Ancestry...

HAHAHA! if only!
Torquat was a He, and He had one surviving child for all I could find. The record was pretty difficult to read being it was documented in the late 1100's.

 

Because my father's family (2nd cousins)are immensely wealthy (more about that later) they have a huge genealogy website and the means to have done extensive, in person research in Great Britain and France. Long story short - they can document the line back over 1000 years. Got the old family crest thing, Norman conquest, members of Elizabethan court, etc., etc., blah, blah, yawn.

The relatively (no pun intended) recent origin of the bulk of this wealth however, was generated from plantation slavery and child labor in their textile factories. I'd be embarrassed but nary a tuppence, farthing nor Confederate dollar from those folks ever graced my bank account or enhanced my life style.

Having this info' about my ancestors has brought one very important fact home to roost: no one had an easy life. Tragedy, wars, famine, plagues, the whole polyglot of human experience is circulating somewhere in my gene pool and I draw strength from that knowledge. Granted, some of my other DNA may have added bleach to that pool, but so far, so good. If they survived "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", then so can I.

 

William Clark is an ancestor on my maternal grandmother's side of the family. Definitely gives us nice bragging rights when comparing ancestry with friends.

My father's side is descended from the Sussex house of lords in England, traced all the way back to the 16th century. Also on his side (his mother) we have Creek Indian blood, his great-great grandmother even being a Creek Indian princess- we have the daguerrotype of her in full dress.

On my maternal grandfather's side, our German Jew half, we trace back several ancestors to the concentration camps, though their fates are unknown.

By country, I am Irish, English, Dutch, and German.

 

I grew up believing I decended from Irish, English, and German roots, too, until I got into genealogy. It was interesting to see my paternal Grandma's face when I told her that my paternal grandfather's family was Scottish, not Irish, and that her brand of German had Norwegian beginnings. I believe her exact response was "Well I'll be a horse's a**." Not sure, but I think she may have been a little less upset if she hadn't worked so hard at making German cuisine her specialty...

 

That's one of the pitfalls of genealogy - discovering that family lore isn't really accurate. And of course, there are the scams - companies selling coat-of-arms (which really don't exist) or 'proving' your family is related to royalty, etc. I'm really glad I was doing genealogy before getting back into writing, though. "Prove it!" has been a mantra ever since.

 

My mother is heavily into researching family history. I studied history for my first degree, but I'm afraid I find most of the ins and outs of the generations less than rivetting, and tend to focus on the more interesting characters. These have been e.g. my grandmother was related to Captain Bligh (of the Bounty), a branch of the family owned the foundry that cast the bell for Big Ben, and the Italian/Jewish branch of my family in Leghorn (Livorno) came there originally in exile with King James' Jacobites and stayed on there (no idea why they came there, I know Bonnie Prince Charlie ended up in Italy, too).

 

I enjoy hearing other peoples' quest for their ancestry. I have started about a year ago to do research using ancestry.com and local records offices to search for my family history. I have been blessed though to have 3 living great grand parents and two living grandparents. They have helped me a lot in my search and I have learned and found out a lot. The more I search the more wholistic I feel. Find out about your heritage really does complete you and I am still looking!!

 

My last name is Lewis, so I am absolutely positive I come from royalty, and that my share of billions of dollars worth of gold is out there, somewhere.

 

That is hilarious Lewdog I hope you do descend from royalty but those billions of dollars keep dreaming! LOL

 

During a research project for a class I had last semester I ended up digging though Charlemagne's family tree and seeing that made me wish I was somehow related to royalty like that. What a bragging right!

 

If I was somehow able to trace my Native American heritage to a point that gave me an 1/8 or greater, it would entitle me to an absolutely free education, the freedom to never pay taxes, and an annual check from a casino. The problem with that is, I live my life on Indian time, and I'm not sure when I will ever do it.

 

What's "Indian time" mean?
My aunt is 1/8th...Creek I think... and has her tribal membership card but for some reason beyond my comprehension she hasn't used it to 'pay' for her education, choosing to pay out of pocket for it instead. I'm pretty sure she's of Creek descent. Or maybe it's Cherokee. I'll have to ask. It's going to bother me now that I'm unsure.

 

I learned "Indian Time" in an college anthropology class. Indians don't normally wear watches, and don't have a grand scheme of 'time.' They show up and do what they need to do as it becomes convenient. It's part of their heritage.

 

African American as well as significant Native American and White ancestry I hold. So I am just a mixed up conglomerate! LOL

 

Yeah, I've been doing it for some years and I hope I can send in my documentation to the Mayflower Society. Problem is, the fee for just sending in the application is $125 and then they send the form back to you and tell you all the stuff you're missing. (Doh!)

I've gotten to know my Mayflower line quite well, and can almost give all the names and surnames all the way back.

I have a few, erm, 'weak' spots in the lineage that I need to shore up. You learn to approach things sideways to find info.

For example take Ellen Newell, my great-great-great grandmother.

Well, what do you need to prove?

First you need to prove that she was the child of George W. Newell and Mary N. Thompson.

So I can't find a birth record in 1852 for Ellen, so I have to find something else.

Well, I have the 1860 Census, where she is 8 years old and living with George and Mary. I have the 1870 census, but she is 18 and is listed in someone else's house working as a maid. (Girl's gotta make a living!) Then, she shows up in the 1880 census with her new husband, Henry. Then I have Ellen and Henry in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 census. (Fact: The 1890 US census was destroyed in a fire.)

Well, what else do I have linking these people together? Well, I have a death record for her brother, George Newell Jr., stating his parents were George and Mary.

George and Mary had a boatload of kids:

George Jr.
Fred
Mae
Franklin
Charles
Maria
Ellen

BUT! There doesn't seem to be birth records for any of them, even though Maine kept some pretty good birth records at this time.

*sigh*

I do have photos of Henry and Ellen and George and Mary's headstones too!

So it seems I have a lot of secondary or weak supports for this link. I don't have any info on Henry and Ellen's death sometime between 1920-1930. I will have to do more research to find out death info.

Now imagine this for 15 generations.

 

Have you found the church/cemetery records yet? Those are fascinating. Newspapers are - well, I've sometimes forgotten who I was looking for!

 

I use Rootsweb extensively (free) and have subscribed off and on with Ancestry.com (which, while expensive, has enormous resources). There are also genealogy groups on Yahoo, which proved invaluable when I first got started.

 

I use ancestry.com mostly, and for the generations to be found in America post 1777, I use archives.com. The stuff I've found on Rootsweb isn't as informative as Ancestry or Archives, but is still a good place to look for information. Plus the discussion boards on ancestry.com are extensive. Actually those forums are where I found the Norwegian roots to my German branch of family.

 

My mother is the geneology researcher in the family mainly because we have a well documented family tree in a book on my father's side that proves our ancestors came from Ireland, Germany, England, and America (descended from the Lenni-Lenape, also known as the Delaware Indians). My mother's side of the family has told so many stories that almost none of it is true anymore so she's been searching for years. We found that my grandmother's maiden name could possibly mean "fortune-teller" and that we also have Italian on my mom's side.

 

My great-grandfather apparently found a mammoth tusk and donated it to the Smithsonian.

Aside from that? Not much. My mom's family is primarily Irish -- with a mix of Native American, English, and Welsh -- while my dad's family is pretty much English. Genealogy has never been that interesting for me. I'm content to know what I do, but just in case my family keeps detailed records that'll likely pass on to me someday.

 

My g-grandmother was sisters with mum of Nikola Tesla. But most of the records relevant to my family history were church records and therefore burned with the churches in repeated Balkan conflicts since the 11th century. But the earliest ancestors we can trace were moving around that area as a part of exodus from the Ottomans in 1400s.

 

My wife and I both have diplomas in Genealogy, but I lost the bug years ago, My wife has done a lot of work on our families. Nothing truly impressive in our trees though. ordinary people leading ordinary lives. My surname (Mather (plus Mathers, matherson etc) is very widespread but we are pretty much all related.

 

I can trace mine on my father's side to about the middle of the 19th century. Not that impressive, really. My ancestors generally lived in the same region in Wallachia. Rural folk, mostly(if not exclusively). I know my great-grandfather fought in WW2 against the Russians. He was wounded and was fortunate enough not to have to fight against the Germans, when the glorious leaders of the time decided that it would be a great idea to switch sides. I know it's silly, but I'm happy at least that none of my ancestors had an active part in that... embarrassing historical episode. Bleh.

My great great grandfather fought in WW1 against the Central Powers. He went MIA and nothing was heard about him for a long time. He was presumed dead. Totally unexpected, a year after the war had ended he found his way home. Turns out he had been captured and had spent all of these years in a prisoner camp.

My great grandfather told me what he knew about our family up to about the 1850s. And then it gets all shrouded in mystery, heh. The authorities before then were notoriously lousy about keeping a proper census of the rural population. No records exist, not even church records. Which is kind of exciting. I mean, for all I know, I might as well be royalty.

 

well over a year since this thread was last opened (and yes i'm willing to open that can of worms) but been trying to search through my family history, but getting much past my grandparents is a bitch. i know that my g-grandparents my dads, dads parents were an Austrian/Polish couple and my dads mums parents were an Irish/English couple. but that is as far as i know. my nan doesnt really speak much of my grandad, thus only getting some sketchy details. (although did let the detail that he did his National Service in Kenya slip)

its unfortunate but unless i pay ridiculously high amounts of money, i cant find much more out than i have