Have you ever done your Ancestry

My brother gifted me 23 and Me, one year for my birthday. However, being Japanese .. no surprises. Actually, rather boring. Ho-hum!

On the other hand, my daughter's profile was more interesting since her father has several ethnicities in his DNA.
 

I spent several years on genealogy research the "old way" before getting some real surprises when the truth came out. Ooh, there were some real whoppers being told ..... liar, liar pants on fire. But there was also "family lore" that proved to be true.

In the 10 years that we traveled intensively around the country, I was able to track down distant cousins and visit with them.

I thought I was mostly Scots, but now I know (confirmed by the DNA testing) that there's a fair bit of Swedish ( and German and English) in me. Oh, those lies!

I do have a king of England in my ancestry, though. I'll comfort myself with that..... On the other hand, my biological grandfather did spend some time in Leavenworth. I'm perfectly happy never to have known him.
 
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I got the genealogy bug back after a long absence. It seems there is a lot more data now than the last time. The frustrating things about doing this is marriages, divorces, name changes, misspellings, and finding things about European relatives. Unfortunately, all the really old documents (back to 1500's) got lost in the divorce move. I did probably scan them once upon a time, but would have put them on a crashed computer, a floppy disk, or a zip drive - nothing that I can access anymore. For now, I'm using FamilySearch.org (free) and FindaGrave.com. At long last, I was able to find a bit of information on my paternal grandmother and the names of her parents. I was using Ellis Island passenger searches, but the site has changed for the worse and the data that I want will show up in FamilySearch. I'd really like to have it all filled out before I die, since I'm the family elder - and never thought to question my relatives before they died. /-;
 
I am 100% Ukrainian. My late wife was a MacKenzie, and her cousin traced her line back to Robert the Bruce of Scotland. In fact, we visited her ancestral castle in Scotland.
I had visited Odessa, and understood why my grandparents left. The only thing interesting was the Potemkin Steps

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I've done it, as well as my DNA, and interactions with relatives I barely know. Eye openers, I must say. My DNA is continuously studied and I find it somewhat unnerving at times. But the element of learning about ones self is ever so fascinating.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I'd like to find out about my ancestry.. I'm of French Canadian descent. I don't think there another Canuk in the area, yet my neighbor is related to Henry VIII. But I kind of noticed that somehow everybody was related to Henry VIII , or Charlamagne, Cleopatra etc. I kind of wonder how accurate this is. And secondly, I'm wondering about some problems- my dad was an orphan, and our last name is one of the most used name in Canada- there are statues, towns,, streets, islands named after people with the same surname. How do I know that this John Smith is my relative John Smith, and not that John Smith.
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Finding information is much easier now than years earlier when I first started researching. Just keep trying and you should find some information.
 
On my Mother's side of the family I am apparently related to John Howland of Mayflower fame -- the one who fell overboard. Sounds impressive, but I believe I share this distinction with 2 million other Americans. Guess I can't claim title to Plymouth Rock. )-8
 
Lewkat said:
I've done it, as well as my DNA, and interactions with relatives I barely know. Eye openers, I must say. My DNA is continuously studied and I find it somewhat unnerving at times. But the element of learning about ones self is ever so fascinating.
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Okay, LewKat - My curiosity has the best of me. Why is your DNA repeatedly tested and my whom? I'm actually considering it, even though it is poo-pood by some sources. The more data collected, the more our scientific knowledge of genetics will grow.
 
Em in Ohio said:
I got the genealogy bug back after a long absence. It seems there is a lot more data now than the last time. The frustrating things about doing this is marriages, divorces, name changes, misspellings, and finding things about European relatives. Unfortunately, all the really old documents (back to 1500's) got lost in the divorce move. I did probably scan them once upon a time, but would have put them on a crashed computer, a floppy disk, or a zip drive - nothing that I can access anymore. For now, I'm using FamilySearch.org (free) and FindaGrave.com. At long last, I was able to find a bit of information on my paternal grandmother and the names of her parents. I was using Ellis Island passenger searches, but the site has changed for the worse and the data that I want will show up in FamilySearch. I'd really like to have it all filled out before I die, since I'm the family elder - and never thought to question my relatives before they died. /-;
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If you don't mind some input...
I've found records (especially census records) to be loaded with errors, but you can also find HUGE mistakes on FindaGrave- probably because people who provide the info automatically assume their sources are correct without checking.

A few examples:
- a census record from when a much-older cousin was a child did not even get her gender correct
- a census record from when my father was a child listed him as his aunt/uncle's son rather than as their nephew, and listed his sister as their daughter instead of niece
- a FindAGrave page listed one of my great-grandmothers by her nickname rather than her actual name, and said she was 'survived by 3 sons and 1 daughter' while the 'daughter' was actually her grand-daughter (this was the only time that contacting someone on FindaGrave resulted in the person adding a note with the correct info- others have simply ignored requests for corrections)
 
1950 Census records are now available. You can look back and see your own entry as well as your neighbors when you were young.

JaniceM, if you will read about how early census records were obtained, you might be more tolerant of errors. Finding early errors and being able to make accurate notes correcting them is one of the joys of the hobby.
 
JaniceM said:
If you don't mind some input...
I've found records (especially census records) to be loaded with errors, but you can also find HUGE mistakes on FindaGrave- probably because people who provide the info automatically assume their sources are correct without checking.

A few examples:
- a census record from when a much-older cousin was a child did not even get her gender correct
- a census record from when my father was a child listed him as his aunt/uncle's son rather than as their nephew, and listed his sister as their daughter instead of niece
- a FindAGrave page listed one of my great-grandmothers by her nickname rather than her actual name, and said she was 'survived by 3 sons and 1 daughter' while the 'daughter' was actually her grand-daughter (this was the only time that contacting someone on FindaGrave resulted in the person adding a note with the correct info- others have simply ignored requests for corrections)
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I had grave pictures and info on a couple of my ancestors on FindaGrave. Some lady on FindaGrave took pictures of MY family's graves and added erroneous info. When I contacted her, not only did she not correct it, she informed me that it was her "hobby" to put grave sites on the website and, no, she wasn't going to take her submission down even though it was MY ancestors. (Like it was some sort of competition for her.) So that's another reason for incorrect information out there.
 
Em in Ohio said:
Okay, LewKat - My curiosity has the best of me. Why is your DNA repeatedly tested and my whom? I'm actually considering it, even though it is poo-pood by some sources. The more data collected, the more our scientific knowledge of genetics will grow.
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CRI-Genetics has my DNA. They continually study it and update it periodically. When you check in you usually find that you've more ancestors in odd places than you can imagine. Of course, it's only one in each place as a rule, but some are multiples. I've stopped looking of late as its hard to keep up with all these unknown people from generations ago.
 
Did mine on Ancestry.com. Reconnected with a cousin I had not been in contact with for many years. By reconnect I mean online, as he is in a different state. But it is cool. He is now doing our shared grandfather's heritage and I am sending him info and family pictures I have. He is doing the whole geaneology.
 
caroln said:
I had grave pictures and info on a couple of my ancestors on FindaGrave. Some lady on FindaGrave took pictures of MY family's graves and added erroneous info. When I contacted her, not only did she not correct it, she informed me that it was her "hobby" to put grave sites on the website and, no, she wasn't going to take her submission down even though it was MY ancestors. (Like it was some sort of competition for her.) So that's another reason for incorrect information out there.
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I know what you mean. That sucks. Seems they would want correct information.
 
I ended up making two 20" by 30" photo collages, one for my wife's grandparents, great grandparents, etc. and one for mine. They are framed and hang in our family room. A nice thing for the kids!

Next January when it is -20F outside I will probably pick up on where I left off. It is a nice winter activity in between snow shoveling! Perhaps by then I can find more info on my ancestors.
 
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Sassycakes said:
Have you ever done your Ancestry
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Yep, mostly as expected British Isles, Ireland, Scotland and England, with some German and French. Only the 3% Neanderthal was a surprise, but then a lot of us have it.
Pinky said:
being Japanese .. no surprises. Actually, rather boring. Ho-hum!
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Doesn't sound boring to me. Did they break it up into different parts of Japan? I got county level stuff from Ireland etc, that was kind of interesting.
win231 said:
I changed my mind when the guy asked me: "Are you absolutely sure you want the information?"
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I know some folks have gotten less than welcome surprises. No such luck with mine, I was kind of hoping to find an unknown half sibling or something, but no. Would have made it more interesting.
 
caroln said:
I had grave pictures and info on a couple of my ancestors on FindaGrave. Some lady on FindaGrave took pictures of MY family's graves and added erroneous info. When I contacted her, not only did she not correct it, she informed me that it was her "hobby" to put grave sites on the website and, no, she wasn't going to take her submission down even though it was MY ancestors. (Like it was some sort of competition for her.) So that's another reason for incorrect information out there.
JaniceM said:
I know what you mean. That sucks. Seems they would want correct information.
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Yes, I just saw an erroneous correction by some 'authorized' person at familysearch.com; I re-corrected the 'correction' after contacting the cemetery - which I did find on findagrave.com.
 
Lewkat said:
CRI-Genetics has my DNA. They continually study it and update it periodically. When you check in you usually find that you've more ancestors in odd places than you can imagine. Of course, it's only one in each place as a rule, but some are multiples. I've stopped looking of late as its hard to keep up with all these unknown people from generations ago.
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Thanks, LewKat! I never heard of them, but if they do what you say, it sounds good!
 
caroln said:
I had grave pictures and info on a couple of my ancestors on FindaGrave. Some lady on FindaGrave took pictures of MY family's graves and added erroneous info. When I contacted her, not only did she not correct it, she informed me that it was her "hobby" to put grave sites on the website and, no, she wasn't going to take her submission down even though it was MY ancestors. (Like it was some sort of competition for her.) So that's another reason for incorrect information out there.
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These are volunteer photographers at findagrave. Did you ask her to just correct the data, rather than delete the image? I did see that the volunteers have statistics on how many photos they have taken. Personally, I'd be grateful for the images - but not for erroneous data. She should be willing to correct that.
 

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