Thoughts on researching your ancestors

 

Ancestors

May 9, 2026

I’ve always been interested in genealogy. I started my interest when I began following thoroughbred race horses through the Los Angeles Times sports page as a kid.   I always went to the sports page first to view the previous day’s race results.

Now, to be honest, my parents’ home was about a mile and a half from the Santa Anita track, up in “The Rancho”.   The Rancho was mostly land once owned by Lucky Baldwin, of the LA County Arboretum fame and he was a horse owner.   In fact, one of my great uncles trained some of his horses and lived near the Hugo Reid adobe.   Another of my great-uncles was the personal assistant to Anita Baldwin and traveled with her all over the world.

But, I digress.

So, I followed race horses for YEARS.   My maternal grandfather, who lived less than a mile from Santa Anita, used to take me with him to watch the horses race in the afternoon.   I honestly don’t know how he got away with dragging a 10 year old girl with him, but he would place small $2.00 bets for me.   I often didn’t pick the winning horse, but I got pretty good at picking the horse for 2^nd place (place).  I frequently came home with a good pile of winnings.

When pedigree query came onto the Internet, I was THERE!  I spent HOURS on my computer looking up horse pedigrees. I wouldn’t bet on a horse until I checked out his or her pedigree.   Sometimes this helped, often it didn’t.   The trainer made a huge difference. 

I remember seeing Native Diver run at Hollywood park.   My grandfather told me stories of Seabiscuit, Whirlaway, and Citation.  He actually took my mom and aunt to the track to see Seabiscuit run.   What days those would have been!

So, I’d been told stories about having ancestors in the Revolutionary War.   Both my mother and father picked out one ancestor to research and yup…found their lineages and followed them back to the war.  My mother’s ancestor was a 2^nd generation Swiss immigrant family from Bern, Switzerland.  My father’s  ancestor that he traced (John Hickok) was a father who went off to war with his 16 year old son.   The father survived.   The son ended up as a British prisoner of war on a ship in New York harbor and didn’t return.

With the invention of the Internet, I was able to trace more of my ancestors, especially the ones on my dad’s side (the FEMALE LINES).   He completely ignored them.   I found them to be much more interesting than the dull, dry, boring Connecticut farmer males on his line!   And, they had ancestors who fought in both the French & Indian war and the Revolution!

I found one ancestor, on my mom’s side, who was a SPY for Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox”!  Another was a fife for the Militia (fife=small flute).   Another one bred horses used by the militia and another one was a wagon master. I’ve found two who were in the War of 1812 and one who fought in the Civil War.

It takes TIME to do the research, but with all the information available these days on the Internet, it’s pretty easy to do. You’ll need to start with your ancestor’s full name and date of birth and go from there.   JUST be aware of other people with the same name as YOUR ancestor!   That’s why having a map and plotting their information on a map is useful.

I just have a couple of cautions:   BEWARE of Ancestry.com…I’ve seen a LOT of mistakes there.   People don’t live to be 200 years old and girls don’t have children at age 8.  So, I NEVER took notes on info from that website without having it confirmed from at least 2 other sites.   And, BE REASONABLE.  I ended up having a map on the wall in the hallway to trace where my families went.   It was a steady westward expansion, except for my dad’s male lines which remained in Connecticut.  The map also presented a visual representation of time and movement.  One of my cousins has a wife who is a professional genealogist, but I’ve never asked her for professional help.   She DID, however, send photos of the John Hickok house back in Connecticut which she and her husband visited,  as it is now a historical interest home.  (It’s an example of an early salt block style house.)

Don’t be afraid to write to other relatives.   Our son is actually doing the research on his dad’s lines and he’s found cousins all over the country!   Of course, he hasn’t done my lines yet…sigh…

I did write to a cousin back in Connecticut and he send me back a long letter full of family info.   And, since my father was the last male of his direct male line going back to 1632, I went looking for a male cousin with a possible DNA match and found one and he provided a lot of information before he passed. Some websites have forums where you can ask questions about your ancestors, too, and people will answer.

So, between all the resources that I used, I had a fairly good idea of who my ancestors were and where they came from.   Then the son started his own research and even took a DNA test, which confirmed my own findings.   But, I’m even a bit skeptical of those results, which don’t show any German ancestors on my side and I have TONS of them!   I’m not really sure how these companies map out their results, so just make sure their results back up your own independent research.

If you have any questions, please post them below as I check in daily.   I’m NOT an expert at family research, but I HAVE worked on mine for over 10 years now and I’m confident with my results, which, for the most part, have been confirmed through DNA testing, except for the German element!   Maybe they just lump that in with “Northwest Europe”?   And, I have a LOT of Norman ancestors which also didn’t show up on their map.   Anyway, right now Ancestry has a Mother’s Day special on DNA tests for only $29.99, if you are interested.

Until next time!

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