How far back can you trace your family history?

[RaggedyAnn]

Originally Posted by Kevin

My maternal grandmother, who compiled a pretty extensive geneology claims that she traced us back to Roman times. I think that's a crock, personally.

She does, however, have complete family records going back to the old country, which for us, is apparently, the Netherlands primarily, then a bunch of other stuff. I'm darkly complected, a fact which my grandmother claims is my "black dutch" ancestory.

I never have had the opportunity to figure out what the hell she means by that, but a Wikipedia search says that in the Oklahoma Territory, a place my ancestors settled, natives would call themselves "black Dutch," and invent ancestries in order to avoid their native American status, which in turn allowed them to do things like purchase land. So maybe I'm Indian and half of our genealogy is just made up?

If you figure out a tribe, the tribe will help you out with the rest. That's what my husband's aunt is doing right now.