How far back have you traced your ancestors? (American, find, search)

[Lucario]

I am quite surprised that I have gone back as far as 1200 AD.

Surprised because I am of African descent and these ancestors I traced are Europeans.

[tinynot]

Are you a Latter Day Saint, or Mormon ? That is an extremely long ago date that you traced to, and if I may ask, where did you find information for that time period? How long have you been searching family history?

I have only traced my folks to the 19th century. Those born and living in the 1800's. I have run into roadblocks many times and put it all up for months at a time.

[PA2UK]

That's pretty impressive and unusual if you have records for it all. But don't forget if you're just finding the information on other trees or other unreliable sources, it may not be accurate.

I have traced some of my branches back to the mid to late 1600s, many to the 1700s but probably most to the early 1800s. My oldest line goes back to about 1640.

[kevxu]

I have one line that has documentation back to 1495, but the next oldest ones with records are about 75-80 years later. All the rest of my lines begin in the 1700s somewhere.

The earliest ones are Dutch, and the Dutch both in the Netherlands and in their American colony kept good records, many of which still exist. The Irish lines are very difficult because of the records burned in the Irish Civil War in the early 1920's which destroyed so much historical documentation.

[PA2UK]

Actually I just went through my tree and this is the breakdown:

17 branches date back to the 1800s, 25 to the 1700s (with about half being in the late 1700s) and 8 to the mid to late 1600s.

It's mainly my dad's side that have the problem of dead ending in the 1800s.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by PA2UK

Actually I just went through my tree and this is the breakdown:

17 branches date back to the 1800s, 25 to the 1700s (with about half being in the late 1700s) and 8 to the mid to late 1600s.

It's mainly my dad's side that have the problem of dead ending in the 1800s.

I have a similar problem. The only branch I have gotten nowhere with is my father's paternal branch. I only get to my father's paternal grandfather and then its a black pit.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the searching as I have met a number of far-flung relatives, who turned out to be very pleasant folks and several times had interestings additions to the family saga.

[PA2UK]

For me, it's more my father's maternal side - because they all immigrated in the early 1900s from Italy and Italian records seem very hard, if not impossible to research on the internet.

[other99]

From English side of family the earliest would be 1066 on the battle of Hastings.

[soonerguy]

I have quite a few lines back to the 1600's (early arrivals in America), mainly on my maternal grandmother's side. Many of her families were somewhat prominent thus there are better records. I have lots of lines that dead end in the mid-1800's, mainly on my father's side, although he has a few lines that go further back. My real problem is my maternal grandfather. I have his parents, his maternal grandparents, and one great-grandfather and that is it.

I have tied some of my grandmother's lines with others who have done research, some going way back to Europe.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by kevxu

I have a similar problem. The only branch I have gotten nowhere with is my father's paternal branch. I only get to my father's paternal grandfather and then its a black pit..

Kevxu, if you're a guy you may have some luck using y-dna to get you back further. If you're a gal and you have brothers or if your father is still alive they could take the y-dna test. Once you have your haplogroup and markers established you can then try to match up with others of the same last name who have similar dna. They may have physical records that you can then tie in with your earliest known paternal ancestor. It's worth a try.