Princes and peasants, which ancestors are you most conflicted about?

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri July 15th, 2011, 2:44 am

[quote=""Michy""]How very cool that you were able to go back so far. I think the Puritans have got a pretty bad rap over the last decades. As much as I like The Winthrop Woman, it does give a very biased picture of the Puritans.[/quote]

Michy, it was the Mormon genealogy records that helped me go back that far. I think that line was easier to research because there is a vice president in it. I guess lots of people have Puritan ancestors, so I have lots of company.

I did meet a relative online. About 15 or so years ago, I was on a message boards doing some Tompkins genealogy research and I came across a woman from Texas who turned out to be my mother's third cousin. My mother wasn't into genealogy, but my aunt was. The Texan woman and my aunt exchanged letters and spoke on the phone and she even visited my aunt once. My mother and aunt have since passed away, but I still contact this cousin occasionally. She had lots of information on the Canterbury side of the family. My Tompkins great great grandmother married a Canterbury.

My Tompkins great great grandmother had a brother who was in the Union Army during the Civil War, was captured, and spent time in a Confederate prisoner of war camp. While there he carved some things for his sister out of soup bones. One item was a lovely little basket that was engraved with his sister's name. I have that now.

My aunt always said that her family was English, Dutch, and French Huguenot. There is a Lemm line (Dutch?) and my mother's maiden name was Dennis (French?), and I can go back a few generations, but that's all.

Mythica · Post by **Mythica** » Fri July 15th, 2011, 8:57 am

[quote=""Divia""]I dunno much. I mean I know about the last two generations, but nothing more. I would like to know more, but dont you have to sign up for that site and I think it costs money. ancestory.com[/quote]

You don't have to - genealogy did exist before ancestry.com or even before the internet, lol.

I was lucky that my grandmother did a lot of research pre-internet so I had a lot to start with. But with the help of Ancestry.com as well as other sources, I have found so much more.

I recommend that people who are unwilling to take the plunge and pay for Ancestry.com start with FamilySearch.org - they have the largest free database on the internet. I have even found several records from them that weren't on Ancestry.com. Also useful is FindaGrave.com - completely free but of course it's subject to what entries members have added so it's hit and miss whether you'll find your ancestors listed there. There are also sometimes free local sources you can find stuff from. For example, I found a few obituaries from: http://montgomery.pa-roots.com/ - the main website http://pa-roots.com/ has links to websites for other states too. Or if you have ancestors from Lancashire, England: http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/indexp.html

So there are a lot of free sources out there, sometimes you just have to track them down.

As for Ancestry.com, they do actually have several collections which are free to the public (you may have to sign up with a free "guest" account for access but they are free). They also have a free 14 day trial so you can at least briefly access their full database for free. You can also search their database for free, it's just that the results give you limited info and you can't access the original docs. Some people are still able to get stuff from those limited results though.

But the real starting point should be the oldest living member of your family. Get as much info from them as you can and then use that info to start searching. Unless the oldest living member of your family is you, of course.

I haven't done much off-line research because as an American in the UK, I'm not really in the right place for it. But everything on Ancestry.com can be found off-line as well. If you do go online, be cautious with other people's family trees - they can be great as hints or starting points but they can also be horribly incorrect. Some other tips: most of the 1890 US census was lost in a fire so don't expect to find anything from it. Don't assume immigrants came through Ellis Island - there were other ports of entry. Sometimes simply googling an ancestors name and vital data date can turn up results (that's actually how I found the PA obituaries I mentioned above).

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri July 15th, 2011, 1:10 pm

After reading and participating on this thread, I stayed up way too late last night Googling ancestors!

sweetpotatoboy · Post by **sweetpotatoboy** » Fri July 15th, 2011, 1:46 pm

It's all fascinating to read. But obviously, when you research, certain strands become more interesting and/or researchable.
But if you go back that far (to the 11th century), well, then, you have so many ancestors that each of us are probably descended from royalty, peasant stock and all sorts of folks from every conceivable walk of life and geography.

I remember Boris Johnson being excited discovering that he was descended from George II and then coming down to earth a bit when he calculated that, he had 1,600-odd ancestors at that remove, so probably most of us would hit a royal or two at that stage....

SGM · Post by **SGM** » Fri July 15th, 2011, 6:14 pm

[quote=""Mythica""]
As for Ancestry.com, they do actually have several collections which are free to the public (you may have to sign up with a free "guest" account for access but they are free). They also have a free 14 day trial so you can at least briefly access their full database for free. You can also search their database for free, it's just that the results give you limited info and you can't access the original docs. Some people are still able to get stuff from those limited results though.[/quote]

Beware of the Ancestry.com free 14 day trial. You have to give them your credit card details to use it and then they can mistakenly just debit a full year's subscription once the 14 days are over. That's what happened to me anyway. But they were very good about repaying it (eventually).

I was only looking because I have a lost grandfather which puzzles the family and Ancestry.com had no records on him apart from his marriage to my grandmother. Apart from that I am quite comfortable with my ancestral roots (or lack thereof) so have no intention of going any further. But if such research makes the great British public more aware of any aspect of history, I am all for it.

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Fri July 15th, 2011, 9:10 pm

[quote=""sweetpotatoboy""]But if you go back that far (to the 11th century), well, then, you have so many ancestors that each of us are probably descended from royalty, peasant stock and all sorts of folks from every conceivable walk of life and geography.

[/quote] This is one of the things I enjoy about Edward Rutherfurd's books --he really captures the essence of this. Of course, I'll never even know stories about my great-grandparents, much less anyone further back than that, but when I read his books and how he weaves family anecdotes from generation to generation, it's fun to imagine that such were the lives of my own ancestors.

I've never been interested in my family history on my mother's side; which is just as well, I guess, since there doesn't appear to be any information available on them. My father's family has always interested me. All I heard as a child was "we're French." So when I finally got a copy of my family tree about 10 years ago, I was surprised at the number of Irish surnames (and English, too, but that's almost a given here in the US). I had never heard even the slightest mention of Irish ancestry. And it's not like they didn't know, because my grandfather's mother had an Irish maiden name. I suspect they just felt there was more cache with being French, so that is what they stressed. I was happy enough to learn that I am more English and Irish than anything, since the history of the British Isles has always interested me more than any other (except our own).

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Sat July 16th, 2011, 5:21 am

I come from German peasants, at least on my father's side, which is the one I've researched most thoroughly. One ancestor lived through the Thirty Years War (which drastically reduced the population in his area) and went on to die around age 90 - sired his last child when he was in his 60s with his third wife. Another was a servant (probably a coachman) for the ruling prince of a small Nassau principality based in Dillenberg - the family seems to have been inordinately proud of his position, since they mentioned it on the grandchildren's birth records.

I recently discovered through the National Geographic genetic testing project that the maternal line on my mother's side is Jewish. Also on my mother's side was a draft dodger who immigrated to the U.S. around 1900 or so to avoid serving in the Kaiser's army. Having protested the Vietnam War in my teens, I've always felt rather pleased to have him in my genetic line.

Genealogy is loads of fun!

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Sat July 16th, 2011, 3:34 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]
I recently discovered through the National Geographic genetic testing project [/quote] This sounds interesting. Where could I go for more information? I read a book earlier this year about a project that was conducted a few years ago to determine the genetic roots of the British Isles. At the end the author mentioned his company so, of course, interest piqued, I checked out their website. They do testing on both maternal and paternal lines, but the cost made it prohibitive for me.

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Sat July 16th, 2011, 9:36 pm

[quote=""sweetpotatoboy""]But if you go back that far (to the 11th century), well, then, you have so many ancestors that each of us are probably descended from royalty, peasant stock and all sorts of folks from every conceivable walk of life and geography.[/quote]

To keep things in perspective, I write the number of ancestors in each generation next to my lists. When I got to 1024 for 10 generations, I laughed at any pretensions. Although there were some duplicates when cousins married. The family stories are the most interesting. My great grandmother used to sniff at her husband's family because her father fought in the Civil War on the Union side. She used to say, "Those Justices came up [to Ohio] from West Virginia to avoid the draft!" I'm currently on long weekend trip with my sister and father checking out our ancestors in Loudon County, VA. It turns out she was right...they were pacifists and Quakers!

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Sun July 17th, 2011, 3:09 am

This sounds interesting. Where could I go for more information? I read a book earlier this year about a project that was conducted a few years ago to determine the genetic roots of the British Isles. At the end the author mentioned his company so, of course, interest piqued, I checked out their website. They do testing on both maternal and paternal lines, but the cost made it prohibitive for me.

Here's the website for the National Geographic Genographic Project, but they are pretty expensive, too. My ex got the kit for me as a Christmas present. While I was delighted to learn what I learned, it's not a huge amount of information, and it probably wouldn't have been worth the price to me if I had paid for it myself. However, a group of relatives might want to go in together, which would considerably reduce the cost to each person. You can do either the paternal line (father to paternal grandfather to grandfather's father, etc.) or the maternal line (mother to maternal grandmother to grandmother's mother, etc.). For example, if a bunch of cousins descended from the same grandmother wanted to chip in and test one person's maternal ancestry, the results would work for all of them. With the paternal line, of course, there's always a chance someone didn't have the genetic father they thought they had ....

I'm currently on long weekend trip with my sister and father checking out our ancestors in Loudon County, VA. It turns out she was right...they were pacifists and Quakers!

Congrats on your pacifist ancestors!