Ancestry.com Revisited

Has anyone noticed that Ancestry now has Google Adsense advertising on their site?  There's nothing wrong with it - it's probably a smart move.  I just thought it was interesting because I never noticed it before.  You know, I've been fairly critical of Ancestry from the start of my blogging, but I went through all of my research of few days ago and discovered the vast majority of the information I now have came as a result of my Ancestry membership.  Of course I have all of the US census records, some immigration manifests, World War 1 registration cards, etc.  These were all major records that got me moving and craving more information.  While I still visit them occasionally, I think I've mostly exhausted these records looking for ancestors in my direct family lines.  What has been most important to me though, are other more subtle areas where Ancestry provided me small clues, or linked me up with people, that turbo-charged my research.   

There are actually many of these subtle areas, but I will just highlight a few to illustrate what I'm talking about.   I got started in genealogy because I realized I knew nothing about my mother's father (the one I noted in another post that I found in the Colorado State Penitentiary).  So, when I first joined Ancestry, after browsing the major records, I went to the message boards and found there was a category for his surname (Zaring).  I asked for info on the surname and my grandfather, and got a reply from a man who had been researching the Zaring family for over 30 years.   Because I got into contact with this man, he shared info with me that took the Zaring name all the way back to the 1400s.  All this resulted from a small post on the message boards.  But there's more...

The only thing missing that connected my Colorado Zaring branch to the bigger clan was documenting who was the father of my great grand father (William E. Zaring) .  My new message board friend and I thought we knew who William Zaring's father was from looking at census records, but we could find no official source that without a doubt verified the connection.  What complicated the search was that William E. Zaring abandoned his family shortly after 1920, and I had no idea where he went.  This stumped us for a couple of years, but one day I was browsing Ancestry and up popped a Texas death index listing the death of a William Zaring near Houston in 1929.  I sent away for the death certificate and the connection was made.  It listed the name of his father (Alvin) and also listed the name of his oldest son in Colorado as the informant.  This was a major find for me and I would have never thought to look in Texas for this guy if Ancestry hadn't added this death index.

World Vital Records

Another subtle discovery that became something huge had to do with William's father Alvin C. Zaring.  After my message board friend and I tentatively determined that Alvin was the father, I started looking at him.  Early on he popped up in the Civil War pension index on Ancestry.  I wasn't sure it was the right Alvin, but was hoping I would see William's name mentioned.  I used the pension application number to order the documents from the National Archives.  A few months later I received the mother lode of information - about 300 pages worth of info detailing Alvin's attempts, over about 30 years, to get a pension for injuries he claimed resulted from military service during the Civil War.  The interesting part was that he never really served.  He volunteered, traveled by train to a military training camp, got sick with one of those conditions that makes one stay near an outhouse, and was sent home after about 3 months.  Its seems like old Alvin was trying to scam the government.  He never got the pension, but he sure tried, and the records are jam packed with info I will be feasting on for years.  Unfortunately there was nothing about William, but there is wonderful information that tells about how Alvin and his family lived (minus William).

(Lets see...My grandfather spent time in the slammer, his father abandoned his family and disappeared for a decade, and his father spent 30 years trying to scam the government...hmmm...there appears to be a pattern forming here.) 

These are just a few of the successes I've had, but there are many more like them - some resulting in big finds and some only small clues.  My whole point of this long post is to highlight that most of the information I have resulted from my membership in Ancestry.com.  Sure I've had many complaints, but the bottom line is that I would not have made the progress I have if it wasn't for Ancestry.         

Comments

[Tim Agazio]

Miriam,

I liked the cave in Ireland story too. I just liked it because of the whole dad/daughter trip angle. My young daughter and I love to go exploring together - although we stay local.

I appreciate your comments on the Guinness post...I went back and re-read my intro and found many spelling and grammar errors that I corrected...and no, I wasn't drinking a Guinness when I wrote it...

[Miriam Robbins Midkiff]

Tim, I've been enjoying all your Irish posts lately. My favorite so far are the one on the cave, and the one on the drop in consumption of Guinness. Neither are very genealogical, but then, sometimes it's the items of trivia we learn along the way that make genealogy so fun! Happy St. Paddy's Day!

[Tim Agazio]

Thank you very much...I appreciate the kind words...I do believe you are my 7th official reader!

[thegeneticgenealogist]

I think the Google ads are new - I just happened to notice them in the past week or so myself. Not a bad idea, but I doubt they generate much revenue.

By the way, I wanted to let you know that your blog is a pleasure to read everyday!