Do you know a lot about your family's origin?

Question

I'm lucky enough to have a history buff great-uncle who wrote a sort of book about one side of my family. He managed to trace part of my family back to records from Halifax Parish, Yorkshire, England in 1611. I have no idea how he managed to do this. It tells about attacks by Native Americans and stuff later in the colonies. How do people find this stuff out? I'm impressed.

I know hardly anything about my mother's side of the family other than the fact that my grandfather constantly tells me I'm somehow related to Judy Garland (her real name gives it away and I have older relatives who looked like her and it's scary.) They also tell me that they are mostly German.

Do you know a lot about your family? Do you care? If you do know, what's the earliest you can trace? Things like this really interest me.

Answer 1

Hey Steph,

That is a well framed question. All families trace back in powers of 2 for each generation. Two parents, 4 grand, 8 1st great, 16 2nd great, 32 3rd great, 64...128, 256, 512, 1024... So, it is extremely difficult to know a lot. But I do know at least 8 lines that go back to the days of the Mayflower, and 4 lines that go back to 1200 ad. One line was documented in an 8 inch thick 2 volume set of books by someone else.

After you go back 6 or 7 generations there are literally millions of people that descend. So, there are a lot of people interested in the same ancestry you are. Find them!

I can trace back to Charlemagne, and because his history and genealogy can go back to Cleopatra, so can I.

We all descend from people of that time, it is finding the proof that is difficult. One of my Uncles did a DNA test, so I could prove that I was related to that line. The key is to document your most recent ancestors extremely well. Then you will be able to hook in to other peoples research.

A good example is that the Mayflower society has 5 generations from landing. So, if you can go back 6 to 8 generations, chances are you can use their resources.

Finally, I do care - I don't know what drives that care, but I do. I am documenting for all my relatives to pass on this information.

Answer 2

I can trace my mother's side of the family back to southern England from the 13th Century onward. They're an interesting group - businessmen and farmers. My favorite distant cousin was Wallis Warfield Simpson for whom the King of England abdicated.

I too have an Uncle wrote a book about our family - it was his doctoral thesis of all things. His book is fairly dry and basically straight genealogy.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who's interested in this sort of thing.

Answer 3

I can trace as far back as the late 1700s and early 1800s on my mother and father side respectively.

I take this information quite serious since, even to this day, the question of maintaining land ownership and inheritance remains a big factor in our history.

If you know anything about the historical importance of the Gullah-Geeche communities along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, then you can probably relate to how critical it is to maintain such a heritage.

I encourage any and everybody to research and trace their familial roots. :-)

Answer 4

I really don't know much about my family's origins. Only one of my grandparents was born in the U.S. The others came from Russia. My dad, who's now 91, visited Russia a number of years ago and tried to go to the town where his mother came from, but was unable to get there. Also, records would have been difficult to find since they were so old.

My cousin started researching genealogy online. She made copies and sent me the manifest of the ship my father's family came to the U.S on from Russia.

I do care about this, more now since I am getting older. I am writing my "life story" for my 2 children, and want as much information on our family as possible to include in my life story.

Not too many relatives on my mother's side are alive (she isn't) and can help me.

Ancestry.com sells subscriptions for $29.95 a month, I've read. There is also a site called HeritageQuest. Ancestry.com's database ends at 1930 .

Some other sites my cousin mentioned are: rootsweb.com; familysearch.org.; ellisisland.org. and USgenweb.com.

Answer 5

My wife and I have discovered quite a bit about our ancestors, in some cases tracing them back for hundreds of years. Most of my relatives came to the United States long before we were independent of Great Britain. In fact, one of my ancestors was Edward Doty, who was a passenger on the Mayflower in 1620 when it sailed to what would become Massachusetts from England. I am related to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Therefore, I have relatives on currency of both Canada (and many other British protectorates) and the United States. There are many other fascinating stories, and I have taken great pleasure in writing and speaking about my family's history in recent years. I wish you the best of luck in researching your own roots. May God bless and keep you.

Answer 6

Well I know the towns both side of the family come from but my tribe the Urohobo is still not in the clear from the orgin whuich is from the Benin kingdom which is from the Yoruba tribe. The only person that could have known is my great grand ma and she died when I was 7

Answer 7

I have been told all my life that I am directly related to Davey Crockett on my mother's mother's side. Then my uncle researched my mom's dad's side, and traced back to Thomas Jefferson. That was exciting enough, but he didn't stop there and was able to go all the way back to William Wallace. (Braveheart) Now, that's cool!

Answer 8

my family history is very confusing.I can't narrate it here.yes but I know some of it.