How many generations or years can you trace your ancestors?
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Anonymous
Why nonsense? I'm in the same boat. Virtually all lines arrived prior to the revolution, going back to the very late 17th century. A lot of people did move to early colonial America and pretty much stayed in the same place for multiple generations and intermarried with families in the same region with the same origins. Then people could migrate westwards for new farms and often travelled in groups with other migrants from their old communities. A perfect example is my paternal line. They were German Anabaptists who came to Pennsylvania in the late 17th century in a big group of other Anabaptist immigrants and first settled in Lancaster County. Stayed in the same part of Lancaster for a few generations, and then moved, with some of their neighbors, who they were related to through intermarriages (big families with lots of children), to York County, and then the next generation to Franklin County, and then stayed put for the next few generations. But once more always marrying within the same Lutheran/Anabaptist heritages as that was the dominant heritage for their regions. No matter what line I trace through, it's the same story. I do have a bunch of weird-sounding German last names in my ancestry that's almost only found in certain parts of south central Pennsylvania. They're not even found in Germany anymore! Then you have my maternal line, which is almost entirely Virginian of English/Scots-Irish heritage but with similar patterns of movement. These were all plain, quiet small town people and farmers. |
Anonymous
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My father's mother came from an almost noble family, traced back to 1600.
Her family includes a relative that was on a British ship fighting Americans in Baltimore. Her family has a distant nobleman that moved around. She was the grand daughter of a school principal. That was quite something back in the day. My father's farther was from a peasant family, but they were able to get him educated to a university level at the turn of the century. The interesting thing about the family tree is that grandma's family was all educated and everyone's life span much longer than grandpa's. With the war being an exception. This took me by surprise. My mother's farther was an engineer, a 2nd son of land owning farmers. He could not inherit the farm as it could no longer be split and support the family. He got himself a degree in engineering at a time when that was a very interesting field to get into. My mom's mother also had a degree in business. They met on campus. She was an only child of a slightly unhappy marriage. Parents were traders so they had the means to educate her. Both sides of the family have interesting stories |
Anonymous
| All the way back to Alexander the Great and then Socrates! Then to Vlad Tepes, well from then on it is all easy! |
Anonymous
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Considering that my ancestors are Vlad Tepes and Petar Blagojevic, from around the 1400s.
Of course, we don't have to trace anything, being immortal and all that! |
Anonymous
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I just connected with a man via email because of a DNA match. His great-grandfather and my mom's great-grandfather were siblings. And we know they had one other brother. They lived in a small village in Ukraine (think Fiddler on the Roof). My mom's great-grandfather came to the US in the late 1800s. We're not sure if his great-grandfather ever came to the US, but his children came in the early 1900s.
Before this DNA match, we did not know of one another. It's neat to fill in the blanks of our families and how we are related. I am also in contact with two other descendants of these three brothers. Just a couple of generations ago, these families all knew each other. It's pretty cool to reconnect and learn the history of how they all got to the US and how the families fared. |
Anonymous
Interesting On my husband's side, his sister and her husband found out that 5 generations ago they both had an ancestor who lived on St Helena island. This was due to the same last name. They do not know if they could have been a siblings or cousins |
Anonymous
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Well I recently found out that my mom was actually married 3 times.
...we don't keep good records. Or tell each other anything. |
Anonymous
| I am from Tidewater Virginia. My sibling and I were the first to move away from the area. Our ancestors all immigrated to the Chesapeake Bay Region in the 1600’s (earliest we have traced is a surgeon and his wife who came in 1619), and mostly lived as farmers or fisherman until my parent’s generation. |
Anonymous
| 1700s England/Scotland - miners and farmers - some landed, some not. Most came to U.S. in 1800s and dispersed from there. |
Anonymous
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Back to the 1500's.
I've had a family member fight in every war in the US. My mother is big into researching, she's also a member of the DAR and UDC. They have lots and lots of information and experience tracing family. |
Anonymous
Every person of European ancestry is almost certainly descended from Charlemagne. The trick is to be able to accurately track the descent. https://www.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2015/may/24/business-genetic-ancestry-charlemagne-adam-rutherford#:~:text=In%202013%2C%20geneticists%20Peter%20Ralph,%2C%20Drogo%2C%20Pippin%20and%20Hugh. |
Anonymous
Every person of European ancestry? I assure you I am not. Just bcs you don't consider the "rest" of us European doesn't mean we are not. A Balkan person here! In fact, "us" east of your precious Charlemagne don't want any of your murderous genetic code in us! |
Anonymous
| The article indicates that anyone who has any west European ancestry within the past 1000 years, regardless of where you live today, is likely a descendent of Charlemagne. It’s just math/statistical probability. |
Anonymous
| I’m pretty sure that some of my early colonial ancestors who had very large families have a million or more ancestors. |
Anonymous
| Oops make that descendants. |