How far back can you trace your family history?

[WCsweet<3]

I can get back to the 1700s with my mother's side. It gets a little confusing before that, but I could probably go back to the 1600s. I with RaggedyAnn. Most of our information before 1750 is from the Catholic records.

My dads is a little harder. We can get my great grandparents, but they were immigrants. My dad died when my dad was young, so that side was pretty much lost. My grandmother hated my great grandmother who hated my great great grandmother so that side is really tricky. Plus my grandmother is a little racist. Okay, more than a little and refuses to acknowledge certain aspects of our heritage so we can't determine if she is just being racist or if we are actually not from certain places.

[aephi alum]

On my mother's side, I can go back 4 generations. She and most of her ancestors are British, but I have a Goanese great-great-grandmother.

On my father's side, I can go back 3 generations - that's the generation that immigrated from Poland.

One of my MIL's hobbies is genealogy, and she's traced both her family and her husband's family pretty far back. She has also tried to trace my father's genealogy - she is on a quest to find some Jewish ancestors for me, but I'm afraid she'll have to go back nearly 2000 years for that

[KSUViolet06]

I've only been able to go back to about the mid-1800's on both sides.

[SOPi_Jawbreaker]

My mom's brother drew up a family tree. I don't remember how far back he'd gotten, but I think it was only maybe four generations. I think my brother may have a copy of that family tree, but it's all in Chinese. I think my paternal grandfather had written a bit about our genealogy in his journals, but once again everything's in Chinese. My aunt wanted to take the journals to China to get them translated, copied, and bound into nice books for us kids. However, my grandfather fought for the Nationalist Party, so there may be some stuff in there denouncing the Communist Party.

[Taualumna]

Originally Posted by SOPi_Jawbreaker

My mom's brother drew up a family tree. I don't remember how far back he'd gotten, but I think it was only maybe four generations. I think my brother may have a copy of that family tree, but it's all in Chinese. I think my paternal grandfather had written a bit about our genealogy in his journals, but once again everything's in Chinese. My aunt wanted to take the journals to China to get them translated, copied, and bound into nice books for us kids. However, my grandfather fought for the Nationalist Party, so there may be some stuff in there denouncing the Communist Party.

My dad's side has a genealogy chart too and I'd like to have it translated for me when I get married. I think it would be nice to have. I don't know much about my mom's side - my great grandfather (my maternal grandma's dad) was an orphan and was raised by a much older sibling. Also, I'm not too sure if these journals will tell the whole picture - are women actually listed in these charts, or are they given the title of "wife" or "daughter"? And do the women fall off the charts once they marry?

I think these charts/journals go back several centuries.

[AKA_Monet]

Welp, I think I posted something similar around here somewhere a few years back, but I don't know...

Aside from wanting to do the DNA Anscestry.com stuff, my side of the family can trace--especially my paternal lineage can trace to 2 slaves and 1 freed slave. My maternal lineage traces her to 1 freed slave.

On my grandfather's maternal grandmother, we think she was not Black, there is strong evidence that she was an immigrant from Eastern Europe. Because her children has wirey hair, there was an attraction between African Americans and these "new Eastern European" children. The last name was Zeigler... In fact, family members that come to the reunions have a light complexion and fine straight, but wavy hair... The only children that do not clearly look Black are my niece and nephew at this time because their mothers (yeah, that is what's going on) are White.

My grandfather's paternal grandmother was a 300 lb slave, never freed who was "married" to a biracial Native American/Irish man who had red hair... My grandfather's father did not have the red hair, but my grandfather inherited the ultra red hair--like "Bozo the Clown" red hair... My grandfather's father was a "rolling stone" he wound up with 63 children from various women, but he was married to my grandfather's mother...

On my grandmother's side, she said she met an uncle who was a emancipated slave who lived until he was 106 years old. However her great-grandfather was a freed-slave that decided to leave the plantation and ran into the Cherokee nation (allegedly). Due to the "fugitive slave act" at the time, he married one of the women and had quite a few kids. One of them were my grandmother's grandmother named Honey. One day, a judge came by the house and said to Honey's brother, that he'll take that gal off his hands... And the brother gave Honey to the judge... She was like 12 years old... They had quite of few children, all except one could "pass for being white"--except my great-grandmother--who looks much more beautiful that J-Lo--even when my great-grandmother was old...

On my mother's side, her biological father was Irish of the last name Dunn. He had 2 families: one Black, one White... I guess folks can figure out who he was married to... And in the middle of segregated, post-Civil War era Georgia... Well, guess what happened to my mother's family?

Interestingly, my mother just found out that a maternal ancestor of hers was a former emancipated slave that attempted to fight for civil rights and unionize various activities who was lynched in the early 20th century... Apparently, the old folks in the family never spoke of what happened to pass it on to the young...

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

Welp, I think I posted something similar around here somewhere a few years back, but I don't know...

Aside from wanting to do the DNA Anscestry.com stuff, my side of the family can trace--especially my paternal lineage can trace to 2 slaves and 1 freed slave. My maternal lineage traces her to 1 freed slave.

On my grandfather's maternal grandmother, we think she was not Black, there is strong evidence that she was an immigrant from Eastern Europe. Because her children has wirey hair, there was an attraction between African Americans and these "new Eastern European" children. The last name was Zeigler... In fact, family members that come to the reunions have a light complexion and fine straight, but wavy hair... The only children that do not clearly look Black are my niece and nephew at this time because their mothers (yeah, that is what's going on) are White.

My grandfather's paternal grandmother was a 300 lb slave, never freed who was "married" to a biracial Native American/Irish man who had red hair... My grandfather's father did not have the red hair, but my grandfather inherited the ultra red hair--like "Bozo the Clown" red hair... My grandfather's father was a "rolling stone" he wound up with 63 children from various women, but he was married to my grandfather's mother...

On my grandmother's side, she said she met an uncle who was a emancipated slave who lived until he was 106 years old. However her great-grandfather was a freed-slave that decided to leave the plantation and ran into the Cherokee nation (allegedly). Due to the "fugitive slave act" at the time, he married one of the women and had quite a few kids. One of them were my grandmother's grandmother named Honey. One day, a judge came by the house and said to Honey's brother, that he'll take that gal off his hands... And the brother gave Honey to the judge... She was like 12 years old... They had quite of few children, all except one could "pass for being white"--except my great-grandmother--who looks much more beautiful that J-Lo--even when my great-grandmother was old...

On my mother's side, her biological father was Irish of the last name Dunn. He had 2 families: one Black, one White... I guess folks can figure out who he was married to... And in the middle of segregated, post-Civil War era Georgia... Well, guess what happened to my mother's family?

Interestingly, my mother just found out that a maternal ancestor of hers was a former emancipated slave that attempted to fight for civil rights and unionize various activities who was lynched in the early 20th century... Apparently, the old folks in the family never spoke of what happened to pass it on to the young...

Wow. We need to remember these things, so they don't happen again. FWIW, my cousin's grandmother, who was the daughter of a former slave, had the most amazing blue eyes I've ever seen. Such a beautiful woman, inside and out.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by honeychile

Wow. We need to remember these things, so they don't happen again. FWIW, my cousin's grandmother, who was the daughter of a former slave, had the most amazing blue eyes I've ever seen. Such a beautiful woman, inside and out.

A friend of mine has light brown eyes. In her immediate family, there were a few siblings who had the same, but her mother and her mother's family did not have those eyes. My friend did not really know her father's family--however she found out he was from Belize. So when she visited the "remnants" of her paternal lineage, she immediate saw ALL KINDS OF EYE COLORS!!! From light brown to greens to blues... It's rather interesting genetics there... At least to me it's interesting genetics...

[Tippiechick]

I have been able to go really far back on both of my sides.

I have found both sides to be First Families of VA. I have Rev. War, Civil War, War of 1812 vets in the family. I have also traced back to England, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, France all to at least the 1500s. I have found ties to the Tudors of England, Taliaferros of Italy, Campbells of Ireland and Scotland, and French royal ties linking to Catherine de Valois.

The strangest thing I have found is that way back when (we're talking early settling of Tennessee), I have tied my husband's family to mine. I have also tied my maternal and paternal lines to each other. It seems MANY of the families intermarried.

We still are having trouble on my paternal side, though. It seems NO one wants to talk about being Melungeon or having Native American roots, although I find it awesome.

There's a Melungeon thread on here somewhere. Seems like Carny's family is Melungeon, too. I carry a lot of the typical traits.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by Tippiechick

The strangest thing I have found is that way back when (we're talking early settling of Tennessee), I have tied my husband's family to mine. I have also tied my maternal and paternal lines to each other. It seems MANY of the families intermarried.

I always thought the intermarriage bit was a little strange, too - have you ever heard of anyone with one Mayflower ancestor? Then I heard a lecture about intermarriage - there was only a small pool of people from which they could choose a spouse. Sometimes there was a long time between new people coming into a new area, so they did what they could.

The rest is pretty amazing - did you do all the research yourself? It's really fascinating!

[RaggedyAnn]

Originally Posted by Tippiechick

We still are having trouble on my paternal side, though. It seems NO one wants to talk about being Melungeon or having Native American roots, although I find it awesome.

That happened with my husband's side as well. They just narrowed down the tribe. His grandmother didn't want to talk about it and I believe it was her mother that was traded, so the wounds are still too fresh. Slowly but surely pieces are being put together though. Also, if you go back a couple of generations, it was something people didn't talk about because of prejudice.

[honeychile]

<----- plans to make genealogy her second career.

On my mother's side, we're back to Jamestown (finally!) and starting England on the one lineage. Others go back to the 1600's, and we need one more proof for the Mayflower. We belong to several lineage societies, including First Families of PA and of Western PA, DAR, UDC & ( are applying to) First Families of VA.

On my father's side, I didn't think we'd get back very far, but then received an email from a man who is a distant cousin. I assumed he was a Mormon, as the family legend was that my ggg-grandmother's brothers became LDS. For those who don't know, doing their genealogy is part of their religion. This cousin turned out to be in England, living on the same street as where my ggg-grandmother was born! So, we have his lineage back to 1713.

There has been a lot of genealogical threads in the past. Try:
Daughters of This & That
DARs on GC
Colonial Slave Links
for starters, or just use the search function for genealogy.

One of the most important things I've learned about genealogy is "NONE of us had anything to do with our ethnicity, but EACH of us has everything to do with our attitudes about it!" I don't buy into the "my genealogy is better than yours" bit, as frankly, I had nothing to do with the wheres & whys I was born. I do enjoy researching it, though.