Have you traced your genealogy? How far?

[pryncess527]

I've done a bunch, as have other family members. My aunt joined the Colonial Dames of America based on the records we found, and she's supporting my application for membership. We have been most successful tracing my mother's line -- fair bit of information with both her parents. My father's line has proved more challenging.

I have traced my husband's father's line to their arrival in the US from Germany. I'd love to visit the town in Germany most of them came from. I have not had as much luck (or spent as much time) on his mother's line, but I'd like to. She believes she has Creek Indian ties.

 

[scrapquitler]

I'm working on my genealogy. Some days go really well and some days are so frustrating. The internet has been helpful. The farthest I've gone to use a genealogy library is about an hour and fifteen minutes away.

I've traced one set of 4xgreat grandparents back to 1700's Germany. I'm working on another line now that has lots of dead ends.

Are any of you tracing your genealogy? Has it been easy? Enjoyable? Frustrating? I love to watch the tv shows " who do you think you are" and " finding your roots." They make it look so easy!

I haven't, but another relative did. I have information to our first relative who was born in what is now the US. He was born here (in the next town over from where I live) in 1728, he's on my father's side of the family.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I keep getting stuck when my ancestors immigrated. I have a set of great-great grandparents who came from the Austria/Poland/Ukraine area (Galicia) between 1890 and 1901. I can't really be sure I found their immigration records, and I certainly can't find anything from the old country.

Same problem with my Irish ancestors (from both my mom and dad side). They emigrated sometime between the 1850's and 1870's. I'm stuck there, too.

I was able to trace one line back to John Howland

 

[MomofKatie]

My dad researched the English side of his family (his surname). He is a direct descendent of someone who came to America in the 1640s. He traced the family back further in England to the 1400s, I think.

I would be interested to find out more about my other ancestors from Germany, France, and Italy. Most of them immigrated in the very late 1800s.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I love hearing all your stories! Has anyone been to Salt Lake City UT to do reasearch? I haven't but maybe some day there will be cheap airfare and I'll go! I really wouldn't even know where to begin so I'd have to research that, too.

I really don't know very many people who are working / have worked on genealogy. When I start to tell people I'm working on mine, lots of them say they'd like to do it some day if they find time.

 

[low-key]

I followed back the the low-key tribe way back in the caveman days, and my tribe was some of the sexiest caveman alive in that time

 

[goofyernmost]

I did just recently to kill some time and put together a family tree, of sorts, including all inlaws, and myself. As I kid we were always told that we were mostly mongrel, but, that the family name originated in Germany. Imagine my surprise when I was able to trace my ancestry back to the early 1600's when our ancestor was granted some land in Massachusetts from the King of England. They were from London! Not a spot of German in us.

 

[leebee]

My sisters-in-law are very into tracing DH's family, but there is lots of confusing stuff there for one reason or another. One night while visiting them, I decided to trace my mom's family back as far as I could. Within several hours, I could trace back 10 generations. I guess it helps to be related to god-fearing, rule-following Yankee stock; lots of marriage licenses, birth/death certificates, deeds, etc. were easily available! After I found the information, my brother, sister, and daughter decided to find the cemeteries where the ancestors are buried. I have a picture of DD standing at the gravesite of an ancestor- she's the 11th generation. It's pretty cool!

 

[jdb in AZ]

I love hearing all your stories! Has anyone been to Salt Lake City UT to do reasearch? I haven't but maybe some day there will be cheap airfare and I'll go! I really wouldn't even know where to begin so I'd have to research that, too.

I really don't know very many people who are working / have worked on genealogy. When I start to tell people I'm working on mine, lots of them say they'd like to do it some day if they find time.

Here's some info on the SLC genealogy library: https://familysearch.org/locations/saltlakecity-library

 

[nighttowll]

I haven't done much myself because we have fairly extensive information on both sides of the family.

My mom's great grandmother wrote a book on the family in the 30s or 40s that tells the history of the family back to Europe and the family heirlooms. There was a lot of interesting information in the book. We found out some of our family were in the Philippians probably in the early to mid 1800s which so explains my little slanty eyes. When I lived in China people thought I was mixed, but we have no official records of anyone with Asian blood in the family, so... My theory is someone brought a souvenir back.

My dad's grandmother also wrote a book on his Mom's side. It isn't as interesting as the other book, but it sure is funny. All that side of the family were farmers, and it reads like lyrics to the song "I Am My Own Grandpa."

My dad's dad's side the family has a very extensive tree back to Europe with some coming to the US before the revolution, others later on, and some distant cousins still in Europe that we keep in contact with. This side of the family was more connected and well off with a few famous people making appearances on the tree including one of the presidents, so records haven't been too hard to find. My dad'd dad is also big into genealogy, so the two of them have worked on fleshing out the tree for years. They have it in an excel spread sheet that goes on forever.

Has anyone been to Salt Lake City UT to do reasearch? I haven't but maybe some day there will be cheap airfare and I'll go!.

My dad just went to try and fill in some of the more obscure cousins. He had luck with some, but not others, but he didn't have much time as he was there on business and was only able to squeeze in a few hours for this. I know he was in genealogy heaven and really wants to go back. It seems like it would be a good place to start if you didn't get too overwhelmed.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

Have you used the website " Find a Grave?"

It's pretty cool. I love that people take pictures of complete strangers grave stones and post them so family members who can't visit in person can still see.

 

[macraven]

i have used that site for years.
it's so very helpful and keeps me from having those long drives to search on my own.

 

[gotomu212]

I've got a few lines going back to the 1600s and found the land grant from King Charles in 1639 that first got us to the US. Through the research I joined the DAR.

My favorite finding from the 1800s was a family with 11 children (all my relatives were very fruitful). 10 of the kids were named common names of the time James, Mary, Elizabeth...then stuck near the end was a Lorenzo. I would have loved to know the story there. I'm picturing a local neighbor that saved someone's life or helped get an ox unstuck from the mud and got a baby named after him.

We also had someone in the 1880s that was widowed, married her dead husbands brother, was widowed again, married the third brother. Had kids with each brother so they are each other's own siblings and cousins. I was so stumped at first when I kept saying wait these kids have different fathers but the same sets of grandparents over and over.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

Did anyone watch Who Do You Think You Are? On Sunday? Courtney Cox was on this time. I really enjoyed seeing the castle. I thought she did a really good job handling the news about her relatives being royal.

The time Brooke Shields was on and they traced her back to royalty.... she acted really uppity after she found out. It was a turn-off for me.

 

[FelisLachesis]

My dad's side of the family has held onto meticulous records for at least a millennium. I don't know if there are any "bends in the fork" as it were, there has to be, but seeing everything laid out like that was quite awe-inspiring.

My mom's side, unfortunately, has been lost into the most politically isolated country in the world. The most I think we have is 5 generations from memory, but it'll be impossible to go any deeper than that.

One thought I love about genealogy, going back 30 generations requires 1,073,741,824 greatx28 grand parents. The world's population in 1000AD was approximately 350-400 million people. Therefore, everyone is related to everyone by about 4 separate links.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I am jealous of your dad's side and their meticulous records! That would be awesome to have. On my one side, we can only go as far as my great grandfather.

Think about this...... we all could be related to someone on the dis board and not even know it!!

 

[Southernmiss]

I have been doing genealogy as long as I can remember for both my families and DH's. I have most of our lines back into the 1700, a few into the early 1600s and on a few I have dead ends in the 1800s- I have a John and a Mary Smith- try getting past them - ha! One interesting line on my side came here as Canadian/French explorers and are 2 of the founding families of my area. I am related to a Pelican Girl and a Fils d' Roi. Those stories are fascinating.

My grandfather's uncle's were horse jockeys in the 20s and 30s. Always wanted him to be one too it he got too tall.

It's fascinating for me. Now I've got my grandmother's 80 plus years of pictures and letters that I never knew existed to sort through. That's been a treasure hunt, but tedious! One of her brothers sent her numerous obituaries of cousins and relatives choc full of family info. We are related to everyone in her home state with her maiden name.

I've done my DNA and DH's. No big surprises there, but did confirm info for me. Hasn't helped make any big discoveries, yet.

 

[monorailsilver]

I would love to do more but time, some travel and money hinder that!

I do have a page set up in ancestry.

My moms side, I can only get to my grandmother, pretty sad! Her parents came over on the boat from Italy but I have no idea what boat. My grandfather I never met-divorce in the 1940s and we never saw him. I do remember when he died because my mother told me but she never saw him either. I have no idea why we didn't have contact with him, sort of taboo to talk of him. But my mother did tell me that his mother, her grandmother was mean, Italian mean! I have her maiden name and I don't know when she and her husband, my great grandfather came over from Italy.

My dads side, my grandmother, I have no history other then her name. I recently found out (past 5-10 yrs) that she and my grandfather got married because my dad was starting to cook in the oven, must of been some kind of turmoil in 1937/1938! They got divorced though. I do have my grandmothers maiden name but she died when I was in 3rd grade so I didn't know to aks much about her family. My dad before he died found his step/half aunt. He was going door to door for his political party and rang the bell of someone who happened to live one house over the town line and he never knew the lady but it was his aunt/step/half. She knew because of his last name. My grandfather, I never met (I never knew grandfathers existed in peoples lives), he died the year before I was born, ok 10 months before I was born. My birthday is the day after his. His family is a little easier. But I can only go back to the late 1800s on his grandmothers side. His grandfather, forget it, I am stuck in vermont! I am pretty sure his grandfather came from Canada and I knew/know his grandmothers family came from Canada/French Canadians. About 6 months ago, a hint came across on ancestry and because I am not a paid member I couldn't contact the person with the correct info. But I was able to contact him thru ancestrys message board and VI's a message. He emailed me and come to find out his father and my great grandmother were cousins. He linked me to his info (the amount of kids/cousins in this one generation) and he traced back to 1798/1800 Canadian French grandparents. My dads cousin also did genealogy but has not shared his info with me and he did confirm that guy is our cousin.

My DHs side I have looked. He has some stuff traced back to the 1800s, possibly 1700s in Germany on his dads side. But there is a connecting piece missing between his grand/great grandparents and 50-100 years. His grandmother was a Boone, as in Daniel Boone. I believe Daniel would of been an uncle/great how ever many times uncle but I am not sure which sibling is my DHs grandfather/great. His mothers side I have not looked into much.

 

[msjprincess]

I was able to go back to the 1300s in Italy with a few lines. I have a cousin who is really into genealogy I think he found records back to 1100 or so.

 

[Prose]

I've traced back to the 1500s/1400s on some lines using Ancestry.com, although when it gets back that far it gets kind of dodgy as to whether the info is accurate. Got a few 'Exchequer of London' type folks on one side, and the actual Hatfields of the feud on the other.

If you visit Ellis Island, they have a service where they will help you look up immigrant ancestors, what ship they were on, what port they left from, etc. I tried, but all of my folks came over too early around the Virginia Colony time period. It did help my husband in his search a bit.