Have you, or would you like, or you don't want to know your genetic history?

[Butterfly]

One of the biggest problems in family research is the problem with the spelling of names.

When people got off the boat at Ellis Island, the authorities would ask their names. "Wojiekowskiwilowitzistan". "How is that spelled?" "Spelled?" "Welcome to America, Mr. Williams." If the paper you left Ellis Island with said your name was Williams, your name WAS Williams. Four generations later, your descendants were stumped. "How can I be Polish? Our family name is Williams!!" Same thing with census takers and the like. A lot of people had no idea how to spell their names and it was up to the census taker to figure it out and they often were barely literate themselves.

And names were changed to protect the innocent AND the guilty. One of my ancestors got out of Scotland in the nick of time, apparently on the verge of being hung for some offense. He changed his name, pronto.

Yeah, we figure that was part of the problem, and that back in the early days if you wanted to be somebody else, you just moved and said your name was something else. All we know for sure is that my great grandfather appeared in Oklahoma/Arkansas, seemingly out of nowhere in the mid-19th century. I have an uncle (now deceased) who my paternal grandparents took in near the turn of the 20th century. He was a homeless child they sort of "found" and took in. They gave him their last name, but no one, including the child, knew who he really was or where he came from, and no one could ever find out. As far as everyone was concerned, he was one of the family (as were his later-on wife and children). According to my father, that sort of thing was not uncommon back in that time period, and also during the Great Depression when a lot of young boys sort of rode trains around trying to find work on farms and some of them just were taken in by families who needed help and could manage to feed them.

 

[jujube]

Yeah, we figure that was part of the problem, and that back in the early days if you wanted to be somebody else, you just moved and said your name was something else. All we know for sure is that my great grandfather appeared in Oklahoma/Arkansas, seemingly out of nowhere in the mid-19th century. I have an uncle (now deceased) who my paternal grandparents took in near the turn of the 20th century. He was a homeless child they sort of "found" and took in. They gave him their last name, but no one, including the child, knew who he really was or where he came from, and no one could ever find out. As far as everyone was concerned, he was one of the family (as were his later-on wife and children). According to my father, that sort of thing was not uncommon back in that time period, and also during the Great Depression when a lot of young boys sort of rode trains around trying to find work on farms and some of them just were taken in by families who needed help and could manage to feed them.

Have you heard of the "Orphan Trains"? Trains were filled with orphans from New York City and other large cities in the late 1800's and early 1900's and sent westward. At every stop, families would come to the station and pick out children, mostly to work on their farms or to be servants. In some cases, the children were well-treated. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, they were treated very poorly, like non-paid laborers. There are some very interesting documentaries out on the web about the orphan trains.

 

[Sassycakes]

I have a cousin on my Dad's side of the family and he was really hooked on finding the family's history. I have dozens of pages going back to the early 1600's . It's interesting to learn some things about the history of the family. I wish someone was interested in doing my Mom's family history. A few years ago my son did a DNA test and it also was interesting. I just don't have the patience to do any more research.

 

[Sunny]

I would love to know more about my ancestors. It sometimes troubles me to think that we will all be remembered for 3-4 generations at the most, then we disappear into obscurity. Some of them could have been
very interesting people!

I'm not particularly interested in what diseases they had, just their personalities and how they lived their lives.

 

[Butterfly]

Have you heard of the "Orphan Trains"? Trains were filled with orphans from New York City and other large cities in the late 1800's and early 1900's and sent westward. At every stop, families would come to the station and pick out children, mostly to work on their farms or to be servants. In some cases, the children were well-treated. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, they were treated very poorly, like non-paid laborers. There are some very interesting documentaries out on the web about the orphan trains.

Yup, sounds like exactly what my dad was talking about.

 

[hollydolly]

When people got off the boat at Ellis Island, the authorities would ask their names. "Wojiekowskiwilowitzistan"


Fortunately they didn't do that in this country, so people like the Polish who came here generations ago, still are known proudly by their original surnames.. ( I can pronounce them which never bears a any relation to the spelling but I can't spell them)... The only people who did have their names changed when they arrived here were Polish Jews, because in an attempt to fool the Germans into believing they weren't Jewish they changed their own names to something sounding anything other than Jewish,

 

[Mike]

I don't know if I want to know about my lineage!

My father's father was Irish and his mother was
Scottish, they reared me for many years as my
parents worked in India.

I never knew my mother's mother or father as they
were both dead, but she told me that her mother
was English and her father was Scottish.

I was a blonde blue eyed child but as I grew my hair
turned auburn, then to brown, which suggests that
I have Viking ancestry, I was also 6 feet tall.

The week or so before my mother died, she told me
that she was adopted, so I am stuck.

Mike.

 

[Kitties]

Reason number one I won't do a genetic test: Family has caused me more than enough problems. I don't need to go into some data base to find more jerks I'm related to. No thanks.

 

[ronk]

I had the Ancestry DNA test done awhile ago. I didn't get any fantastic new information. I'd already found out all the relatives and ancestors by doing the trees on Ancestry. I already knew the various branches of my family come from various parts of Europe, and even Russia.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

I'm extremely weary of the genetic technology. Nothing we humans do is perfect. What, if because of some human screwing up, my DNA gets miss read; and it's the same as a rapist, or I have a forgotten kid. Plus the risk to diseases IS going to be used by some insurance companies, whether legally or not. Gee, a chance to put billions more into the profit column, and they aren't going to use it. I know I sound like a cynical old geezer.

 

[Butterfly]

I'm extremely weary of the genetic technology. Nothing we humans do is perfect. What, if because of some human screwing up, my DNA gets miss read; and it's the same as a rapist, or I have a forgotten kid. Plus the risk to diseases IS going to be used by some insurance companies, whether legally or not. Gee, a chance to put billions more into the profit column, and they aren't going to use it. I know I sound like a cynical old geezer.

I wouldn't do the DNA thing, but I'd kinda like to know more about my ancestors-- where they came from, how they lived. But alas, it seems they are lost to time . . . .

 

[ronk]

Butterfly, you could still try using the Ancestry web site. I started a few years ago when my Dad gave me a few photos of gravestones of our relatives in Vermont. I took off quickly from there. I even found documentation prepared by one relative tracing one family branch back over 300 years!