# Ancestry results



## GypsyRoadLady (Sep 27, 2017)

I spent  just a short time with Ancestry.com a week of pure fun and hunting. I understand how it can become a full time hobby. I found so many interesting facts and people that I so wish I could have shared with Mom, who knew little other than stories of her parents. She was told  her father was on the Orphan Train, I found parents. Dad on the other hand did not believe any of the relations I was able to find. I mean he had been told his father was an orphan. That was all he needed.

Ater a week of searching and reading and looking at stones and pictures I got sad. I realized dah they all died and most were younger the farther back I went. Most had lots of births. Many had lost spouses and remarried of course. The really only good thing was I found my great grandmother's home and binged it. Then when I was visiting dad I drove that road and saw the house, long time expanded and remodeled over the 100 plus years. I thought of the fact the owners had no idea that many kids had been born there and a man from Germany had built the original tiny home from his own hands. Worst was I binged my Mom's parents home from when she was baby in Flint. Oh how sad to to the small city home now.

I closed the account and never to look back. Did you enjoy the history of your relations if you did this?


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## ossian (Sep 27, 2017)

I spent quite a lot of time doing this a few years back. I did not use Ancestry.com but used the Scottish archives which holds all records of births, deaths, marriages, etc. They charge, just as any other ancestry resource, and it was becoming quite expensive to research the further back I went.

I did not get too far back and did not learn a great deal about my family that I did not already know. I did pin down that most of me came from Ireland in the mid-19th century, but then so did many others in the west of Scotland at that time! I really would have liked to have gone further but the number of blind searches were becoming more than the positive results and that was when the cost started to spiral, so I stopped. I found that you need to commit - time and money - to pursue this or you forget the thread of your searches. That really is when you start to lose money on wasted searches.

One interesting thing that I did discover was that the spelling of my surname changed during my grandfather's lifetime. I have no idea if this was deliberate or accidental.


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## Ken N Tx (Sep 27, 2017)

I did my Father's side..Got back as far as 1770 when I discovered allot of misinformation on births..GGGGGranmother supposably had 13 children!!! Some after her husband died and some when she was in her 40's!!!!


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## tnthomas (Sep 27, 2017)

I spent 3 years with the genealogy search back in the late '90s, accumulated a lot of books and print material.

In 1999 I spent a week in NC & SC visiting relatives(mother's side) that I hadn't seen in 30+ years.   Really hit the jackpot, in terms of gaining family history information.

I still search online from time to time, to try to fill in some of the gaps.


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## GypsyRoadLady (Sep 27, 2017)

Oh yes the name changes as mentioned. The German original name was changed a few times. So really who are we!


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## Meanderer (Sep 27, 2017)

Ahhhh.... if only we were able to research our future!


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## Happyflowerlady (Sep 13, 2019)

Because I really did not know a lot about my family history, beyond the fact that my maternal grandmother was German, and my grandfather was raised by a German family, my daughter became interested in finding out more, and developed an account on Ancestry. Later, she thought it would be good to have DNA testing done, and we did that, too. 
We used ancestry as well as 23&me for the DNA tests. 
Both seem to feature different benefits. With ancestry, they have a huge database of people, so once you put in your closest relatives, then usually ancestry has information about older ancestors, because other people have been researching the same family line. 
With 23&me, they basically focus on people who are living right now, so you can find people that you are related to that you might never have found otherwise. 
My daughter found relatives from her dad’s side of the family who we didn’t know existed, and they were able to share old family photographs with each other. 
I have the cheapest ancestry membership, and I enjoy spending time there and searching for more information about my family, and I have really wished that I could go back in time to when my mom and dad were still alive and ask them some of the questions that I didn’t know to ask back then.


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## 911 (Sep 13, 2019)

My cousin has been doing genealogy for years and years. Every so often he will call me and ask if I knew this person or that person and other worthless questions. I tolerate him asking these questions, but I have zero interest in any of it. Even at weddings or funerals, he will start up and I will tell him, "Now is not the time or place."


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## Sassycakes (Sep 13, 2019)

*I find ancestry is very interesting. My cousin on my Dad's side did research on the families history and sent me pages and pages of what he found. Another member of my Husbands side of the family did all their research and sent us the info. I just wish someone would do my Mom's family ancestry but so far no one has done it. I don't have the patience to do it but I wish someone would. I would be really interested.*


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## jujube (Sep 13, 2019)

I started on the genealogical path some years ago and after a while hit a brick wall.  BAM! Dead end.  I even went to Salt Lake City to visit the Mormon genealogy center there.  That helped a bit.  Then, through a series of serendipitous events, I connected with a third cousin whose entire life is genealogy.  He set me on the right trail.

Found out that the reason I hit the brick wall was because the family, somewhere between 1895-1905 ALL changed their last name and scattered to the winds.  Nobody, including him, has any idea why.  

On the other hand, the gene testing shows I'm part Bangladeshi.  Bangladeshi. WTF?  There is nothing in my knowledge that would explain that.  I guess that explains why I love Indian food and dancing and Bollywood movies so much.


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## Llynn (Sep 13, 2019)

My Family Tree results were nothing like family lore indicated.  Quite a surprise to  have to accept a totally unexpected pedigree this late in life.


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## Ken N Tx (Sep 13, 2019)

Llynn said:


> My Family Tree results were nothing like family lore indicated.  Quite a surprise to  have to accept a totally unexpected pedigree this late in life.


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## 911 (Sep 13, 2019)

Sassycakes said:


> *I find ancestry is very interesting. My cousin on my Dad's side did research on the families history and sent me pages and pages of what he found. Another member of my Husbands side of the family did all their research and sent us the info. I just wish someone would do my Mom's family ancestry but so far no one has done it. I don't have the patience to do it but I wish someone would. I would be really interested.*



My cousin got hold of my fax number and began starting to send me pages and pages of what I call worthless information. He was sending me so many papers that I kept running out of paper and toner. I had to close my fax line for a few months and lie to him that I took the fax out. I had the fax number changed at an additional cost (no one does anything for free like back in the day) and never gave it to anyone in the family for fear that someone may give it to him.


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## Sassycakes (Sep 13, 2019)

911 said:


> My cousin got hold of my fax number and began starting to send me pages and pages of what I call worthless information. He was sending me so many papers that I kept running out of paper and toner. I had to close my fax line for a few months and lie to him that I took the fax out. I had the fax number changed at an additional cost (no one does anything for free like back in the day) and never gave it to anyone in the family for fear that someone may give it to him.



*I was lucky that the 2 people that did all the research sent them to me by mail. One of them were so interested  that they drew pictures of charts showing a lot of info on each member of the family. I have hundreds and hundreds of pages.*


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## Olivia (Sep 13, 2019)

I was very disappointed with Ancestry. com. I think it's mostly for ancestors who came over on the Mayflower--kidding but think that's mostly true. I got my true results (at least I think it's true) and I say don't do that unless you're ready for truth,

I have gotten very much good results on another genealogy site about the last two (Or three?) generations about what happened to my three great uncles--died in concentration camps. A great help from that sites's assistant from Israel.

And then DNA results. Don't do that unless you're willing to accept the results. I did and I accept them. It was from 23and Me.
I might decide to do that with another DNA site to verify it.  I'm 71 and what is, is. I accept it.


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## AnnieA (Sep 13, 2019)

Have to remember that online genealogy sites like Ancestry consists of user generated content and much of it is wrong.  Look for entries that have documentation (census, wills etc) to back up the claims.   Without a paper trail or direct lineage DNA proof such as y-DNA, you can't claim the connection.  Because of this, I have two trees at Ancestry.  The first is my experimental tree that my DNA is connected to so I can explore how I might connect with matches.  I put 'experimental' in the tree title so hopefully others won't use it as a reliable source.  The other is my tree that has firm documentation.


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## AnnieA (Sep 13, 2019)

Llynn said:


> My Family Tree results were nothing like family lore indicated.  Quite a surprise to  have to accept a totally unexpected pedigree this late in life.



Same here.  Both sides of my family claim to be part Irish and Native American and we're neither.   When the Ulster Scots came into this part of the country they called themselves Irish.  It wasn't until the true Irish immigrants began arriving due to the 1840s famine that people started differentiating the two groups with the term Scotch-Irish which is what a lot of my lineage is according to DNA and surnames I'm finding further back. Since the great aunts and uncles that told me we were Irish didn't do formal genealogy, they didn't realize the difference. DNA from several companies also show a good bit comes from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as well as the eastern coast of England; I can trace several of those lines with a firm paper trail thanks to wonderful researchers before me. Because both those areas were invaded by Vikings, my DNA further back shows a lot of Scandinavian.

The Indian (have learned through all this that that's their preferred term rather than the PC Native American) lore comes from falsified Dawes Commission claims from the late 1800s.  People who could prove they were of Choctaw descent qualified for land allotments in Mississippi, and ancestors in several of my lines falsely tried to claim it.   Though the claims were rejected, the lore persisted until DNA disproved it.


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## norman (Sep 13, 2019)

GypsyRoadLady said:


> Oh yes the name changes as mentioned. The German original name was changed a few times. So really who are we!


I found that to be interesting and true.  My mums dad had their family name changed to German and they were in Austria in the 1800 or so.


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## Trade (Sep 14, 2019)

Mine came back exactly as expected. I'm half Polish and half Dutch. 

The farthest I can trace my ancestry is to my grandparents. Both sides of my family came over "on the boat" through Ellis Island in the early 1900's. Which is fine with me. I would not want to be related to any of those slave owning, Indian murderers that came over before that.


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## wvnewbie (Sep 14, 2019)

Good friend discovered his father was a bigamist!  He has another whole set of half-siblings now.  THEN!  He discovered his Grandfather was a bank robber Out West which he thought was cool.


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## Ken N Tx (Sep 15, 2019)

wvnewbie said:


> Good friend discovered his father was a bigamist!  He has another whole set of half-siblings now.  THEN!  He discovered his Grandfather was a bank robber Out West which he thought was cool.


I found out my Great Grandfather survived the Civil War, if he had not, our blood line would have ended there!!


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## Patio Life (Sep 15, 2019)

My brother has a Masters in History, he loves genealogy. Many years ago he did a family tree of our mom's side with hundreds of pages, all documented. It's great that he did it. I would not have had the time or interest.


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## StarSong (Sep 15, 2019)

Got some startling results on mine.  Let's just say that not all the grandpas listed in the family Bible are the bio grandpas.


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## fuzzybuddy (Sep 19, 2019)

At times, I'd like to research my ancestry. But I'm not sure about those ancestry sites. Are they really worth the money? One common complaint I have gotten about them was how inaccurate they were. You could not take anything there as a given. You had to do your own research to ensure it was a fact. The other concern I have is the information about yourself  and your kin, which you put on the net. I just had a scam where my SS checks were rerouted to some unknown address.  And I'm paranoid about my DNA being screened for criminal activity. In some areas, a 80% match in DNA is considered a legal match. I'd like to find out about my parents & grandparents, yet I'm fearful of opening a legal can of worms. I don't want a cop banging on my door, saying he's 80% sure I raped someone.


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## AnnieA (Sep 19, 2019)

StarSong said:


> Got some startling results on mine.  Let's just say that not all the grandpas listed in the family Bible are the bio grandpas.



That's called a NPE (non paternal event) in genealogical parlance.  I kid you not.  I can hardly say it with a straight face at genealogy conferences ...'cause there was most definitely a paternal event, just not with the fellow in the family tree.  I call it a paternal line break.


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## Cindi Rose Bliss (Sep 19, 2019)

I've been a family genealogist since I was 15, when my grandmother first introduced me to family history, so I've been tracing my family for 53 years. I use Ancestry every day. It's a fascinating hobby.


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## Cindi Rose Bliss (Sep 19, 2019)

fuzzybuddy said:


> At times, I'd like to research my ancestry. But I'm not sure about those ancestry sites. Are they really worth the money? One common complaint I have gotten about them was how inaccurate they were. You could not take anything there as a given. You had to do your own research to ensure it was a fact. The other concern I have is the information about yourself  and your kin, which you put on the net. I just had a scam where my SS checks were rerouted to some unknown address.  And I'm paranoid about my DNA being screened for criminal activity. In some areas, a 80% match in DNA is considered a legal match. I'd like to find out about my parents & grandparents, yet I'm fearful of opening a legal can of worms. I don't want a cop banging on my door, saying he's 80% sure I raped someone.



It has been worth it for me. And no, you are right, you can't just take what you find on Ancestry (or any other site) as being accurate, that's why you have to do your own research. 

Everything that is found on Ancestry is also found on public records and available for anyone who wants to take the time to get it.


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## Olivia (Sep 19, 2019)

Cindi Rose Bliss said:


> Everything that is found on Ancestry is also found on public records and available for anyone who wants to take the time to get it.



Yes, if your ancestry are family from the U.S. Not good for anywhere else. Try finding public records from other countries. I had no help whatsoever from Ancestry.com and their people/staff whatever.


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## Cindi Rose Bliss (Sep 19, 2019)

Olivia said:


> Yes, if your ancestry are family from the U.S. Not good for anywhere else. Try finding public records from other countries. I had no help whatsoever from Ancestry.com and their people/staff whatever.



Actually, I've found documents from many other countries; Germany, The Netherlands, England, and others. What kind of help were you looking for?

I think a lot of people misunderstand the purpose of Ancestry. They are there to offer documents that in the past we either had to crawl through dusty libraries and court houses to find, or had to write letters (and include money) to court houses and hope that some over worked law clerk with take the time find the document we wanted. Sometimes they would and could, other times nothing happened. Getting documents from other countries was even harder unless you understood the language and the system of each country.

Ancestry is constantly digitizing more and more records all the time, but there are still millions that need to be done. I don't know about you, but I don't have the means to travel all of the world to do this kind of research, so I more than appreciate that Ancestry provides them for me so that I can do the research in the comfort of my home.


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## Olivia (Sep 19, 2019)

I had Zero help from Ancestry.com and a ton of help from the other site I used. That's all I'm saying. You  don't have to believe me. I know what I experienced. I found it by accident by putting my grandmother's name on Google, of all things. And Ancestry.com couldn't even do that. Well, fine. Whatever works for you or anyone else.


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## Cindi Rose Bliss (Sep 19, 2019)

Olivia said:


> I had Zero help from Ancestry.com and a ton of help from the other site I used. That's all I'm saying. You  don't have to believe me. I know what I experienced. I found it by accident by putting my grandmother's name on Google, of all things. And Ancestry.com couldn't even do that. Well, fine. Whatever works for you or anyone else.


What kind of help were you asking for?


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## Olivia (Sep 19, 2019)

How would I know what to ask? There was no way to connect with anyone. Okay fine. It's great for a lot of people including yourself. So, it wasn't for me. I'm telling you my experience. If you think I should have done better and it's my fault, then okay. I found out about my family in Austria from a site assistant from Israel that other site.  Maybe he was just more interested in that part of the world's population. Who knows. I plugged in a name on Ancestry.com and zero, nothing. No concern no help--zilch. And that was supposed to be a free introduction supposed to end at a certain date. And they charged me anyway. Can you tell I'm not a fan?


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## Cindi Rose Bliss (Sep 20, 2019)

Olivia said:


> How would I know what to ask? There was no way to connect with anyone. Okay fine. It's great for a lot of people including yourself. So, it wasn't for me. I'm telling you my experience. If you think I should have done better and it's my fault, then okay. I found out about my family in Austria from a site assistant from Israel that other site.  Maybe he was just more interested in that part of the world's population. Who knows. I plugged in a name on Ancestry.com and zero, nothing. No concern no help--zilch. And that was supposed to be a free introduction supposed to end at a certain date. And they charged me anyway. Can you tell I'm not a fan?


Okay, that's what I was trying to understand. All Ancestry does is provide the data. But it sounded like you needed someone who would help guide you find the information you were looking for, and unfortunately, that's not part of their program. They charged you for looking at the data, and that's all. If you had written to a library or courthouse, you would have been required to pay for that too, even if they didn't find anything.

I don't think it's your fault at all... it's just you didn't seem to understand how it all worked. On the other site, they provided genealogists to help you find what you were looking for. That is not part of Ancestry's focus. And yes, you are right, Ancestry really is set up for the researchers to search the records and it doesn't sound like that' what you wanted or needed. 

In all fairness, though, plugging a name on Ancestry isn't a guarantee that you will find the information you want. It's just a tool to be used to help with the research. Even if a name did come up, it would only show you the tiny bit of information attached to the document that the name appeared. 

I know some people think that Ancestry has their family tree already compiled and are upset to learn that's not the case. I'm not saying that's what you did, but some do.


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## Olivia (Sep 20, 2019)

Cindi Rose Bliss said:


> I know some people think that Ancestry has their family tree already compiled and are upset to learn that's not the case. I'm not saying that's what you did, but some do.



You're right, that wasn't me. Do you work for Ancestry.com or something?  Why should my description of my experience bother you so much? People out there. Research that sites you use. Google them for opinions.


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## Cindi Rose Bliss (Sep 20, 2019)

Olivia said:


> You're right, that wasn't me. Do you work for Ancestry.com or something?  Why should my description of my experience bother you so much? People out there. Research that sites you use. Google them for opinions.


No, I don't work for Ancestry. I have been doing genealogy for over 50 years and I just hate to see someone have a bad experience with it.


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## Olivia (Sep 20, 2019)

You just kept saying Ancestry, Ancestry, Ancestry. I told you that I had a good experience with another gemology site.  But you Just kept on with about Ancestry (with a capital A). So I could only surmise that you were advocating for Ancestry.,com. I DID NOT have bad experience with genealogy, You keep saying I did. I didn't. Only with Ancestry.com.


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## StarSong (Sep 20, 2019)

AnnieA said:


> That's called a NPE (non paternal event) in genealogical parlance.  I kid you not.  I can hardly say it with a straight face at genealogy conferences ...'cause there was most definitely a paternal event, just not with the fellow in the family tree.  I call it a paternal line break.


LOL, Annie!  I love it!!! 
When I see all those folks carefully constructing their genealogy all the way back to the Mayflower or some such, I cannot help but snigger up my sleeve because of the great likelihood of a non paternal or other tainting event occurring sometime over the past 500 years. Human nature being what it is.


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## Gary O' (Sep 20, 2019)

StarSong said:


> I cannot help but snigger up my sleeve because of the great likelihood of a non paternal or other tainting event occurring sometime over the past 600 years


My ancestors have tried really really hard to erase most everything.
I mean, hey, we're Irish


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## AnnieA (Sep 20, 2019)

Olivia said:


> I have gotten very much good results on another genealogy site about the last two (Or three?) generations about what happened to my three great uncles--died in concentration camps. A great help from that sites's assistant from Israel.



What site do you use?   I'm on ancestry, but use a lot of others as as well and am always interested in checking out another.


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