 12:27 AMI like the way technology makes it possible for people to do so much ancestry research with this website. Once upon a time this type of work would have required travel all over the country and been quite expensive.
Emily says
August 22, 2014 at 1:01 AMI love Ancestry.com. We’ve used it quite a bit. It’s so neat to learn about relatives you didn’t even know about.
Janell P says
August 22, 2014 at 9:56 AMI’ve always wondered if people have success with Ancestry.com, and after reading for story I see that they do! I just might have to try it myself, thanks for sharing!
Shell says
August 22, 2014 at 9:58 AMHow cool to find out more about your history! I need to check this out.
becka says
August 22, 2014 at 10:33 AMAs a descendant from people who were famous I don’t have to do too much research but I love learning about my ancestors on my mom’s side. The nonviolent non-murdering side of my family. 🙂
Debbie Denny says
August 22, 2014 at 10:34 AMI started using this site many years ago. Love all the info and leads.
mellisa says
August 22, 2014 at 10:34 AMWe tried this a few years ago and it was really fun. I’d like to try it again now that I have a little more time on my hands.
Everyday Living with Chrys says
August 22, 2014 at 11:04 AMMy great uncle (grandmothers brother) has been doing my grandmother & grandfathers (as well as other family members) trees for quite some time. It’s pretty neat to see where everyone came from and how they got to certain countries and what they did.
Krystal says
August 22, 2014 at 1:31 PMI’d love to sign up. I think it would be so fun to try.
Christie says
August 22, 2014 at 2:15 PMWow, how neat to learn more about your grandfather’s WWII info! Such a neat website
Travel Blogger says
August 22, 2014 at 5:32 PMMy last name is very strongly Scottish, and is even traced back to royalty. I would love to trace my history with Ancestry.com
Dina says
August 22, 2014 at 5:34 PMI love to learn about my family’s past. I have an account. I need to use it more.
Jessica (Savory Experiments) says
August 22, 2014 at 10:02 PMI love the photo you came across of your great grandfather! My mom and I used this service a few years back to build a family tree. It was excellent and easy to use.
Erica says
August 22, 2014 at 11:03 PMAncestry is such an awesome resource. I can’t believe how great your and your mother’s experience with it was though! How awesome!
Jennifer says
August 23, 2014 at 8:35 AMMy dad has been using Ancestry.com and another site for years. He has gone back many generations so he knows all of that stuff but I don’t. I need to sit down and learn about my family one of these days
Marina @ Mommy Snippets says
August 23, 2014 at 9:11 AMTHat is sooo cool! I’ve been wanting to do this for forever! 14 day free trial deal is awesome!
Tami says
August 23, 2014 at 10:25 AMIt is fascinating to go back in time…to see where and who we came from. I recently learned that my grandfather originated from Portugal. 🙂
Kelsey Apley says
August 23, 2014 at 10:34 AMMy cousin is really into finding out more about our family tree. She has used Ancestry.com and really loved it. She got a lot of information and said that it was so easy to use and navigate.
Barbie's Beauty Bits says
August 23, 2014 at 1:15 PMI’ve been interested in finding out about my family tree. I need to try this and see what I find!
kristin says
August 24, 2014 at 2:49 PMHow nice. I really need to do more research on my family.
Tracey says
August 25, 2014 at 12:42 PMFinding out your family tree would be so interesting. Ancestry.com seems like a great resource for this.
Chene @Prototype Mama says
August 25, 2014 at 1:44 PMI wanted to do this so bad. My mom was just talking to me about Ancestry.com. I’m going to have check it out
natasha brodsky says
September 12, 2014 at 9:48 PMI really enjoyed finding out about my family on Ancestry.com. Took me a long time to get anywhere because I just couldn’t figure it out but I got in eventually.
Marcie W. says
September 17, 2014 at 7:02 PMFamily is everything and I feel it is very important to know where you come from. We don’t know much about my dad’s side since he was adopted at a very young age, so I would love to explore and create something special for him with the information I learn.