Me too. Just found a Scottish site that would be perfect but it charges you lots of money to view the results of your search. Which is unfortunate.
Djm gets exited?
I found my maternal Grandfather and one of my Dad’s brothers but that was it. No clues going backwards.
Yes, I would say one in three of my posts on this board get “exited”. 
djm
It’s not worth a second attempt.
I once did some casual research on my father’s family, the roots of which can be traced back some several hundred years. It seems that a man from one country settled down with a woman from another country, and they then settled in a third country. They had one child, a son, as my ancestor. However, apparently the church, and its authorities, did not recognize the relationship of that man and that woman as representing a church sanctioned marriage, and therefore their son was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d. That is, apparently I have a legitimate claim, in that I descend from a long line of b.a.s.t.a.r.d.s, thank you.
There’s nothing like a bit of family tree building - even over a few generations - to reinforce that we’re all related somewhere in the web.
My current research was initiated by my father’s insistence that my elder brother give his son the “Family name - Harold” as a middle name. It’s my brother’s middle name, my father’s middle name and his uncle’s first name. So I tried to see how far back this name goes.
What I found was that “John” goes back further. It’s my youngest brother’s first name, my father’s first name, his father’s first name and his father’s first name. But his father’s name is “James Lewis”. So, unless I can find a “Harold” or “John” as a brother or son then I think the pattern stops.
Family history is also a great way to engage with social history. Whether it be alien invasions from other planets or just other continents…
JW
Understood. I learned something just today from my older brother about my father’s father, born 1890. Died 1987. (That alone is awe-inspiring. Imagine the world in 1890. Imagine the world in 1987. Think about how it changed and what he saw in the 90 years of memories he accumulated.) Anyway, I had known that he sold automobiles before the Depression. Made a lot of money at it evidently, after growing up dirt poor. What I didn’t know is when the run on the banks started, one of his sons, my uncle, was acutely, severely ill. His choice was to try to get to the bank or to take his son to the hospital, a lot of miles away and so no simple feat in those days. He made his choice and lost everything (financially). My uncle is still around.
Dale, that’s the kind of story that needs to be recorded, something beyond birth, marriage, death dates, etc. - Things that give a glimpse into what a person was really like.
I’ve done lots of family research in the past-(pre-computer days), writing to state capitols to get copies of old records, etc. And yes, familysearch is a wonderful tool too.
Your grandfather was of the same era as both of mine. One was born in 1892 and died in 1982, the other in 1899 and died in 1992. I often thought about the changes they’d seen in their lifetimes.I sometimes wonder if any generation will see as much change in the basic way people live?
One never owned/drove a car, lived the very simple, self-sufficient way of his ancestors.He fought in France in WWI, came back, married and raised his family. He always felt that if he had a place to live and food that was all anyone really needed. He always farmed, but didn’t buy his own farm until he was middle aged because he never borrowed money, ever. He was however a learned man, and loved reading about new technologies. He and my grandmother lived with us when I was growing up-think “The Waltons” and they enriched my childhood and in his case, my adulthood.
My other grandfather was “the modern man”. He went with anything new- motorcycles, cars, etc. and was full of fun. He and his family(my dad’s) suffered much during the depression.
From both of them I had stories of folks long past and they both inspired me to get into geneology. In this part of the country,too, family is always close and of greatest importance. I can’t imagine not knowing many generations past, I guess because I grew up hearing it all the time.
GREAT question which I was thinking about today when I was thinking about my grandparents. (All of whom were born between 1890 and, I think, 1905 and all died between 1987 and 1995.) It’s hard to know how much the world will change between now and the time I check out, but I don’t really expect to see the same kind of changes they did.
Take my grandfather (1890-1987). He was 13 when the Wright brothers flew. Age 79 when the Apollo moon missions begin. He lived another 17 or 18 years. I think he would have been well into adulthood before he used a telephone and he was around long enough for television to be commonplace. I still remember using the outhouse in his backyard and they got an inside toilet when I was 10 or 12, I think. They relied on a woodburning stove. Yet, he saw nuclear power happen. It’s really unbelievable.
You know, I often think that genealogy is a distraction from who we are now, that focusing on our ancestors and what they did or did not accomplish is a way to divert attention from ourselves in the here and now (the only part of time we can really affect) and the fact that we may not be living up to our own standards, doing and being all that we are capable of.
Possibly correct to some degree but the genes of our ancestors are carried in us and we don’t always know just what impact those genes actually have on us. Plus less tangible things such as “values” are pasted from generation to generation. A case in point, in my family we have a case of achondroplasia. At the time of her birth the doctors at the Mayo clinic wanted to know as much about our family history as possible. At that time we were more interested in getting away from our family history but we eventualy turned up two more births of this type in our family history. We still don’t know what if any impact that has/had on her birth.
Another case is I am still trying to find out what happened to my wife’s grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins during the war. My FIL waited just about everyday of his life for some word from IRC which never came, this certainly impacted my wife and her siblings as they grew-up. And lastly my mother was born a German-Irish Protestant, my father an Irish Roman Catholic. My fathers parents did not approve at all. My gran used to say horrible things to my mother and us kids when we would go over for visits. After my gran mother died my gran father completely changed and actually disowned my dad after he walked out on us and treated my mother as a daughter. Anyway years ago my mother found out where in Germany her first ancestors in Ireland came from so she and her brothers took a trip to Germany to see what they could find. They found all kinds of records, births, christenings, marriages etc. All in…the Catholic chruch! So there is a grave in Co. Sligo with a lot of turned earth!
So which one are you?
djm
If you really want to get serious about geneology ask your neighborhood Morman. They research their geneologies for religious purposes and they have compiled the most extensive geneological database in the world. The main database site is in Salt Lake City but they have satellite offices in all of their local churches (they call them chapels). They welcome non-Mormans to use their database - at least that’s what my Morman brother-in-law says.
Mike
The other “extreme” 6’4"
Sorry, couldn’t resist. 
djm
Nah, not in my case. I’m just interested in who the folks were and what they were like that I was the result. 
There are lines of my family tree that I know quite a bit about, but others that I’ve not even explored. It’s good to know history, but not to be consumed of it. I think this is why the Bible advises against endless genealogies (1Tim.1:4), because it does really turn into an unending fruitless search after a while, and can easily divert us from more important matters.
I think that scripture was meant to deal with people who looked for ancestors that had priestly or other special lineage.
People can go overboard with anything - I wonder how that scripture counts towards the endless search for the perfect Tin Whistle.
BTW - I did some research on my Genealogy, I have Polish, English, Irish, Scottish, Dutch, German, Lakota, Cherokee, French roots. Quite mixed.
Here’s my genealogy page: http://www.kingsmills.us/genealogy/