What's your best 'find' this year?

[ozlady]

My best finds? All the certs I bought when in the UK in May.
The last cert that I ordered. It gave me my g.g.grandmother's maiden name.
The lovely portrait of a great uncle killed in WW1'

[Josephine]

I've come to this terrific thread a bit late; I hope it's still okay to post about my best finds in 2006!

My best find was when a cousin found me!  He's a distant cousin:  his ancestor was the sister of my 3rd-great-grandmother.  I hadn't known what had happened to that sister and he told me who she married, etc.  A wonderful Rootschatter (Karen) sent me all the census records that gave us so many details.  (Thank you again, Karen.)

On a whim late one night, this cousin in England typed our ancestor's name into a search engine and up popped a Rootschat thread with my queries about my 4th-great-grandfather, Barnett Barnett from Chatham, Kent.  My cousin frantically joined Rootschat (although it took a bit of figuring out) and PM'ed me.  He's not used to this type of message board, so he typed all in caps and didn't provide many details.  It was just (all in caps), Who are you and why are you writing about my ancestor?  Which, after my responses, progressed to (still all in caps), give me your phone number right now so I can call you. 

Well, I was ready to report him to Rootschat as a troll or troublemaker!  I mean, who joins Rootschat and on his first day (night) asks for someone's phone number?  For all I knew, he was doing it to a whole bunch of people!  I decided to hold off a bit and wait and see if  he really was related to my ancestor.

Lo and behold, a few emails and one phone call later (I phoned him), I was convinced! 

I hadn't heard from him in a few months and thought perhaps he'd lost interest but he contacted me again recently and is as interested as ever in our shared family tree.  I'm in the process of printing  everything I've got to send to him in England.  (There's too much to email and it would be too confusing.)  This way he'll see what I've already found and hopefully be able to build on it over time.

Another best find was the maiden name of my 4th-great-grandmother.  Thank to the fabulous folks at FreeBMD, I found the birth registration for her youngest child (my own ancestor was born prior to civil registration).  I ordered the certificate and learned that my 4th-great-grandmother's maiden name was Simmons.  This confirmed that the marriage record I had found between Sarah Simmons and John Beaumont was theirs!  (Too bad the church record doesn't list their parents.  I'm stuck again, LOL.)

Many thanks to the Rootschatters who have helped me and who have helped others.  This is the best website!

Regards,
Josephine

[Paul E]

Julian - what an amazing piece of blindfold jigsaw puzzling! 

My own highlight this year has been meeting my mother's cousin, who had copies of letters sent to his father by a South African relative - a genealogist who had written (between 1917 and 1930) to surviving members of his grandfather's family in the UK.

Thanks to help from a fellow-Rootschatter, I had already made contact with a descendent of the same South African genealogist, who had copies of the letters sent by my mother's uncle to him. 

Being able to put the two together was a really emotional highlight.  But what was more exciting was realising how, in the pre-internet days, someone in another country was able to construct a family tree - over the course of years of correspondence with dozens of people in the UK.

On my father's side, I've also made contact with, and been able to meet, a distant 'cousin' who has been tracing the family for some years.  It's a great feeling to have someone to co-operate with!

cheers

Paul

[julianb]

Being able to put the two together was a really emotional highlight. But what was more exciting was realising how, in the pre-internet days, someone in another country was able to construct a family tree - over the course of years of correspondence with dozens of people in the UK.

Paul

What's really great is all that work by your south african relative has not gone to waste, and is being used by this generation.  I know I'm not the only one who worries about what will happen to all the work I've done.

In a few generations time, there'll be people running round the room punching the air with delight when they come across your research 

JULIAN

[shellyesq]

I've only just started researching this past year, so all my best finds are from 2006. 

I've had many good tentative finds on my husband's tree - a possible ancestor on the Mayflower, ancestors going back to colonial-era Connecticut, early Dutch settlers of New York City, and a few connections to major politicians.  I also made a few more recent finds from the 20th century on the Russian side of the family, which my father-in-law's cousin was very interested in.

On my end, I found a second cousin that I never knew about, who sent me some great pictures of my grandmother's family.  I also found a distant cousin on my grandfather's side who sent me pictures of the ancestral home and some distant relatives.

My best find, however, was probably finding my birthmother's name in an obituary for her aunt.  I never anticipated having any information about biological relatives, and now I have 4 generations' worth on one branch.