I'm trying not to be ridiculously excited, because I know medieval royals have a million descendents. But I have been playing around on my family tree on WikiTree, to see how far back various branches go......and then I find John of Gaunt...and Edward III..and Edward II...and Edward I...and Henry III...and Eleanor of Acquitaine.
Anyone else maybe traced back their tree far enough to find similar interesting finds??
I only go far enough on ancestry.com to find out all the free stuff before I have to enter a credit card. :-)
I find it really fascinating though!
Go to WikiTree. It's free. You have to put in your stuff, but it will flag you if there seems to be a match, which is how I hooked up to all these other branches.
Post by firedancer10288 on Apr 23, 2015 20:00:25 GMT -5
I just started researching my genealogy a few weeks ago. I have one branch of the Hirschi (Hershey) family back to the 1600s in the Netherlands and Germany- I never knew I was dutch. They were Mennonites that eventually settled in Lancaster, PA. So I'm a distant cousin of Milton Hershey.
My maiden name is Knight, so I'm still trying to find the "royal" link. So far I'm back to the 1500s in Massachusetts, but I haven't been able to make the link across the pond.
Post by MixedBerryJam on Apr 23, 2015 20:07:12 GMT -5
My mom found a lot of interesting ancestors going back to at least 3 passengers on the Mayflower. But I'm also related to Dubya, so there's that. I have one interesting ancestor who told three different husbands each was the first husband, and gave all three men different names.
Ok how in the world do you start finding your peeps?
I started on ancestry.com. I just started entering names of grandparent and great grandparents and they find matches in documents that are uploaded. The further back you go, the easier if gets because those people have soooo many ancestors now that they show up on many, many different family trees that you can get info from.
I just started researching my genealogy a few weeks ago. I have one branch of the Hirschi (Hershey) family back to the 1600s in the Netherlands and Germany- I never knew I was dutch. They were Mennonites that eventually settled in Lancaster, PA. So I'm a distant cousin of Milton Hershey.
My maiden name is Knight, so I'm still trying to find the "royal" link. So far I'm back to the 1500s in Massachusetts, but I haven't been able to make the link across the pond.
Madsachusetts was settled in the 1600s. The pilgrims came to Plymouth in 1620. Now if you mean Native Amerian, like the Wampanoag, they were obviously here in the 1500s.
I just started researching my genealogy a few weeks ago. I have one branch of the Hirschi (Hershey) family back to the 1600s in the Netherlands and Germany- I never knew I was dutch. They were Mennonites that eventually settled in Lancaster, PA. So I'm a distant cousin of Milton Hershey.
My maiden name is Knight, so I'm still trying to find the "royal" link. So far I'm back to the 1500s in Massachusetts, but I haven't been able to make the link across the pond.
Madsachusetts was settled in the 1600s. The pilgrims came to Plymouth in 1620. Now if you mean Native Amerian, like the Wampanoag, they were obviously here in the 1500s.
Sorry I got my branches mixed up. My ancestor is Emanuel Knight who was born in MA in 1755.
Post by LoveTrains on Apr 23, 2015 20:30:07 GMT -5
I am also obsessed with ancestry.com. I actually joined the DAR after doing my research. I also went to this genealogy conference a few weeks ago that was super cool!
My mom found a lot of interesting ancestors going back to at least 3 passengers on the Mayflower. But I'm also related to Dubya, so there's that. I have one interesting ancestor who told three different husbands each was the first husband, and gave all three men different names.
THAT is fucking cool. Everyone with European ancestors is related to Charlemagne (really), but so few people came over in the early settlements. I have 2 different families (ancestors) that came over in 1683 on the ships that were part of William Penn's fleet, and part of his settlement, but I think I would pee myself if I found an ancestor that came over on the Mayflower.
My mom found a lot of interesting ancestors going back to at least 3 passengers on the Mayflower. But I'm also related to Dubya, so there's that. I have one interesting ancestor who told three different husbands each was the first husband, and gave all three men different names.
So are you people actually finding information PAYING for it? Am I just not going to get anywhere for free?
I will eventually get back on ancestry.com, but for now I'm satisfied with WikiTree. The catch is, you have to know your last few generations of ancestors, before it becomes more likely that you will hit on a match that someone else has filled out. I had to go fill out 6 generations before I hit a match.
My family tree on my dad's side goes to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, on my maternal side, we are direct descendants of Rollo the viking, a duke of Luxembourg, and the Mars candy company founders.
Post by anastasia517 on Apr 23, 2015 23:11:14 GMT -5
This is really interesting. I know my grandmother has gone back several generations from her, so I will have to ask her to see how far back I can get. As it is now I only know bits and pieces, including that my grandfather's family went to New France really early but not a lot of specifics.
I do know that my grandmother's grandmother was one of the heiresses to a soft drink company, but got disowned when she married for love. And then they were all poor.
I do know that my grandmother's grandmother was one of the heiresses to a soft drink company, but got disowned when she married for love. And then they were all poor.
Ooooh juicy!! :-)
It's the family legend, at least. It may have happened slightly differently (her dad got disowned? my memory may be going). Her maiden name is the same as the company at least and my grandmother did bring back some bottles of it when she went for a visit in the UK so the grandkids could try it.
With a bit of Googling I have found my great-great-grandmother's middle name so I might poke around more.
For my son's immigration day project, I found out my ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, and my aunt is working on our DAR application. I'm also related to Mark Twain on my mom's side. joshlyman is my (very distant) cousin!
So are you people actually finding information PAYING for it? Am I just not going to get anywhere for free?
My mom did most of her research before the internet. She wrote actual letters to strangers, and she'd always be taking a weekend drive up to EBF, Maine to knock on some stranger's door to show them Some random marriage certificate because she had a lead that that person might have some death certificate from 1849 blah blah blah. I did not inherit my introvertedness from her. But now that she's gone, I wish I had listened a little more carefully. But I bet she has six linear feet of bookshelf space documenting her findings.
The LDS genealogy website is actually really helpful. It provides a TON of information about historic vital statistic documents (birth, death and census records, as well as military records). It's super helpful if you're trying to find out more about a family history.
Post by captainobvious on Apr 24, 2015 8:49:07 GMT -5
I love this stuff. I've been toying around with trying to find more out about my actual lineage rather than my a-parents lineage (which we know a lot about since my Dad's aunt made us books about both sides of the family.)
I got hooked on ancestry.com for a while (did as much as I could in the free 2 week trial) and found some fascinating stuff on my dad's family.
We're descendants of Sir George Downing of 10 Downing Street fame. That line is also directly connected to Catherine Howard's family, Henry VIII's fifth wife.
I also found that we have some Russian ancestors in our family.
Totally fascinated by this stuff. I need to look into my mom's side, which is largely Irish immigrants.
Interesting, I hadn't heard of WikiTree so I'll have to check that out. A few years ago I got really into looking up the family tree and did find one strand that led back to Charlemagne, but I haven't done much with it in last couple of years.
I'm sucked in! I could never find anything on my paternal grandmothers family (granted it's been 10 years since I looked). I feel like I've hit the jackpot!
Post by firedancer10288 on Apr 24, 2015 9:58:57 GMT -5
What am I missing? I can't figure this wiki tree out. I did upload my file from ancestry, but that's as far as I can get. It won't even let me add my parents' names.
I love researching family trees. I have a lot of information on my dad's side of the family. My grandmother gave us a big box of letters from her father to her mother during WWI when he was a P.O.W. There are old photos going back to the 1800's and a large amount of family tree information.
The family crest
This is my great-grandmother Margarethe:
...and this is where she fits on the tree. I have 15 pages that look like this.
...I just wish I knew how to read German because I have a lot of information that is hard to translate word for word online.
Google is also a great tool because information is constantly being updated.
I literally just found new information about my great-grandfather's mother's name, I have never been able to find information on his family until just now. This is a clipping froma newspaper that I got through Google.
This is "Mrs. August Olinger of Heidelberg" I have pictures of her but I have never been able to get something as simple as her name. My grandmother died in 2011 so I never got to ask her what her grandmother's name was.