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lol...that reminds me about the Mad about You episode where they thought they were 4th cousins and they both got turned on by it only to find out they weren't 4th cousins at all but that one side was the other's servant haha!
I don't really see the appeal either. Both of my parents were born in Ireland, & we always knew a few generations back, all in the same area. So when I did the DNA I got back 100% Irish, no surprise. It matters not to me, if an ancestor 400 years ago did something interesting or foolish. I already know people in RL who do that. Plus I know about 100 cousins, no shortage of relatives lol
So, why are you so into this? Can you explain to me what makes this a great hobby?
So for me, I love hearing stories about regular normal people. It's not even that much about people directly related to me as I try to get trees from people related by marriage and the relation (my heritage says in the profile of the person how they're related to you and some of them in mine are like "uncle's ex-wife's brother's second cousin 3rd removed" or something where they're not even remotely related to me, really, anymore) is often really really distant.
Sometimes I piece out some interesting stories about people's lives, like a doctor who shot his wife for a mercy killing and then shot himself. Sometimes I'll find a newspaper clipping about an old, large family and it gives a little bit of history about the family's life.
Then there is a bit of a narcissism in it. What I'd really love to find is to have some sort of connection directly or by a close marriage (not like brother's wife's 2nd husband's cousin 4th removed) to someone who was involved in the Reformation. That would be really cool, and some of my ancestors are from Wortemburg (totally have the spelling wrong), Germany where I think a lot of that was going.
So for me, I love hearing stories about regular normal people. It's not even that much about people directly related to me as I try to get trees from people related by marriage and the relation (my heritage says in the profile of the person how they're related to you and some of them in mine are like "uncle's ex-wife's brother's second cousin 3rd removed" or something where they're not even remotely related to me, really, anymore) is often really really distant.
Sometimes I piece out some interesting stories about people's lives, like a doctor who shot his wife for a mercy killing and then shot himself. Sometimes I'll find a newspaper clipping about an old, large family and it gives a little bit of history about the family's life.
Then there is a bit of a narcissism in it. What I'd really love to find is to have some sort of connection directly or by a close marriage (not like brother's wife's 2nd husband's cousin 4th removed) to someone who was involved in the Reformation. That would be really cool, and some of my ancestors are from Wortemburg (totally have the spelling wrong), Germany where I think a lot of that was going.
So that's why I'm into it.
Loving history, I found out something cool!
I found out that I am related directly to Nicholas Martiau. Now - he is the architect that designed much of Jamestown and Yorktown, VA. He was a French Hugenot (however you spell that) who took refuge in England during the Reformation, and then he came to the new world. I thought that was cool.
I mean, I am Catholic but still...I think the whole era of the Reformation is very interesting. Wow, the killing and torture and all that that went on - crazy times!
I found out that I am related directly to Nicholas Martiau. Now - he is the architect that designed much of Jamestown and Yorktown, VA. He was a French Hugenot (however you spell that) who took refuge in England during the Reformation, and then he came to the new world. I thought that was cool.
I mean, I am Catholic but still...I think the whole era of the Reformation is very interesting. Wow, the killing and torture and all that that went on - crazy times!
"Huguenot". If your ancestor was at Manakintown, just up the James River from Richmond, his line is probably well documented, as many descendants of this group of Huguenots have done extensive research and shared it.
The Huguenots were French Protestants - Calvinists - who were brutally persecuted for their religious faith. Many escaped to more tolerant Switzerland, the Netherlands, and eventually, England before coming to the New World, as did one of my own lines.
Approximately 200 Huguenot emigrants (including many families with small children) came to the Virginia Colony from England in the early winter of 1700, on "The Mary and Anne" (or "Ann": I've seen both spellings). They were greatly assisted during the first hard year in what had been an abandoned Indian town by the good folks from Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, with one French family assigned to each of the Bruton Parish families to sponsor/financially assist.
Having sold most of their worldly goods to raise the cost of passage to Virginia, the French newcomers not only faced life on a new continent but also did not speak English (for the most part), were not Anglicans, and their customs were not English. Nonetheless, they assimilated reasonably well, and within two or three generations in Virginia, English names start appearing in their marriage records.
Two branches of my family were on board the "Mary and Anne", one for each of my paternal grandparents. The original settler/ancestors have many descendants in Virginia (and elsewhere) in addition to my own immediate family.
I don’t think knowing my ancestors is going to tell me any more about myself or really enhance my life. Already I feel kind of different from the relatives I know I have and think a fair portion of them are well ... kinda crazy. Do I want more crazy in my life? Um ... not really?
Same. I don't associate with the relatives I know about, so...
But, in all actuality, neither of us is related to 100% crazy people. There's some good in there, too. We may just have to stray back a couple of generations.
Also, since many of us come from fractured families, or for those who are adopted or whose parents died/left in their childhood, etc., I understand the need to want to find some good in the tree, since they've felt the pain of the not so good.
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isn’t this a tad narcissistic?
I don't follow that unless one is the type to constantly recite their tree as if it somehow boosts their status or ego. I once worked with a guy whose wife was distant cousins with a bit player on SNL... he told me every single time he saw me, as if that somehow made him special... & it wasn't even his tree, but his wife's, lol. So, yeah, that's a bit much.
I think most would like to see if there are similarities (like you're an artist & great grandad was, too), or have a bit of mystery discovered (you have kin in a country you'd not known about before), etc.
I'd be interested in seeing a tree if someone else put one together. My family has always been so fractured, that will never happen & since I affiliate with no relatives, my curiosity is slight.
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So, why are you so into this? Can you explain to me what makes this a great hobby?
Some people devour history books... kind of cool that they might be drawn to Russian or German history with great interest & a nice little nugget to find out they are unknowingly of Russian or German descent... how interesting that they were always attracted to that particular history.
Also, those who are interested in unearthing history, theirs & others, teach the rest of us. I admire those here who dig into their family history. It's interesting... I'm just not that motivated to begin... it's a lot of work to accurately trace back, but I enjoy the stories.
Without an interest and some knowledge of history, genealogy won't make much sense or grab your imagination. But history will touch on the big events and big people. There were most certainly little people and little events that contributed to those big events and that is most often where our ancestors come in. Less often, we bump into the big people lurking in the tree -- good or bad. I find that most interesting, I think.
DNA added a new wrinkle and upset the apple cart in many cases. I think it is still years away from being a stable resource. The paper trails sometimes did not agree with the DNA so we have an old school approach and a new school DNA approach and many people today are in both. I find DNA research interesting but not as a helpful genealogy tool. The limitations and reliability of DNA results -- about five generations and almost annual changes in origin locations -- makes it mostly helpful in locating DNA cousins. All too often these cousins have not researched or compiled even a basic family tree but our common ancestor might be five or six generations back. We have thousands of them all over the place. You might go nuts trying to figure out how they are connected but you can make progress on some close cousins that might add something to your genealogy work.
"Huguenot". If your ancestor was at Manakintown, just up the James River from Richmond, his line is probably well documented, as many descendants of this group of Huguenots have done extensive research and shared it.
The Huguenots were French Protestants - Calvinists - who were brutally persecuted for their religious faith. Many escaped to more tolerant Switzerland, the Netherlands, and eventually, England before coming to the New World, as did one of my own lines.
Approximately 200 Huguenot emigrants (including many families with small children) came to the Virginia Colony from England in the early winter of 1700, on "The Mary and Anne" (or "Ann": I've seen both spellings). They were greatly assisted during the first hard year in what had been an abandoned Indian town by the good folks from Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, with one French family assigned to each of the Bruton Parish families to sponsor/financially assist.
Having sold most of their worldly goods to raise the cost of passage to Virginia, the French newcomers not only faced life on a new continent but also did not speak English (for the most part), were not Anglicans, and their customs were not English. Nonetheless, they assimilated reasonably well, and within two or three generations in Virginia, English names start appearing in their marriage records.
Two branches of my family were on board the "Mary and Anne", one for each of my paternal grandparents. The original settler/ancestors have many descendants in Virginia (and elsewhere) in addition to my own immediate family.
Thanks.
Yes, his line is very well documented and he married an English woman. I believe he spoke English. He settled into a community that wasn't Puritan, though it was predominately Anglican.
He came to the colonies in 1620. Here's an interesting article on him. He is an ancestor of George Washington, among other very interesting people (including me, but I digress - LOL). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Martiau
His house is marked with a plaque in Yorktown (it's still standing and still beautiful), and his grave is prominent as well. I think it's all really interesting.
I don't really see the appeal either. Both of my parents were born in Ireland, & we always knew a few generations back, all in the same area. So when I did the DNA I got back 100% Irish, no surprise. It matters not to me, if an ancestor 400 years ago did something interesting or foolish. I already know people in RL who do that. Plus I know about 100 cousins, no shortage of relatives lol
I am late to the party but wanted to give my perspective......
For years I have known several generations of my father's side due to my uncle's great research. I don't know if that's what spurred me on to wanting to fill in my mother's side. It could have been started by a project my sister did in college. She asked my mother's brother to tell her everything he knew about our mother's family. He not only recorded a cassette (this was 1979, and the cassette has since been transferred to a CD) but he wrote out a sketch of a tree.
In 1996 I wrote up my version of the tree, sent it to my mother highlighting stuff I was hoping she'd fill in. She never replied and I now have the letter and accompanying highlighted pages because she died over 3 years ago.
I did my DNA through Ancestry last year and a familiar name appeared in my matches. I wrote to him but he never replied. I was looking at the list again about two weeks ago and another with familiar names in his tree appeared. I wrote him and he replied and it turns out we are second cousins. And he filled in some of the holes in my tree. He also gave me the contact information for his cousin, another of my second cousins (their mothers and my mother were first cousins), and he gave me even more information!
One of the main points I wanted to make here is that not everyone has history going back hundreds of years. I am one of those. My mother's parents left their home country to escape the pogroms. So all I had to start from was my uncle's information. Since then I learned that her mother arrived here in 1912. On our first pass through our mother's photos/documents we found our grandmother's Inspection Card when she crossed the border from Quebec to the U.S. From that we were able to see her name on the ship's manifest. I got the chills when I saw her name!! I searched for other family names but I couldn't find any. I sat there and imagined the courage of that 19 year old young woman travelling BY HERSELF all the way from Russia.
Since that discovery one of my mother's photos is of my grandmother and her younger brother. It was taken in Kishinev about two months before she arrived in the U.S. Again, I got the chills (and again as I write this). It seems they took that photo before she left on her long journey. Imagine how long it must have taken her to get to the ship in England. Then travel all the way across the ocean to Quebec. And she STILL wasn't done with her journey as she was headed to Chicago to meet up with her older brothers who came here before she did. One of them brought their mother, my great grandmother, with them and my second cousin told me where she is buried in Chicago.
So, for me, finding all the pieces of my mother's family history has been exciting!! For someone like me who had just a general idea of where I came from, this has been a lifelong goal coming to fruition. And I see that it's a work in progress. I will leave you all with a story I love which just happened this week.
When my sister and I were going through photos there were a handful with Yiddish written on the back. We scanned those and I had been looking for a translator. One photo really confused us because the writing was definitely not Yiddish(turns out it's German) and there was some Russian on it as well. So we labeled it "unknown Russian man". The other day I was staring at that writing when I finally saw the man's name written at the bottom and underlined: Samuel Rabinowitz. If I was right, this would be the grandfather of the two second cousins I just met. I sent them the photo to see if they had any that I could compare this photo with. One writes back "I have this exact same photo!!" It is indeed their grandfather and I now know the approximate date of the photo: 1908. I also now know what my copy says on the back: I give this card as a memento to remember me by forever. You know what Sam? It worked!! I will definitely remember you!!
My internet is being goofy yet again so I wanted to get my initial post done. But I wanted to add a little more. I now have a rough sketch of my mother's mother's family and only have my great grandmother as the beginning. I have my great grandfather's name but nothing else. I have not been able to find much for my grandfather's side. I did learn that he came to the U.S. in 1913 via his naturalization record and I found what is probably his name on a ship's manifest that landed in Nova Scotia. I say probably because it lists his language as Hebrew and his occupation as tailor. I don't know about those two things but his age is accurate and his destination was Chicago and the ship landed in December 1913. I would love to know if both my grandparents knew each other in Russia. I know that they were both from Kishinev but did they meet and marry in Chicago? It's anyone's guess. I will keep digging but for now I'm more than satisfied with what I already know about my grandmother's family. Again, a lifelong goal coming to fruition and I have a couple of new friends in my second cousins that I just met. I'm hoping to meet up with them later this year when we celebrate my uncle's 90th birthday in Chicago (the same uncle who documented my father's family). Yay!!
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We may just have to stray back a couple of generations. 
