How far have you traced your family tree?

[LeeH]

I recently discovered https://familysearch.org, a web site that works much like ancestry.com, except it's free. You do have to make an account, but I never receive any e-mail from them.

Assuming all the data in their system is correct, my father's side of the family has been traced back to the "Innes" clan of Morayshire, Scotland... all the way to the year 1130.

It's somewhat remarkable to think of all the folks that managed to stay alive long enough to produce offspring that ultimately resulted in ME! If one of those folks had died in child birth, caught the plague, fallen off a horse, I wouldn't be here!

Anyone else traced their roots back for hundreds of years? Where'd you come from?

[Arizona_928]

I'm off the boat Irish. My gramps was a mainland ww2 jap pow. Easily could've ended it there, but he was lucky.

[dewolf]

My aunt traced us to back 912 Scotland.

[wdfifteen]

My brother has done extensive research. He has traced my paternal lineage back to the village in Alsace that my great x3 (or 4) grandfather emigrated from in 1739.
On a trip to France two years ago I went there to look around. I asked if there was anyone there with my last name and the woman told me about a fifth of the people in that town had our name. The church had memorials to the "gefallen" in WW I and WW II and there were a lot of us.

[LeRoux Strydom]

I have traced back my ancestors 12 generations on my paternal side (to the Dutchman who emigrated to SA in 1678) and on my maternal side 11 generations to the French Hugenots who came here in 1692.

[Tobra]

Dad's grandfather. Those ancestry sites never did me any good. All my info comes from my family. Turns out a lot of information became unavailable due to the Russian revolution a hundred years ago. Mom's side can be traced back a lot farther, pre American revolution.

[Nickshu]

I have mine back to my Dad's side of the family coming over from Germany in the lat 1800's. Unfortunately they came thru Charleston Port of Entry which I found out was notorious for keeping very poor records and have been unable to find records of their entry into the USA. Apparently other ports such as Ellis Island were much better with record keeping.

[GH85Carrera]

I traced my fraternal side back 10 generations. Past that is just get pointless. My maternal side back 8. There are so many different branches past 4 generations it gets confusing.
My mom's grandfather on her moms side was in the land run. They were very good at farming and had a large spread that my great aunt drank up. Several family member ancestors were in the Civil war. No famous relatives I could find. On one line it did go back to nobility. It was interesting.

[imcarthur]

While I am really, really, really skeptical, Family Tree (this is the old IGT Mormon site btw) has me linked - through my paternal grandmother - all the way back to Boudica as well as to the "legendary, and possibly historical" Arvirargus who was awarded kingship of Britain by the Roman Emperor Claudius, as well as his daughter Genvissa's hand in marriage. These very tenuous connections make me a distant echo of the Roman Julio-Claudian dynasty.

My DNA says I am probably a Viking.

Ian

[techweenie]

Back to 1215 on my mother's side. Buckinghamshire, England... Came to US in 1624.

I didn't do it, an ancestor did. Fascinating stuff.

One of my Chase ancestors was a bride of Brigham Young, so that part of the genealogical tree is very well mapped.

[David]

I played on Ancestary a little and got back to my mom's side arriving in the states in the 1600's but could only trace dad's side to the 1800's. The only info I found pre arrival was mom's side was from England and dad's side from France and Germany. Some notes from my maternal grandmother really helped.

I would like to find out more. Has anyone here hired someone to help?

[LeeH]

Originally Posted by David

I played on Ancestary a little and got back to my mom's side arriving in the states in the 1600's but could only trace dad's side to the 1800's. The only info I found pre arrival was mom's side was from England and dad's side from France and Germany. Some notes from my maternal grandmother really helped.

I would like to find out more. Has anyone here hired someone to help?

Give familysearch.org a try. If you haven't look at this stuff in a while, you may find that a lot of it has been filled in/tied together by others. I looked at mine a couple of years ago. There were a lot of question marks in what was there... links that really didn't make sense, certainly didn't go back to the 1100s.

[aigel]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I traced my fraternal side back 10 generations. Past that is just get pointless. My maternal side back 8. There are so many different branches past 4 generations it gets confusing.

This is why I think it doesn't make a ton of sense, unless you really go up the tree in every branch or you just wonder where your last name came from, which is usually what people trace.

2 parents, 4 grand parents, 8 great grand parents, 16 great great grand parents. So, this is 2^n. If you assume 25 years per generation, you look at 4 generations in a century. So if you say "I can trace my ancestors back to 1215 in Scotland", that's 800 years, 32 generation and that guy in Scotland is one of 4294967296 of your ancestors of the 32th generation, or the fraction of that guy's DNA in you is about 0.00000000023.
In the 10th generation, 400 years, that's still 2^10 = 1024, roughly one thousands of the blood that's flowing in you. You would have to trace back to 500+ people 400 years ago to understand half your makeup.

I understand the fascination ancestry research has in the US, as people are of very mixed backgrounds and even going back 4 generations must be a hoot. I myself am a direct immigrant from Europe, so I am pretty certain of my general genetic makeup, as people move around very little there. I can go back 2-3 generations just by word of mouth.

I am fascinated by the DNA tests you can get nowadays and if I would not worry about sending my genetic fingerprint to a company, I'd go for that. I would be curious who may have come through my town over the last 10000 years. Also, anyone from Northern Europe will wonder how much Neanderthal we have in us. I think sometimes it is 98%

G

[Geronimo '74]

I traced my heritage all the way to my parent's parents...

[imcarthur]

Originally Posted by LeeH

Give familysearch.org a try. If you haven't look at this stuff in a while, you may find that a lot of it has been filled in/tied together by others.

Yeah, that's where Boudica came from in mine - someone else's fantasy. I have traced back to 1680 with reasonable certainty. After that, with wars & no parish records, things get fuzzy fast imho.

Ian

[Mark Henry]

Dads side Cork Ireland immigrants from the 1850's, traced back in Cork to mid 1700's they were dirt poor, dad was 3rd gen Canadian.
Mum upper middle class London WW2 war bride, green behind the ears as to Canadian life rural life. Her Family tree goes back to the 1700's.

[LeeH]

Originally Posted by aigel

2 parents, 4 grand parents, 8 great grand parents, 16 great great grand parents. So, this is 2^n. If you assume 25 years per generation, you look at 4 generations in a century. So if you say "I can trace my ancestors back to 1215 in Scotland", that's 800 years, 32 generation and that guy in Scotland is one of 4294967296 of your ancestors of the 32th generation, or the fraction of that guy's DNA in you is about 0.00000000023.
In the 10th generation, 400 years, that's still 2^10 = 1024, roughly one thousands of the blood that's flowing in you. You would have to trace back to 500+ people 400 years ago to understand half your makeup.

Yeah, I was thinking about this. The reflex reaction is to trace dad's line because of the name, but any other line is equally important.

And working that math back in the other direction, there are huge numbers of people alive today who we are all tied to genetically and don't know it. My sister did the DNA test, which agreed with the familysearch.org tree.

Funny thing is, as pasty white as I am, my mom and sister had very dark, olive skin with jet black hair. Stories in the family always said we had Native American roots. Well, the DNA test revealed that was true, but only an extremely small part. What was a much larger part on the DNA test was a tie to Spain. After exploring some of the other branches of the tree, sure enough... I found a line that was Spanish.

[nota]

1500 england

one got on the mayflower but got off in the Azores
later arrived on the speedwell on mom's side

first recorded American birth in family 1649 on dad's side

[oldE]

An entertaining mixture on my mother's side of Irish & Scots. On my father's side almost straight Yorkshire with 70 families which came across in 1775 and settled in one area. What I found especially interesting was the letters my great^5 grandfather wrote back to his brother and sister in the old country survived and have been compiled in a diary form.
My wife's family is a mixed bag of Scots, who were in Boston in 1760 and came to Nova Scotia within a few years. Once here there was the usual addition of Acadian, German and Irish to the family tree. Typical Nova Scotian.

I've been to the small Methodist chapel in Yorkshire where the ancestor preached before coming to the new world. It was fun signing the guest book.
Best
Les

[Bill Douglas]

I'm a Douglas. A Border Scott. Our family history is well documented before and after coming to New Zealand.

I've also followed other family lines such as Mary Sutherland who married a Douglas. That was interesting and I've visited Helmsdale Scotland where they came from. A few Berlin Germans in the mix as well.