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Okay, I confess, I must be the only person on earth who can trace their ancestry back to servants. Heck, someone had to cook and serve food to your ancestors. And what about the cleaning, laundry, and groundskeeping? I know you must be quite proud of your noble lineage, but why did those nobles keep sneaking back to the kitchen for the "tastier bits?"
My grandfather and some of his brothers tried to see how far back they could trace their family tree one day. They went back to 1600s, then 1500s, surprisingly farther to 1400s, then to their surprise to Edward Longshanks. That certainly took them for a surprise. Ill have to see if I can dig up their work.
My grandfather and some of his brothers tried to see how far back they could trace their family tree one day. They went back to 1600s, then 1500s, surprisingly farther to 1400s, then to their surprise to Edward Longshanks. That certainly took them for a surprise. Ill have to see if I can dig up their work.
I have traced one of my lines back to William the Conqueror. I think Edward Longshanks is in there as well. Maybe I'll post it sometime to see if anyone can find any holes in it.
Good points, HVL & you also described at least 1 relative all of us have had, whether in our lifetimes or generations before, whether we know it or not. Do we really know today what great-great-great-granddad was up to? Add in an assault no one dared speak of, adoptions, putting those 'not perfect' in institutions/sanitariums, old world pillaging or love affairs, which produced children... well, I daresay all of us have genes in common with those we'd never expect.
Reminds me of that Chris Rock joke (addressing people who are prejudiced in some way), in which he says don't kid yourself, because whatever you hate has probably already found it's way into your family bloodline.
We'll never see a chart, but if you want to get extreme, we are all, every human being, descendent from a genetic Eve. She lived in southern Africa during the time of 'the great squeeze' when the total human population may have dropped to as low as less than a thousand, due likely to volcanic activity which sent the weather systems out of sync and caused mass extiinctions. Every humans mitoconrial DNA, though modified by aberations, is descended from her. So we all have one genetic 'grandmother'. And there is a genetic 'Adam' more recently isolated, based on elements only passed on father to son which all human males share, who lived about a thousand years later in mid western area of Africa. All males share a genitic link with him.
On one of the tv geneological shows this one woman was traced back as related to Charlemange, but in her case it was all recorded births. But they pointed out that he had something like 24 legitimate children by his wives and many more known who were not but were none the less recognized, and likely more who were not known. This was in a very small population, something we don't think much about. Which is why so much of Europe can call him a long lost grandaddy.
I think one of the joys of tracing family is it connects you with the past. It was an amazing feeling when I found records of one grandfather's family *as serfs/labors/strip owners* all the way back to 1400 when recording was made the rule. Seems in time the area became part of London and the parish records were saved. But I can feel a real connection to a long history going back to medieval times, up to the closing of estates and the rise of East London where he was caught theiving and ended up in Maryland. But when I trace back the name, it connects way back to the early time of the Danelaw and the names origion, when those of both origions merged the first name of parent son/daughter or the anglo saxon 'of' into names of two origions.
I'll never see them on a chart, but there are the descendents of Danish Vikings who share an unwritten line with me, and Saxons who settled long before that. And pesants of many stations and maybe even a bit of Charlemange. But instead of it being a history of this place long ended, there are little sparks of it still going on inside all of us.
That to me is what makes geneology special, since it makes the past alive again.
bek who is going to want to tell their kid that their grandfather was a hung chicken thief in new orleans?
yeah we came over on the mayflower son that is what happened. go talk about us at school ok?
Hiya Suzy... Yes, I understand, but I only wish to know blood relatives. I don't mean it in an exclusionary way... I just think it would be interesting to look at blood ancestors to see if there are any actual resemblances or commonalities... physical, talents, skills, careers, life patterns, etc.
Unfortunately, I don't even know where/which year my dad was born (IR or Wales, but that's all I know) & never met any grandparents, 1st cousins or aunts/uncles or heard anything about any of them... that goes for both sides... don't even know their names. All died early, so there's no one to ask... we don't live long in my clan. Who knows if any birth certs, marriage docs, death certs survive, in physical form.
Maybe that's why I have a desire to learn blood lineage... I'm not interested in my brothers' wives or sisters' husbands & their whole list of relatives... I'd like to know something about my own bloodline. But, since I couldn't possibly know, perhaps that's for the best. Maybe I'll unearth that I'm related to Joan of Arc's serial killer buddy, Gilles de Rais or the Kardashians or the wretched soul who made white chocolate (what a travesty to the palate, that nonsense)... then I'll be really upset.
Maybe you should try the genetic testing. It would give you a place to start, especially locating immediate cousins which might give you more information on your father. I discovered that one g g g grandfather left Ulster in a big hurry and left wife and two kids behind then married in New York. So those kids kids are my relatives too. I'd love to see who shows up not in the US when I do the dna testing. To me the best is connecting with times and places in past times when someone who helped made you was a part of a time, and when you read about that time there is a connection.
Yes, I realize that it's a possibility even for non-white people to be related to European royalty. Or even for some whites to be related to Asian or African royalty. It's just that I find it hard to believe that there are millions of living descendants of royalty. The reason I only mentioned European royalty is that some genealogists wrote on how practically everyone has royal ancestors in Europe. Again, like I wrote in my OP, living descendants of recent royals (1700-today)- legitimate and proven illegitimate - number in about 10,000-15,000 at best. I'm not a genealogist but I estimate that number based on the family trees I've looked at.
It's simple math. Your ancestors double every generation. You have two parents, four grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great grandparents, etc.
For example, if the average generation is 25 years, and you look back 400 years, you have 2^16 ancestors, or 65,536 ancestors. Add a couple more generations and you are at 262,144 ancestors. Exponential series are like that. Somewhere in that quarter of a million ancestors, you stand a good chance of finding someone who was related to royalty and never let anyone forget it. If you want to go back to Eleanor of Aquitaine, 10 centuries ago, that's 40 generations, and you have over 109 billion ancestors. Obviously, there was some inbreeding, but Eleanor is in there somewhere.
I only trust those genealogies on sites like ancestry.com so far. Mine traces back to Charlemagne not once or twice, but on something like 8 branches of the family (apparently he REALLY got around). But one of the royal lines mine traces to, if you keep going back farther and farther, instead of petering out, it instead starts listing gods. Apparently, I'm related to Thor.
So take what you find with a large grain of salt.
@dirtgrinder
Servants didn't keep very good records. Usually if the family was servants in the 1600s and 1700s, the records are long gone and you just don't know anything further. Those who know are mostly going to be those who ARE descended from royalty. They kept the best records (gotta know where everyone is in line of descent, aka "how many relatives do I have to kill to become king")
Maybe you should try the genetic testing. It would give you a place to start, especially locating immediate cousins which might give you more information on your father. To me the best is connecting with times and places in past times when someone who helped made you was a part of a time, and when you read about that time there is a connection.
The most I've done is a blood test purchased online & mailed into a lab ($25-ish)... I had no idea which blood type I was... never had an opportunity to find out. I'm B-... which is the 2nd rarest (if I recall correctly) & predominately a Celtic/Baltic blood type, which is my known heritage. Beyond that, I don't understand how genetic testing can supply names of immediate cousins?
I agree with your latter statement. Must be nice to know from whom one's descended. I guess that's why every person I've know who was adopted, told me so within the 1st 5-min of meeting them, even though they all came from very kind, wealthy families & were provided loving childhoods. We all want to know from whence we came.
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