# Family Heritage - Genealogy



## Gardenlover (Jan 30, 2020)

The older I get, the more interested I've become in history, both the world's and my own. I truly wish I would have had the insight to talk about family history with my elders before they passed.

I've been able to trace my family back to the mid 1500's, but still have a box full of family photos I have no idea of who they are.

My ancestors came from England, Wales, Germany, Norway, Ireland and Scotland.

How about you?


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## TravelinMan (Jan 30, 2020)

_I just had my DNA tested by 23andMe and it pretty much told me what my parents said.  I'm 75% Scandinavian (Danish, Swedish and Norwegian), 12% English and/or Scottish and about 8% possible German.  The Vikings were _*very*_ active folks!_

_I've also traced my family tree through Family Search.com and found that, on my mothers side, it goes back to the 17th century (Danish).

Doing those things does make me wish I had paid more attention to my family history and family photographs.  But what I have learned has been very satisfying. 

..._


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## Aunt Bea (Jan 30, 2020)

I have documentation on both sides of my family from the early 1600s, who knows if it's accurate but it is interesting to me.  I'm mainly interested in the little stories, adventures, and scandals of my ancestor's lives.

I also have a box of old photos and some more recent ones where the people are not properly identified.

I keep waiting for a young person in the family that expresses some interest in these items but at this point, I'm thinking that it may end up in a dumpster someday.


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## Gardenlover (Jan 30, 2020)

Aunt Bea said:


> I have documentation on both sides of my family from the early 1600s, who knows if it's accurate but it is interesting to me.  I'm mainly interested in the little stories, adventures, and scandals of my ancestor's lives.
> 
> I also have a box of old photos and some more recent ones where the people are not properly identified.
> 
> I keep waiting for a young person in the family that expresses some interest in these items but at this point, I'm thinking that it may up in a dumpster someday.


Love hearing that you are interested in the scandals as well, too often people look for what I call the royalty aspects. I've found a lot of scandal in my past, makes it more human and believable in my opinion. May account for some of my oddities as well.


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## Aunt Bea (Jan 30, 2020)

Gardenlover said:


> Love hearing that you are interested in the scandals as well, too often people look for what I call the royalty aspects. I've found a lot of scandal in my past, makes it more human and believable in my opinion. May account for some of my oddities as well.


_"The best of men are only men at their very best. Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, - martyrs, fathers, reformers, puritans, - all are sinners, who need a Savior: holy, useful, honorable in their place - but sinners after all."_ - J. C. Ryle


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## gennie (Jan 30, 2020)

Black sheep in a family are always the most interesting.  Black enough and they appeared in the newspaper many of which can be researched on line.

I'm 50% British, the remainder split between Scandanavian and Scot with 2% mutt


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## Gardenlover (Jan 30, 2020)

I proudly represent the black sheep of my family.


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## peppermint (Jan 30, 2020)

I did the Genealogy.....I don't believe everything they tell you....For example....I had relatives from the 1800....Who Cares....


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## Gardenlover (Jan 30, 2020)

peppermint said:


> I did the Genealogy.....I don't believe everything they tell you....For example....I had relatives from the 1800....Who Cares....


Me


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## drifter (Jan 30, 2020)

no royalty in my dna. I’m Scot-Irish and English. I’m reasonably sure my folks came to 
America for a better life. I don't know how it was back then but some didn’t better themselves a whole lot, it would appear.


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## Keesha (Jan 30, 2020)

peppermint said:


> I did the Genealogy.....I don't believe everything they tell you....For example....I had relatives from the 1800....Who Cares....


Me too. Tell us more. 
Do you have any pictures? 
How did you find this information about them?


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## Marie5656 (Jan 30, 2020)

*My cousin did our father's side of the family back about 30 years ago. Before the internet was widely used for this kind of stuff. Lots of writing letters, getting stuff translated to and from Italian.  Went back about 4 generations (grandparents, and a couple greats) and found some interesting stuff.  Yes, we were Sicilian, and yes there were Mafia connections.* *Someone got hung for some sort of crime.  There is a vein of Greek blood, that she had trouble following.*


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## Ruth n Jersey (Jan 30, 2020)

I've always been interested in my heritage even when I was a kid. I remember all the stories my parents told me and I cherish all the old photos.

I've tried to pass this information on but neither my son or daughter seem the least bit interested. 

I think they will be sorry someday. I've labeled all the old photos but I doubt they will open the albums. Very sad but I'll enjoy them for as long as I can.


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## Catlady (Jan 30, 2020)

One question, mildly related to this thread, *how many of you have all your photos in albums or just in boxes*?  I am a fanatic for taking pics and have inherited my family's photos.  I had so many albums taking up too much space, so took out the photos and put them in boxes.


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## Catlady (Jan 30, 2020)

Ruth n Jersey said:


> I've always been interested in my heritage even when I was a kid. I remember all the stories my parents told me and I cherish all the old photos.
> 
> *I've tried to pass this information on but neither my son or daughter seem the least bit interested.
> 
> I think they will be sorry someday*. I've labeled all the old photos but I doubt they will open the albums. Very sad but I'll enjoy them for as long as I can.



They probably will be sorry someday.  I wasn't interested at ALL in genealogy until after my parents passed and then it was too late.  And being from Italy it's much harder to get all the info.  I've practically given up.


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## Marie5656 (Jan 30, 2020)

@Catlady  A little of both on the photos.  I have some in albums, and some burned onto a DVD.  My husband had boxes of photos and albums, from his family and life.  I asked what little family he had left if they wanted any and they said now...downsizing and all.  So, I kept some of him, and the rest I got rid of. Sad but, what else was I going to do?


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## Catlady (Jan 30, 2020)

Marie5656 said:


> @Catlady  A little of both on the photos.  I have some in albums, and *some burned onto a DVD*.  My husband had boxes of photos and albums, from his family and life.  I asked what little family he had left if they wanted any and they said now...downsizing and all.  So, I kept some of him, and the rest I got rid of. Sad but, what else was I going to do?


How do you do that?    And, with tech advancing all the time, even DVDs will someday become absolete, it happened with VHS etc.

Also, re your Italian ancestors, how did your cousin get the info?  I sent letters to the town office and they sent documents once but didn't send any the next time (and kept the $20 I sent them for postage).  One genealogist offered to go there and get the info but I didn't want to have to pay his outrageous fees (he had to travel there, gas, etc so don't blame him).  I'm certainly not going to go back to Italy to get the info, my daughter doesn't even care.


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## Marie5656 (Jan 30, 2020)

@Catlady  For the pics. My nephew did them. But you would have to have a laptop with a CD drive. Scan pics to computer then save to a blank DVD. There is software if you want to make a video, but that is complicated.

I think my cousin contacted whatever Italian equivalent of our county clerk .  People are saying now that sites like ancestry.com can help


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## Duster (Jan 30, 2020)

A great aunt had traced some genealogy back to the 1600's when that branch of the family had come to the new world.  I took that information and found out more.
Thomas came to America from England in the early 1620's-30's when he was in his 20's.  He fought in the French Indian Wars and was given land for his service in the Hartford area of Connecticut.  He married Mary and they had children together.  Thomas donated land to start the first church in the community, which still stands.  He helped found the town of Farmington and helped found the church.  By the 1660's Mary had stopped going to church and liked drinking wine and ale with some friends at night.  With the witch hunts sweeping New England, Mary was accused of being a witch.  I've read the trial transcripts.  She was convicted and hanged.  Being a familiar with the devil, she couldn't even be buried in the church cemetery that was donated by her husband.  Thomas {in his 50's by now} married another woman named Mary {in her 20's} who was the spinster daughter of a close friend.  Thomas and Mary 2 are my ancestors.  In the autumn of the year, the town has plays and story telling about Mary, the witch.  She was not forgotten.


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## Duster (Jan 30, 2020)

I decided to use the internet information to explore my Dad's side of the family.  
One colorful fellow was my great, great grandfather, Lafayette.  He was born in the 1840's and first appears in southern Illinois.  He married and had children. When the war between the states started, he became a soldier.  He was captured and sent to a military prison in Arkansas.  He somehow faked his death and escaped.  Now that he was "dead" he couldn't go back to his family, at least until the war was over.  He became involved with my ancestor and married her.  He didn't divorce the first wife because she was legally his widow.  
He had a family with my great, great grandmother and stayed in Arkansas, where they become farmers.  When Lafayette got old, he applied for his Civil War pension. It was denied, because his first wife was still collecting it.  Here he was in 1875:


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## pleinmont (Jan 31, 2020)

My ancestry is quite interesting especially as one of my ancestors had a prominent roll in British history.


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## Gardenlover (Jan 31, 2020)

Catlady said:


> One question, mildly related to this thread, *how many of you have all your photos in albums or just in boxes*?  I am a fanatic for taking pics and have inherited my family's photos.  I had so many albums taking up too much space, so took out the photos and put them in boxes.


Some in albums, some in boxes, many digital.


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## Gary O' (Jan 31, 2020)

Gardenlover said:


> How about you?


Mom's side;
German, German, and more German

Dad's side;
Irish, English
My Irish rels came here to escape prosecution

and

.....some sorta Mongolian tribe of the Oriats ('forest people')
Not sure how that happened
But,

it is what it is










Of late, things have been a bit more diverse

Afro, Mexi, Erin, Anglo

Oh, and I'm related to Tennessee Williams


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## pleinmont (Jan 31, 2020)

I had all the family photos dumped on me when my parents died. Some of the more recent family photos are in albums, but the ones which date back to the dawn of photography are in boxes. I guess most of them will be chucked out when I go, as no one else seems interested in them.


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## gennie (Jan 31, 2020)

peppermint said:


> I did the Genealogy.....I don't believe everything they tell you....For example....I had relatives from the 1800....Who Cares....


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## gennie (Jan 31, 2020)

Peppermint, what's not to believe?  We all have relatives from the 1800s unless we hatched from an egg.


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## JustBonee (Jan 31, 2020)

peppermint said:


> I did the Genealogy.....I don't believe everything they tell you....



In mine  ..    I like my Italian/Greek,    and Austrian   royal connections    ..


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## Duster (Jan 31, 2020)

If you can trace your ancestry back to the crowned heads of Europe, you can go way back, because royalty charted their pedigrees in order to create alliances. More people are royal descendants than most people imagine.  These are not legitimate heirs.  Think courtesans, concubines, and other secret dalliances. There are many cases of average people with royal blood.

If the records of the Church of Latter Day Saints are correct, many people can trace their ancestry all the way back to Adam and Eve.


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## Duster (Jan 31, 2020)

If you're interested in history, it's good to explore some of your genealogy to understand the big picture of how all these family stories combine to create a nation.  You come to understand that we're all a part of the history. 
It would be fascinating to know the stories connected to all of your lines.  
Start with you:
1 person
parents = 2 persons
grandparents = 4 persons
great grandparents = 8 persons
and on and on

The amount of people you descend from increases the further you go back.  Since there were fewer people alive in past times, your chances of being related to them go up. It used to be said that we were all 7th cousins. It's probably a higher number now that there are more people in the world.


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## Capt Lightning (Feb 1, 2020)

I'm not sure how interesting my ancestors were - probably a lot more interesting than my parents.   My mother intrigued me a little.  In Scotland it was very common to give children their mother's maiden name as a middle name. This wasn't the case with my mother but who said that her middle name was her true ancestry. She also said that she was descended from minor aristocracy.  My sister who compiled some of the family tree, thought that she was just a bit 'gaga', but this was something that mother had always insisted, but never elaborated on.  A case of 'naughty' goings on??


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## 911 (Feb 1, 2020)

I have a 23 and me kit that I got for Christmas. I need to swab it or spit in a tube or whatever it is and mail it in. I don’t really care what I am, unless I am 100% American Indian, but that’s not going to happen.


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## Llynn (Feb 1, 2020)

I've done 123andMe and Ancestry.com, both were given to me as gifts. Both confirmed UK-Irish and Scandinavian in approximately the same percentages. They disagreed about my German ancestors 4% vs 36%. 123andMe has a much smaller member base with which to compare while Ancestry.com lumps a lot of folks into a NW European category that muddies up their result. 

My Paternal Grandparents sprang from a pioneer LDS heritage (I am not LDS) so a great deal of research has already been done for me. On the LDS Family Search I too can find links back to Adam on my Family Tree. It's entertaining but not relevant.


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## Sassycakes (Feb 1, 2020)

One of my cousins on my Dad's side of the family sent me all the ancestry results from the 1500's. My Husbands brother did their ancestry as far back as he could go. I just wish someone would do my Mothers side of the family. I loved reading all the ancestry results.


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## peppermint (Feb 1, 2020)

gennie said:


> Peppermint, what's not to believe?  We all have relatives from the 1800s unless we hatched from an egg.


I still don't care....I don't believe my daughter had to spend one hundred dollars on who the heck were my ancesters….I had many already....I don't need anymore....
Everyone has an opinion....Maybe I was hatched from an egg....


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## Sassycakes (Feb 17, 2020)

*It's funny reading this again today,because a cousin on my Dad's side of the family did all my Dad's families ancestry. Today he sent me a picture of my Dad's great Grandfather who would have been my Great Great Grandfather. I love kowing a lot about my ancesters.*


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## Sassycakes (Feb 17, 2020)

Sassycakes said:


> *It's funny reading this again today,because a cousin on my Dad's side of the family did all my Dad's families ancestry. Today he sent me a picture of my Dad's great Grandfather who would have been my Great Great Grandfather. I love kowing a lot about my ancesters.*



*I was able to put the picture in here.
*


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## fuzzybuddy (Feb 23, 2020)

Supposedly one of my past relatives was hung for stealing horses. For some reason, I'm kind of proud about that. He stole from the rich, he just never got around to that give to the poor part.


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## OneEyedDiva (Mar 21, 2020)

One of our family historians produced a DVD about our family history and it was distributed at one of our reunions. I started watching it and got distracted...never got back to it. Recently a cousin said their was a part two, which he gave me.  Years before the DVD, we were told at a family reunion that someone had traced us back to a German slave trader ancestor. I find it interesting that when I had my DNA test, Germany didn't come up but small percentages from the Iberian peninsula, Great Britain, Ireland, Finland/Russia, Native American and south Asia (India strongly highlighted) were detected along with my majority African DNA. My maternal grandmother had told me we have Indian (from India) and Hispanic roots and a family historian's research confirmed that we have German and Native American blood as well.


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