How many generations or years can you trace your ancestors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Didn't realize so many people were into genealogy.

On my dad's side, just my grandparents. And I only know the country and region that they came some, as well as a vague understanding of the ethnic origin. (They spoke one Eastern European language, but lived in what is now a different country, and on my grandmother's side had a last name suggestive of a different ethnicity.) They were Soviet refugees and my dad had a sort of messed up family life so doesn't like to talk about it. In any event, they were peasants as I understand it.

On my mom's side, I bet I could ask her for evidence of her grandparents. I have a vague sense of the regions they were from. From her telling, they were slightly richer than other peasants and proud of that? In any rate, good enough to get through all the famines and wars and all.

No plantation owners, and no kings, dukes, famous authors, etc. Farmers, coal miners, day laborers.

The speaking one language but living in another area is an interesting clue. If you talked to an eastern european historian, they might be able to tell you something about that. During the Stalinist period, there were while ethnic groups he made move from one region to another due to his paranoia, which created a lot of difficulties on both ends of the equation. And even before the revolution there were similar problems with paper brokers moving people like pawns on a chess board.
If you are curious about Soviet Russia, I think my favorite book is mastering the art of Soviet cooking, which is basically a family memoir across the entire soviet period. It really gives a good sense of what ordinarily people had to deal with and an honest appraisal of the attraction as well and the problems with the system.

This just shows that nationality is not the same as ethnicity, which many Americans conflate. After WWI the powers started moving people so they were grouped more closely to ethnicity. Kinda like how India was partitioned (you’re Muslim? Move this way, otherwise move this way.) For Example, my FIL has family that lived in German pockets of Hungary and modern day Czech Republic. You will be hard pressed to find evidence of the German communities there is bc the villages were destroyed and German(-speaking) people were forcibly moved to modern day Germany. This story is as old as time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to know what paperwork the person claiming to trace family back to 1100 has. That made me laugh so hard.

Glad I gave you a good laugh. Like I said, my mom is into that stuff. She got it from ancestry.com. There’s William FitzGerald born 1098 in Berkshire England Born 1098, his parents Geraldus DeWindsor born 1070 Berkshire England and Neat Verch Rhys born 1073 Llandyfeisont Wales. I have no clue where the records came from.

Latest it goes back is Trancred DeHauteville born 1045 in Normandy France. I have no clue if these are correct, but it’s what ancestry says. I’m 4th generation born in DC as well.

So in other words you know nothing. I cannot tell you how much crap there is out on ancestry.com family trees. You have to check as there are standards to abide by and that’s assuming the info in documentation is all legit in the first place. People always want to believe that ancestor x with the same name x are one and the same. SMH. Until you have done your work, you have nothing.

I’d love to hear about families that have documentation on old scrolls — India, I think. You can visit the keepers and add your name when you visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My maiden name is quite unique, so anyone with this name is a relative. Thanks to "find a grave" I was able to go back to the early to mid 1700's!

Anyone else into genealogy?

1640s, but I have a unique last name and there was already a lot of family research as a jumping off point.

[Anonymous]

I don't have every single branch and I'm not super-duper into genealogy, but I can trace about 10 generations back to the pre-revolutionary U.S. colonies in the 1600s through one of my parents, and almost as many -- to around the 1740s and a Revolutionary War patriot -- on the other side. I've toyed with the idea of joining DAR through my patriot connection but don't really see the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to know what paperwork the person claiming to trace family back to 1100 has. That made me laugh so hard.

Glad I gave you a good laugh. Like I said, my mom is into that stuff. She got it from ancestry.com. There’s William FitzGerald born 1098 in Berkshire England Born 1098, his parents Geraldus DeWindsor born 1070 Berkshire England and Neat Verch Rhys born 1073 Llandyfeisont Wales. I have no clue where the records came from.

Latest it goes back is Trancred DeHauteville born 1045 in Normandy France. I have no clue if these are correct, but it’s what ancestry says. I’m 4th generation born in DC as well.

So in other words you know nothing. I cannot tell you how much crap there is out on ancestry.com family trees. You have to check as there are standards to abide by and that’s assuming the info in documentation is all legit in the first place. People always want to believe that ancestor x with the same name x are one and the same. SMH. Until you have done your work, you have nothing.

I’d love to hear about families that have documentation on old scrolls — India, I think. You can visit the keepers and add your name when you visit.

That's coming across a little mean-spirited, PP. PP's mom did some research with the tools available to her for fun, and PP thinks it's kind of fun and admits that they have no idea if it's all correct. No need to criticize how inadequate their research has been.

And anyways, by your standards ("and that's assuming the info in documentation is all legit in the first place"), then your own documentation is worthless, too. No one knows anything!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to know what paperwork the person claiming to trace family back to 1100 has. That made me laugh so hard.

Glad I gave you a good laugh. Like I said, my mom is into that stuff. She got it from ancestry.com. There’s William FitzGerald born 1098 in Berkshire England Born 1098, his parents Geraldus DeWindsor born 1070 Berkshire England and Neat Verch Rhys born 1073 Llandyfeisont Wales. I have no clue where the records came from.

Latest it goes back is Trancred DeHauteville born 1045 in Normandy France. I have no clue if these are correct, but it’s what ancestry says. I’m 4th generation born in DC as well.

So in other words you know nothing. I cannot tell you how much crap there is out on ancestry.com family trees. You have to check as there are standards to abide by and that’s assuming the info in documentation is all legit in the first place. People always want to believe that ancestor x with the same name x are one and the same. SMH. Until you have done your work, you have nothing.

I’d love to hear about families that have documentation on old scrolls — India, I think. You can visit the keepers and add your name when you visit.

That's coming across a little mean-spirited, PP. PP's mom did some research with the tools available to her for fun, and PP thinks it's kind of fun and admits that they have no idea if it's all correct. No need to criticize how inadequate their research has been.

And anyways, by your standards ("and that's assuming the info in documentation is all legit in the first place"), then your own documentation is worthless, too. No one knows anything!

I’m the PP and you are right. No one knows for sure based on paper. And the so-called “meaness” I as intended. I cannot tell you have much misinformation is out on sites like Ancsstry.com. I’ve done family research for about 25 years. So many people “copy and paste” trees without checking the sources propating the errors all over the Internet (so many sites like myheritage, take free info from elsewhere like ancestry.com and geni.com). I’ve sat in archives and family history centers listening to professionals frustrated by people who have changed or added errors to the pros public trees.

It is a fun hobby for some, but it can be frustrating dealing with people of widely varying standards of research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to know what paperwork the person claiming to trace family back to 1100 has. That made me laugh so hard.

Glad I gave you a good laugh. Like I said, my mom is into that stuff. She got it from ancestry.com. There’s William FitzGerald born 1098 in Berkshire England Born 1098, his parents Geraldus DeWindsor born 1070 Berkshire England and Neat Verch Rhys born 1073 Llandyfeisont Wales. I have no clue where the records came from.

Latest it goes back is Trancred DeHauteville born 1045 in Normandy France. I have no clue if these are correct, but it’s what ancestry says. I’m 4th generation born in DC as well.

So in other words you know nothing. I cannot tell you how much crap there is out on ancestry.com family trees. You have to check as there are standards to abide by and that’s assuming the info in documentation is all legit in the first place. People always want to believe that ancestor x with the same name x are one and the same. SMH. Until you have done your work, you have nothing.

I’d love to hear about families that have documentation on old scrolls — India, I think. You can visit the keepers and add your name when you visit.

That's coming across a little mean-spirited, PP. PP's mom did some research with the tools available to her for fun, and PP thinks it's kind of fun and admits that they have no idea if it's all correct. No need to criticize how inadequate their research has been.

And anyways, by your standards ("and that's assuming the info in documentation is all legit in the first place"), then your own documentation is worthless, too. No one knows anything!

I’m the PP and you are right. No one knows for sure based on paper. And the so-called “meaness” I as intended. I cannot tell you have much misinformation is out on sites like Ancsstry.com. I’ve done family research for about 25 years. So many people “copy and paste” trees without checking the sources propating the errors all over the Internet (so many sites like myheritage, take free info from elsewhere like ancestry.com and geni.com). I’ve sat in archives and family history centers listening to professionals frustrated by people who have changed or added errors to the pros public trees.

It is a fun hobby for some, but it can be frustrating dealing with people of widely varying standards of research.

yeah you were rude.
and you looked like you were me who was saying without the evidence it's all laughable
and I wasn't being that mean.

[Anonymous]

Could not care less. Get a life

[Anonymous]

I can only go back three generations. I'm Catholic, so we have extensive records through our church. However, before that, my family lived in Ireland and there is no record of them legally entering the US. I did some ancestry research over the pandemic and found out that my mom's family is just as Irish as my dad's! I always thought my mom's family was German! Nope, just my grandfather's dad! Everyone else is Irish. My husband's mom is really into genealogy. I'm from a city. My husband is from the South in a college town. It seems very popular in the South. A few years ago my husband and I went on a trip with his best friend from growing up. His best friend's wife made me feel embarrassed for her, thinking that the owner of a winery was related because they have the same last name. My last name is super common Irish surname. I do not think people with the same last name as me is related. Southern people seem to think everyone is related to them.

[Anonymous]

Some family back to Colonial America and almost all, with one exception, were in this country well before the Revolutionary War.

[Anonymous]

People don’t realize that once you go back five generations or so you have very little genetic inheritance from any one ancestor.

I have not gone back further than my grandparents, because honestly, who gives a shit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some family back to Colonial America and almost all, with one exception, were in this country well before the Revolutionary War.

Nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could not care less. Get a life

DP. No need to be rude. Not everyone has the same interests as you

[Anonymous]

Documented to 1717.

It wasn't my interest but a great aunt of mine and she gave me and my cousins all of her research before she died.

Out of respect for her, I'll keep updating the family tree moving forward and pass it to my kids to do with it what they want.

[Anonymous]

Supposedly one line goes to William the Conqueror, but I’m skeptical. More reliable family trees on one side go to the late 1700s. On my dad’s side there’s very little information beyond my grandparents / great-grandparents. I took a test for genetic mutations 9 years ago and my results don’t really match my family tree, so that’s interesting. My family tree is the British isles, Dutch, and maybe a little bit German. One mutation I carry indicates Swedish ancestry. Not that far from the Netherlands, and tied to the Brits in some ways, so not two surprising. Two genes indicate Eastern European / Ashkenazi ancestry so I was surprised by that.