They kicked my family out of England in 1634.

I notice that a lot of descendants of former slaves here have a chip on their shoulder and believe that people should be "ashamed" for the atrocities committed by their ancestors.

To those people - I say you need to study history more carefully because the fact is that many of your ancestors were sold into slavery by other Africans, often as a consequence of tribal wars. The fact is that your ancestor would have done the same thing (sell other people into slavery) if they had been on the winning side. You need to move on. And also be grateful of the fact that you are in this country, because as bad as your situation is here - it would be a lot worse in your ancestral land.

If I found out that I had ancestors going that far back in this country, I would shed tears of white guilt.

I have an ancestor that came over on the Mayflower and a few others that were in Jamestown.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did the research and were pretty psyched to find out all our relative came over after the Civil War, through Ellis Island.

Hundreds of thousands came through Ellis Is. A lot of people can trace this entry point.

Actually it was 12 million.

Anonymous wrote:We did the research and were pretty psyched to find out all our relative came over after the Civil War, through Ellis Island.

Hundreds of thousands came through Ellis Is. A lot of people can trace this entry point.

My ancestor Henry Wolcott and his family came over on the Mary and John in 1630. They have thousands of descendants in America today, so I'm no special snowflake. I find it interesting to be able to trace my family back that far and I am planning to visit their home in England someday.

Anonymous wrote:Social register isn't all that. Many members are broke and keeping up appearances.

This made me crack up

Anonymous wrote:Did your ancestors have immigration papers?

Lmfao

Hah, I'm a Mayflower descendant and DD is both Mayflower and Jamestown. We still have no money and no status...sigh. According to documents at one time DDs family owned a lot of land in VA "where is it?" lol.

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of genetics - my four most immediate "Mayflower" ancestors were all heavy. Photos of great-great grandfather - the only chubby one in the bunch. All of that extra Thanksgiving weight passed on through the generations, starting with the very first Thanksgiving.

I'm a chubby Mayflower descendant! (Mix of Saints and Strangers!) (and DAR-qualifying member but g-mom 'resigned' over the Marian Anderson business). That and $4 gets a cup of coffee at Starbucks. (The Mayflower 'scholarship' (competitive) is something like $10K still (same as it was 20+ yrs ago) and once you've paid 'dues' to societies for any amount of time, it may equal out to the $4 for Starbucks)

My ancestors built the Mayflower.

King Edward I and Prince John are both in my family tree.

Social register isn't all that. Many members are broke and keeping up appearances.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love all the "not sure which Mayflower passenger" (OP) and being distant relatives to "a couple of presidents" with no names. That's what genealogy is all about -- details!

New poster. My relative is Benjamin Franklin but through his mother.

too bad you didn't get a cut from all of his inventions