Last week, I took a few days off from work and headed to Buffalo to visit with relatives and friends, and to do some family tree research. While sites like ancestry.com are great for aggregating and researching family tree information, some records are not available online due to privacy concerns.

( The itinerary and trip report. )

In this installment, I cover the history of Leonardo Poltrone -- my grandfather's brother, whcih makes him my great uncle, or grand uncle ( Read more... )

At this point in the family tree search, I am now focusing on my paternal grandfather: Salvatore Poltrone ( Read more... )

At the recommendation of a few friends, I signed up for ancestry.com and purchased a 6-month membership. It gives me a nice user interface to visually keep track of the people in my family tree, and easily add people -- mother, father, spouse, children (but not brothers or sisters). I wonder which JavaScript framework or library they're using -- ( Read more... )

Ever since watching the "Roots" miniseries in 1977, and reading Alex Haley's novel later that year, I've had a desire to research my family tree. And it's something I've thought about doing, and talked about doing, for many years. Conversations with my parents about ancestry over the year gave me a sketchy oral history of their families. All ( Read more... )