Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr
My paternal grandparents came here from the Moncton New Brunswick area and are of Scottish descent. I'd love to know more about from where in Scotland their forebears came. I am pretty sure that it is from the northeast corner as there is a town up there that bears our name.
My mother's parents came here from Italy and I have no idea from precisely which area. I looked into it years ago and found it very difficult to trace. None of my siblings were interested back then in learning any more about it.
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Ancestry.com website is an invalubale source of assistance.
Look up your kinfolks SURNAMES.........see if any of their locations "ring a bell".
You have no papers from your mom? Like birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc. Usually, the daughters of the family end up with those type of papers. If yours won't cooperate, it will be difficult.
When I was a kid and young adult, my mother always talked about the family history........so I had "bits and pieces" to go on........but it has literally taken a decade of research.
Once you know their full names (maiden names for the women) and town or city or village and country of birth.........you can use ancestry.com to search around for free........then if you want a subscription, you can either take a temporary one or one year subscription.
Begin with your name and work backwards. Put in what you KNOW of your parents names (mom's maiden name), years they were born, country, etc.........if you post a basic family tree.....OTHERS WILL CONTACT YOU while looking for their own roots..........if you know a bit of info..........go to a FAMILY HISTORY CENTER locally, run by the LDS which are the Latter Day Saints , Mormons, and borrow the MICROFILMS.
It's a process.........for sure.
Do you have a rough idea where in Italy.......or Scotland?
My stepdad's roots were Irish and Scottish; ditto for my son in law.
YOU COULD ALSO WORK BACKWARDS FROM ANY RECENT OBITUARIES, SOMETIMES POSTED ONLINE.
To me, it was like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle.
I made a lot of good connections and had a lot of help in translating the languages, esp. the cyrillic alphabet for the Ukrainians.
The most helpful were the Italian COUSINS who are all over the U.S. and Canada........all from that one little village in the southern mountains of Italy.........ditto for South America (once they could no longer get into the U.S. or Canada....back then there were quotas and when they were filled up, you had to try to go elsewhere).
GOOD LUCK.