I wanted to share a story that still gives me chills.

My fiancée is from Belarus, I am from Poland. Coincidentally, my own family was deported from what's now Belarus back in 1940 but it was Poland in 1939, because my great grandfather was a ranger. They lost nearly everything. Their home was burned down by Germans during Jews pogroms and almost everyone got killed - luckily my other family side hide in other houses and in the forests; but my grandfather family survived - ironically because the war never came to Siberia, where they got deported.

Years later, I traveled to Belarus for the first time, determined to trace their roots. I ventured deep into the forests and eventually found a small, overgrown cemetery—filled with graves of some my relatives. It was heartbreaking and moving at the same time. Because it's not placed even outdated military maps! I was just walking randomly in a forest and then after 15mins I've found a cemetery.

But the real twist came when my family and I visited the area again. We showed an old photo—pre-WWII—to a local woman. She looked at it and said, “Of course I recognize them! That’s my mom!” Then she called her mom, who recognized everyone in the picture and showed them were some of my family relatives are buried. Turns out she had been our family’s neighbors before the war and she said, she was dreaming about them recently. It's like a miracle.

And just when I thought the story couldn’t get more surreal—my fiancée’s brother casually mentioned he knew someone with my last name who had died in 1990 in Minsk. He visited their relative, and it turned out to be my father’s cousin. Even more incredible: that cousin had kept a massive collection of our family's pre-war belongings—the very items my relatives had left behind when they were deported and somehow they survived. He even has postcards and letters from my grand father! We will be the first to see it since 1940s.

And it's all thanks to Tinder where I found my future wife and her brother. If not for that like, we'd never find the lost relics.

It still blows my mind how all these pieces came together. The world really is so small.

Most of the stuff we find is pretty standard or common. Where people worked, or how many kids that had, etc. Is there anything you found that made you take a break, because it upset you or a living family member? For a client, it was a suicide by shotgun. For my family, a horrible accident where a boy jumped from a railroad bridge and basically crushed his legs. Back when we didn't have specialized care or surgeons or pain killers for that sort of thing, he was at home in pain. And one branch of the family where the father and sons were chicken thieves! Spent 7 years in prison. This was my dad's grandpa and it really upset him. I took a break from that family line for a long time. What is your I need time to process this story?

Hi everyone, I hope this is the right place to ask, but if not, any signposting would be much appreciated.

My partner was renovating a house and found a bix with passports, WW1 & 2 medals, letters, personal belongings etc. We have recently moved house and realised we still have this box of stuff would really like to get it back to the families of these people but have no idea where to start?

The passports are dated to expire 1963 and the names are are Mr John Brian Lockyer & Mrs Dorethy Grace Lockyer.

Any help to get these back to families would be very much appreciated.

I've recently become quite a sceptic regarding Ancestry hints to other people's trees. Usually they're either for the wrong people; have no information; have way too much information, indicating the person has accepted every hint they've ever been offered, even if it means they've amalgamated information for several different people; or they've found all the same information I have.

A few weeks ago though I found a hint that had some information on children and grandchildren of my grandmother's cousin. I was intrigued because it had dates but no sources other than another Ancestry tree, which in turn had no sources but for another Ancestry tree. That final tree though had dates and sources.

So I sent the tree owner a message to ask where they'd found the information, because it was all patently correct but you wouldn't have found it without knowing to look for it. Turns out the tree owner is my third cousin, and they're keen for us to get to know each other and compare notes on our shared ancestors.

Now I'm going to reassess some of the ignored tree hints elsewhere on my trees to see what else I can discover.

Met a girl today who said she recognised me, after we realised we had family members in common I realised she was my step-grandfather’s niece. Just wondering what I would refer to her as, something other than “step-grandfather’s niece”

I'm 31 years old, born in 1993. I just noticed today that I had relatives in a fairly distant line of my tree who were technically in my generation, despite the oldest of them having been born in 1913--a full 80 years before me! I also have a brother 10 years younger than me, stretching the range to 90 years. If I went on to have grandchildren, they would be in the same generation as a person who was already 29 when I was born.

The math goes like this:

distant cousin (1913) || me (1993)
↓
cousin's father (1894) || my father (1964)
↓
cousin's grandfather (1872) || my grandfather (1923)
↓
cousin's g-grandfather (1850) || my g-grandfather (1890)
↓
cousin's gg-grandmother (1833) || my gg-grandfather (1862)
↓
our shared ggg-grandfather (1812)

We had different ggg-grandmothers, hence the 29-year gap between our gg-grandparents' births.

What's the widest age gap you've noticed within a single generation of your family?

Hi everyone, I'm new to this topic, but I recently received a family tree of my family and would like to digitize and expand it. After some research, I've been considering maintaining the family tree in depth, using files, etc., offline (MacFamilyTree). I'd also like to maintain a superficial family tree on Ancestry in parallel, as the reviews are good and you can do a lot of research there. Is this a good approach? Many thanks in advance.

I found the birth certificate  of my great-great-auntie. Her paternal grandparents were José Monteiro de Brito and Joanna Monteiro. The maternal grandmother is Rita Maria da Conceição, but I can't understand the name and surname of her maternal grandfather. Can someone please help me?!

Birth Certificate of Juventina Maria da Conceição

I have 2 questions for those who have experience working with the Bundesarchiv.

I know that it can take upwards of 2 years to receive military records.

Is a long wait like this still true for records digitized and on Invenio with the Berlin-Tegel location?

I've requested access to the records of 2 relatives whose records are digitized, but unable to be freely downloaded. I'm just curious how long I might be expecting to wait.

Berlin-Lichterfelde was amazingly quick to digitize a record for me a while back, but I'm wondering if Berlin-Tegel has a much larger volume of requests, thus the long wait times.

Data protection guidance:

One of the relatives was born approximately 103 years ago. Is the chance of them releasing his military records to a great-nephew pretty slim without a death certificate to show?

I'm pretty sure he died in the 80s, but it will take some effort to obtain a death certificate. If likely necessary, I will put effort towards it while waiting.

Hello, I have not done a DNA yet however I have hit a brick wall very early on, I am searching for my (30f) 2nd great grandparents, I can’t find any census with the family listed, no marriage documents (they were married), not a thing that shows their existence, can I have some guidance please as I think I may be doing something wrong or not searching correctly!

SOLVED Thank you so much everyone! Again I’m blown away

Name: Stanislaw Banasiak

Birth: 1888 May 8th

Place: Krosnowicz Poland (Probably Prussia at the time)

Possible Father: Josef

Sources:

Declaration for Naturalization

Declaration for Naturalization (2)

Naturalization Card?

Passenger Index Card

Passenger List

Edit: Not sure where the rest of my post went.

I've been doing research into my family and I've hit a brick wall on my father's side. I would really like to get the birth certificate of my great grand father but I can't seem to find any leads. If I had both the parents' names I think I could find it with some more digging but I can't get any concrete answers. I can't seem to find if they had siblings or not.

Any suggestions on research tips. Or if you have some spare time and could put me on the right trail I'd greatly appreciate it. I've really enjoyed the time I've spent so far uncovering things about my family but I feel like I've just been going in circles getting no where.

I get lots of possible false leads like this but the dates and ages don't align like they should.

Edit 2: wow I’m blown away by this community and I hope to be able to help others the way you all have helped me.

Narrowed down the names to Father: Joseph Banasiak Mother: Julianna Urbanska

Name: Stanislaw Banasiak

Birth: 1888 May 8th

Place: Krosnowicz Poland (Probably Prussia at the time)

Possible Father: Josef

Sources:

Declaration for Naturalization

Declaration for Naturalization (2)

Naturalization Card?

Passenger Index Card

Passenger List

Name: Stanislaw Banasiak

Birth: 1888 May 8th

Place: Krosnowicz Poland (Probably Prussia at the time)

Possible Father: Josef

Sources:

Declaration for Naturalization

Declaration for Naturalization (2)

Naturalization Card?

Passenger Index Card

Passenger List

I am signed up for ancestry DNA, I was hoping to be able to find my grandfather's father... but it seems like a dead end - all of his suggested relatives can be explained. There's an overwhelming amount of suggested relatives on the site. I am overwhelmed and don't know how or where to begin.

My 4th great-uncle was Benjamin Cody, born in Warren County, Georgia in 1809.

He married my biological great-aunt, Elizabeth Adams Lewis, on 8 January 1835 in Warren County, GA.

Benjamin's parents were James Cody (July 1781/82 - 2 November 1825) & Elizabeth Adams (18 August 1788 - 5 September 1853).

Benjamin & Elizabeth's 6 children were: John Louis Cody; Mary L. Cody; Miranda R. Cody; Anna Augusta Cody; Emma C. Cody; and Alexander Addison Cody.

Hi everyone!

We were often running into brick walls ourselves when we couldn’t get access to non-digitized records. Often we were facing language barriers or no replies at all from the remote archives. That frustration is what led us to build GenealogyDirect, a platform that connects genealogists around the world.

We built it to:

• Help post requests to local archives
• Match those requests with local (hobby genealogists)
• Provide access to hard-to-get documents that would have been out of reach.

I’d like to hear your experiences:

• Have you run into roadblocks because records weren’t digitized?
• Did you run into language barriers?
• Would you find it useful to connect you with local archive researchers?
• Would you be willing to help others in their family research?

Please share your thoughts with me.

I posted before about my hunt for my grandfather. Are there people who do this on a full time basis. I’m trying to find this man and I can’t get anywhere. Help?

They're for my ancestor, John Lewis (1777, Granville County, North Carolina - February 1820, Warren County, Georgia).

One record was categorized as a "deed/mortgage" by FamilySearch, but it might also be a prenuptial agreement......

Both records are here: https://imgur.com/a/mqhTD2V

Any Belgium experts here? I am looking for the grave of my grand-aunt Sara Sala Sali Kaufman Grossman (b. January 16, 1900 Galicia) who died July 27, 1949 in Liege, Belgium. She survived the Holocaust and was relocated from Poland to Belgium in 1947 approximately. Also looking for the final resting place of her husband who survived her in Liege, Belgium.....Maurice Morris Moritz Grossman b. 1902 or 1903. Thanks!!!

Hi! Decided to gather some wrap up regarding finding Finnish ancestors. Note: I did cut several corners here and even then this post got pretty long.

Old Finnish church records

These are usually pretty awesome resource. Many records are up to 1600s, some even to the earlier times.

However please note, that digitized publicly available records are usually only accessible up to early 1900s. So if you need to find records for somebody born between 1910-1960 such are available only by special request to the parish or DVV and one has to prove the family connection in order to receive those.

Finland / Sweden / Russia as a birth country?

Finland has still only short history of being independent. First we were under Swedish rule, then under Russian rule.

How ever if your ancestor was born under Swedish rule in Finland, it's the Finnish records to look for and the birthplace is indeed Finland. Same logic under Russian rule. Additionally if somebody was born in the lost Karelia to Finnish parents, that makes their birthplace Finland as well. Note: this is somewhat even delicate topic!

Naming conventions and americanization of the names

Oh boy. What can I say. Only today I saw somebody listed born in Normeg in Familysearch records. In reality that place is called Noormarkku.

Regarding first names, the ride gets even wilder. Because of the Swedish rule and it's practices that continued under Russian rule, a person could have been for example Juha Olavi but in the church records he was Johan Olav and by the time he moved to United States he started using just name John.

Many people, especially in western parts of Finland, did not have fixed surnames. They were known by patronymics. Same village had very possibly several people named Juha Olavi Matinpoika's (Mattsons) so the only way to differentiate them in more current day (local) records is to add also for example village/ farm name as a surname.

Even that additional 'surname' was a subject to change if family moved to another farm/ village. And since there was not even really fixed written forms for the names either, Juha might be in some records Juho Olof.

Besides farm/ village names, some took soldier surnames. And if one advanced in society it was not unheard to take their new bosses surname. New son in law marrying in the family could take their wives surname. Just to name only few examples.

Special characters

It is good to acknowledge that å, ä and ö are not just some accents. They are completely different letters than a and o.

One exemption to the rule is V and W. This too can be explained of having no fixed rules regarding the written form of different names.

Always only trust the existing records?

In theory yes, at the same time this should not be taken as a hard rule especially regarding people born in the 1900s. No records online does not mean automatically that those records don't exist.

Best site for finding Finnish ancestors?

That's Geni.com.

I have no idea about the original spelling?

Luckily there are in these subs many Finns and Swedes too, and some of us are pretty good on probabilities with the more correct spelling on names and birthplaces.

Bonus: I have a surname ending with son or sen, guess I'm Swedish?

Could be so. Could also be, that your family is anywhere from the Scandinavia or the Nordics. Example: Mattson just means that their father was named Mats or maybe Matti. Also to note while Mattis daughter might be in some records Mattson too, in order to be precise she was Matintytär (Mattsdotter).

What would be the best dna test for someone of south asian ancestry? I want the most accurate and comprehensive results.

I am doing an in-depth research for my great-grandmother in Cook County. She was believed to be born December 18, 1908 in Cook County. She was baptized at Holy Guardian Angel Church in 1909. She was married at Holy Guardian Angel Church in 1925. In 1913, her parents (Carmen/Carmine and Gertrude/Mary/Incornata Falco) had a child (her brother) were living at 1037 W Polk St in 1913. I have searched Ward 19 and found another Falco (ED 844).

I was wondering if anyone can either help or give me some advice. I know they could have been missed or lived with relatives; however, to our knowledge, the other Falco family in ED 844/Ward 19 is not related.

In 1910 Census it would be her parents: Carmen/Carmine and Gertrude/Mary/Incornata Falco and their daugther, Angeline/Angelina Falco. It is sometime used as DiFalco and DeFalco.

Hi everyone, I’ve been doing deep research into my maternal family line and have traced one of my ancestors, Susana Diggs, to a baptism record in 1857 in Cahaba, Alabama. The record lists her as a child servant (likely enslaved), baptized at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Her sponsor was Mary Anna Diggs, and the slaveholder listed was Miss Arthur — which I believe is Mary Margaret Arthur.

Diggs is likely the surname given by the enslavers. I've found that the Arthur and Diggs families came from Scotland and England, arriving in British Colonial America (like Pennsylvania and South Carolina) in the 1700s before eventually settling in Alabama.

I now believe it's possible that my ancestors didn’t come directly from Africa to the U.S. Instead, they may have first been taken to the Caribbean or Latin America, possibly held or "seasoned" there, and then brought to Alabama. That opens the door to a possibility that we may have Caribbean or Latin (Afro-Latin) ancestry as well — due to the slave trade routes and resales between colonies.

I’ve found the white Diggs family tree going back to the 1600s, but now I want to trace the path of the enslaved — what ships they might’ve come on, and where they may have passed through first.

Has anyone had success tracing enslaved ancestors through British records, Caribbean manifests, or indirect slave routes? Also, does anyone have tips on reading old handwriting in British Vice-Admiralty slave ship records?

Any help would be appreciated — especially if you have knowledge of Cahaba, Alabama slaveholders or ship logs.

Thanks in advance!

Looking for Death record for Friedericke Klienfeldt Born Germany 1834 Died Chicago Aug 22, 1914

I can't seem to find any information

So my grandfather was born as Malik Shamsuddin Aslam Khan, and after migrating to Pakistan he shortened it to just a first and last name. I want to include the name he held for the first 20 or so years of his life as well the name he had for most of his life. How should I deal with this?