Geanology

[wishfulthinking]

(Did I spell it right?)

Who is a G buff?

Tell me something intriguing about your family history.

That google threat got me going, so I did my name, came up 1 match for me [unfortunately listing my full name, place of work - includ telephone number and address], and everything going back to our rellie's in the 1300s or thereabouts. [Weird for me as Australia wasn't even invaded by europeans then].

 

[wishfulthinking]

Found our coat of arms and seems I can order a gold ring. My dad will be chuffed for his birthday

 

[NoJo]

Found our coat of arms and seems I can order a gold ring. My dad will be chuffed for his birthday

I tried it, but my family disappears rapidly into the murk of the Russian Pale.

 

[impressive]

*waves*

I'm not as "into it" as I was a few years ago (before I was bitten by the writing bug), but I do have a database of 22,000 of my nearest, dearest, dusty, dead ancestors.

One side of my family didn't leave Europe until the late 1800s/early 1900s (Italy & Croatia) ... and the other, I can't trace many of the surnames further back than the Ohio River frontier during the Revolutionary War.

 

[cloudy]

Imp, that's one of my favorite AV's.

My sister's big into it, and has traced my family back to England/Wales on my father's side, and on my maternal grandfather's side, to Spain & Scotland....some info from the 1300 & 1400's.

The furthest back we can get with my maternal grandmother is HER mother, who is on the Dawes Roll for the removal to Oklahoma.

 

[English Lady]

Well, i've not done anything officially, but I know my dad's family are french, infact our second name means "high servant" well, my maiden name, and some one was the high servant to one of the many louis. My mums side, hmmm, I know Grandad got a history done, but i don't remember much of it, I think they're firmly northern English.

Hubbys genes? haven't a clue...theres some Irish in there, thats all I know.

 

[Guest]

Interesting snippet of data

When looking at those databases of birth dates and marriage dates, do the math between married dates and birth of first borns.

Those old folks weren't quite as traditional as some would make them out to have been.

 

[Guest]

my grandfather was a huge geneology buff.
i do know that our family goes back to waterford ireland.
i do know that i am a part of the Daughters of the American Revolution
i do know that i am a part of the Mayflower Descendants.
my grandfather on my moms side was an indentured servant from the Ukraine. what an adorable man.
Further than this is sketchy. grandpa did tell me stories of going back to roman lineage but i have no idea really, what that was all about.

 

[woodnymph_O]

when I was a teenager I did my familys and got back to the 1700's on one side, when their aparently was a dispute over who's child one of my way back grandfathers was. census lists him as belonging to two different familys I was 16 so didn't really pursue it further.

 

[oggbashan]

Old - with gaps in the record.

My real life paternal family tree was surprisingly easy to trace. The main work was done by my cousin, the eldest son of the eldest son, about 30 years ago.

The name is unusual and has been spelled exactly the same for hundreds of years. The family stayed in the City of London for 600 years and only moved out to a suburb after being bombed in the First World War. Most of the ancestors were printers and before that scribes/scrivenors. That meant that they could read and write when such skills were rare (and explains the consistent spelling of the family name).

They were Parish Clerks to many of the parish churches in the City of London so their names appear in the churches' records many times because they wrote the records. One of them even recorded that his wife was displeased with him during the Great Fire of London in 1666 because he saved the Parish records before returning for the family's goods. He justified himself because the records were his employment and could replace his goods. He couldn't replace the records. Whether his wife forgave him he didn't say.

The family apparently arrived in the City of London from East Anglia in 1326. The records in East Anglia don't go back before the 16th century so it is impossible to trace further.

However - A tribe in Belgium with a remarkably similar name was involved in an attack on Julius Caesar's legions, giving them a bloody nose before Caesar arrived to take command. The tribe then had to flee to England, to East Anglia. So - the family might be descended from that tribe.

No villains. No noblemen. Just a succession of middleclass traders involved in their communities' affairs. At least one person, and usually most of the family in each generation, could read and write. The women were traditionally active as well, being freemen of the City of London, scribes or involved in the printing business. The women's roles seemed to diminish in the late 19th century but at least one of my aunts was involved in the Women's suffrage movement before the First World War. She consistently out-earned her brothers for most of her life and you can imagine how hard that was to do in the 1920s and 1930s.

Og

 

[NoJo]

Being able to trace your ancestry so far back must give you a sense of stability. I can't manage further back than one of my eight great-grandparents. This lack of family history is of course pretty common. In my case, it's led me to value very highly the few artefacts and old photographs that remain in my family. I'm wearing my grandmother's wedding ring and my father's old wristwatch.

 

[Boota]

A few years ago my uncle got into this and traced it back to the first of our family to come over here from England. It was sometime before the Revolutionary War, but I don't remember when. I'm thinking the 1750's or 60's. He also found out that most of the family was hung in Georgia in the mid 1850's as horse thieves.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

My great grandfather(I'm not sure how many greats) came over here to America from Yorkshire when he was nine years old in 1832. Someone on Roots Web was cool enough to post the following article about him, which was obtained from the county archives. geneology

Oh, and don't worry, this isn't my last name and I don't live in this county, lol.


ETA: Hahaha, the link is fixed now.

 

[NoJo]

My great grandfather(I'm not sure how many greats) came over here to America from Yorkshire when he was nine years old in 1832. Someone on Roots Web was cool enough to post the following article about him, which was obtained from the county archives. geneology


Oh, and don't worry, this isn't my last name and I don't live in this county, lol.

If that link was a joke, it worked. Otherwise you have a strange virus on your PC.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

If that link was a joke, it worked. Otherwise you have a strange virus on your PC.

LMAO, how embarrassing, that was a link I was using earlier.

Okay, the real link is up. And no, I didn't buy that, er, yet.

 

[entitled]

My uncle traced my family back until he figured out that we're descended from one of the illegitimate children of an old German king. Then he decided we're all worthless and smut and quit looking into it.

 

[NoJo]

My uncle traced my family back until he figured out that we're descended from one of the illegitimate children of an old German king. Then he decided we're all worthless and smut and quit looking into it.

By a coincidenece I watched a TV program last night about a women from Wales who was looking into her genealogy. There was a rumour that her grandmother was the illegitimate child of King Edward VII. But it turned out more likely it was just the horny squire of the estate that had knocked up one of the servants, a la Gosford Park.

 

[rikaaim]

I know my mom's mom is a Joyce. I know my family coat of arms on her side and a little bit of the faimly history. I really only know enough to want to learn more. On my mom's side, I am realted to James Joyce, author of Ullysses (sp?). I also know that another relative in the Joyce clan was the creator of the cladigh (again, sp?) ring. That's about all I know. Again, just enough to make me want to learn more.

 

[entitled]

By a coincidenece I watched a TV program last night about a women from Wales who was looking into her genealogy. There was a rumour that her grandmother was the illegitimate child of King Edward VII. But it turned out more likely it was just the horny squire of the estate that had knocked up one of the servants, a la Gosford Park.

My uncle actually found a copy of the document that named this guy as part of the royal family, even though he was illegitimate.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

My uncle actually found a copy of the document that named this guy as part of the royal family, even though he was illegitimate.

It happened sometimes, usually only if the illegitimate kid was a son. I think even King Ferdinand had illegitimate son who was appointed governor in the new world.

 

[NoJo]

It happened sometimes, usually only if the illegitimate kid was a son. I think even King Ferdinand had illegitimate son who was appointed governor in the new world.

Apparently Edward VII had about two hundred illegitemate children.

 

[Guest]

Apparently Edward VII had about two hundred illegitemate children.

tsk tsk
"never dip your nib in the office ink."

 

[NoJo]

tsk tsk
"never dip your nib in the office ink."

I'm more worried about walking around with a Post-it stuck to my back.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Apparently Edward VII had about two hundred illegitemate children.

Holy crap, we could all be royal!

Somewhere on the royal list website, there's a generator you can put any two royals listed into and find out their relationship. It will also tell you facts about the particular royal and the amount of inbreeding in their lineage. I think Prince William had 42 cases of inbreeding in his family tree(or sapling, if you will).

 

[glynndah]

I have several interesting people perched on my family tree. My son's great grandmother's sister was the real Roxie Hart as portrayed by Renee Zellweiger in "Chicago". On my side of the family I have a great great aunt or second cousin who was a freak with the PT Barnum circus in the late 1800's. She used to be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records until the 1980 (or so) edition as the Missouri Giantess.