# Family history



## justfred (Mar 30, 2016)

Has anyone traced their family History? I have spent just over thirty years tracing my 'tree' and have gone back as far as 1445. There are 'roll' records going back to 1200 but I have not got back that far.
I have been very fortunate in that from that date my forefathers have lived within a fifty mile radius of where I am living now and that from that date they have always been connected with the land, Farmers or farm workers.
It is a hobby well worth taking on as one thing is certain you will come across some very surprising facts as I have done but it will take an awful lot of time pouring over Church and parish records as well as old documents but it is worth it.


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## Ameriscot (Mar 30, 2016)

I have with the help of various cousins.  Back as far as early 1700's on one branch. Very interesting stuff when you can find more than just dates.


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## Ameriscot (Mar 30, 2016)

Fred, looks like it's much easier for most who live in the UK.  Very difficult for American 'mutts' like me.  

My Scottish husband knows he's Scottish and Irish with some Viking/Norweigan(?).


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## jujube (Mar 30, 2016)

I got very involved in genealogy a few years back and with the help of a new-found cousin who is the family genealogist, I've solved several "mysteries" about my family; there are several to go, though.  I got a lot of help through the Mormon genealogy service, too.


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## justfred (Mar 30, 2016)

Yes, some very interesting facts can be brought to light. I discovered that during the English Civil War my ancestors were staunch Royalists. One of them was secretary to Prince Rupert of the Rhine. At that time they were large land owners but dear Ollie confiscated all their land and shared it among his  supporters. When it was returned to them they could not afford the upkeep so  sold it.
I often think What if?


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## Ken N Tx (Mar 31, 2016)

I have a very common surname and had a little difficulty until I found a short history done by a previous relative. I had to research some that they did not find (internet now) and add to theirs.

I have visited the cemetery of 3 generations back and would love to have some answers of how they decided to settle there..Leaving homes and land they had back in upstate New York!! I also got pictures of grave markers of the ancestors buried in upstate NY and would love to visit them also.

I got as far back as the 1700's and then hit a brick wall as to where they migrated from!!


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## tnthomas (Mar 31, 2016)

I was single[again] for a number of years, so I occupied myself with genealogical research.  There was good documentation for my paternal grandmother's line, back to the original immigrant from Palatinate, Germany.   But, my father's line[hence, my surname] was not clear, and so became the original subject of my search.   In genealogy, it's all about documentation- so, if you don't have records supporting potential generational lines of progression...you don't have squat.    I always thought my surname lineage was German, because[especially in 18th,19th centuries] people of like ethnic origin tended to live,work and marry in close geographic proximity, and the census records of where my ancestors were settled indicated a heavy German concentration.   However, there were individuals in the same area that may have come from a Welsh settlement in Maryland. I would like to discover[once and for all] the connection at least back to the original immigrant carrying my surname.
My mother's side[both maternal+paternal] were well documented back to the 1500's, were Swiss --> Germans, two families that came to America in the early 1800s.

If any of ya'all have some Rüdisühli ancestry at all, then we are kinfolk, guaranteed.


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## Pandee (Apr 28, 2016)

My husband and I are both avid genealogists. He has his back in 1500 England, my oldest line goes back to William the Conquer. We always try to incorporate some family research into our vacations.......and our hobby, photographing cemeteries.


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## Shalimar (Apr 28, 2016)

Some of my relatives arrived in New Brunswick, from Scotland, in 1790. They were four brothers, shipbuilders to the king. One of them, Kilfeather, walked into the bush one day, and disappeared


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## NancyNGA (Apr 28, 2016)

On my dad's side of the family, no one can trace back farther than two brothers in the early 1800's.  We suspect they may have been fugitives from justice.  :joke:


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## Guitarist (Apr 28, 2016)

jujube said:


> I got very involved in genealogy a few years back and with the help of a new-found cousin who is the family genealogist, I've solved several "mysteries" about my family; there are several to go, though.  I got a lot of help through the Mormon genealogy service, too.



I would take a lot of that Mormon stuff with a huge grain of salt, jujube.  I have found some "info" about my grandmother and her sister that had them married to each other's husbands!  The two sisters married two brothers; the Mormons got the names mixed up.  

Ameriscot is right -- it is harder for us Americans to trace things because there are no parishes here in the sense of a C of E parish (or a Church of Scotland one?).  Courthouse records are great, if you have the wherewithal to travel a long distance to the right courthouse, and that's if the courthouse didn't burn down at some point and all its records destroyed.  

I had a great time in two courthouses on opposite sides of Georgia nearly 20 years ago looking up records for my father's family, and even exploring one cemetery, but haven't been able to travel to Michigan to look up my mother's maternal ancestors.  I'm glad two of her sisters did a lot of the work, long before the Internet, and that my cousin sent me copies of all their work.  And I have one family Bible that has birth records for one great-grandmother's family.  

I've also met some distant cousins on ancestry.com but the problem with that site is that a lot of people "researching" their genealogy have no idea how to cite sources or confirm them so you can't rely on what they tell you about a common ancestor.  

I've got the Michigan branch for the one generation anyway, to go farther back I'd have to go to the Netherlands.


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## Guitarist (Apr 28, 2016)

NancyNGA said:


> On my dad's side of the family, no one can trace back farther than two brothers in the early 1800's.  We suspect they may have been fugitives from justice.  :joke:



I found the obituary for my great-great-grandfather who "came from South Carolina to Georgia," but the SC courthouse that would have had any records of him or his parentage burned down in the 19th century so I can't trace farther back than his birth ca 1802.

In that way I envy a friend whose parents were born in the same small NC town, whose parents were all born in the same county, and whose ancestors for maybe 100 years back are all buried in the same cemetery.  But my friend is not remotely interested in drawing up his family tree!  I would love to drag him to NC and do it myself, just for the pleasure of the research.


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## Pandee (Apr 28, 2016)

I am in Michigan . What area is your family located in ? You are right about Ancestry. We keep our trees private since people seem to not care about being accurate, they just copy what they see in another tree, and when you tell them they have the wrong people, they just ignore.


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## Ameriscot (Apr 28, 2016)

Pandee said:


> I am in Michigan . What area is your family located in ? You are right about Ancestry. We keep our trees private since people seem to not care about being accurate, they just copy what they see in another tree, and when you tell them they have the wrong people, they just ignore.



My Michigan ancestors go back to about 1855 from Ireland via NY.  They had a farm in Washtenaw County.


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## Lon (Apr 28, 2016)

Thanks to my daughters 30 year interest in Genealogy I should have confirmation this year as to my eligibility for the MAYFLOWER SOCIETY.  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mayflower_Society


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## ossian (Apr 28, 2016)

I did try and spent a fair amount of time on it. And money. However, I did not get very far and got stuck at the mid-19th century. I could not justify further expense as it was becoming a bit like a gambling habit.  I had an added complication that a lot of my family immigrated here from Ireland in the 1850s and I could not even get a start on where they had lived in Ireland. One interesting thing that I did discover tho was that the spelling of my surname changed during the 19th century. None of the family were aware of this.


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## Ruthanne (Apr 30, 2016)

My brother is the family genealogist.  Our family is from Eastern Europe.  He has done a lot of work tracing out roots.


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## Wrigley's (Apr 30, 2016)

Ameriscot said:


> Fred, looks like it's much easier for most who live in the UK.  Very difficult for American 'mutts' like me.
> 
> My Scottish husband knows he's Scottish and Irish with some Viking/Norweigan(?).



That's very true, Annie. America has plenty of records, but not a long history compared to most other countries. That means we have to travel to last known places, or pay for those records or to have our genealogy done. Like your husband, I've been told I'm Irish and Scottish, as well as "Norseman", and my maternal grandmother was Portuguese. What I'd really like to know is do my Irish roots go back farther than the Scottish roots. Apparently, Scot-Irish is a very murky history.


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## Ameriscot (Apr 30, 2016)

Wrigley's said:


> That's very true, Annie. America has plenty of records, but not a long history compared to most other countries. That means we have to travel to last known places, or pay for those records or to have our genealogy done. Like your husband, I've been told I'm Irish and Scottish, as well as "Norseman", and my maternal grandmother was Portuguese. What I'd really like to know is do my Irish roots go back farther than the Scottish roots. Apparently, Scot-Irish is a very murky history.



Scots-Irish means the protestant Scots who went to Ulster in Ireland. 

My husband's (our) surname is Irish because his grandather came from Ireland and married a highland Scottish woman.  His mother's maiden name is Irish but that is from a couple more generations back. 

I'm a true mutt - Irish, English. Welsh, Scots, German.

Except for native Americans the country's history is shorter than any other country as far as I know.


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## Myquest55 (May 9, 2016)

My father's family didn't have much information beyond their grandparents names.  His heritage is Frisian and Dutch.  I spent time in the Netherlands (1970s) and he visited the town his father said he was from (1980s) but neither one of us had any luck.  When the internet began and Ancestry was young, I posted some queries and someone in Friesland answered me.  She didn't find anything in the town either but went to the county seat and actually looked them up.  Once I had that information, I got busy with other things and set it aside.  Some years later, I got the bug and started to search again.  I had links to the national Dutch database and quickly became obsessed!!  I started to find names and dates that fit and would often be up in the middle of the night trying to figure out which spelling might have been used.  It took months to find my grandmother's father but one afternoon I just kept entering various spellings and all of a sudden he was THERE!  It all fell into place and I have a very comprehensive tree.  My father and his sister were delighted - they had NO IDEA!

Now, for my mother's German side, I don't have as much.  We can trace them back to Germany but it all stops there.  I'm not sure there is a German database and I have no idea what towns they were from, in some cases.  May just have to be content with that but it can be such an obsession.  It is such a rush to finally find the guy/gal you have spent hours searching for!!!  

I put it altogether in a binder for my father's family but need to spend time doing the rest and coming up with something for my son's to have.  Has anyone had a large family tree printed out or written out?  Did you frame it or put it all in a book??  My father submitted his DNA to the National Geographic "Genographic Project."  For ancient migration patterns it was interesting but not particularly illuminating.  I have heard from a genealogist that the Ancestry DNA labs are the most accurate.  Anyone else try that??


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