forgive me if this has been done, i couldn't find a previous thread.

my dad has me researching our family tree on his side (via ancestry.com), and we've found out that my great great grandpa was native american, had a relative in the revolutionary war and in the first permanent colony in NC, and can trace via his mom's side back to the 1500s in england (time of the plague and shakespeare). this is with 2 days of research and a couple of letters from a great great aunt or something who had tried to start this years ago.

what's interesting about your ancestry? any famous/important people?

1/6/2010 1:35:48 PM

We all go back to the boats, and from there its anyone's guess

1/6/2010 1:38:10 PM

we're Welsh quakers. and I am an indirect descendant of William Penn

i love my family crest

1/6/2010 1:43:12 PM

^That deer needs to eat a sammich. It's too skinny.

1/6/2010 1:44:31 PM

one of my ex-girlfriend's grandfather was big into tracing ancestry and he put together a book for me one christmas. I don't remember too much as i haven't looked at it lately, but from what i can recall my ancestors are of german descent. I also have a few high ranking civil war officers in there as well. Maybe i'll dig that book out and take a gander

1/6/2010 1:50:15 PM

My ancestors originate in Germany, Ireland, France, and Poland and all immigrated over to the US at the beginning of the 20th century through Ellis Island, NY.

Only notable thing I'm aware of is that my Polish heritage is of some sort of nobility.

Oh, and my paternal grandfather had his own tobacco company and sold mainly cigars I think

[Edited on January 6, 2010 at 2:15 PM. Reason : yay]

1/6/2010 1:53:28 PM

mom was the result of a one-night stand, so when someone tells me I look greek/italian/jewish/"muslim", I laugh a little internally b/c of that; the other most notable thing on that side is that the emigration from Iceland wasn't that long ago - only my great-great grandfather. Or maybe it was great-great-great. Whatever.

Dad's side...non-descript. My aunt's big into this stuff, but I only ever paid attention to it once.

[Edited on January 6, 2010 at 1:56 PM. Reason : edsf]

1/6/2010 1:56:19 PM

On my Paternal Grandmother's side, we can trace our ancestry back to John Hancock, and then back to England before him. We have several revolutionary war figures in this part of the family tree, and a detailed family tree. My grandmother really wants me to join the DAR.

On my Paternal Grandfather's side, we can trace to France and England in the 1500s. We have a very detailed family tree that's accurate to this day. If I can get it scanned I'll have to post a link to it. This side of the family gets together every year, about 300 of us or so (Joe Namath is related in here by marriage and he comes every year).

Then my Maternal Grandfather swears the family just popped up in Eastern NC and has always been there. Always.

And Maternal Grandmother can be traced by to 1600s in Ireland.

[Edited on January 6, 2010 at 2:04 PM. Reason : ]

1/6/2010 2:03:37 PM

family is straight welsh. Did my genealogy back in 2002 back to 1600s. A port city in Wales names Swansea. I went to it 2005 for study abroad and met some family descendants and confirmed it. really cool.

1/6/2010 2:07:59 PM

the revolutionary war soldier died with an unpaid debt of 38 sterling, which google says is about $67. probably a shit ton of money back then. oops!

there are some crazy names. a couple of the folks from england had the last name of Gotobed. haha
some Oakleys married other Oakleys but their bloodlines do not cross thankfully.

on my grandad's side there is an Adolphus Alonza, and on my grandma's side there is Dolphus and Lonza. these people didn't know each other back then. on my mom's side there is a Dolphus Alonza. wtf crazy

other weird first names include:
luxora
micajah
cyant
mcfarland
uriah
jachan
yarbough
duville
elerson
tepper
emiriah
dizzane
telliza
hazmore

i could go on forever. and no, we're not black. none of those names were from the native american part either. haha

1/6/2010 2:08:39 PM

I asked my dad where he wanted to go for his 60th birthday. Norway, he said, the land of our ancestors. We drank a pint an Ibsen's favorite pub. We sampled the local fare. We got new sweaters.

It was the trip of a lifetime, my dad said, until we went to the hall of records and discovered we were actually Swedish.

1/6/2010 2:11:40 PM

Mom's side - Polish, my grandfather and his family landed in New York in the 1910s or 20s. Became a captain in the Navy. Flew cosairs in the Pacific during WWII. Married my grandmother who was a chemist for Dupont (she helped develop teflon during WWII). Started a construction company in the 50s/60s. Had six kids.

Dad's side - Can be traced back to Ben Franklin and Horatio Nelson. Going further back, the Cameron clan in Scotland.

1/6/2010 2:12:30 PM

I think one of the oldest lines goes back to an Irish mariner who was born in 1600. Shortest line is my great-grandparents who came from Lithuania.

1/6/2010 2:16:53 PM

^^^cool story, bro

[Edited on January 6, 2010 at 2:19 PM. Reason : .]

1/6/2010 2:19:06 PM

mom's side is scotch irish (griffins & carmichaels)

dad's is native american and english (boones and oakleys). the english ones came from Sandford, Devon, England.

[Edited on January 6, 2010 at 2:24 PM. Reason : ]

1/6/2010 2:19:21 PM

Ancestry.com is crap...DO NOT USE THEIR FAMILY TREE software. You will regret it. For one, they just mash together everyone's tree(accurate or not) so you end up with 10 different Mary Yoursurnames in your tree and no way to directly reference them by database id. You try to delete them but they just come back, or you'll cut off access to the part of your tree that was correct.

Download GRAMPS, free open source. It's a pain to setup but works nicely.

However, ancestry does have a huge supply of census records and others to search through. It's a great way to pursue blind leads. I saved every census record(print screen, save image, whatever) I found, double checked that it had been transcribed correctly, then added it to my tree. Also, write down the cause of death any time you find it. Sometimes the doctors made up words, but it's valuable information. Don't add anything to your good tree that you don't have hard, physical evidence for...tombstone, death records, census, family bibles...

...but you can't trust any of those. Census were taken by minimum wage(actually less, minimum wage didn't exist) earning suckers who could barely spell their own name, much less someone else's. Tombstones get birth dates wrong all the time. Family bibles are just hearsay past one or two generations.

When I started I didn't even know my grandfather's full name, and now I have a full tree back 4 generations on every line, and back to the 1500's on one particular line. If you're black or are looking for female relatives...good luck.

The sad truth is most people are forgotten forever after just two generations...and we're no exception.

[Edited on January 6, 2010 at 2:46 PM. Reason : . ]

1/6/2010 2:43:12 PM

Indian, more specifically "Gujarati Brahmin". clan from dad's side is supposedly descended from the Hindu Sun God. family crest includes reddish/darkish colored horse and a sun Swastik. i'll see if i can find it.

1/6/2010 2:44:11 PM

Quote :

"The sad truth is most people are forgotten forever after just two generations...and we're no exception."

Good info tho.

1/6/2010 2:50:44 PM

^^^yeah, there are lots of inaccuracies in the records, esp the census, but overall i've found it easy to use. the letter i have from a relative is 20+ pages long, goes back to the 1700s and includes everybody in between. i've been double checking dates/names/places the whole time. most of the mistakes are easy to spot. if i have 5 records including living relatives that say his name is philmore, and on one census it's spelled filmore....umm yeah pretty easy. a lot of the census records say estimated birth year and several are a year or two off, but that's fine. i'm looking for the people themselves. i haven't come across any huge mistakes.

oh! there was one lady named Della and there were several census records and a birth record for her, then on one doc of the several it said Deller. yeah that was a redneck there. hahaha

[Edited on January 6, 2010 at 2:55 PM. Reason : ]

1/6/2010 2:53:22 PM

my ancestry has been traced all the way back to vladimir Tepis aka vlad the impaler. He is the tyrant that dracula is based off of. In a way its fucked ,but pretty cool.

1/6/2010 3:04:36 PM

wow

1/6/2010 3:14:55 PM

my great great, etc [dunno how many times] grandfather founded Cary.

1/6/2010 3:17:58 PM

^I don't like your great great, etc [dunno how many times] grandfather at all now.

1/6/2010 3:36:08 PM

On my mom's side, I'm related to the Avents (as in Avent Ferry) and Thompsons, one of whom was in the revolutionary war. I guess I could apply for SAR membership, but I've never really thought about it. If I believe other people's work, then I can trace the Avent side back to the Masseys and then back to the Norman Conquest. While I'd like to believe it, it's probably just fantasy. Some well-sourced Avent data can be found at http://www.aventfamily.org/

My dad's side is from the Netherlands, so it's been a bit more difficult to trace. Looks like they basically hung out around Friesland and Groningen, the northern part of the Netherlands.

1/6/2010 3:39:18 PM

I can go back 5000 years with my family tree.

It starts with Abraham.

1/6/2010 4:04:03 PM

We're Welsh. My grandfather has been doing a lot of research on our family history and putting it in a book. Other than that I'm not entirely sure of his findings or anything of significance. He's a pretty famous/important dude in the tobacco industry though.

1/6/2010 4:10:50 PM

Screwed by the town of sexpencil




I'm Polish on my father's side. We got our own town and fort and errything.

1/6/2010 4:20:40 PM

Quote :

"I asked my dad where he wanted to go for his 60th birthday. Norway, he said, the land of our ancestors. We drank a pint an Ibsen's favorite pub. We sampled the local fare. We got new sweaters. It was the trip of a lifetime, my dad said, until we went to the hall of records and discovered we were actually Swedish."

Lol...I love that commercial

1/6/2010 4:21:24 PM

My dad's side came over on the Mayflower. We got the papers and everything.

1/6/2010 7:51:20 PM

Dads side mostly English, came over in 1680s, few guys married Germans.


Moms side is a clusterfuck. Moms Dad is french-canadian(still researching what else is there). Moms Mom is Scotch-Irish(mostly Scotch but a few Irish guys in the woodshed). Moms mom is from Roaring River and her dad ran moonshine(kin to the Johnson's in that area)


Several Revolutionary War Vets, several Civil War vets, on both sides. Dads folks back in the day were quakers that came to PA with William Penn and his posse. Had an ancestor on both dad and moms side that hung out with Daniel Boone.

1/6/2010 9:58:21 PM

I'm only 3rd generation american - my family came to the us from germany/romania

1/6/2010 10:12:21 PM

i dont even know what country my people came from, for all i know it's What

and i assume they speak English in What

1/6/2010 10:29:45 PM

I'm related to Jefferson Davis by marriage on my paternal Grandmother's side. They've been down in Mississippi longer than anyone can remember, or at least anyone we still keep in touch with.

My paternal Grandfather's side are primarily of German descent, though the part of Prussia from which they came might now be part of Poland. We're not quite sure. We believe they were significant landowners and probably minor nobility. We do know that my great-great-great grandfather (and probably his wife/children to make the timing work) emigrated to the USA in the 1860's or 1870's, possibly to avoid obligatory service in the Franco-Prussian war.

My mother's side is composed of poor Italians and even poorer Irish, all or almost all arriving in the 20th century (we think). My maternal Grandfather's side are the most recent immigrants; my great-grandfather, Domenico Violante, emigrated from Oriolo, Italy to NYC in 1908.

1/7/2010 12:07:33 PM

is there a good site that's free to do ancestry searches and whatnot?

1/7/2010 12:14:40 PM

I'm fairly certain that I'm the descendant of folks who came over from India.

Never really looked into it though.

1/7/2010 12:23:57 PM

I don't know much about mine. On my dad's side I know that his mom was full Hungarian; the first of her family to be born in the US. I think his dad's side was English. On my mom's side its a grab bag really. I know its some German, Irish, and Native American. Wish I knew more :/ My wife is 50% Italian, though she looks nothing like it really.

1/7/2010 12:33:36 PM

For me I am actually half hispanic (mom is from panama) but somehow I ended up with blonde hair and blue eyes.

My dad is german/scottish so maybe that is where I got that from the hair and eyes from.

My uncle on my mom's side who is his panic always use to say be proud that I am Latino because I am black where it counts.

1/7/2010 12:57:01 PM

Quote :

"Looks like they basically hung out around Friesland and Groningen, the northern part of the Netherlands."

Groningen is een grote stad schoon

Mostly immigrants from Eastern Europe in the early 20th. Czech, Russian, Polish. Small amount of Irish and Italian in there somewhere. NYC n'at.

My entire ancestry = peasants

1/7/2010 12:59:51 PM

Quote :

"is there a good site that's free to do ancestry searches and whatnot?"

you can get a 14 day trial on ancestry.com, but you have to enter a credit card. after that you can still look but you can't save info.

1/7/2010 1:49:23 PM

Quote :

"i love my family crest"

I'm going to be that asshole . . .


There is no such thing as a "family" crest. Under English law, the crest may be passed from the bearer to his eldest son, but only upon his death. It belong to, and only to, the current bearer. The Court of Lord Lyon, the Scottish herald, requires that no two crests be alike period, so a son must differentiate his from his father's in some fashion. I'm not intimately familiar with Welsh heraldic law but I'm pretty sure it falls under that of the English King of Arms.


OTOH, if you can prove that you were either a) descendant of English, Scottish, or Welsh colonists prior to the Revolution or b) descendant from post Revolutionary immigrants you may apply for a coat of arms from the Garter Principal King of Army (England and Wales) or Lord Lyon (Scotland).

1/8/2010 10:30:04 AM

I wish I could have completely knowledge of all my ancestors going back to abiogenesis. That would be a trip.

1/8/2010 10:56:38 AM

https://www.23andme.com/

1/8/2010 12:43:26 PM

Mom's Side - Traced back grandmother's side to Mary Stuart, daughter of King James V. Found out a couple years ago grandfather is actually some italian guy named Joe that my grandma had a one-night stand with while married to my grandpa...apparently grandma was quite the whore in her day.

Dad's Side - Grandmother was part of moderately wealthy family from haiti and my dad immigrated here as a teenager. Don't know about my grandfather because he ran back to his wife when he knocked up grandma.

1/8/2010 2:01:40 PM

progress as of late:

keeping w/ my dad's side, his great great great grandma was a Duke, the duke university kind. her 1st cousin was george washington duke (first started growing tobacco), whose son was james buchanan duke, who started the university. that's a long way away but still interesting.

once you hit the dukes, the lineage is easily traceable back to the 1200s, with Robert de Toke (they fucked up the names over the years) and the battle of Northampton in 1264 under King Henry III of England.

1/13/2010 11:46:02 AM

The most interesting thing in my family tree is our ability to trace back to Duncan and Macbeth (of Shakespeare's wildly historically inaccurate play). As an English major, I find this awesome.

I haven't had the chance to do much research of my family tree, but it sounds fascinating. Since I wouldn't be looking for anything too specific, I might check ancestry.com out. Good luck with your search!

1/13/2010 7:44:49 PM

I can go back to 1650 in Bonniegheim, Wurrtemburg, Germany.

The first Haas came to America on September 27th, 1740 to Philadelphia PA on the ship named Lydia.

He moved to North Carolina in 1747 and was a pioneer of Catawba County. Settled where Newton and Maiden are currently located. My family still owns 13 acres of that original land. There is a grave yard on this land, and land was donated to build a church which got the name of the Haas Lutheran Church, until they changed it to St. James Lutheran Church.

I feel very fortunate to have such an extinsive history of my family, I know a lot of about people 12 generations back. I also feel honored to hold claim to land owned by my family owned over 260 years ago.

[Edited on January 13, 2010 at 8:04 PM. Reason : ]

1/13/2010 7:56:17 PM

dad should be receiving his dna kit soon from 23andme.com

my uncle had a photo album of some realllyy old pics of dad's side of the family. in case anybody wanted to look, here's the link

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2364505&id=11805098&l=dbbb3818e2

my great great granddad, who was full blooded native american, is in the album (see philmore).

1/22/2010 10:35:44 AM

[Edited on January 22, 2010 at 11:51 AM. Reason : hh]

1/22/2010 11:49:56 AM

When I started researching last year, my family didn't know much of the history. i spent a lot of time on ancestry.com, and at courthouses finding death/birth/marriage certificates.
Now I've traced my paternal lineage back to 1785, and have documentation of lineage. You do have to be careful of what ancestry.com shows, sometimes its inaccurate.

1/22/2010 1:39:57 PM

Yeah I know. I've found lots of errors and have corrected a bunch of stuff. I've been fortunate enough to find 2 people who have done a lot of research the hard way on a couple of lines.

1/22/2010 6:10:36 PM