How far back have you traced your ancestry?

[relaxin13]

My mom was adopted, so I don't know my genetic family history on her side, and other wise can only trace her side back to my great-grandparents.

My dad's side goes much further... my grandfather had his family history traced back a while ago, and we now have a rather large leather-bound book filled with familial history and information about my family in Italy going relatively far back. In fact, in 2004 my family and our American cousins traveled to Italy and visited two groups of Italian cousin that I didn't even know existed beforehand. In talking with them, we were able to fill in large sections of a family tree. It was pretty awesome.

 

[BINOWGAYLATER]

I know my Dad's side back to 1880's when HIS grandparents migrated 1/2 way around the world . There are towns in the "motherland" with the family name - so it shouldn't be too difficult to got farther back if someone had unlimited time and a good computer. Beware - there is a lot of shit on ancestery.com - meaning it ain't entirely accurate !! It lists SISTERS of my father than he NEVER had !! so i can imagine how much other crap there is there.

 

[Yooper]

The work is tedious and can lead to lots of dead ends, but in the end, the results are interesting.

In your case it might be easier than most if you can get beyond the Great Grandparents. Census records are open after 70 (or is is 90?) years and are a great source of information.

Hopefully not sounding insensitive, but better records were kept for 'Property' in those days...especially if you can get prior to 1860.

Good luck. It is my understanding that the Evil LDS Church has a lot of unique slave ownership records...at any rate, their library of records is supposed to be second to none, and it is free even to non LDS people...even us homos.

 

[G-Lexington]

I traced it back until I got back to Germany. Which only took three or four generations every way.

Lex

 

[syoBsUtsuJ]

I do believe my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, geat, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfathers were Adam and Steve.

 

[Kyanimal]

Unfortunately, if your ancestors were, indeed, slaves, you'll be lucky if you can track back to when they "arrived". Slavers were not known for keeping very good records when it came to families, where they "found" them, and had no compunctions about splitting them up.

Also, once here, slaves' names were changed with most being given the surname of their owners, or the name of the location/plantation. Some names were just made up. Slave owners did not likely record their slaves' original names, though they did likely keep records of their "property".

I am, sincerely, wishing you the Very Best of Luck with this!

Of course, no matter what ...

Keep smilin'!!
Chaz

In answer to your original question, see post 15 here ...

http://www.justusboys.com/forum/showthread.php?t=285410

 

[Pushyourluck]

A cousin on my mothers side of the family traced the family tree back and found out we come from Jewish folk who came to England to flee Hitler. I think we originated from Denmark. Also my great great great grandfather founded the Warburton's bread empire!

I don't know anything about my dad's side of the family apart from they are welsh.

 

[StationToStation]

I know my background, of course it interesting to trace one's family, mostly from Spain (Spanish Jew, too), Mexico, and a tiny bit Native American. We latins love to lay!

 

[syoBsUtsuJ]

Okay, everybody now, "gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we'd hear it from the people of the town, they'd call us gypsies, tramps, and thieves, but every night the men would come around ... and lay their money down."

 

[StationToStation]

My mom was adopted, so I don't know my genetic family history on her side, and other wise can only trace her side back to my great-grandparents.

My dad's side goes much further... my grandfather had his family history traced back a while ago, and we now have a rather large leather-bound book filled with familial history and information about my family in Italy going relatively far back. In fact, in 2004 my family and our American cousins traveled to Italy and visited two groups of Italian cousin that I didn't even know existed beforehand. In talking with them, we were able to fill in large sections of a family tree. It was pretty awesome.

italians always do it better, that's why i like you so much!

 

[Nomenclature]

I want to trace my ancestry back to Africa. I want to find out where my ancestors came from.

"The entire human race outside Africa owes its existence to the survival of a single tribe of around 200 people who crossed the Red Sea 70,000 years ago, scientists have discovered. "

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...frican-tribe-populated-rest-of-the-world.html

There ya go.

 

[unloadonme]

I want to trace my ancestry back to Africa. I want to find out where my ancestors came from.

How hard do you guys think it will be?

I've managed to trace some of my family back to 1645, but that was possible because they never moved from England and there are records preserved from that long ago.

Sadly, Huntneo, I suspect that the circumstances in which your ancestors left Africa will make it pretty difficult for you to go back that far. I expect the records will be, well patchy to say the least. Good luck.

 

[jft245]

My mom's side was fairly easy as both of her parents came from old stock New England families. We have traced both sides of her family to at least people who sailed on the Mayflower (Priscilla Alden is a distant grandmother). My dad's side we have only been able to trace to the mid-1800's (they were living in Vermont during the Civil War). We know that they came from Ireland in the late 1700's or early 1800's but we haven't been able to trace if they entered the US through Canada. Family stories say they lived in Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia but we have no proof.

It is fun to trace your roots, but it is hard work. My sister and I spent many weekends and vacation days chasing through Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont looking for headstones, and town and church records, only to return home empty handed.

 

[ChickenGuy]

Every ancestor on my mother's side is local to the exact area I live in. So much so, that a local genealogist did research for me, and found out that all of her great-great-great grandparents bar four (that's 28 of them) - all lived within a few miles of me! Not only that, both her grandmothers and one of her grandfathers shared the same surname, so it's all local on that side - maybe too much - not much of a gene pool for me on that side.

My father's are reasonably local as well. There's this piece of paper upstairs, which traces ancestors of his right back to King Robert the Bruce in the 1300s (no joke) - however, I did some checking in the library, and two of the links in the middle are highly dubious, so I doubt that it's really true. Nevertheless, there was a lot of different clan chieftains turning up on his side.

Aye, Hunty, my wee laddie - I'm a Highlander through and through.

 

[gsdx]

Eight generations. We can trace them back to after their arrival in The Colonies from Great Britain, but we lose track of them before that, mainly because we have found several different spellings of our last name being used and, when we start searching in Great Britain, we don't know which 'line' (spelling) is ours.

 

[rareboy]

34 generations plus or minus.

 

[Beachguyj]

I wouldn't know where to start other than asking my parents. I once did a family tree and got the names as far back as my great-great grandparents. My roots are from a different country so I think it would be impossible to find online. I know I can trace them all back to Spain, but no one knows what part. My last name sounds American, but it is also English, French and Spanish.

I just found a family crest of my last name from Spain and it has a Castle Tower. I have a castle tower and wall tattoo that I got over 15 years ago because I liked how it looked on an album cover. My Mother's maiden name's crest also has a castle.

 

[BigDestiny]

Tracing a family line back for more than a few generations (without DNA evidence) is pretty much meaningless, unless one believes that there was never any infidelity amongst one's supposed ancestors.

There's also teen pregnancy to worry about. For years my family believed that my great, great grandmother was the youngest her family. Until we found out that the people we thought were her parents were actually her grandparents, and her actual mother was the eldest daughter. We still have no idea who the dad is, although since then several people (not knowing who she was) have pointed out that she has interracial features.

 

[star-warrior]

My ancestry goes back for certain about 350 years. That's because the graves of my ancestors are near the village my dad comes from. The older recorded ancestry goes back either to the middle to end of the Song Dynasty China.

From what I've found out, the older ancestry may have been cobbled together to claim descent from an ancestor with prestige...

 

[trikky]

i traced my tree back to around 1800 on most branches and to 1640 on one branch.