The Horrors revealed by researching your family tree.

[oggbashan]

I and my wife have been researching her family tree and ancestors.

There are a suspiciously large number of three and four month pregnancies with the first child born that length of time after the marriage and one or two where the marriage happened AFTER the birth of the first child. These events are in the 1910s and 1920s when such things weren't acceptable.

But, the real horror - one of her ancestors might have had the Christian names 'George Bush'! Why? How could they have done this to her?

Og

 

[jeninflorida]

dont have much of a family tree, WWII took care of that (what hilter didn't take, stalin did)....so I try not to look back or think about it that much....My husbands family in our only tree

I and my wife have been researching her family tree and ancestors.

There are a suspiciously large number of three and four month pregnancies with the first child born that length of time after the marriage and one or two where the marriage happened AFTER the birth of the first child. These events are in the 1910s and 1920s when such things weren't acceptable.

But, the real horror - one of her ancestors might have had the Christian names 'George Bush'! Why? How could they have done this to her?

Og

 

[shereads]

We uncovered at least one bigamist and a ringleader of the Salem Witch Trials before the distant cousin who was hell-bent on researching the family tree decided to leave well enough alone.

It's a good thing there's no fortune involved; we'd have to find out which branch of the bigamist's descendants are legitimate.

 

[cloudy]

My father's side of the family is very well-researched. The man that founded William & Mary College is one of my great-greats.

My mom's side - not so much. We know back to the removal when my my great-great grandmother was "removed" to Oklahoma with the rest of the Choctaw (she's listed on the Dawes Roll). Past that, we have no idea.

 

[dirtylover]

My aunty gave up sifting through mine when she got back to Victorian sheep rustlers.

BTW - is Tatelou still around? Dirtyoldman?

 

[cloudy]

My aunty gave up sifting through mine when she got back to Victorian sheep rustlers.

BTW - is Tatelou still around? Dirtyoldman?

Lou makes a surprise appearance every now and then, but I think that r/l has gotten hold of her.

I miss her.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Mostly hard working people, but a few IRA members that were hanged, others who escaped to the U.S. (like me father) and a horse thief or two. The usual.

 

[dirtylover]

Lou makes a surprise appearance every now and then, but I think that r/l has gotten hold of her.

I miss her.

What's r/l mean? I'm sure it shouldn't be allowed.

 

[cloudy]

What's r/l mean? I'm sure it shouldn't be allowed.

real/life, and no it shouldn't.

 

[glynndah]

I have discovered a lot of interesting things. My great great grandparents were divorced (1905). My great grandmother married my great grandfather when she was 14 and he was 35. I have a great aunt who was a freak with the Barnum and Bailey Circus for PT Barnum. On the other side, my son's great grandmother's sister was the real life Roxie Hart from the musical "Chicago". No George Bushes, thank goodness, at least none that anyone talks about. We have our standards.

 

[Stella_Omega]

My father's side of the family is very well-researched. The man that founded William & Mary College is one of my great-greats.

My mom's side - not so much. We know back to the removal when my my great-great grandmother was "removed" to Oklahoma with the rest of the Choctaw (she's listed on the Dawes Roll). Past that, we have no idea.

I'm in a similar situation, Cloudy
My husband's mother researched all the way back to Duncan King of Scots- and back further than that, to Thorfin, better known in these days as Macbeth.

My kids are documented to be descendants of Pocahonta, in two lines on his side of the family.

Me... yeah, well... My paternal grandmother was a "good time girl" who got knocked up by one of her clients. Her father was a german adventurer- that's all I've ever been told.
And my mother's family were Jews in Poland and Russia. My mom looks Mongolian, but none of the old folks would talk about the life they left in any way...
They were freethinkers, I've been told. I don't know what my mother means by that phrase, though.

One of these days I'll go in for DNA testing, just to see where it leads me.

 

[cloudy]

I'm in a similar situation, Cloudy
My husband's mother researched all the way back to Duncan King of Scots- and back further than that, to Thorfin, better known in these days as Macbeth.

My kids are documented to be descendants of Pocahonta, in two lines on his side of the family.

Me... yeah, well... My paternal grandmother was a "good time girl" who got knocked up by one of her clients. Her father was a german adventurer- that's all I've ever been told.
And my mother's family were Jews in Poland and Russia. My mom looks Mongolian, but none of the old folks would talk about the life they left in any way...
They were freethinkers, I've been told. I don't know what my mother means by that phrase, though.

One of these days I'll go in for DNA testing, just to see where it leads me.

Unfortunately, the Choctaw weren't known for their record keeping skills.

You and I are probably VERY distantly related! One of my great-greats (etc.) was Duncan I MacCrinan, King of Scotland - the one killed by MacBeth!

 

[kendo1]

Nothing wonderful in my family tree.
My dad researched back to the early 1700's. Beyond that, it is very difficult to find any info.
Mostly farm workers, shop keepers, teachers, a boat builder, and so on.
No skeletons in the closet.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Unfortunately, the Choctaw weren't known for their record keeping skills.

You and I are probably VERY distantly related! One of my great-greats (etc.) was Duncan I MacCrinan, King of Scotland - the one killed by MacBeth!

But it's not me- it's my husband's family!

My father's father was Irish from Chicago.

And I do remember talk of a Blackfoot woman, but I have no rememberance of what her connection was, if I am descended from her or no...

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I don't know of any in depth family tree that I could look at, but it's funny this came up today. When I got home from work my mother tells me that she was looking at her mother's birth certificate. My great grandmother had my grandmother when she was twenty, and my grandmother was always talking about how she had an older sister by seven years.

do the math, it's fun.

 

[CopyCarver]

The great-great grandfather of George Washington turned up among the British side of my ancestry, but the German side included Kaiser Wilhelm. Skipping ahead in time, the WWII era included both a federal judge and a psycho who killed another bar patron who said the Cubs were a lousy baseball team.

The moral, I suppose, is that with family trees one doesn't have to pay any money, but he also doesn't get any choice.

 

[Munachi]

no horrors i know of. then again i haven't really researched. we have no idea where our family name comes from, though my grandfather has some theories.

oh, and my grandmother's great grandfather migrated to the US in 1850. except, he migrated back to germany a few years later, which you should all be really happy about, because else i might not be posting here, hehe.

 

[ishtat]

Numbers

The great great grandfather of George Washington would if he appeared in someones ancestry once today constitute about one twenty thousandths of their genes. As for Macbeth!!!

 

[Liar]

On my father's side, I have three generations of hardass revolutionary communists. Starting in the early 1900's and ending with grandpa in the 70's. We're talking genuine red here, medals from the Party in the ol' Soviet, shaking handa with Mao, that sorta thing.

Heh. They'd roll in their graves if they knew my political views.

Got some of their old memorabilia from that time at home. Weird but fascinating stuff. I also have a recording of the Red Army Choir, backed up by nineteen other regiment choirs going absolutely massively apeshit loud on the Soviet national anthem and The Internationale. Say what you will, those commies knew how to sing.

 

[ishtat]

Mostly hard working people, but a few IRA members that were hanged, others who escaped to the U.S. (like me father) and a horse thief or two. The usual.

I had a relative who in the 19th century was the executioner of a number of Irishmen in both Liverpool and Dublin . Not your relatives I hope.

 

[Guest]

 

[shereads]

My aunty gave up sifting through mine when she got back to Victorian sheep rustlers.

So you're the bastards who stole our sheep. I'll bet you got the last of our potatoes, too. Vendetta!

 

[Retrieval]

I and my wife have been researching her family tree and ancestors.

There are a suspiciously large number of three and four month pregnancies with the first child born that length of time after the marriage and one or two where the marriage happened AFTER the birth of the first child. These events are in the 1910s and 1920s when such things weren't acceptable.

But, the real horror - one of her ancestors might have had the Christian names 'George Bush'! Why? How could they have done this to her?

Og

I've been thinking about tracing my family tree for a while now. How do you do it?
Can it be done online or do you have to go through hundreds of books on Births, Deaths and Marriages?

 

[MagicaPractica]

I and my wife have been researching her family tree and ancestors.

There are a suspiciously large number of three and four month pregnancies with the first child born that length of time after the marriage

My grandmother, "the first child comes any time, all the rest take nine months." As far as I can tell, that's been the way of things since marriage was invented.

 

[cantdog]

"What for a Cow or a Countess takes nine Months, can take a Bride but two."