Direct lines to important historical events
I am wondering if anyone has a good way to find direct ancestors that were part of major historical events. I am currently teaching my children US and Family History together and would love for them to easily see which ancestors came on the Mayflower, or participated in the Boston Tea Party, or fought in the Civil War. Is there a way to find that information without having to search information on each ancestor?
Best Answer
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@Julia Sharp
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Julia
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As an aside ...
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Just a thought ...
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IF, you have not already; THEN, ...
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You can always try (BYU) "RelativeFinder".
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(BYU) "RelativeFinder" digs (pun intended) a lot DEEPER in "Family Tree" of 'FamilySearch', than 'FamilySearch' does.
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(BYU) "RelativeFinder" is one of the "Third Party" Applications that "Certified" to work with "Family Tree" of 'FamilySearch'.
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BYU = Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, USA (ie. the Church University).
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From the "Family History Technology Laboratory", of the "Computer Science" Department.
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Here is direct link to "RelativeFibder"
https://www.relativefinder.org/#/main
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."RelativeFinder" has many 'Bells and Whistles'.
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Magic.
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Enjoy.
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I hope this helps.
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Brett
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Answers
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Brett's suggestion is good for more famous people
but hey - for most of the rank and file of your family tree
you will have to do the tedious analysis - genealogy is fun! but its a lot of work.
there is no silver bullet that gives you your family tree on a silver platter
all detailed out with all the interesting things they did - many people spend a life time doing that sort of research. Maybe you have some close or distant relative who has done some of that work (at least for one of your lines)
That being said - if you do navigate your family tree - person by person - you can see things like in the Memories section, and sources and notes - some interesting things.
and you can compile those things into the format that best works for you.
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@Family Bible ( and, @Dennis J Yancey )
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Dennis
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Firstly ...
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Julia has indicated ... "find direct ancestors that were part of major historical events"
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So, I would suggest that (BYU) "RelativeFinder" would be the best and easiest way to go, not to mention "Fun", for the Children; but, not just "Famous" people, also for people connected to historical events - not all people connected to historical events are "Famous".
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Secondly ...
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You must NOT have looked through ALL of the 'Groups' (A --->Z; plus, 0 --->0) in (BYU) "RelativeFinder" of late.
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There are a lot MORE than just "Famous" people, in those 'Groups" in (BYU) "RelativeFinder".
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There are some 'Groups' for, Historical Events; and, Surnames; and, Family/Relations; and, Localities; and, Church Leaders; and, Early Utah Mormon Pioneers; and, MUCH, Much, much, more ...
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(BYU) "RelativeFinder" would certainly be a good place to start ...
Especially, where Children are involved ...
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'Yes', for serious "Research" it is a 'long hard road', a 'hard slog' ...
'No contest' there ...
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But ...
That said ...
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Children are NOT interested in the work, they just want to see (Good) "Results".
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Provided one's "Ancestral" lines in "Family Tree" of 'FamilySearch' are reasonably extensive (ie. many extended and extensive "Branches"), (BYU) "RelativeFinder" will "Dig" a lot DEEPER than even 'FamilySearch' does ... I know ... I have proved such through, both, my Wife's; and, my, "Ancestral" lines.
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To get Children interested, you must have "Fun" activates ...
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Once you have got Children interested; then, you can 'wean' them with/onto the "Research" (ie. hard work) ...
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Just my thoughts ...
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Brett
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ps: I know, I have doing Genealogy/Family History since I was a young Child (without any Family/Adult help), almost 20 Years BEFORE I became a Member of the Church.
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all good points Brett.
thanks
I was merely pointing out that if the intent was to take each and every person in your family tree and provide the historical events that applied for that person you wouldnt be getting hits on every or even most people from RF - but the hope is, you get some.
BUT yes - you are totally right - RF will show the people it does match up with - if it finds a match in its underlying databases - and the amount of people it matches on can vary greatly from one person to another - from no matches to many matches.
But YES - its a cool tool!!!
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@Julia Sharp I love that you are teaching your children by combining history with family history! That's so awesome! Relativefinder.org will be a fun site for you and your kids. I would also suggest checking out the 'Timeline' link on the person pages of your direct ancestors. It can show historical events along with the events of your ancestor's life. There are links to learn more about the historical event as well. Along with that, there is a map with pinpoints of their personal life events. There is a 'Show Route' button on the bottom left of the map and a 'Satellite' button on the top left that are fun to check out.
When signed into FamilySearch.org, you could also check out the following link.
https://www.familysearch.org/help/helper/planner?self=true
On the planner page there are links to FamilySearch campaigns, which could help you quickly find family that were involved in WWI or WWII. There are other fun links to activities as well.
Enjoy your journey!
Patricia
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Thank you all for your suggestions. I would love more time to dig deeper into each person in our family history. So much information is available on Family Search thanks to so many loved ones that have worked on both my lines and my husband's lines. That is why I was hoping for a program that could find the information quickly without doing all the digging. I look forward to a time in life when I know these stories and people by heart. For now it sounds like I will have to dig through each ancestor that was alive during the different events. Thanks for the resources of the RelativeFinder and the Timeline. I have been using these as I work to build an understanding of history for my 10 children. I hope that they will each find a love for those before them and continue to dig deeper and understand broader once they leave my roof.
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I think there are numerous resources that can help you facilitate this type of research
Relative Finders is one - there are various others.
in the next day or so I will try to share some.
but you will still need to go person by person and understand the context, place, time period etc. and then organize the info in a way that makes sense to you
BUT that really should not be that difficult to do for the past 5 generations or so.
of course the farther you go back - the number of ancestors starts to explode.
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here is a great link to a site that - coupled with info from your family tree - can quickly allow you to compile information about what was happening in the nation and world - when any ancestor /person in your family tree
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You don't have to look person by person!
Look across the top banner in Family Search for Activities. They have those sources there for Mayflower, who served in different wars, pioneer ancestors, what temples your ancestors had ordinances performed in, who lived in nauvoo,etc. Or try this link:
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/mayflower
Also, you can check out relativefinder.org like mentioned above.
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It really depends what you are expecting.
No - for Relative finder and similar tools - NO you definitely dont need to go person by person to see who is a Mayflower descendant (or similar scenario).
But if you want a list of ALL your direct line ancestors within X generations
and for each one - you want to know what were the historical events that they were linked to (each one of them) - and what were the important world and community events in their locality and time. you will need to go one by one.
Relative Finder is a cool tool and it links to various databases - but a large portion of the people they match to - - ARE NOT direct line ancestors - but rather people who have a COMMON ancestor with you (i.e. COUSINs of yours) though of course if you did have a direct line ancestor that was linked to an important event etc they would also show up.
Its not that uncommon for a person who has New England roots - to have an ancestors from the Mayflower - but that is only ONE ancestor among many thousands!!. If what you want to do is focus on each ONE of your ancestors (not just the famous few) - and see what were the important historical events they would have experienced - then you will need to go ONE by ONE. (as well also use tools like Relative Finder that may pick up some people in your direct line tree here and there - or much more likely list of distant cousins of yours)
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also most databases like wars and other events - are drastically incomplete - though definitely getting larger. . .
My Father served in the Korean war - but you will not find him listed in any relative finder results - because there is no comprehensive database of Korean Soldiers that is linked to the FamilySearch Family Tree - nor probably never will be any time soon.
But some databases are indeed pretty comprehensive - like early Puritans/Mayflower person, LDS Pioneers, Early LDS Missionaries. These are examples of some pretty large/comprehensive databases - but these databases have taken an incredible amount of work to build over a long time - and even when built - are only useable if they are then linked to specific person records in FamilySearch Family Tree - - all this work - for all the soldiers of all the American Wars - would be an more than massive work and thats just one topic - war.
BUT - little by little these database are growing and the results are cool and impressive - just dont expect to find all of your ancestors (or even most of them) on some of these databases. but it is cool when they do. you will find a lot of distant cousins of common ancestry though.
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Thank you! I love the "activities" suggestion. I wish there was more of a direct line results with some of those. I already have been using the onthisday website and find that fascinating. It is hard finding just the right amount of information to share with my children and still moving forward through the US history. This gives me a good amount of resources and I appreciate everyone's help!
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Try BYU Family History Technology Lab's Relative Finder. It gives you different options one of which is historical figures to which you are related:
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Famous Relatives has been released under Activities which has Mayflower and US Presidents.
Also if you login on the Activities page, you'll see WWI and WWII campaigns. There will be more added over time.
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yes - but 9 times out of 10 - the relationship is a relationship to a cousin
(someone you share a common ancestor with)
example - you share a common ancestor with Thomas Jefferson.
instead of just focusing on one's direct ancestors - and indicating what life events each one of them (all of them) must/would been a part of.
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