Any of you do Genealogy (family trees)?

[U2DMfan]

I have been overtaken by the beast of my family tree.
Anyone else tackled this monster? Your tree that is.

I am totally like a crack head for figuring out my ggggreat grand father and assorted cousins.

So much so that after 6 years, I have started my first post on Lemonade Stand. Yes, I decided that I love you. Don't tell anyone, though.


Anywhoo....

Does anyone have any cool links, stories or information about their ancestors?

All I can dig up leads back to the same 3 sites.
RootsWeb
Ancestry (they are almost a monopoly)
Family Search (the mormon site)

anyone related to anyone interesting?

I am a descendant of Henry Hudson, the explorer, which I thought was mega-cool until I found how many thousand there were of us.

 

[Screwtape2]

Good luck on figuring out your Genealogy!

I'm actually related to Elias Howe, the inventor of the electric sowing machine. So I guess that is someone interesting.

 

[U2DMfan]

Good luck on figuring out your Genealogy!

I'm actually related to Elias Howe, the inventor of the electric sowing machine. So I guess that is someone interesting.

Well that's cool for sure.

I am actually hoping someone has a website with a secret vault of goodies that hasn't been bought up by ancestry.com. Bastards.

Really though, it's the most fascinating thing I've been doing in years.

 

[Screwtape2]

My Aunt did one so I'll see if I can up with something for you. She seemed to enjoy it so it seems well worth it. You're a bravier soul than most!

 

[bono_212]

I'm related to Abraham Lincoln through marriage...someone in my family did our family tree years ago....I've got it somehwere, it's pretty cool to see

 

[MacHat]

I like genealogy, it's really interesting .

I don't know if I'm related to anyone well known or famous. All I know is one of my nana's (mum's mum) ancestors had 6/7 kids all by different fathers .

 

[Dismantled]

I'm related to Barbra Bush

 

[Cleasai]

I'm related to Anne Boleyn (King Henry VIII's second wife, mother of Queen Elizabeth I).

As far as sources go you've pretty much named the major players in Genealogy Research. You can also write to distant relatives and obtain more information through them.

 

[Canadiens1131]

Nope can't say I dooo.

 

[U2vertigofly]

I know that i'm distantly related to the actor (can't remember his name) that played Tarzan in the original Tarzan movies, and also Lindsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac.

 

[Liesje]

My mom and I do. She has her side back to the 1600s. I know she uses Rootsweb and also when the Ellis Island records finally came online, she's been using that religiously (all of our ancestry is from around Groningen in the Netherlands). She also joined e-mail listservs for genealogy in the Netherlands and has made several friends, including a museum and archives curator, who she sends on small missions when she needs info from Europe. We also check with churches and city/county/state records on marriages, births, deaths, etc.

 

[anitram]

I have my maternal side traced back to the 12th century. My uncle took a year long sabbatical to do the research in Venice. My grandmother is of the Cornaro line, which was one of Venice's ruling families for about a thousand years.

I've met a lot of interesting people because of it. One of them, I don't want to name, but is an obviously very wealthy American man who owns one of the villas that belonged to our family. He and his wife have been very wonderful to me since I met them. His daughter is a Hollywood writer, so it's been kind of a neat experience to correspond with him.

 

[GibsonGirl]

I really am interested in my family tree. I have an idea of where everything originates (England, Scotland and Norway on my mother's side / Holland on my father's side.) I just don't know how to go about actually finding out the information. I've searched those websites you provided, U2DMfan, but didn't have much success. All results I found are for American immigrants, not South African.

Are there people or organisations you can contact that will trace your family tree for you? And if so, do you need to provide information about your family members beyond, say, your great grandfathers and your great grandmothers?

 

[meegannie]

I don't even know my grandparents' names.

 

[silja]

I'm related to Anne Boleyn (King Henry VIII's second wife, mother of Queen Elizabeth I).

Me too. Well, hello cousin

 

[tiny dancer]

Wow! This is right up my alley. I work at Historical & Genealogical Society. If you are really into researching your Family Tree, it takes a lot of time, and patience. Once you get into it you will find how many people you are related to in some way or the other. I l putting famlies together.

 

[Carek1230]

My cousin in upstate NY is really into this and for our family he has traced waaayyy back into the early 1700's. It is really time consuming but exciting too. He's coming to visit this month and I can't wait to talk to him about this!

 

[Cleasai]

Me too. Well, hello cousin

Hello there

 

[Greenlight]

I'm a freelance local and family historian (English history). What was originally a hobby gradually turned into a profession which I've been doing for a few years now. I love it.
One little known fact is that if you go back 20 generations to your 18xgreatgrandparents which would generally be medieval times you would have over 1 million ancestors although a percenatage of these are bound to be the same people given that there wasn't so much mobillity in those times and populations were much smaller. As such it's not surprising that many people are descended from a common person or distantly related to one another.
If anyone has any general queries about English genealogy I'm happy to help. There's a lot of useful websites out there and organisations that I can point you towards.

 

[GibsonGirl]

If anyone has any general queries about English genealogy I'm happy to help. There's a lot of useful websites out there and organisations that I can point you towards.

Oh, I would! I'm interested in finding out more about my grandfather's side of the family. He was born in South Africa, but I believe his father (surname Norris) came from England. Any sites or organisations that might be able to help me out would be very much appreciated.


My great great aunt apparently used to claim that she had traced our family back to Mary Queen of Scots. But old Auntie Iris was apparently quite insane as well...

 

[Greenlight]

Any sites or organisations that might be able to help me out would be very much appreciated.

A few general ones that give a good introduction are:-

http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/
http://www.genuki.org.uk:8080/gs/
http://www.ffhs.org.uk/General/Help/First.htm

The main 19th century English records are census returns and birth, marriage and death (BMD) certificates. Ancestry.co.uk has all the English census returns on line now and also has a partial free BMD index which is worth checking first before using any of the fee based links.
Norris is a common name and you would need to find where your Norris ancestors were living in England before they emigrated to South Africa before you could go further back.

My great great aunt apparently used to claim that she had traced our family back to Mary Queen of Scots. But old Auntie Iris was apparently quite insane as well...

I'd take any family stories passed down with a good pinch of salt. Some have an element of truth but often they're heavily embellished. That said although Mary I think only had one child, James VI of Scotland/I of England, many of his descendants were more prolific, many having lots of kids the wrong side of the royal bedpost. Charles II had at least 14 illegitimate children (none legitimate mind), and apparently thousands of people can claim to be descended from him so you never know

 

[U2democrat]

I'm related to Katie Couric, 2 presidents (William and Benjamin Harrison), a signer of the Declaration of Independence (another Benjamin Harrison), the first person to be beheaded by the guillotine, and Viking warriors.

 

[verte76]

I started tracing my ancestry when I was in high school, and I'm still the family geneologist. At one point the family claimed to be descended from nobility in Westphalia but this claim fell apart when we found records of a birth of this person in Maryland.

 

[bono_212]

mine is only on my (mother's side) grandmother's side and goes back to Lincoln's wife...after that it's anyone's guess...my (mother's) grandfather's dad came over from Ireland, but he changed his last name, so his side is hard to trace....my dad's not that interested so he's never done it and I think it would be a scary process....his grandfather already had enough kids and grandchildren and great grand children AND great-great grandchildren to warrent a yearly family reunion

 

[MacHat]

My nana claims that there's and ancestor on her side of the family from the Spanish Armarda (sp) .

The Spanish I can believe, but the Armarda I'm not too sure about .

 

[silja]

I'm related to Katie Couric, 2 presidents (William and Benjamin Harrison), a signer of the Declaration of Independence (another Benjamin Harrison), the first person to be beheaded by the guillotine, and Viking warriors.

How have you traced your family back to Viking warriors? There haven't been any Vikings around for roughly 900 years.