Ancestry

[doctor_insanus]

My maternal grandmother's family apparently has some interesting branches, with Sam Adams in there somewhere, going back to Charlemagne. I have no idea if it's true, but I've been told that it was documented in a book somewhere. I dunno.

My grandfather is a mystery. He said very little about his family, and so far I haven't been able to trace anything past his parents. I think he cared more about the roots he was planting than his own origins.

 

[oggbashan]

I have been researching my real life ancestry for about 10 years. One of my cousins, now deceased, did a large amount of research in the City of London archives in the 1960s. He found that my paternal ancestors were fairly easy to trace because most of them were Parish Clerks.

One of those Parish Clerks was in the City of London during the Great Fire of 1666. He was Clerk to several Parishes in the City. In one of the Parish Registers my cousin found that he had written a long note:

Apparently his wife was not pleased with him. When the Fire started to spread, he managed to acquire a cart. He saved ALL the Parish Registers BEFORE he came back for the family goods and chattels. His wife didn't agree with his sense of priorities. His note said that he could replace the goods and chattels, but not the Parish Registers, and his income and employment depended on those registers. His wife still wasn't impressed.

My paternal family were resident in the City of London long before 1666. They were still there in 1915 when my father, his parents, and his siblings were living about 100 yards from St Paul's Cathedral. I thought it was one of those family myths that are difficult to prove, but my father said they were made homeless by a Zeppelin bomb.

In the last few years I have been able to confirm that they were there in 1915 when the Zeppelin dropped the then world's largest ever bomb. The property damage was extensive and the apartment block my family lived in had to be demolished. Only two people were killed - drinkers in the public house who came out, pints of beer in their hands, to watch the Zeppelin pass overhead. The public house's external clock stopped, showing the exact time of the bomb's impact.

 

[remy_lebeau8]

I have. Traced my dads side back to 1600s Prussia and my moms to early 1700s England. Im trying to trace my great grandfather on my moms side. I got as far back as his fathers Ellis island papers but nothing from Ireland

 

[Jackotheshadows]

Some people in the family did some research, and surprisingly, we came from Portugal, where we apparently had a Crusader or two..then France, took up work as mercenaries, moved to Germany, got kicked out of Germany, went to Ireland, then when Lafayette called for troops to jump into the Revolutionary War, we signed up, came over and kicked some British ass.

Troublemakers from way back, apparently....

 

[girlsmiley]

And youre a dinosaur.

No, I'm Maori/Aussie. I know it's hard for you, but get it right.

 

[Saint Peter]

No, I'm Maori/Aussie.

God speed.

 

[girlsmiley]

God speed.

LOL!

I figure if we'd been around for 65+ there'd be better roads.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Hooray

Found a new CSA veteran ancestor: James Radford Brown, Private, Company H, 47th Georgia Infantry Regt. He's #7.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Yup, my father's family traces back to colonial Virginia circa 1640.

We're probably related then.

 

[pointless]

both sides of my family have had people do family trees with my mother's side going into great detail and basically i'm just your usual european mutt w/ the germans, the irish and the english being the main contributors to my gene pool. beyond that all i can remember in detail is my father's line starts in this country with some quakers in the late 17th or early 18th century in pennsylvania with my genes slowly moving east to indiana where they humped some germans and eventually i resulted. yay.

also, there's likely some swiss fuckers in there somewhere, but they were just germans with an accent so whatever.

 

[bluebell]

Correct. Ancestry started life as a free site called ROOTSWEB. Millions donated their private info to the site and the owner sold out to Ancestry about 1999 or so.

I always imagine they circulate help wanted ads on the sly without mentioning the parent company: "Seeking professional writers with extensive background in historical fiction. Speed and accuracy a must, creative imagination and writing samples required."

Oh.


That's nice.

This made me laugh.

 

[morgoiv]

My dad still has the family bible so i can sort of cheat and start from 1878. It is fascinating to look at and imagine people making entry's into the book 100 year plus ago, direct relatives too.

 

[thør]

None of my forefathers (or foremothers) were born in the US before 1909.

 

[tactful]

Ellis Island records, if you know the name and approximate time is free and gives very good leads, but on the other side good luck with their records.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Beyond who has been alvie in my life I don't know fuck about my family...none of them ever talk to each other or record shit.