How far back can you honestly trace your ancestry?

Answer 1

1645, and 1580 on mums side.

Answer 2

You as in me, individually? 1630

You, plural, as in people in general? Are you asking us Europeans? It is possible, with many decades of hard work and a bit of luck for Europeans to trace their ancestry back to the Renaissance.

For Asians, Africans, and Native Americans, the situation is very different.

Answer 3

My maternal ancestors arrived in the Americas from the British Isles in the 17th and 18th centuries, before that the record is obscure. Some of my mother's ancestors married Cherokee women and they of course go back about 12000 years.

My paternal grandfather's ancestors arrived in the Americas from Spain in the 16th century and I believe they migrated northward into New Mexico in the 19th or early 20th century. Some of them were Yaqui Indians who again go back several thousand years. My paternal grandmother's family left the Philippines during the American occupation sometime after the Spanish-American War but before the US entered World War One.

Answer 4

1100's on my father's side. It is not too difficult if your family name is different I mean if your not a Smith or Jones. A lot of European countries (the church) kept good birth records. If by chance you are descended from some part of a the royal family or from nobility it becomes even easier. You might look for a county, village or parish with your last name or a derivation. You might get lucky!

Answer 5

With the research of the Catherine de Baillon Research Project, I have one maternal line back 3 generations before Charlemagne. But it was just luck that they were doing their research when I was working the Ducharme tree.

Without the de Baillon project, I can go to 1142 in the Netherlands with archived land and estate records.

Answer 6

"Honestly"?
Well, nobody really can trace their ancestry back past their mother!
The new DNA tests can provide some link to a male line, but not actual proof it was 'your father' and not your "Uncle Bill" who sired you!!

But my family on the paternal side (if no little 'bastards' snuck in over the years) settled in England from France in 1241!

Answer 7

My mum's cousin has traced their side back to 1615 in Angus in Scotland!

I'm dead impressed as the work we've been doing on another branch we've only been able get back to 1765!!

Helen.

Answer 8

One Jamestown ancestor who came over in 1608 on my mother's side and one Virginia ancestor that was born there in the mid 1600s on my father's side.

Answer 9

I've gotten a few generations back, but its really hard to find anything once I hit Europe.

Answer 10

Sometime in the Middle Ages in Britain, I believe.


amadeus