Family Trees

[Tuckins1]

My mother has been doing some research on our family's history. Recently she discovered that we have a direct blood line to Mary Queen of Scots and to William the Conqueror! We also have Arapaho Indian blood, as well as other noble man from the Isle of Man. (Apparently it's a small island nation between England and Ireland. Never heard of it.) Anyone else had any surprising discoveries in their family tree?

 

[JewelFreak]

Yeah, I'm related to Jesse James & the Duchess of Windsor, neither much of a recommendation of the old family genes. Also a however-many-greats uncle bred the first Kentucky Derby winner. Had all kinds of interesting & ...um... individual...antecedents who weren't famous too. Wacky bunch.

--- Laurie

 

[Bunny007]

I'm supposedly related to Mary Boleyn (Ann Boleyn's trampy sister) and Michael Moore.

 

[Amber St. Clare]

I'm related to indentured servants who came to America in 1642 on one side and Norman M. Thomas, a notorious Socialist who ran for the American Pesidency 4 {I think} times.

 

[HopeDream]

I was surprised to find out that some of my ancestors have been in Canada for over 8 generations (Most Canadians I know are descended from parents or grandparents that emigrated). All of my great grandparents were born in Canada (also rare).

One of my ancestors had the choice of being hung for horse theivery in France or emigrating to Canada

I've only done a bit of searching on my father's side so far but... I keep switching family tree software

What is the best genealogy software out there?

 

[Tuckins1]

Neat! It's so cool to hear about where we came from and to see how different we all are from our ancestors. I really have no idea about ancestry software....

 

[JewelFreak]

I use Family Tree Maker. It's pretty good, easy to follow & has nooks & crannies for all types of info. Flexible.

--- Laurie

 

[atroop711]

I just started on ancestry.com and found out that my great grandmother was half italian. Her dad immigrated to Puerto Rico maybe in the mid 1800's. Her mom (my great-great grandmother was some sort of Indian Princess) It's so hard to get info for Puerto Rico..the US census only goes back until 1910 there....anything prior I have to contact the Island. Since I LOVE research, I can do this for months

 

[ksinger]

There had always been a family rumor, and my FIL did the research and confirmed just last week, that a female relative on my husband's father's mother's side of the family, was the midwife at Abraham Lincoln's birth. His family has been here a very long time - since the 1640s...

My family - nothing extraordinary that I know of, except there is a Reagan somewhere in my dad's line.

 

[Burberrygirl]

I always wanted to learn more about my ancestors but I don't think I'd be able to trace very far back. All of my great-grandparents came to the U.S. in the late 1800s from the Russian Empire, what is now Ukraine when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Northern Italy when it was part of the Kingdom of Italy, and somewhere in Germany when it was still the German Empire.

I'd love to know how difficult it was for all of you to do the research.

 

[JewelFreak]

Burberrygirl, there's an awful lot of info on Ancestry.com. You have to join, but it's well worth it. Their stuff includes ship manifests & censuses, etc., from foreign countries as well as the U.S. I used it to trace my mother's family back to England in the 1400s; they came over here around 1630.

In your particular case you might look at this blog: http://annebobroffhajal.com/blog/ Anne traced her family back to Russia & has had a fascinating time doing it. (Look at the list on the right of the page for the ancestry part.) She is a college classmate of mine & would be more than happy to give you pointers on where to look & whom to contact. She's very nice, full of life, and I know would love to be of help.

--- Laurie

 

[elrohwen]

I've never been able to find a thing about my family history My maiden name is rare, which should help, but I'm never able to turn up anything other than my grandfather's cousin or something.

Any suggestions? Do you have to go through the paid sites to really find good info?

 

[Clio]

My ancestors haven't done much of anything exciting, though I do like knowing where they came from.

One ancestor had a sister who married the brother of one of the US's less-well-known presidents. Unfortunately, this brother distinguished himself primarily by running up debts and hounding the president for money.

Oh, there were a couple of generals (one in the Revolution and one Confederate), but again they were pretty minor.

 

[dragonfly411]

I will have to sign up for Ancestry.com. I know that my father's mom came here from Portugal, and lived in California for many years working on farms. I know his father was mostly German. I know I have a lot of Irish and Scot blood on my mom's side with a bit of creek Indian.

Goes to dig.

 

[AprilBaby]

My GGGrandfather was father to both my GGrandfather and Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. My husbands GGGGrandfather has a Revolutionary War Pension Record showing he was with Washington crossing the Delaware. I have genealogy of both our sides going back to the 1300's.

 

[Haven]

My GGGrandfather was father to both my GGrandfather and Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. My husbands GGGGrandfather has a Revolutionary War Pension Record showing he was with Washington crossing the Delaware. I have genealogy of both our sides going back to the 1300's.

That is very cool! Did you do the research yourself?

My maternal grandparents come from (what was) two of the most influential printing and publishing families in Germany. They were both raised in luxury and excess, and met many famous people in their young lives, only to lose it all (and many of their family members) during WWII. They left Berlin and came to Chicago in 1949. Anyway, both of their families are full of innovators and noteworthy individuals in fields large and small. I did a bit of digging a while back, but I'd love to trace my family back even farther. It would be really interesting.

 

[Echidna]

According to my maternal grandmother's family tree, I am a distant descendent of Freud

Not sure if I should be proud of that or not!

 

[ksinger]

According to my maternal grandmother's family tree, I am a distant descendent of Freud

Not sure if I should be proud of that or not!

Well, how does knowing that make you FEEEEEEEL??

 

[AprilBaby]

My GGGrandfather was father to both my GGrandfather and Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. My husbands GGGGrandfather has a Revolutionary War Pension Record showing he was with Washington crossing the Delaware. I have genealogy of both our sides going back to the 1300's.

That is very cool! Did you do the research yourself?

My maternal grandparents come from (what was) two of the most influential printing and publishing families in Germany. They were both raised in luxury and excess, and met many famous people in their young lives, only to lose it all (and many of their family members) during WWII. They left Berlin and came to Chicago in 1949. Anyway, both of their families are full of innovators and noteworthy individuals in fields large and small. I did a bit of digging a while back, but I'd love to trace my family back even farther. It would be really interesting.

On my Rommel side my mothers cousin went to Germany and did the research through the luthern church who keeps immaculate records. The family stayed in the area 600 years and we were rommels until my ggmother was born, then my name changed. My family came to America in 1884 and was easily traced from there through the census. My husbands family actually had a book written about them in 1899 (genealogy available now online) that goes back to the 1300's in the Netherlands and I had to trace his immediate family back to the book. Sounds easy, but was quite hard and took three years and lots of research, but again I was lucky and Spruance library in bucks county , pa has wonderful genealogy records and I eventually found what I needed and then did a tombstone and church search to confirm records and get photos of graves. I have the most comprehensive record of his family available to date, and they are all in pennsylvannia and I am in Illinois. It is fun, time consuming, expensive, rewarding and aggravating all at once. I used the national archives, Spruance library, the united states census, rootsweb.com, the social security death index, and the world connect project. I found the LDS related geneologies to be highly inaccurate such as ancestry.com. Rootsweb.com is free and much more accurate.

 

[Echidna]

According to my maternal grandmother's family tree, I am a distant descendent of Freud

Not sure if I should be proud of that or not!

Well, how does knowing that make you FEEEEEEEL??

I don't know; I've repressed the memories of my lineage deep into the recesses of my unconscious

 

[Burberrygirl]

Burberrygirl, there's an awful lot of info on Ancestry.com. You have to join, but it's well worth it. Their stuff includes ship manifests & censuses, etc., from foreign countries as well as the U.S. I used it to trace my mother's family back to England in the 1400s; they came over here around 1630.

In your particular case you might look at this blog: http://annebobroffhajal.com/blog/ Anne traced her family back to Russia & has had a fascinating time doing it. (Look at the list on the right of the page for the ancestry part.) She is a college classmate of mine & would be more than happy to give you pointers on where to look & whom to contact. She's very nice, full of life, and I know would love to be of help.

--- Laurie

Thank you, Laurie!

I've had a decent amount of luck tracing my Austo-Hungarian and German ancestors (using ancestry.com and rootsweb.com). I've been able to trace back all of my great-grandparents except for my Italian great-grandparents (my mom isn't sure of names and dates). I've been having trouble because some names have been Anglicized. Finding most of my female ancestors has been pretty difficult too. The oldest ancestor I've found so far is my great-great-grandmother from Austria-Hungary. It is a lot of work and can be frustrating but everything I've found so far has been interesting--it makes me want to keep digging.

Thank you for the link to Anne's blog too. I've just started reading it--it's very interesting! None of my Russian and Ukrainian ancestors were Jewish that I know of so far. I have asked my great-aunt (who turned 96 today!) and she said no so I don't think any of the Jewish databases would be helpful. Her blog did reminded me to be careful with names because of the Cyrillic alphabet and how things might have been translated.

Thank you for all your help!

 

[JewelFreak]

Oh, Burberrygirl, I forgot Anne's stuff was about only her Jewish ancestors. Fascinating info anyhow. Sounds like you're on the right track, though.

I really like finding out about antecedents -- mine have been connected with every part and every era of this country's history, some of them actors in the drama, some swept along by events. When my grandparents retired they moved to Annapolis & bought an old house. Turned out it was built in 1690 by one of my grandfather's ancestors & was the site of the first meetings under the Continental Congress. Stuff like that is so neat to discover.

--- Laurie

 

[soberguy]

My mother's family are decended from the Anjous and my father's from the Plantagenets, and Tudors. We were lucky to have a current title holder in our generation, which makes it far easier to get records. The lineage, according to experts, can be believed down to Charlemagne, but after that is probably not verifiable as he hired several "geneologists" to show him descending from Adam and Eve. All of those names are in our family tree, but I think it is more for entertainment lol! When the dates go into the B.C.'s I take it with a grain of salt. I have also done DNA which puts me where I belong lol! Honestly it has been nice meeting distant cousins, etc. Sort of makes me feel like I belong somewhere... After my childhood that is a good feeling.

We have also been inbred about 6 times... But that seems to be "normal" in those sort of families lol. Another interesting fact... Only one of my acestors arrived in the US AFTER 1690, most arrived in the early 1600's.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

how much is it to join Ancestry.com? Sounds interesting. I don't know much about my family tree except our last name (maiden name) was changed at Ellis Island b/c they couldn't understand my great-grandfather.