Genealogy/ancestry

[theintended]

I'm in the process of doing a ton of research on my dad's side of the family.

Have you traced your ancestry? What do you know about your family tree?

[cahabalily]

My paternal great grandmother was a full blooded Creek Indian.... That's all I know for sure beyond relatives I've known, but I've always wanted to trace the genealogy back

[rex]

My mom is OBSESSED with her ancestry. It is honestly the only thing she talks about.

I don't know anything about my dad's side because my grandfather is an orphan.

My mother is Native American and knows her history back to like 1600, which is really difficult to do for Native Americans. The farthest back she has gone was to a French man who was a prisoner of some sort and brought to Canada. His story is the only one I find interesting. Besides the fact that I know that I'm 50% Native American.

[womet]

I have. Someone on my dad's side way, way back was the Sheriff of London.. in like 1400 something. And my family tree has a branch that loops back on itself on my mom's side.

[angnshaun]

I actually found someone to do it for me. My fathers entire family is from the same town it Italy going back at least 7 generations. They all got married at the same exact church. This woman had the entire towns history so she put together a book for me and I gave it to my dad for Christmas!

[theintended]

My dad thought his own father was dead until, in his late 20s, he found out he was actually in a mental institution. He had no contact with his father's family, so I'm researching them and have been amazed at the size of the family, how many records exist, and how both sides of that family trace back to the same historical events. It's been really interesting.

[cahabalily]

May 18, 2012 21:07:57 GMT -5 toriwc said:

I got DH an ancestry.com membership a couple years ago as a gift. I honestly don't believe half the stuff he's traced himself to, but it makes him happy, so I don't say anything.

We know concrete facts about both sides of my family from 1850 on. I don't have much interest in looking beyond that.

I will say it was cool to see my great-great grandfather's signature on something or other, like ten years ago when ancestry was free.

Yeah I always am amused that no one ever finds their ancestry traced back to milk maid or similar, when statistically that is most likely for us all....

[drloretta]

I just started getting back into it recently. So far:

On my dad's side, we have one side back to Germany in the 1600s (thank you, other people who already put a tree together!), and the other side back to Germany in the 1700s. I'm planning a historical society trip with my MIL (the genealogy geek) in July to nail down some more details.

On my mom's side, she has extensive oral and written history for one branch that I'll be using to fill in the blanks. But the other branch is frustrating me. Mom's maternal grandfather was apparently a real estate mogul in Camden NJ the turn of the 20th century, yet I can find very little on him. MIL found a little bit of info, but nothing else. One of these days maybe I'll risk a trip to Camden to see what I can find.

Some interesting tidbits: Mom's family owned slaves, while Dad's family had a farm that was part of the Underground Railroad. Both parents' ancestors came from the same part of Germany, just 200 years apart. Part of Dad's family was living a stone's throw from DH's family. Small world indeed. I also found some fun documents on ancestry.com that my dad thought were really cool.

[agnes]

My maternal grandmother has traced back a few generations of her father's side and didn't get very far with her mother's. It's not all that interesting though.

We do not know much about my grandfather's family. All that we know is that his mother was Native American and his father was a soldier that immigrated to Wisconsin. I'm not sure from where.

My paternal grandmother has traced back a few generations of her mother and father's family. They were very affluent. Here is a picture of my great grandmother as a child:



My grandmother tried to find out more about my grandfather's family but didn't get very far because of miscommunication and false information. My grandfather's family moved out here from Missouri (11 siblings in all) and most died in childhood or very young.

I know that my paternal grandmother would like to find out more. I've been lazy and procrastinating and really should help her. I do find it all very interesting. And she's not getting any younger.

[milkrations]

My paternal grandmother was always very guarded when she talked about her family and I don't think my dad ever cared too much to ask. My grandma's maiden name is rare in the States, maybe even in the world as it is likely to have been mangled in immigration. So, there are very few entries with people of the same last name. It is likely that anyone with that last name is somehow related to me.

Anyway, I grew up thinking that my grandma had only two sisters. A census records showed that, at one time, was a brother as well. This man is still alive and has children. Did my dad really have an uncle that he never knew about?

Also, I found out that my dad is named after his own maternal grandfather. Perhaps that is why he goes my his middle name. There is so much family angst that is likely wanted to disassociate himself from it.

[cjeanette]

My dad enjoys that and has done his family. My mom's paternal side has always kept pretty acurate records since they came to America in the 1600s.

Agnes- I love that photo!

[agnes]

May 18, 2012 22:10:34 GMT -5 cjeanette said:

My dad enjoys that and has done his family. My mom's paternal side has always kept pretty acurate records since they came to America in the 1600s.

Agnes- I love that photo!

Isn't it cool? Last year, I spent the day scanning my grandma's old photos. I have a bunch of pictures from my grandmother in the 40s and pictures of my father as a baby/kindergartener.

I haven't made it over to my other grandma's to do the same, yet. But I would love to see what photos she has. Prolly not nearly as old as my other grandma's but very cool nonetheless.

[Deleted]

My mom's done ours, she was really into it for a while when I was a kid.

I'm a 5th generation Californian, which is neat.

[Ashley&Scott]

I traced my ancestry for my honors project in college & made it back 13 generations. I really like ancestry.com & Family Tree Maker.

[demelza]

I love geneology!!!

[jigsy]

I'm Mormon so yeah...I got my geneology...I haven't done any of it, my mom does that stuff because she likes too. Actually, right now, she is on a "mission" where her and my dad go to the prison and work with prisoner to do their geneology. I have issues with it because I feel like the church is exploiting prisoners who have nothing better to do with their time...but I guess its all voluntary and shit, so whatever.
But back to your question...I guess the most interesting person I have in my lineage is a Lady in Waiting to Queen Victoria..

[EllieArroway]

I became obsessed with genealogy during my first pregnancy. I kind of had it easy since my great-grandpa was noteworthy/famous enough that someone had already researched his genealogy and written a book about it, so I didn't have to do any work there.

The most interesting thing in my family line is that one of my however-many-great grandfathers was the illegitimate son of John of Gaunt (later legitimized) so we are descendents of the House of Plantagenet.

One of my great-grandmas was full blooded Cherokee & I would love to know more about her family but sadly there aren't really many records.

[heygrey]

i qualify for Daughters of the American Revolution via mom's family. they came to the US before the revolution and still live in the same general area, some living literally on the same land that's been in our family since the early 1800s. my dad's grandparents' families escaped nazi germany between ww1 and ww2. his grandparents met along the journey and stayed together in the US.

[sporky]

yup. my mother's side has been a lot harder to trace but on my dad's side, I've gotten back as far as charlemagne. there are some pretty interesting branches in most family trees if people are willing to look!

[chicken]

May 18, 2012 23:40:55 GMT -5 heygrey said:

i qualify for Daughters of the American Revolution via mom's family. they came to the US before the revolution and still live in the same general area, some living literally on the same land that's been in our family since the early 1800s. my dad's grandparents' families escaped nazi germany between ww1 and ww2. his grandparents met along the journey and stayed together in the US.

Have you joined the DAR? I inquired about it a few years back but the process seemed like a lot of work and I just didn't have the time. We have about 8 nearby chapters and they are all old women who meet at 2pm on Tuesdays. It seems like it could potentially be a great organization; some of the chapters do a lot of work raising funds for historical sites and scholarships, but really mostly it seems like old ladies who lunch.

[Deleted]

My aunt has done some research for my dad's side--basically they were a sketchy lot. And she got stuck around 1900 or a little before because that's when they came to the US and the ships records at Galveston were destroyed in that catestrophic hurricane around that time.

At least going back to my great great grandfather are buried together in the same cemetery on my maternal grandfather's side. And while the church there is closed, I'm sure the parish still has records that we could get copies of. Though there's not too much really unknown. They were Catholic & farmers. The end:)