Anyone do Genealogy / Ancestry?

[Jim Oaks]

I'm not big into it. I was given a DNA kit a few years ago and learned I'm English / Irish and have the DNA chromosome linking me to Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish warlord, who was the Irish “High King” at Tara, the ancient center of Ireland from A.D. 379 to A.D. 405.

My son-in-law researched the ancestry for the family and traced my fathers side back to Henry Oake is England. Henry had a son also named Henry born in London in 1735. That Henry came to America and changed the last name from Oake to Oaks.

Henry had a son in Culpepper Virginia in 1765. I'm guessing he probably came to America in the 1750's.

Henry died in Culpepper, Viginia but I don't know the year. Probably 1805-1815. Probably wouldn't be able to make out the names on tombstones that old.

The Revolutionary War started in 1775, so I know for certain my family was here at least 10 years before that.

Has anyone else ever looked to see how far back your family goes here in America? Not that it matters in any way. I just found it interesting.

 

[JoshT]

I have not, don't put much trust in those DNA tests either.

Someone has done the legwork on dad's side of the family and published a book on it. I don't recall the years, but they cam over from Ireland prior to the revolutionary war. That is where the work stopped. I don't know if they were originally from there, or if that was a stop in the journey.

 

[RobbieD]

It's been a hobby of mine for years. It's the closest thing you can get, to time travel.

 

[19Walt93]

My wife and I sent in samples for analysis years ago at our daughter's request. I've been using Ancestry since and now have nearly 22,000 people in my tree. My mother used to say she was English, Irish, Scotch(scotch is a drink, the people are Scots) Welsh, and American Indian. I've also found Dutch, Germans, Belgians, and French. My father's side is primarily French with some Scottish, Belgian, Italian, American/Canadian Indian, and Scandinavian with one Chinese woman who made her way to France in the 1600's and one black woman from Haiti.It sometimes takes some digging to get the right info but it's been interesting. I found several English people who came on the Mayflower and many from France who were in New France(Canada) before that. If the clues line up I can usually get back into the 1400's.

 

[Snoranger]

My grandfather traced the family lineage back to Ancient Rome. I’m a descendant of the Roman emperor Charlemagne. He also found that part of the family came over on the Mayflower.
I have about 40+ 3 ring binders full of family history.

 

[97RangerXLT]

I have been into it off and on for quite a while. Dad's side of the family, we have traced back to the late 1700s to South Carolina, Dad's Moms side a cousin has traced back to 1200s England. I am a descendant of Lord Ratcliffe of England. (so yes, I am royalty and demand you treat me as such! ) Mom's side, her Fathers ancestors came over to America on the same boat as the Brothers Grimm. her moms side, well the name is Smith, and from what I have gathered a lot of people running from the law and trying to start over changed their name to Smith. and for that side of the family, it fits lol

AJ

 

[RobbieD]

yes, I am royalty and demand you treat me as such!

 

[ekrampitzjr]

I've found that people (mostly women) get into genealogy because they want to find they're related to bygone royalty or some famous person. Usually they lose interest when they learn that their great-great-great-great grandfather was hanged for being a horse thief.

DNA "ancestry" sites freely share the DNA with authorities "investigating crimes", by the way, and they don't have to tell you they're doing that. That also helps the government build its databases.

 

[97RangerXLT]

View attachment 108394

Finally the respect I am entitled to. And by a cat no less! Now that is befitting of royalty!



Wait a minute... is he sticking his tongue out at me?

 

[RobbieD]

He said that you're a lickable guy . . . .

 

[97RangerXLT]

I've found that people (mostly women) get into genealogy because they want to find they're related to bygone royalty or some famous person. Usually they lose interest when they learn that their great-great-great-great grandfather was hanged for being a horse thief.

DNA "ancestry" sites freely share the DNA with authorities "investigating crimes", by the way, and they don't have to tell you they're doing that. That also helps the government build its databases.

Interesting... I have found it to be opposite, mostly everyone I have met that is into genealogy has been male. Maybe for the same reason, to show the girl that they are interested in that they are descendants of royalty.. my grandma and sister are a few of the females that were/are interested in it. Grandma handed down to us a typewritten history of Dads side of the family done by one of grandpa's siblings that has some interesting facts on the family, and the lineage in that document which was typewritten in 1965 is backed by DNA markers taken in the last 10 to 20 years.

Not a fan of DNA kits either, primarily for the government database part. That data in the wrong hands or wrong "good intention" can be very bad.

AJ

 

[97RangerXLT]

Some things I have found to be useful in genealogy hunts... if you know where your ancestors lived and died, www.findagrave.com is a good resource, and can even have pictures of the tombstones and genealogical family trees. The family trees are not 100 percent accurate, but can give you a starting point.

County courthouses, found a marriage license of my grandmother's grandparents on file in a northern Indiana courthouse.

Credit has some good stuff too, and of course ancestry.com.

The Latter Day Saints also have good free resources, but you enter your info online and anyone can edit it, but hey also are big on DNA confirmation.

AJ

 

[RobbieD]

Similar here. My grandfather gave me several pages of ancestor families lists (husband, wife, children with birth/death dates) hand written by my great grandmother.

I haven't had DNA testing; I do have serious reservations about my (most?) personal data being controlled by a private company with unknown access by who knows who.

I don't do Ancestry.com. I'm totally against "for profit" genealogy.

FamilySearch.com has free access to indexed data, and unindexed original period documents. FindAGrave is good.

I prefer to find and work from period original documents, as in my case most of the information on the web about my ancestors is full of inaccuracies. That's probably also true for most of what's on the commercial genealogy websites.

My lineage in America goes back to 1660 in Virginia. In my case, once you dive in that deep, you get curious and start leaning more details about life in general back in those times. How did they make things? What did they use for light (adjustable wick oil lamps weren't invented until the 1790s). How far could a person travel in one day (foot, horse, wagon)?

It's a fascinating journey; almost like time travel.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I've found that people (mostly women) get into genealogy because they want to find they're related to bygone royalty or some famous person. Usually they lose interest when they learn that their great-great-great-great grandfather was hanged for being a horse thief.

DNA "ancestry" sites freely share the DNA with authorities "investigating crimes", by the way, and they don't have to tell you they're doing that. That also helps the government build its databases.

Yeah, I don't do the DNA thing, I play the long game and don't even pay Ancestry for it. They give me so many hints every so often.

I enjoy it, its fun to see where we came from, I knew enough of our history to gather we were not from anything too special.

The family that brought my name over was still in England at the Revolutionary War, they must not of opposed it too bad because it wasn't long after they came over and married into a family that had been here before the war.

I had a couple in the Civil War, most came over around 1900 though.

I did trace my wife's side back to Nottinghamshire in like the 1200's and up for a ways... kinda funny to think someone on her side probably had an idea if Robin Hood was real or what the origin of the story might be.

Finally the respect I am entitled to. And by a cat no less! Now that is befitting of royalty!

 

[97RangerXLT]

some other sources... National Archives for military. found some good stuff that confirmed history passed down by family in there, and a little more depth on that history. There was a huge fire that destroyed a bunch of those records in the 60s I think, but some of the documents that were not completely burned are being put online/ restored etc. great resource. you can find military induction dates, discharge dates, possible pictures even from many of the wars.

Social security death index files. I have a CD of these from ancestry from back in the 1990s. immigration records, Marriage index, also on several cds. I have Family Tree Maker 2014 and before that I had an older version of it, the older version Dad and I spent the money on the cd's and got some good info. for Dad's side of the family, we are kind of stuck, we have not found a whole lot of info except from a DNA marker that confirmed a great great great great (several greats lol) grandfather but nothing before him or who his parents were. We just know that he had a kid in Wake Co North Carolina, lived in and possibly died in South Carolina or Georgia.

So what software do you all use for your research? is it in the GEDCOM (i thnk that is the universal format) and is it free? the upgrade to Family tree maker 2014 is 2019 and it costs fricken 90 bucks.... but also is part of ancestry.com and geneology for profit as you mentioned...

AJ