Newbie question about beginning a search for the McCollum origins
Posted May 18th, 2009 by gringogigante
Hello all! I am new to the site, as well as this forum. My name is Chris McCollum, and I am interested in finding where my family (and name) orginiated as far back as possible. I am assuming that, since my name is McCollum, I am from the Maccallum clan. But I'd like specific, historical, data to back this. I am sooooo curious to find this information. But, having no experience with geneological searches, I don't know where to begin. Maybe it's the fact that my wife and I are trying to have kids, maybe it's the stories from my youth....I don't know. but I am excitedd to begin the search. Please give me any advice, direction, websites, whatever that would help me find this info.Thanks,Chris McCollum
Genealogy Help
Chris, the help you received from two posts is about as good as it gets on this website. Most people who frequent this website are more interested in attending and/or reporting Scottish games than they are in family research and history. Another good start in your research is to contact your local genealogy society. Best wishes. It's a satisfying hobby. Randall Kendrick Schuppan
Good Tip
Thank you for ask us advice , i will give you one useful tip that will help you to your search success. You can just ask some freelancers doing their genealogy project at freelancer.com. They are doing their best to get answers for their client. You can use code "FAMILYTREE" to get more benefit from the site. Last year i was struggling with my searching of my great great grand mother, but i got one good guy from ireland, he made my search success. SURESHBABU NATESAN
Beginning a Search for McCollum Origins
The best place to start is with what you already know. Things like your birth date and place, then the same information for your parents, grandparents, etc as far back as you can go. If you're lucky enough to still have some of "the old folks" around, talk to them and write down or record what they say. Armed with a little reliable information, you can go a long way with the on-line genealogy resources available today. Check out www.ancestry.com and www.familysearch.org. Also try www.footnote.com. If you'd like assistance in getting the ball rolling, I have been doing McCollum research for about 10 years and would be happy to work on your line at no charge. There's a method to my madness, because I've discovered that when I'm helping someone else I often stumble across information on my own line that I might not have found otherwise. Due to privacy issues census data, which is one of the best resources to track US ancestors, is not available until 72.5 years after it is recorded. The latest US census data that I can access is from 1930, so knowing who in your family was alive at that time and where they lived would be a great start. Another possibility is knowing the death date and location of an ancestor who was covered by Social Security (in effect since 1935). If you can find their death listed in the Social Security death index, you can request a copy of the form they filled out to get their Social Security card. That has a wealth of family data like the names of their parents, whether they were still alive or not at the time the form was completed. A word of warning though - once you're infected with the genealogy bug, there is no known cure. Wally McCollum