CategoriesZalewski

Calling all Zalewskis

Posted on 21 March 2007by Brian Zalewski

I’d like to compile the largest database of Zalewski family trees this side of Poland. The first step in this process is to collect these family trees. So, I’m asking all of you with Zalewski family trees out there to send them my way. As long as you send them in a format that I can read, it doesn’t matter to me what it is (GEDCOM, Family Tree Maker, XML, Text files, etc.)

Contact me using my quick and easy contact form and we’ll work on getting your data into this project.

I started a database of some of the Zalewski information that I have. I got most of the information from a quick record search, including census records. View the current database.

I am no longer adding to the database, but I did start The Zalewski Project website, which has similar goals.

CategoriesLinks

Links

Posted on 21 March 2007by Brian Zalewski

Some nice links for today:

  • Shorpy – a photo blog about what life a hundred years ago was like: How people looked and what they did for a living, back when not having a job usually meant not eating.
  • Technology Creates Extreme Genealogists – Internet genealogy can be extremely productive, agreed Dick Eastman, who writes an online genealogy newsletter. But it depends greatly on where your ancestors came from.
  • Geni.com – Everyone’s Related
CategoriesFamily TreeSite

Here’s Johnny!

Posted on 13 March 2007by Brian Zalewski

I’m back again or am planning on it at least. I know, I know, you’ve heard that before. Though, I have a lot more free time lately and I’ve already been doing some more research.

I actually found some more leads and doing some more research using my Ancestry.com subscription. I have to admit that their new “My Ancestry” section is wonderful. After I uploaded my tree to it, it automatically helps in searching and attaching sources to my family members. You can also use it to connect to user’s trees together, etc. It’s like Family Tree Maker’s online search function, but a lot better.

I’ve been doing some more research on my wife’s tree. This section of family seems to come from the New York/Connecticut area (if I connected it right.) Does anyone have any good sources to use for research in those areas in the early 1800s and late 1700s?

CategoriesPersonalTips & Tricks

Two Become One

Posted on 7 September 2006by Brian Zalewski

I merged the two trees together, so there is now only one tree on the website. It’s much easier to search and browse now.

I logged back into Ancestry and found some new things that they have implemented. I’m really impressed with their “Personal Tree” option. What you do, like a lot of other sites, it upload your GEDCOM to it. It’s puts it into tree form, which you can share or not. But, the nice part is that it automatically searches the Ancestry site for matches. This makes it much easier that requiring you to type in the search info every time you want to find something. It now automatically takes into account birth, death, marriage, spouse, etc for you. It’s very nice. If you have an Ancestry subscription, give it a try, though I’m not even sure you need a subscription to use it.

CategoriesPersonalZalewski

More Zalewski’s

Posted on 18 July 2006by Brian Zalewski

Oooh, a post title with a double-meaning.

Well, for one, there have been a few additions to the Zalewski Surname Project over at Family Tree DNA. Thanks to everyone who has joined! If you’re a Zalewski or related to one, see what you’re missing by looking at my Zalewski Surname DNA Study page.

Also, everyone can welcome Darcy Zalewski to the family. Darcy is my new wife and she is so excited to have a new, more-complicated name to use. Oh, don’t forget about being last in line for everything now.

I really need to get back into doing some more research on my family tree, but I just haven’t had the time. I also don’t want to waste my subscriptions, because you know how expensive they are.

CategoriesPersonal

Wedding Bells

Posted on 18 May 2006by Brian Zalewski

Sorry that I haven’t been updating this site. It’s been an extremely busy month and I haven’t had much time to do much else. I don’t think that I mentioned it yet, but I’ll be getting married on May 27th. So, everything these last few weeks has been about that. That also means that I’ll probably be adding another family tree to mine to make it easier for us to keep it in once place. There should be more updates once this is all complete.

CategoriesNewsTips & TricksZalewski

Create your own family website

Posted on 18 April 2006by Brian Zalewski

I ran across this via Lifehacker. It looks to be a website that allows you to create a “family website” including family trees, photos, calendar, and maps. It’s called JotSpot Family Site.

Use our quick family tree builder to see all the family generations at a glance. Never forget the names of your cousins’ children again.

It looks like a neat site. The design is very clean and easy-to-use. I have not signed up for a site, since..obviously..I already have a site. But, for the novice family researcher, this may be a great way to get everyone involved and up-to-date. If any of you start a seperate Zalewski site, let me know and I’ll link to it.

Speaking of Zalewski’s, there haven’t been any signups to the Zalewski Surname Study. If you’re a Zalewski, please read all about it. This could help many family’s research into the Zalewski surname origins.

CategoriesPersonal

Headstone Search

Posted on 27 March 2006by Brian Zalewski

Well, no luck on the headstones I was looking for. We first looked at the cemetery in the old Dheinsville, Wisconsin near Germantown. I have an ancestor that’s listed as in this cemetery. Unfortunately, all of stones from that time period are beyond readable, some don’t even exist anymore. So, I couldn’t see if there were any other family members buried also.

I then went to the Fredonia area to check some of the cemeteries around there for some of my Quinette family. Supposedly, they passed away and are more than likely buried in the area. Well, we checked four of the cemeteries that we could find with no luck. Again, a lot of stones are very worn. Though, there are other cemeteries I didn’t find, so I may go back. It was also brought up to me that they may have been buried in the DePere area, since a lot of the rest of the family is buried there. It is possible that they traveled up there before they died. We’ll have to wait and see.

CategoriesPersonalTips & Tricks

Springtime

Posted on 24 March 2006by Brian Zalewski

Well, it’s springtime (though snow is on the ground as I type) and it looks like its time to get some of those headstone photos that are needed. I have noted a bunch of them in the local area that I can hunt down. There are some farther away, such as in the northern tip of Wisconsin, but those can wait a little bit. I may make a day out of it and try to hit them all in one day. I have a few in the Green Bay area, some just north of here, and some in Washington County to check out.

Sometimes you find very helpful information from headstones and cemeteries. Sometimes you run into unknown family members buried nearby, or dates that you didn’t know about. I find it a useful, yet under-utilized piece of information for genealogy. A now, with the Internet, you can usually find some very helpful people that will take photos/notes for you in the area that your ancestors are buried. Here are some helpful sites:

  • Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness [RAOGK] – Though, it’s not the prettiest site, it does have tons of helpful information.
  • Find-A-Grave – You may get lucky and find an ancestor listed on here, or at least famous individuals buried in the same cemetery. You can add you own listings.
  • Genealogy.com’s Virtual Cemetery – Similar to Find-A-Grave, but aimed more towards your normal individuals instead of famous people.
CategoriesMoranPersonalTips & Tricks

East Coast Researchers

Posted on 6 March 2006by Brian Zalewski

I’ve been doing a lot more research on the east coast states, mainly Virginia, Delaware (Hi, we’re in..Delaware), Maryland, etc and it’s not as easy as I had assumed it would be. I say this because I had assumed there were a lot more records since those states have been around the longest. I’ve been doing some more research for my fiancee’s tree (which will soon be merged with mine) and she has a lot of east coast ancestors. I have absolutely none, all of my ancestors either came straight to Wisconsin via foreign lands, or through Canada, eh? It’s very boring on this side, plus it’s not the easiet thing to find records for some of these other countries.

Does anyone have any tips on doing research (mainly online) for the east coast? I have yet to travel to our local Family History Center since it’s rarely open when I’m available. I do have nearly full-access to Ancestry.com.