S/O Genealogy..

kschwedic

On my dad's side: My great grandfather was the first in our family to come to America (he came from Canada after his ancestors came there from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary).  After he came and married his wife, more of their relatives came and they formed a town here in Arkansas (Slovak).On my mom's side: My grandmother's ancestors (The Varners) came from who-knows-where and formed a town and started what is now Varner prison.

kate51485

When my mom graduated from high school she was offered a full ride scholarship to MIT.  I think that's kind of cool.

Nebb

lpstl that is so neat! How did you find all of that information?

lpstl

DAR = Daughters of the American Revolution. Membership requires that you can prove you are a direct descendant of someone who served in the revolution.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

I'm a DAR member.My grandmother was a DAR, and some of my mom's great-aunts. I'm afraid if I join it will all be 80 year old women. And there's historical controversy over it, so I'm not 100% sure I want to. But I AM getting a grad degree in history, so I also feel like I should.And yes, I'm like the only person in my family to move away from upstate New York in about 300 years. They all think I'm the crazy one.I also found out some of the Dutch ancestors owned a family of slaves. In New York. Circa 1790. That was an eye-opener.

wed0608

Haha, no Rho, I don't want to fight Missy. I would have to go google the Hatfield/McCoy thing to refresh myself on what it was.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Lpstl, the Jane Seymour thing is really cool. My mom thinks the Scottish part of her family is descended from Robert the Bruce. I think she only thinks that because her great grandmother's maiden name was Bruce, so I'm highly skeptical.

jforeman5

thanks lpstl!

lpstl

Nebb, I'm a giant genealogy geek. I've been working on my family tree for about 8 years and inherited all my grandmother's research (which had been passed to her from older generations). I'm really active in the genealogy community and subscribe to various services for record lookups. I'm also collaborating on an updated revision of a book written about my family (primarily reference). So, to prove lineage for anything notable I spend a tremendous amount of time getting copies of birth records, death records, property records, census, marriage, etc.

SarahPLiz

My mother claims to trace back to the first baby born in the colonies, or something like that. My dad's family history reads as "____ married squaw", so yeah, we aren't really sure. One of his relatives was rumored to be a warewolf (lougarroup cajun sp?), though.

vallyhoo

That's awesome, lp. What sites do you recommend? Is ancestry.com any good?

Nebb

That sounds like a lot of work but it would be amazing to know that about your family. I wouldnt even know where to begin.

kschwedic

FI is related to Joseph T. Robinson, who was a famous politician here in Arkansas (he was born in our hometown) and our National Guard base, numerous schools, etc. are named for him.  He was governor for only 55 days. There's a long Wikipedia article about him.

lpstl

msmery, my BIL asked me to prove his lineage to Robert the Bruce. That was about 3 years ago and I still don't have anything solid, but I also haven't outright disproved it. Records that far back are shaky at best, if they even exist.

skiingstark

I could be in DAR if I want to my Grandma is in it (see above post about my history) but have not yet because I have always been busy doing something else. Some point I will do it we will see.

britne28

Valley,  Ancestry is really good now.  Start with asking your family members for names, dates, etc.  Check out the census reports to fill out more details.  Once you get back before 1850 the Latter Day Saints are a great source for genealogy.  And if you are lucky to have ancesters in MA then the birth, marriage, and death certs have a ton of details.

Sunshine9463

My great grandfather fled the Armenian genocide when he was really young and came to America. His parents were killed in front of him but he was able to escape.Apparently I'm related to Jesse James (the bank robber, not the motorcycle guy), but I've never really investigated how.

*BeachBride0410*

I am really into my families genealogy as well....mostly my dad's side of the family because my grandfather died when my father was 17, so we don't know much about my last name.  I went on a couple of websites and actually found people I am related to.  Come to find out there is a book abot my family and the lines are documented and my grandfather and grandmother are in the book with how many children they had..... It was really neat to read about it, a lot of stuff my dad didn't even know.

missy68

A girl/an affair between the families, drinking, brothers with foul tempers, you name it. Lots of people think it started over a pig, but there was more to it than that.It was family lore for a long time, but then we found that it was actually true that we were related to the Hatfields.  My dad's family has been in the Virginia/West Virginia area since long before the Mayflower.

lpstl

Valley, I use ancestry, primarily because it's the best tool out there for building a tree and doing research. But I've played around with other services, and occasionally I'll pull a record from another source. I started a blog on all this a while ago, but got too busy to maintain it ([url]http://whereamifrom.net[/url]), if you scroll to the bottom there's a series on how to start dabbling in genealogy and all the various tool and services I recommend.

vallyhoo

Thanks Britne, and LP!

*BeachBride0410*

I found out a lot of my ancestories are buried near where I grew up and were French...my whole life I was told I was German.  The family actually came from France, changed the spelling of the name and went to England, then when they saw the Quakers leave England for the US for freedom they joined and were thn Quakers in the US.

sarabellam

Oops, forgot one. My sister was taken hostage and was shot in the boot (ricochet) by rebel forces when she was working in Liberia for The Carter Center, and got rescued by the UN. When she went to the awards ceremony held in Atlanta for President Carter's Nobel Peace Prize, he gave her a hug and told my parents that she was one of his heroes.

SwedishChick2011

My grandmother was a doctor.  That might not sound amazing, but there were very few women doctors when she become one (in the 40s).

niffycat

Besides Ben Franklin, my dh is cousins with one of the kids in the movie Adventures in Babysitting. Yet to be proven- we believe that an ancestor of mine served in Navy during the civil war under the command of an ancestor of dh.

LauraW313

my Grandfather went to Harvard with John F. Kennedy and my grandmother was related to Senator Strom Thurmond and Benjamin Franklin S/O family traces their lineage back to a tribe in africa.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Thanks LP! I know... and Robert the Bruce was not known for keeping records. In fact, he burned a lot of stuff so the English wouldn't get a hold of it.I've used geneology.com a lot. I can't say I've done a ton of primary research myself, but I know the names of all my great-grandparents and at least up through great-great grandparents on my mom's side (and a few further back). So a lot of people who are like 8th cousins of mine have made family trees and put them online, which absolves me from some of the hard work... There's supposed to be a really good book about my maternal grandmother's genealogy at the Herkimer County Historical Society in New York.My dad's father was a steamfitter and put the heating systems in a lot of buildings in Buffalo in the 40s, 50s and 60s, including the old hockey arena. He and his 4 brothers (and one of his sisters) all served in WWII. Which probably isn't THAT amazing, but I can't imagine what his parents must have gone through. He had to leave for the navy when my aunt was 2 weeks old.

punkyb2b

I am related to an American President (term was in the 1800s)on my moms side and European royalty on my dad's side.  I grew up playing with my 2nd cousins in "castle" backyards. 

Sooles

my great-great-great-great-grandma (maybe a few more 'great's thrown in there, i dont know) was a Gage. lived in Battlefield house during the war of 1812. she wasnt the 'famous' daughter though, that was her sister.mom's dad (dead) taught jeff healey (blind & dead) how to play the guitar. neat. (i have his guitar now.)moms uncle played for the red wings... a long time ago.OH - and my favourite - DH considers himself irish AND scottish because his grandparents lived in scottland after being kicked out of ireland for being sheep thieves.

Lucy Milligan

My great uncle won a Pulitzer in 1944 for International Telegraphic Reporting.  For you history buffs, he won it because he snuck over to Yugoslavia in a boat from where he was stationed in Italy with the 5th Army, and was the first journalist to interview Marshal Tito's partisans.  And we know how that turned out!Potential DAR here too, as well as California Society of Pioneers.  My family has been in California for 5 generations on one side and 6 on the other, which is apparently pretty rare.Not really famous per se, but a story worth sharing: Grandpa got into USC (as in the Trojans), couldn't afford to go, and started working in the mailroom of a national bank to support his family.  He retired in the 1980's as Chairman of the Board of said bank, and there is a bust of him on the USC campus.