<p>Some time ago I started a genealogy project to learn more about my family’s history. I had been taught as a young girl that my ancestors came over from England in the 1630’s, settled in Massachusetts and then slowly migrated to the Mid West since many of them were younger sons and did not inherit farmland from their fathers. They fought in every war from the Revolutionary War on down and it all seemed rather neat and tidy. </p>
<p>Well. Although this scenario is true in part, it has been fascinating to learn the REST of the story! Turns out there are Germans, French, Dutch, Welsh and Scottish fore bearers. Catholics and Mormons. Saints and Scoundrels. Southerners. Confederate Soldiers as well as Union soldiers. Brothers who fought against each other in the Civil War. Slave holders. 49ers looking for gold. A Woman captured by Indians who escaped and wrote a best seller about her ordeal. And who knows what else because I’ve only touched on the tip of the iceberg. </p>
<p>I admit to becoming rather addicted to this kind of research and wonder if anyone else has caught the genealogy bug? Did you learn surprising things about your family history?</p>
<p>I did this a few years ago and found it very interesting as well, particularly as I was a history major and still do most of my reading in history.</p>
<p>I found genealogy to be the history of this country told in individual stories. And those individual stories showed that American history is more complicated than the history books often make it. For example, my German ancestors left Germany because they were tired of being unfairly forced to serve in the military of their local principality. But as American citizens they served in the Union Army freely. One ancestor who was a local troop leader in the Union Army had owned a couple of slaves! His brother owned no slaves and as a Justice of the Peace performed black marriages even though they were illegal at the time. </p>
<p>I also found out that some of the people they emigrated with went back! That’s not a story you find out often. They were actually disenchanted with the U. S. and were homesick. I found out that those on the ship who were sick were turned back. I found out how much money they had with them (enough to buy a farm and equipment) and sad stories of losing family members to the rampant disease on the frontier. </p>
<p>My husband is really into geneology. Probably because he is the descendant of a lot of ■■■■■■■ sons of royalty and whatnot, and he has traced his roots, airy as they are, back to like BC. </p>
<p>The funniest thing that ever happened was when he got a hold of my geneology and started to trace it back. My whole family was really into what he found out…until… it turned out they were wrong about one significant legendary fact. It was not my grandmother, but my grandfather, who was descended from the fathers of the revolution. My grandmother seems to have arisen in a very unfashionable area of what we now call germany. Hah. </p>
<p>So, they took all the papers away from my husband and wouldn’t discuss it with him anymore. And recently, I heard the legend being retold to my young nephew, about how lucky my grandfather had even been that my grandmother was willing to talk to him, etc…</p>
<p>Now, of course he was lucky, she was an amazing lady, but still… it was hillarious how they simply refused to budge on the facts and were very displeased with H. We will clearly never learn the full story. We are satisfied with the few inaccurate facts we have now. thankyouverymuch.</p>
<p>I’ve traced a few branches of my family back to the 1500s. Nothing too interesting until about my great-grandparents’ generation that I’ve been able to find. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, 1/4 of my family is Romani and to say they didn’t keep records would be an understatement. So maternal grandfather’s side ends with great-grandparents. Another 1/4 of my family died in the Holocaust so while we have great records of my great-grandparents’ deaths and all of their family, nothing before that can be found. I’ve been able to trace my maternal grandma’s side back to the 1500s but that’s it. </p>
<p>I do know something’s up with my paternal grandpa’s side. My dad’s aunts traced our Irish Catholic roots to about the 1700s when they abruptly stopped, hid the tree, and refuse to talk about what they found. </p>
<p>Everything I’ve found has been family legend for a while, but I managed to find proof of it. My great-grandma killed my great-grandpa in order to marry a Communist. That’s about the most interesting part of my family lol. </p>
<p>I miss my Ancestry account but I can’t justify the $30/month or whatever anymore. It’s a goal.</p>
<p>One of my aunts is a professional genealogist as her ‘hobby’. She travels the world lecturing on cruise ships and at universities. She and one of her daughters are very knowledgeable about our family, and her ‘baby’ sister (in her early 70s) has caught on in the last few years. They make a 2 week trip to Salt Lake City every couple of years for research. That’s saying something as she lives in London! My mom (their eldest sister) never caught the bug when she was alive.</p>
<p>I’m vaguely interested, but mostly just enjoy reading their findings.</p>
<p>If you go back 10 generations, you have up to 1024 ancestors (though the number of unique ones may be fewer). So it is not surprising to find ancestors from origins you never heard of.</p>
<p>A lot of public libraries have Ancestry available to use for free on-site. Of course, you can do the same at any Family History Center as well. I refuse to cave and subscribe.</p>
<p>Re post #3, isn’t it the truth?!! My father’s family lore includes the fact that we are related to a famous acting family. I’ve found third cousins we’ve never had any contact with who’ve heard the same story. I can’t prove it and I’m fairly convinced that it’s completely untrue. </p>
<p>I’ve found out all sorts of interesting stuff about the family–an ancestor who was imprisoned in the Tower of London, one who was hanged as a witch, two who fought in the American Revolution, etc…</p>
<p>…it doesn’t make up for the fact that I refuse to include the actors in the family tree. Several relatives have sent me “proof” that doesn’t prove any such thing. I tell them they can include the actors in the tree if they want to, but I’m not including them in MY tree until I’m satisfied it’s true. They get really huffy about it.</p>
<p>My great-great grandfather moved from Tennessee to Texas in the late 1830s, to join the fight for Texas independence. He brought his wife and two-year-old son (my great-grandfather). He was a quartermaster in Sam Houston’s army. My great-grandfather was born around 1835, my grandfather in 1887, and my mom in 1938. Those guys waited awhile to have kids!</p>
<p>Seems odd that someone would get offended at a discovery about some remote ancestor, especially one remote enough that no one today would have met.</p>
<p>Then again, those gene sequencing companies can give you hints at your matrilineal ancestry (through mitochondrial DNA) and (for men) patrilineal ancestry (through Y chromosomes). Note, however, that if multiple men of the same nominal patrilineal ancestry in the family tree use such a service, they should be aware of the possibility of non-matching Y chromosomes revealing something not intended to be revealed by the family members involved. (It is less of a risk with mitochondrial DNA, since maternity is more certain than paternity, though accidental newborn swaps in maternity wards in hospitals are not unheard of.)</p>
<p>I found out I was related to my husband! Eww
Our common ancestor was in the 1700’s
We did not grow up in the same state and our families never knew each other since then.</p>
<p>I think that family stories are a lot like belief in reincarnation - EVERYone seems to think that they’re related to someone famous, just like people who believe in reincarnation were always someone famous in a prior life (always Cleopatra, never Cleopatra’s slave.)</p>
<p>I’ve been doing genealogy for a long time, and what impresses me are the crazy stories you find out from family members way after the fact. Secret illlegitimate children? Check. Unmentioned early marriages? Check. Sensational murder trials where one family member murdered another family member, and no one has mentioned it in over 100 years? Check. And yeah, lots of Civil war stories (my g-g-grandfather met his future father-in-law in a Union prison camp. They were interned there together.)</p>
<p>I love the cousins-by-rumor you meet. My GGGgrandfather was child #13 in a family with three wives (remarriages after death). He came to the states as a young teen when his father died and no one back home ever knew what happened to him. After posting a query online, I received an answer from a descent of child #1. He sent me a copy of a family history with information about their common ancestors and descendants of the other 12 kids. After #13’s name, it just said “went to America.” So now the rest of the family there knows what happened to him.</p>
<p>For various reasons, mostly geographical, we have no contact with any relatives on either side of my family, so no stories at all. I would dearly, dearly love to do the genealogical research, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin.</p>
<p>Ive been researching my mother’s side of the family for years. My great grandfather was a product of a confederate captain and a mixed indian, black woman in the 1850’s south. A very prominent southern family, part of the Jamestown migration. They had 4 children together. Three of those children’s descendants, my cousins and relatives have become their own branch genealogists. We had our first family reunion last summer. My GGgrandfather(confederate, lawyer,judge) had a “proper family” that all southern gentleman had. They are still around and in “high offices” to this day. I dont know if they even know their ancestor “jumped” the fence, although, back in the day, local folks knew what was going on. My Ggrandfather, started the first Blacked owned bank and hardware store and ammassed ove 200 acres of property that my family still own. Ive researched my family back to 1400’s which include European Royalty(Plantagenets)a saint, etc. Dutch, French, Scottish, English, etc.</p>
<p>I had a great Aunt who did extensive research and got back as far as The Spanish Inquisition to an ancestor on my maternal grandmother’s side, who was expelled and migrated to Germany. When my niece and her then BF (now husband) went to work on a farm in Spain after graduating, they went to the town and did some inquiry and were shown the records of the towns inhabitants, our ancestor among them, who were thrown out. </p>
<p>She wasn’t able to go that far back on my maternal grandfather’s side - early 1800’s Russia. </p>
<p>At one of our family reunion the tree was displayed and it took up the whole back wall of the social hall at the Temple. Now it’s all on Genie.</p>
<p>My regret is not asking the older relatives for any stories before they died. I only know the area of Galicia ( part of Austro-Hungarian empire which could be Poland, Russia, Austria depending on the year) they emigrated from and when they arrived… It seems that relatives in the twilight of their life are often freer with the family stories that others would rather not be told, especially if they are of the potentially embarrassing kind…</p>
<p>Romani - depending on library, you may have to ask about access to ancestory sites. At our public library it is only available in research room, but not through other computers or home access. Still available to all, but might not show up if you’re looking from home.</p>
<p>We learned that a child of my greatgrandparents was adopted. Not a scandal, of course, but it was something that wasn’t common knowledge. We learned about it from an old census record. I guess that was something that was reported.</p>
<p>I learned that one of my ancestors was born 7 months after his mother was rescued from the indians who had captured her and held her for 6 months.</p>
<p>We also learned that my mother and father are related…about 15 generations back.</p>