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Has anybody been very surprised by their genealogy research?
Have you found anything you thought was completely different, an ancestry line you were completely unaware of, or something like that?
I was absolutely astounded by what I found. I espected to find that I was mostly English, Irish, and Scots, with a dash of German. I thought that my ancestors had probably immigrated in the nineteenth century and that it would be fun to find out where they came from in the "Old Country."
Instead, I found branches going back to the seventeenth century, and finding the "Old Countries" is a lot more complicated than I expected it would be.
The Civil War veterans were not unexpected; the French Huguenots certainly were!
Genealogy is an amazing hobby, especially if you like research and mysteries.
My biggest surprise came when I discovered that my husband and I are 10th cousins through our mothers. As surprised as we were, however, I think it was a bigger shock to our mothers. They can't stand each other!
I use Geni for my genealogy. I was pretty surprised when a forth cousin, once removed added my father into his list and contacted me, linking our trees...
Has anybody been very surprised by their genealogy research?
Have you found anything you thought was completely different, an ancestry line you were completely unaware of, or something like that?
Probably the biggest 'surprise' I ever got was when I found out that my 12th great grandparents were Pocahontas and John Rolfe through my Bolling/Bowling line. At first I said, "Yeah, right, everyone wants to be related to them". Then I got the proof and finally was able to accept it. Fortunately for me there have been MANY people researching these lines so I have the Rolfe history back to around 600 AD. I'd LOVE to know which of Powhaton's wives was the mother of Pocahontas but I expect that fact is lost to history. It is estimated that there are at least 500,000 of their descendants in the US today.
There have been other "surprises" as well but that one is by far the "biggest".
Now...if I could only break down some of my 'brick walls' I might get MORE "surprises"!!
I was surprised to find out that William Bradford, second governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and Mayflower passenger, is my 10th great-grandfather. Why it was even more surprising is because it is through my paternal grandmother's line and she was said by her daughters (my aunts) to have known her family history back many generations "all the way to the Bismarck family in Germany". Although she is of German descent and had several German names in her family tree, no link to any Bismarck's have ever turned up. It is another branch of her family that goes back to William Bradford. I doubt that she ever knew she had such a famous ancestor.
I also knew about the Confederate Civil War great-grandfather I had through my mother's line but was surprised to find out I had a Union Civil War great-grandfather on my father's side.
I researched my husbands line and found a cousin that had photos of my husbands ggg grandfather. In one of the photos, the ggg grandfather had one of his sons standing behind him. The son looks exactly like my father in law. We held up a photo of my FIL when he was in his early 20s and we were amazed that they looked just alike. That was a neat surprise.
I was surprised to find out I am part of the Chilton line (Mayflower). James Chilton - the oldest passenger aboard the Mayflower, and one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact, was my grandfather (however many generations back), and his daughter, Isabella (though she came a few years after the Mayflower) was my grandmother. Isabella's sister/James' daughter, Mary Chilton, supposedly the first documented person or female on land coming off the Mayflower, would have been an aunt of mine.
I also may have Cherokee, but will need further research.
Grandfather who was from the Mediterranean has an Irish surname, but I've been unable to trace him (unfortunately, I think he and my grandmother came here illegally, so I can't find documentation to trace either person), but with the name, I'm led to believe his roots are in Ireland. I've also read he was born in another country than he said he was from - but I'll need to dig more to try and find out about that, too.
Traced family back to 1580/90 ish (before I couldn't trace anymore) to the US. Found out that most of the rest of my family was here from the early-mid 1600's, and early 1700's.
Already knew I had a lot of family in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars - but never knew I had as many as I've unearthed.
Found a lot more family from Ireland/Scotland than I thought I originally had.
and I was able to trace back to about 990, something I never thought I'd be able to do.
Not mine but my brother in law got a surprise when his grand daughter sent him a book on one of his relatives. Its seem his removed grandfathyer was govennor of Mass in the 1800's . He was later a senator and ambassador. He also spkoe for nearly two hours at Gettyburg just before Lincoln. He didn't take it too seriously until the book listed his uncle;aunt and father as known decedents.His comment to me was ;well I had some relative in the ole politcal machine in Boston afterall.
growing up, we had always been told that we were related to "the Prince of Wales". Although which one was never made clear. Several years ago, my cousin Sharon traced our family and in doing so, found out that we are direct descendants of King Charles II. Sounds impressive until you discover that great-grandpa Charlie had 17 illegitimate children. Somewhere, I have a crapload of cousins !
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