How many generations or years can you trace your ancestors?

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

On one side, right back to the English Reformation of the 1550s.

[Anonymous]

10 or 11 generations.

[Anonymous]

Back to the 1870s on one side of the family. My cousins and I have spent a lot of time going through census and county records, and digging through all the resources on Ancestry.com. The trail always gets cold because slavery. Is "Sarah" on a ledger from 1860 an ancestor? Who knows.

[Anonymous]

Two, but I also don't care about that kind of thing.

[Anonymous]

Back to my great-great grandparents, based on oral history from my grandparents. That was as far back as they remembered and anyone cared. The country we come from doesn’t maintain good records. So from about the 1850s.

[Anonymous]

1590

[Anonymous]

Me, the early 1800's. My DD to the beginning of time on her father's side. She has a strong royal heritage. Has done her DNA and her family tree is online. She belongs to a Civil War Society and the DAR, eligible for the Mayflower Society, and Royal Society. COVID has slowed her application process.

[Anonymous]

Charlemagne but I know it’s a lie, everybody in Europe wanted to go back to Charlemagne.

[Anonymous]

My mom is into this stuff. She traced one side back to 1100 or something.

[Anonymous]

My mom is into it. She’s traced her side back to at least the 1500s in France (thank you Catholic Church record keeping) and my dad’s side to Ulster, Ireland and Scotland. Dad’s ancestor came to VA as an indentured servant in the 1700s and then went further west with every few generations, mom’s side stopped in Quebec for a time before immigrating to New England in the late 1800s.

[Anonymous]

A relative got us back to Charlemagne. Haha, just like every white person in the world.

[Anonymous]

One branch of my family arrived in what were then the American colonies in the 1630s. Before that, they spent a couple hundred years in what became England, having hitched a ride across the channel in 1066 with the rest of William’s invaders.

I can answer your question because I’m white, and tie into a branch of a prominent family. So folks along the way thought their births/marriages/deaths were worth keeping track of. But dogs and horses have pedigrees too; having this info doesn’t make me any better or worse than someone who doesn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charlemagne but I know it’s a lie, everybody in Europe wanted to go back to Charlemagne.

Hey, cousin! It might not totally be a lie. But it sure ain't special.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2015/may/24/business-genetic-ancestry-charlemagne-adam-rutherford

[Anonymous]

Back to the US 1810 census for most ancestors. Have no idea when they came to US or what ethnicity other than probably mostly English / Scottish.

I enjoy doing the research, I've just gotten to the point where it has to be done in person, through land records and possibly wills at local courthouses. My family was not wealthy and most graves and records have been lost to time, and many courthouse records have been lost through fire.