Anyone else do genealogy?

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Dave

Dave

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If so, have you found anything interesting?

I just did. On my mother's side we go back to Scottish Royalty.

Let me drop some names, shall I?

Alfred the Great

Robert the Bruce

There are more, but I'm still sorting through them all. They go back to the 4th century. One of them even signed the Magna Carta.

My mother is ecstatic.
 
W

Wasabi Poptart

That's cool! One of the interesting things I found, but is nowhere near the caliber of your find, is that I am probably not Native American. It was always said that my great-great grandmother (my grandfather's paternal grandmother) was a Chickasaw. I have found much evidence to the contrary including that her father owned slaves.

Also, my mom's grandparents might have been related - as in they could be cousins. *shudders*
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

I'd probably do this, but I've never found a place that does it for free. Plus half of my lineage is up in the air because my mother is adopted.

I DO know that I had a relative that was a general in the Civil War (For the South), but that's about it.
 
General Specific

General Specific

Dave, we're probably related. My last name is Brice, which was changed from Bruce when my family emigrated from Scotland. And yes, Robert the Bruce is one of my ancestors.

Although, there is this:

 
Mathias

Mathias

For some odd reason my family tree records magically cut off with half my relatives around 1939-1945. I wonder why?
 
Dave

Dave

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If you PM me a few names and birth dates I can see what I can come up with. I've been doing genealogy for a while now and am a member of a fairly extensive network of researchers.
 
Officer_Charon

Officer_Charon

My mom's the genealogist in our family... my maternal grandfather is apparently adopted, so there goes THAT branch, although we do know that his birth father was half-Chippewa, half-Cherokee (explain to me how THAT works, the tribes being as separated as they were...?), but on my maternal grandmother's side, we apparently have a great joining between sides of the family - one side has a veteran from Vermont during the Civil War (we've had his discharge in a frame as long as I can remember), whereas another side, the Davenports have been traced to South Carolina around Revolutionary War times.

Ironically enough, Savannah has a (relatively) famous tourist attraction called the Davenport house, which we found out when I moved here. It's entirely possible that it belonged to someone in my family tree a few forks back.

I don't know how far beyond Colonial times, if at all, she's managed to get, but it's always pretty cool to learn stuff like this. Dave, I'm genuinely impressed that y'all were able to trace as far back as you have!
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I've always wanted to trace my genealogy. My dad tells me that I'm one forth English, French, Scottish and Irish. Apparently, there are a line of Piers in England that have royal blood. Dad's been told there's a baron somewhere in England with our last name.
 
Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

I have a great-uncle in Toronto who is our family genealogist... I've been meaning to visit him. I know somewhere in Cork County, Ireland, there is the Johnson Family Manor... I guess once we had money. One time. Before we all left for the States and Canada during the Blight.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Anyone who wants me to look can PM me a name/birthdate of a grandparent and I'll see what I can come up with.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

My maternal grandfather does this stuff, but I don't think I've opened up the book of our family he's had sitting on the coffee table.

I'm sixteen different flavors of Europe, so I'm not too inclined to go hunting through all those different cultures in just the last four generations.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

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My parents were really into this a couple of years back; Mom is losing her interest, though. Too much hassle with church records that are available for public for only like an hour or two per week and so on.

They did manage to track down a long way up my dad's side, though... I believe I've mentioned this, but the most notable ancestor among a plethora of share-croppers, farmhands, maids and servants was a 17th-century jahtivouti ('master of the hunt'), who was responsible for building and maintaining wolf pits and other traps in the woods to ward off wolves and other major predators from the cattle on the commons. Tengström, I believe his name was. And if there was a serious threat from predators, he would be the one to organize the village men as a hunting party.
 
Frank

Frank

One of my ancestors ruled the conquered England in the stead of the Duke of Normandy after the conquest of 1066.
 
strawman

strawman

I have only done a tiny bit of genealogy myself - I've got the tree for my Dad's side of the family going back to the 1500's for large portions of it. I've done a bit on my mom's side over a decade ago, but it was hard work because I actually had to find the microfiche that held the census records, etc. I didn't get very far because I didn't have much time. Today many of those records are available online, and while some require subscriptions to various services, it can be worth it to avoid having to travel to places to find that same information.

My wife runs/owns a genealogy software company with her mother and sister though, and her mother (majority owner of The Magikey) is pretty much an expert, and works on her own genealogy on a regular basis. So we've got a lot of work done on her family already. She does travel every year or two to go to cemeteries, churches, courthouses, etc for records that aren't online yet. If you go to a large-ish genealogy conference, or one near the midwest, you're liable to see them at a booth teaching people how to use their software.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
stienman said:
My wife runs/owns a genealogy software company with her mother and sister though, and her mother (majority owner of The Magikey) is pretty much an expert, and works on her own genealogy on a regular basis. So we've got a lot of work done on her family already. She does travel every year or two to go to cemeteries, churches, courthouses, etc for records that aren't online yet. If you go to a large-ish genealogy conference, or one near the midwest, you're liable to see them at a booth teaching people how to use their software.
Click to expand...
That's pretty awesome! Looking at the product now. I may just have them help me out with the service.
 
M

makare

I am not expecting to find any one of merit in my family's past. My family, well my mom's anyway I don't know my dad, were just poor religiously devout lutherans who were kicked around here and there in Europe until Russia gave them the heave ho and they ended up in the US. Exciting stuff.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

One Genealogy my Dad payed for, showed 2 Irish Brothers that sailed their fishing boat across the Atlantic to the colonies during the Revolution, so they could go kill English Soldiers. Then they stayed. It sounded like a load of crap, but my Dad believes it.

The main reason most of that side of the family sailed directly from Ireland to Mexican Texas.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

I've only got a partial line on my mom's mom's side going back to jolly old England. Other than that, I've got roadblocks when I try to find stuff from across the pond, which is mostly five generations back.

This is what I have so far about my great great grandparents:
  • FFFF - German. (Baden-Wurtenburg; his gravestone is completely in German)
  • FFFM - German. (Baden-Wurtenburg)
  • FFMF - Prussian.
  • FFMM - Prussian.
  • FMFF - American born Irish. (County Langford)
  • FMFM - American born Irish. (County Langford)
  • FMMF - Irish.
  • FMMM - Irish.
  • MFFF - German. (Cologne)
  • MFFM -German. (Koblenz)
  • MFMF -Bohemian (technically Czech; Strakonice) This guy was nearly famous, but more for his brother than for him. He ran his brother's trunk making company in Racine. That brother was a two-time mayor of the city in the late 1800's.
  • MFMM - Bohemian (technically Czech; Prague)
  • MMFF - American born English (possibly Cornwall)
  • MMFM - Northern Ireland (Drumacritten)/English (Barnard Castle) This is the branch of the family that I have the furthest back information - all the way back to the 1700's.
  • MMMF - Not sure, but family was in the Americas in the early 1800's; likely English. This gentleman was a Civil War veteran for the Union side; unfortunately, he saw practically no action, as he enlisted in 1865. He participated in the occupation of Nashville, but that was about it.
  • MMMM -American born Irish (Massachusetts Irish)
Technically, I'm more Irish than German, but my Prussian side is pretty much all German as well.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
I have a friend who is technically a Russian count, based on the fact that he is descended from Lev Tolstoy. Apparently in pre-Soviet Russia, a noble title was inherited by all descendants of a nobleman - even my friend.
 
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