[Our03z4]

I've been doing ancestor research on my family for a few years now and I can tell you it's quite humbling. (BTW I use DNA to verify all the paths) It's amazing how one thing can literally be the difference between me being here or not. Take for instance an entire family being wiped out in an accident leaving only the husband/father alive who then remarried, allowing me to be created MANY years later.

I've found that I've had some pretty amazing people in my family, Judges, business owners, people appointed by presidents, many Union Civil War vets, Rev. War vets, Ship Captains etc. No one "famous" but I'm okay with that.There is even a park named after my many times grandfather had a fort during the Revolutionary War.

Also found out that my family came over on the Mayflower, approx 3% of Americans can claim this but it's still neat to think about.

Luckily my family have been on the right side of history for the most part, yes, I know it could be argued about coming here and colonizing. But I'm quite proud to see how my family has helped this great country exist. I hope to be able to continue this as well. Some of my family also lived in Philadelphia during the Declaration of Independence being signed. What exciting times it must have been!


Anyone else do this? Share your history as well.

[evil-G-nius]

I have wanted to do this but I am not really trusting what will be done with the DNA part of it. I am curious about my family's roots though, I know that I have a lot of Native American blood, as well as French, German, Irish, & Scottish. I am not sure where in Africa my ancestors are from and I have a hunch that I have roots from an island called Saba not too far from Saint Martin. I'll get around to doing it sooner or later because I am so interested about who I am as well.

[ezaircon4jc]

I'm related to Ted Bundy...

[Robin_NL]

Being from the 'old country' having a not very common Frisian surname , but historically interesting, this always has been stuff I heard about in the family since I was a kid.

To keep it simple: Western German blood(geographically) from one side, Frisian(which I am) blood (back to the 7th century!! I once got a big like telephone book) from the other side.....

In medieval times our ancestors were living(and being high up in the local council things) on one of the (West) Frisian Wadden islands overhere (google Terschelling) which is now kind of a touristic island about 40 miles from where I live.

There is a 3 year old girl on a 17th century painting in the Frisian Museum in Leeuwarden(Friesland capital) which should be one of our ancestors who was Saskia van Uylenburg's 'niece'.
Saskia was Rembrand's wife.

There is also a coat of arms of our family. But it was a very big Roman Catholic family with also lots of separations unfortunately....

There was some pretty financial power (acres and acres of land overhere which my hometown/township bought from my ancestors to build houses/burroughs on and even a cemetery ) before WWII in my (way too big) family in my hometown. But that's been a bit gone after the war.

Poor me))))

So that's about it.

Cheers
Robin

[Robin_NL]

Originally Posted by evil-G-nius

I have wanted to do this but I am not really trusting what will be done with the DNA part of it. I am curious about my family's roots though, I know that I have a lot of Native American blood, as well as French, German, Irish, & Scottish. I am not sure where in Africa my ancestors are from and I have a hunch that I have roots from an island called Saba not too far from Saint Martin. I'll get around to doing it sooner or later because I am so interested about who I am as well.

I was at Saba and St Maarten in 1992. My uncle and aunt lived there back in the 90s (St Maarten, Dutch part). Saba is very exciting (and also 'Dutch property)

Cheers
Robin

[Robin_NL]

Originally Posted by Our03z4

Luckily my family have been on the right side of history for the most part, yes, I know it could be argued about coming here and colonizing. But I'm quite proud to see how my family has helped this great country exist. I hope to be able to continue this as well. Some of my family also lived in Philadelphia during the Declaration of Independence being signed. What exciting times it must have been!

If it wasn't for colonisation there wouldn't be a USA at all. The Netherlands were the first in the world to declare USA independency.


If 'we'(English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Dutch) hadn't done any colonisation at all, what would the 'modern' 'western' world would have looked like?

It's only the 'euro' guys who are to blame in this woke age. But I(we) know better.

Anyway.
From my mum's side my grandparents had two young jewish kids from 'Amsterdam area' secretly living with them on their small ranch in WW2. After the war they emigrated to Canada so I've been told.

On the other hand....from my father's side, his uncle(1908(?)-1989)- my grandmother's(1917-2006) brother- who had some land and properties at the German border where he lived chose wrong politically (NSB which is the Dutch party/ connection with the Nazi party) . He stated he was living almost 'in Germany' and it was common to do so ......different times.

He never did harm to anyone I must say!!!
It was that age and time I guess.....

Cheers
Robin

[Alfisti]

I am of Maltese stock so I am a an absolute mutt of a thing given the shit that has gone down there.

[Uber Commuter]

I'm more or less half Celtic (Wales) and half Saxon - So entirely British overall...

[UncleWede]

I know 3 grandparents came thru Ellis Island from the Emerald Island. Paternal grandfather came from Germany.

I do have a book somewhere that my aunt proctored, detailing way farther back and expanding some of the other limbs of the family.

I tried one of those DNA things. I was adding in names of relatives when suddenly I needed to pay to continue. No, I'm expanding your business by creating the links, and you want me to PAY for that privilege???

[NYG]

Like most people with roots in Eastern Europe; just a bunch of slavery/death/hunger.

[erickonphoenix]

The most startling revelation we found was my maternal grandfather appears to have dodged the WW1 draft. He was born in 1900 so it's not like he didn't know about it but living in rural southern Louisanna he probably considered it a "Union" conflict. The Civil War would have been a very recent event in our families history at the time and he did make a comment to that effect in the Vietnam era.

My paternal grandfather served proudly in WW2, I don't know if they ever discussed it while they were alive but they would have been about a generation apart.

[KevinC]

Great-great (or is it 3 greats?) grandson of Jethro Tull. Mind blown.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by KevinC

Great-great (or is it 3 greats?) grandson of Jethro Tull. Mind blown.

First thing that comes to mind is the rock band, then I search a bit and find the agriculturist and inventor. lol

[tcphoto]

My father's side of the family is a mystery and that will likely never be learned but my mother's is well documented. The patriarch of the family was a hunt guide in Strasberg, Germany but the city has also been claimed by France depending on the political climate. In 1753 there was an "incident" with a Royal or Noble and he had to leave quickly. They came to America, first to York County, PA then moved west through Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. My family fought in the Revolutionary War, 1812 and Civil Wars with the Union mainly on river boats.

I learned that some went to Texas and helped found a small town in the NW corner, Clarksville, TX. My immediate family (Grandmother) was from Indiana and then settled in Central Illinois where I was born. I didn't learn about my family history until a few years ago but always felt a sense of pride from the older members growing up.

[Esteban]

Half Irish, quarter English and a quarter Scottish.

[Boomer 2019]

I have been researching on Ancestry for 17 years now, and still do some nearly every day. I got started because I was adopted at birth and always wanted to know where I came from. My mom had told me that my birth parents were from Boston, and their lineage was Scotch and Irish. After her death I found that she had put away documents for me relating to my adoption, and my birth parents which gave my fathers name, and my mothers initials. Also a letter written by my birth mother to my mom 3 weeks prior to my birth which contained additional information. There was nothing I could do with the limited info at the time (pre personal computers and internet). Then in 2004 the internet had expanded to the point where I was able to finally find out who they were, and I was off to the races. My birth family tree now includes 13,000 people with one of the branches going back to the 1000's in Normandy, and soon after, arriving in England with William the Conqueror in 1066.

My birth father was born in Abeerdeen, Scotland and I have been able to trace his family back to the early 1600's. My birth mother was a combo of mostly Irish with additional Scotch, and English as well.

My birth parents had died by this time, but I found out that I have 2 full sisters and 1 full brother, as well as 3 half sisters, and 2 half brothers. I was raised as an only child. Phone calls were made (tough ones) and were hit and miss. As a result I am still in touch with 3 of them, and there are visits.

If you are at all curious I highly recommend doing this . It's fascinating.

[Our03z4]

Originally Posted by Boomer 2019

I have been researching on Ancestry for 17 years now, and still do some nearly every day. I got started because I was adopted at birth and always wanted to know where I came from. My mom had told me that my birth parents were from Boston, and their lineage was Scotch and Irish. After her death I found that she had put away documents for me relating to my adoption, and my birth parents which gave my fathers name, and my mothers initials. Also a letter written by my birth mother to my mom 3 weeks prior to my birth which contained additional information. There was nothing I could do with the limited info at the time (pre personal computers and internet). Then in 2004 the internet had expanded to the point where I was able to finally find out who they were, and I was off to the races. My birth family tree now includes 13,000 people with one of the branches going back to the 1000's in Normandy, and soon after, arriving in England with William the Conqueror in 1066.

My birth father was born in Abeerdeen, Scotland and I have been able to trace his family back to the early 1600's. My birth mother was a combo of mostly Irish with additional Scotch, and English as well.

My birth parents had died by this time, but I found out that I have 2 full sisters and 1 full brother, as well as 3 half sisters, and 2 half brothers. I was raised as an only child. Phone calls were made (tough ones) and were hit and miss. As a result I am still in touch with 3 of them, and there are visits.

If you are at all curious I highly recommend doing this . It's fascinating.

Thanks for sharing!

I'm mainly English and German with some Norwegian, Scottish, Irish and Finnish.

I've been able to go back to the 1300's so far. How were you able to go back so far, must have been a ton of work? Once it can't be DNA verified I lose interest going back much further.

I did find out I'm related to former President Truman, would have been one of my far back uncles. My many times grand parents were Quakers and helped found one of the NJ colonies. I also had a lot of Knights in my mothers side of the family, mostly for King Edward III. I'm also related to Prince William and Harry through Princess Diana.

Also a really interesting one is my 8th grandmother was the 1st statue of a woman in America, sad and crazy story to read about. It was in books and magazines, amazing what people went through back in the day. Take a look if you have time and the desire.

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by Robin_NL

I was at Saba and St Maarten in 1992. My uncle and aunt lived there back in the 90s (St Maarten, Dutch part). Saba is very exciting (and also 'Dutch property)

Cheers
Robin

I've spent this week with a couple from St Martin, the wife is part african but looks mostly dutch, beautiful.


My tree consists of English, Italian, Hungarian, French, German.

[bucketfoot]

More than half Scandanavian (primarily Norweigan), with Germanic and English all accounting for roughly 90% of my heritage.

The Norwegian part can be traced back to at least 1380. Six years ago we were able to stay at our family farm in Telemark that we have records for going back to at least 1480, but it has likely been in the family since at least 1410.

On the English side there are family members born in Plymouth in the 1600's

[evil-G-nius]

Originally Posted by Robin_NL

I was at Saba and St Maarten in 1992. My uncle and aunt lived there back in the 90s (St Maarten, Dutch part). Saba is very exciting (and also 'Dutch property)

Cheers
Robin

I think I was there in Saint Maarten around the same time you were and then I went back in 2000 or 2001 and went to Saba for the first time. Such a cool little island

[tranquility]

I never had the curiosity (esp to give away my DNA) but there must be lots and lots of history coming from the largest ethnicity in the world.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by tranquility

I never had the curiosity (esp to give away my DNA) but there must be lots and lots of history coming from the largest ethnicity in the world.

So, Han Chinese?