Success Stories (How I Found Family) - Family History & Genealogy Message Board

Passport Application Database

GordonGrening — 29 Dec 2007 10:40:11 GMT

What a great addition to Ancestry.com. I typed in my family name and there was an application for the first wife of one of uncles. She had always been a mystery since they were only married for one year. All I knew was that he had a first wife but not her name. Finding her application and best of all a picture of her was a great surprise. Thank you so much for putting this database on-line.

Great Grandmother

gigiwagner24 — 25 Jan 2007 9:50:19 GMT

I found my Grandfather's step-mother. She was only known as Anna, thanks to Ancestry.com I found her full name! He was so shocked that all this time no one knew her name.

Sisters Reunited After 76 years!

Debbie Fields Murphy — 29 May 2006 4:18:54 GMT

On March 4, 2006 we reunited these two sisters for the first time.

The woman in Snow Hill is me and the man in Kinston is Kenneth Carlyle. Mary Agnes is my half great aunt, my father Henry Grey Fields of Walstonburg, NC's half aunt although they are the same age and she was a sister or half sister to the following now all deceased except for Mary Agnes and Queenie Mae Sutton Mumm:

half sisters and brothers:

Lucille Sutton of Kinston

Sybil Rouse of Caswell Center, Kinston, daughter of Alma and Winfield Rouse

offspring of Fenner Fields of Walstonburg and Appie Clyde Lang of Farmville:

Louise Fields (m. Jamel Bynum) of Walstonburg
Ila Fields (m. Carl McKeel) of Walstonburg
Roland G. Fields (m. Olga Paris) of Walstonburg and ran a store in Walstonburg with
Seth "Grey" Fields (m. Sarah Sawrey) of Walstonburg (my grandfather)
Robert Lang Fields of Walstonburg, later West Virgina
Fenner Fields of Walstonburg, later Virgina
Albert Fields of Walstonburg, later Virgina
3 infants

full sisters and brother:
(offspring of Alma Sutton and Fenner Fields)

Appie "Clyde" Fields
John "Johnny" Ivey Fields
Alma Virginia "Virginia" Fields

You can read the story online at:

http://www.kinston.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTem...

Its on page 1 Section B! Email me if you want the photo from the paper or the photo's from the March 4th reunion in Kinston.

The pic they published of Mary Agnes and Mae with Crystal Syner's daughter was misidentified as Mary Agnes' granddaughter instead of her greatgrandaugher

Not perfect, but a good story. They used a lot of the info I sent them!

Enjoy!

Debbie Fields Murphy
Snow Hill, NC

I found my family with the help of Ancestry.com

Julie K — 24 Sep 2005 4:14:28 GMT

I'd like to say thank you to Ancestry.com for helping me to find my family.

My father died when I was 2 and I never met my father's side of the family. After he died, we lost contact with that side of my family and eventually the years passed without contact. I tried looking for them through the years, but without luck. Then I came here before I graduated from college and posted a plea for help in finding my family. Various generous people tried helping me, but little came of it. I eventually went on with life and forgot about that post.

One day this year I got a call from my uncle (my father's younger brother). His son (my cousin) had found that post and showed it to him. He'd done a search to find my phone number and tracked me down. He said, "We've been looking for you."

I couldn't believe how things connected in order for us to find each other. If this had not been here, I know I couldn't have done it myself.

We had a big family reunion on the 4th of July weekend and I got a chance to meet my grandfather, aunts and uncles and many cousins. There are still more relatives I have yet to meet, but I can't wait.

Thank you again for being such a big part in my search.

Julie Kennedy
Oregon

Info "Lightning" struck twice!!

SandraMcGraw58 — 26 Jun 2005 10:00:54 GMT

4 years ago I posted a message on the Mills bulletin
board looking for info on my grdfather and got an answer from
a lady in Boston who wrote a genealogy on his line which went back to the 1600's in Conn. just across the river from my home!!! Now, one more message on the Mills b.b. finds me my grdfathers brother's descendants! These bulletin boards really help but it may take a few weeks. Now with more info I can find the place where my grdfather died so I can fill in that final piece of the puzzle. Many thanks to these
bulletin boards and the nice people who read them, not to mention the cousins I found.

Success!!

robertjm123 — 22 Mar 2003 4:29:08 GMT

I guess I'll be the first non-Ancestry.com person to christen this board <grin!>

I log into Ancestry.com every few days just to play around sometimes. I'll drop in names and see what happens. A few months ago I entered Obiltschnig, which is a family name from souther Austria. I came up with two people listed in the Florida obituaries.

This was interesting since I've never met anyone with that name, nor is it that common. I followed up by contacting a Rootsweb volunteer in Florida who sent me copies of their obituaries!!

After receiving that, I logged into 411.com and checked for their daughter's married name. While her name didn't pop up, someone else's did. This was another non-common sounding name in Pennsylvania.

I figured "what the heck!" I called, but got his voicemail. Left a msg why I was calling and asked whether he was any relation to the daughter. He called back a couple of days later and left a msg. He was intrigued by the "strange" voicemail he got while he was out of town.

To make a long story short, we finally made contact and talked on the phone for almost an hour. His great-grandfather was my great-great-great-grandfather!!

Small world eh? Apparently we've got another "cousin" in Toronto that he's going to introduce me to one day. Apparently, she's done some further family history, so I'm excited about talking with her!!

Thank you Thank you

karenmkraemer011265 — 26 Jan 2005 3:48:35 GMT

I would like to thank Ancestry.com for helping the son I gave up for adoption 19 years ago find me.

Thanks to you...he had a first name.....and a year my grandfather died, and was able to use that to find a link to a family tree that had a email address on it. That address belong to me. It took my son 2 hours of searching Thanks to you and now he is back to being a big part of my life.

found my brother

delighted9 — 23 Jan 2005 4:54:04 GMT

after my brother and I were seperated at the age 0f 2 and 4 and given up for adoption to different families.to long of story but going on line at ancestry .com in 4 days I located him best research web site there is thank you so much--there is hope for the rest of you.

Thank You Ancestry For Finding My Long Lost Sister Robin!!!

Teri lynn sheffield(davis)DeMario — 8 Feb 2005 11:26:05 GMT

Thank you Ancestry.com for finding my Sister Robin Elaine Passno After 43yrs the first post i used was spotted by robins youngest sister Lisa Passno Yes Lord Thank You for this wonderful web sight my sister Robin is Flying here to California on the 31st to be reunited with me OMG my surch is over now i have my baby sister back Robin is 15months younger than me im the oldest wow i have hunted all my life for her even paid companies to find her and i had no luck so i tryed with this ancestry.com and now ive finaly found her
again thank you
Ancestry.com you saved our life!!
Teri/Tari Lynn Sheffield/Davis) DeMario

Brick Wall Shattered

jackloocke — 28 Oct 2004 6:06:43 GMT

After over 30 years of searching, I have finally found my great grandfather Jesse Lock, thanks to Ancestry.com's every name census indexes. Genealogy has been one of my hobbies for most of my life, and I have been successful in finding records on many of my ancestors. I always hit a brick wall, however, when it came to finding any records on my paternal great grandfather. All I had was stories that had been passed down through the family, and one obituary which mentioned him. I have spent countless hours looking in libraries and on the internet, but I never found anything I could definitely tie to him until October 18, 2004, when I discovered that Ancestry.com now had every name indexes to most of the US census records, rather than simply head of household indexes. Within a few minutes of starting to search, I not only found my great grandfather, but his parents and five siblings as well. This is a dream come true, and I owe it all to Ancestry.com. My advice to anyone who has hit a brick wall in their genealogical research is NEVER GIVE UP!

found nephew

vicki — 14 Oct 2004 5:43:46 GMT

I was reading the message boards When I came across a message that a girl my brother use to date 35 years ago was looking for him.I responded to the message and I found out my brother had a son.We all had a wonderful reunite and still keep in touch.

Lesson in Sharing

sdholland68 — 14 Sep 2004 8:58:20 GMT

For about 9 years I had been searching for children of John G Derrick who is my great uncle. He was born in SC/GA and then came to Henry County, GA with his parents as a very young child. A very dear person in Laredo Texas took a chance that her John M Morgan, b GA and my John M Morgan who is son of John G Derrick, were the same person and asked. What a great gift. He was. Now on 23 Oct 2004 there will be a dedication of Civil War Grave Markers made at the cemetery where John G. and his two brothers are buried. I hope to encourage this wonderful person to attend for this service.
Please do not be afraid to share, ask and keep asking. It really pays off. Thanks so much "norma"

This is not such a big find, but I was able to find my old friend...

Ronald Weathers — 28 Aug 2004 6:50:22 GMT

Well, this find was not as big as other people's success stories. Actually some of the other success stories are wilder than any movie I've seen. It's pretty amazing. Oh yes, but like I was saying... I was able to find my friend from high school on a website www.rstnl.com. The website showed me that he had been looking for me earlier. I kind of knew where he lived and had gotten a telephone number of his from another website like Yahoo or something, but I never knew if he wanted me to call him because we kind of ended our friendship due to an argument. But, at the website I mention above, you are able to let people know that you have been searching for them and you can leave your email address for them if they themselves visit the site later. Really kind of interesting. Anyhows, so I got his email address and I contacted him and everything was all fine afterwards. It's funny because we grew up in Maryland, but it turns out that we both live in the NYC area now. What's even stranger is that we both work in Manhattan and actually work only maybe 20 blocks away from each other. So, needless to say we have met lots of times since. I guess I really shouldn't have let so much time pass until I started looking for him, but I am glad that I found him. But, yeah, that's my story.

Looking to interview female genealogists

Amanda May — 9 Dec 2002 3:55:30 GMT

I am a New York-based journalist doing a story for a national magazine on women who have traced their family roots, and what they have discovered along the way. If anyone has an interesting story to tell, please contact me at amay@nyc.rr.com.

Thank you.

Amanda May

Found my pre-Chicago fire family!

Cyan16 — 3 May 2003 3:43:49 GMT

For years I have been researching my family in Chicago, which is a major challenge. My family came to Chicago between 1853-1867 and settled in what is now the Pilsen area of the city, and we are still here, 140+ years later.
Chicago is difficult to search in because of three reasons; 1) All city records before 1872 were burned. 2) Marriage and death records do not list parents before 1916. 3) The state census's of 1855+65 only list heads of families. And on top of it all, some cemeteries are expensive to research in, and many of the churches have been tore down or records were lost.
By using your site and accessing records available through my subscribtion and the message boards, in 6 months, I have found information and cousins who have helped me to find out where almost all my family came from in Germany.
Without your site I would still be looking!
I love you guys!!!

thank you

sheila yearton — 13 Jun 2004 9:07:04 GMT

I would like to thank everyone who helped me locate my birthmother and sibblings. I found my mother 2 days ago and she was very excited to hear from me. The search wouldn't have been possible without your help. ( except for the person who emailed me and told me she was a friend of my mothers and she was dead).

Heart Warming Stories

paulinephillips58 — 3 Mar 2004 4:46:27 GMT

It is so nice to hear stories of relations being reunited after being apart for years, My story is sad that my mum and dad divorced when I was a young child. I later found out that my dad had died at the age of 49 but even sadder when I found out today that he died alone after I spent 20 years trying to find him. Yes the Internet Is very useful for research and finding people but too late for me. However I wish all the people who have been reunited lots of luck and that they never lose track again

Success Stories

Libbi_Crowe — 16 Apr 2003 6:38:40 GMT

I am writing Genealogy Online 7th Edition and I'm looking for online success stories.
Does anyone have an example of how NARA, LOC, Bureau of Nat. & Imm.,census records, Ellis Island, or any other online resource helped you break down a brick wall?

Also, I am looking for any LOCAL resources online for vital records, etc.

I'll be glad to hear from you here, or back channel at my Comcast address!

search for 1/2 sister

buxman1 — 24 Oct 2003 12:46:42 GMT

Searching for Ann
Her maiden name was Anna Belle Woodman

I want to thank all who have help me with the search to find my family after 23 years of searching ! THANK-YOU!

Robin — 20 Feb 2003 9:42:18 GMT

I thank-You all with all my heart, it has been relly hard not having anyone that really cares and a little over a week ago I was re-united with some of my family. It has been the best gift any person could give to me. I finally have found out partly what happend and recieved pictures of my mother and other relatives.NOW I know where the looks came from and have found a very pleasant friend in the process who is a cousin too!!! I will travel back to Massechuttes this year to meet them. I am so excited that after first being re-united I could barely sleep for three days.My heart has been filled with such joy many probubly could'nt imagine. I just wanted to publicly Thank the people who stood and put up with me for the last year that I have been posting my messages. Thank - God for the internet too sinse it narrowed my search down so much faster than the rate I was going before I found it. God- Bless the people who find it in there heart to help others, without them I would probubly still be looking.THANK-YOU ALL ! ! !

We Found Her! Merry Christmas to us!

Tina Akers — 21 Jan 2004 6:39:00 GMT

Just wanted to thank everyone involved in assisting us to find her. Our mother/grandmother, Florence Gibson Hopson, is alive and has lived very close by all these years. It is a wonderful miracle that we have found each other. What a wonderful christmas gift for all of us. We thank God for his blessings on this family that we have found her before it was too late. Unfotunately it was too late to have met her son, he passed away in 2000. But we can meet his children and wife that he has left behind. I wish you all luck in finding the information that you seek. But as you see here miracles can happen. It has been 58 years since my father last seen his mother. Now we can take our last few years together and make memories from them.

thankyou

tristan figueroa — 30 Aug 2004 3:00:22 GMT

thankyou Ancestry my message and all my dreams have been answered. My long lost sister found me at last!

I found cousins!

Jo Wood — 27 May 2003 4:55:13 GMT

I found some cousins on Rootsweb message boards! Cousins that I might not have known about if it was not for your message boards! Thanks alot! When we find lost or unknown relatives online we just want to keep on digging and find more! I know that my searches my never be over with! Thanks for you help!

Success Stories

Libbi_Crowe — 16 Apr 2003 6:37:36 GMT

Many happy returns

SylviaDiane — 27 Jul 2003 11:50:32 GMT

After 20 years of genealogy research, I say thanks to Ancestry.com for many successful hits. The census has been particularly helpful, but I have found other info and leads too. One must realize also that all cannot be at your finger tips. There is still foot work to do. It has been a joy to be able to search in the comfort of home - and the subscription has been well worth the money with many happy returns.

Why post on this board

gary gibb — 10 Feb 2003 5:39:48 GMT

We (Ancestry) receive email messages from people almost daily that talk about their successes. These are great stories about how an unknown cousin was found, a hard to find ancestor was found, even parents or brothers and sisters find each other by using our web sites. We set up this board as a place to publicly share these heart warming stories. We hope these stories will be fun and encouraging for everyone.

Stewart, Harmon, father of S. Archie

VBANYAI — 22 Oct 2001 12:12:22 GMT

I must tell you that I just connected w/2nd cousin and filled her on my family details by way of introduction and gave her the birthdates of my grandchildren. Turned out she had a child on one date, another child on another date and her father was born on the third date. Not same years of course. She didn't have any for the Halloween grandchild though. To get back to Stewart. Harmon married Rosanna Abagail Harrington around 1845. She was born in 1825. Thanks for the recommendation. That's my king of book.

my daughtersadopted parents found me on ancestry message boards

maryann wallace,hunsinger — 24 Jan 2002 2:52:00 GMT

the happiest day since my daughter was taken for adoption came when they emailed me, i searched for her for 16 years, sometimes thinking the worst, i was so elighted to talk to her and will do anything to be with her. i think adoption is a hard life for mother and daughter and i want to stop the pain of it, a child needs to know who she is as far as roots are concerned and i need to know her, thank you for the message boards for being there to find lost people. my daughter is so beutiful and smart, i have missed so much and now that i am getting to know her my life can begin again!
mary ann wallace

Picture from the past

JPa6614972 — 11 Oct 2002 3:52:58 GMT

Our family was thinking about getting the"net" but we findly did. Me being the family genealogist went "surfing" and found some intresting sites. Well my aunt, my dads sister, I thought I would try to find. I went looking in Perry Co. Mo. and on the qurry baord found a person that help me find a lot more than stories about her. My father would talk about her but I never met her. This person had some photos of her and she looks just like my oldest daughter. What a find on the net. Pat

sam southern

sammiecottrill65 — 2 Aug 2001 1:49:00 GMT

I am happy to say that I have found THIS last week a SISTER that I never knew existed. We have visited & I have also met her 3 daughters (my nieces) some great nieces & nephews.....ALL THANKS TO FAMILY SURNAME MESSAGE BOARDS..THANKS THANKS THANKS

Success story

foxylady_1 — 8 Nov 2001 5:22:44 GMT

Just want to let everyone know that posting really brings results. A cousin, from Sweden, and I connected, and are in process of connecting with others in our family tree. Hang in there, people. Don't give up!

Found my Birth Father

Cheryl Dawson — 15 Jan 2000 1:57:45 GMT

I found my birth father and saw him after 30 years. What a wonderful gift. Thank you aunt Carol.
Cheryl