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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • My GG grandfather was killed when soldiers fired into an unarmed crowd that was protesting for basic human rights. This was in Marineo, Sicily, on 3 January 1894. His widow had to flee to the NYC tenements with their 6 children to start fresh - as progressive sympathizers were not safe.

    She was poor in Sicily, she was destitute when she arrived in the US. Like many others, she did garment piece work to get by. Other Sicilian immigrants arrived in a wave and they made a new community.

    When the Triangle Fire happened, real labor reform began to happen through the work of the ILGWU and others. They did not stop protesting until they got results.

    Yes. Hard times ahead. Hard times behind may show us the way forward. Ad astra per áspera.










  • Well, some places found that scanning the originals and providing them online not only saved money storing them, but also improved access. For other places, it’s a matter of going to the town clerk (or equivalent), filling out some forms, and waiting - sometimes months.

    I’ve been doing genealogy for my family and friends for a few years. Can I ask what part of the world your ancestors lived in? I find there is almost always some online documentation for any given person (after 1800 or so - depending on the location), but finding it is a complex acquired skillset that can take quite a while to learn. It seems likely you have the opposite of beginners luck - aka a steep curve. Of course, some more rural parts of the world can lag in documentation, and language issues are always a problem. You may really have invisible ancestors. Without more info, it’s hard to give more advice.

    Also, there is a significant difference between paid and free accounts on Ancestry. FamilySearch can be hard to use. WikiTree has no research tools, but does have a large tree and a supportive user community. There are a lot of sites, some completely free, and some with tiered membership. Finally, a DNA test (not 23&Me) can be a huge boost to what you are able to find.

    Recently, I have been contemplating going pro and charging folks. If you are interested, I can look into yours for free, to see if (1) I’m good enough, and (2) I’m not just lucky in that I’ve only had easy challenges up to now. Assuming that this is a place where the documentation would be in English. So far my experience is US, Canada, UK, and some Italy. Drop me a PM. I work in financial IT - confidentiality has been critical my whole life.