Family Heritage - Genealogy

Gardenlover

Gardenlover

The world needs more love
The older I get, the more interested I've become in history, both the world's and my own. I truly wish I would have had the insight to talk about family history with my elders before they passed.

I've been able to trace my family back to the mid 1500's, but still have a box full of family photos I have no idea of who they are.

My ancestors came from England, Wales, Germany, Norway, Ireland and Scotland.

How about you?
 

I just had my DNA tested by 23andMe and it pretty much told me what my parents said. I'm 75% Scandinavian (Danish, Swedish and Norwegian), 12% English and/or Scottish and about 8% possible German. The Vikings were very active folks!

I've also traced my family tree through Family Search.com and found that, on my mothers side, it goes back to the 17th century (Danish).

Doing those things does make me wish I had paid more attention to my family history and family photographs. But what I have learned has been very satisfying.

...
 
I have documentation on both sides of my family from the early 1600s, who knows if it's accurate but it is interesting to me. I'm mainly interested in the little stories, adventures, and scandals of my ancestor's lives.

I also have a box of old photos and some more recent ones where the people are not properly identified.

I keep waiting for a young person in the family that expresses some interest in these items but at this point, I'm thinking that it may end up in a dumpster someday.
 

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Aunt Bea said:
I have documentation on both sides of my family from the early 1600s, who knows if it's accurate but it is interesting to me. I'm mainly interested in the little stories, adventures, and scandals of my ancestor's lives.

I also have a box of old photos and some more recent ones where the people are not properly identified.

I keep waiting for a young person in the family that expresses some interest in these items but at this point, I'm thinking that it may up in a dumpster someday.
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Love hearing that you are interested in the scandals as well, too often people look for what I call the royalty aspects. I've found a lot of scandal in my past, makes it more human and believable in my opinion. May account for some of my oddities as well. šŸ„“
 
Gardenlover said:
Love hearing that you are interested in the scandals as well, too often people look for what I call the royalty aspects. I've found a lot of scandal in my past, makes it more human and believable in my opinion. May account for some of my oddities as well. šŸ„“
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"The best of men are only men at their very best. Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, - martyrs, fathers, reformers, puritans, - all are sinners, who need a Savior: holy, useful, honorable in their place - but sinners after all." - J. C. Ryle
 
Black sheep in a family are always the most interesting. Black enough and they appeared in the newspaper many of which can be researched on line.

I'm 50% British, the remainder split between Scandanavian and Scot with 2% mutt
 
no royalty in my dna. Iā€™m Scot-Irish and English. Iā€™m reasonably sure my folks came to
America for a better life. I don't know how it was back then but some didnā€™t better themselves a whole lot, it would appear.
 
My cousin did our father's side of the family back about 30 years ago. Before the internet was widely used for this kind of stuff. Lots of writing letters, getting stuff translated to and from Italian. Went back about 4 generations (grandparents, and a couple greats) and found some interesting stuff. Yes, we were Sicilian, and yes there were Mafia connections. Someone got hung for some sort of crime. There is a vein of Greek blood, that she had trouble following.
 
I've always been interested in my heritage even when I was a kid. I remember all the stories my parents told me and I cherish all the old photos.

I've tried to pass this information on but neither my son or daughter seem the least bit interested.

I think they will be sorry someday. I've labeled all the old photos but I doubt they will open the albums. Very sad but I'll enjoy them for as long as I can.
 
One question, mildly related to this thread, how many of you have all your photos in albums or just in boxes? I am a fanatic for taking pics and have inherited my family's photos. I had so many albums taking up too much space, so took out the photos and put them in boxes.
 
Ruth n Jersey said:
I've always been interested in my heritage even when I was a kid. I remember all the stories my parents told me and I cherish all the old photos.

I've tried to pass this information on but neither my son or daughter seem the least bit interested.

I think they will be sorry someday. I've labeled all the old photos but I doubt they will open the albums. Very sad but I'll enjoy them for as long as I can.
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They probably will be sorry someday. I wasn't interested at ALL in genealogy until after my parents passed and then it was too late. And being from Italy it's much harder to get all the info. I've practically given up.
 
@Catlady A little of both on the photos. I have some in albums, and some burned onto a DVD. My husband had boxes of photos and albums, from his family and life. I asked what little family he had left if they wanted any and they said now...downsizing and all. So, I kept some of him, and the rest I got rid of. Sad but, what else was I going to do?
 
Marie5656 said:
@Catlady A little of both on the photos. I have some in albums, and some burned onto a DVD. My husband had boxes of photos and albums, from his family and life. I asked what little family he had left if they wanted any and they said now...downsizing and all. So, I kept some of him, and the rest I got rid of. Sad but, what else was I going to do?
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How do you do that? And, with tech advancing all the time, even DVDs will someday become absolete, it happened with VHS etc.

Also, re your Italian ancestors, how did your cousin get the info? I sent letters to the town office and they sent documents once but didn't send any the next time (and kept the $20 I sent them for postage). One genealogist offered to go there and get the info but I didn't want to have to pay his outrageous fees (he had to travel there, gas, etc so don't blame him). I'm certainly not going to go back to Italy to get the info, my daughter doesn't even care.
 
@Catlady For the pics. My nephew did them. But you would have to have a laptop with a CD drive. Scan pics to computer then save to a blank DVD. There is software if you want to make a video, but that is complicated.

I think my cousin contacted whatever Italian equivalent of our county clerk . People are saying now that sites like ancestry.com can help
 
A great aunt had traced some genealogy back to the 1600's when that branch of the family had come to the new world. I took that information and found out more.
Thomas came to America from England in the early 1620's-30's when he was in his 20's. He fought in the French Indian Wars and was given land for his service in the Hartford area of Connecticut. He married Mary and they had children together. Thomas donated land to start the first church in the community, which still stands. He helped found the town of Farmington and helped found the church. By the 1660's Mary had stopped going to church and liked drinking wine and ale with some friends at night. With the witch hunts sweeping New England, Mary was accused of being a witch. I've read the trial transcripts. She was convicted and hanged. Being a familiar with the devil, she couldn't even be buried in the church cemetery that was donated by her husband. Thomas {in his 50's by now} married another woman named Mary {in her 20's} who was the spinster daughter of a close friend. Thomas and Mary 2 are my ancestors. In the autumn of the year, the town has plays and story telling about Mary, the witch. She was not forgotten.
 
I decided to use the internet information to explore my Dad's side of the family.
One colorful fellow was my great, great grandfather, Lafayette. He was born in the 1840's and first appears in southern Illinois. He married and had children. When the war between the states started, he became a soldier. He was captured and sent to a military prison in Arkansas. He somehow faked his death and escaped. Now that he was "dead" he couldn't go back to his family, at least until the war was over. He became involved with my ancestor and married her. He didn't divorce the first wife because she was legally his widow.
He had a family with my great, great grandmother and stayed in Arkansas, where they become farmers. When Lafayette got old, he applied for his Civil War pension. It was denied, because his first wife was still collecting it. Here he was in 1875:
Lafayette 1875.jpeg
 
My ancestry is quite interesting especially as one of my ancestors had a prominent roll in British history.
 
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Catlady said:
One question, mildly related to this thread, how many of you have all your photos in albums or just in boxes? I am a fanatic for taking pics and have inherited my family's photos. I had so many albums taking up too much space, so took out the photos and put them in boxes.
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Some in albums, some in boxes, many digital.
 
Gardenlover said:
How about you?
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Mom's side;
German, German, and more German

Dad's side;
Irish, English
My Irish rels came here to escape prosecution

and

.....some sorta Mongolian tribe of the Oriats ('forest people')
Not sure how that happened
But,

it is what it is


Me 100.jpg




Of late, things have been a bit more diverse

Afro, Mexi, Erin, Anglo

Oh, and I'm related to Tennessee Williams
 
I had all the family photos dumped on me when my parents died. Some of the more recent family photos are in albums, but the ones which date back to the dawn of photography are in boxes. I guess most of them will be chucked out when I go, as no one else seems interested in them.
 
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