Tracing Family roots

[Graywolf]

Be very suspicious of royal bloodlines. During the late middle ages they were often made up to justify the ruler's claim to the throne. Be especially leary of bloodlines that lead to Charlemagne. Everyone who wanted to claim royalty latched onto him as the firat Holy Roman Emperor. I myself have seen "family trees" linking me as a direct descendant of Kenneth McAlpine. These may or may not be true. In fact, Duke of Argylle during late the middle ages had a family tree tracing his lineage back to Adam and Eve. They are fun, but do not put too much stock in a tree unless you have done the research yourself and have copies of the documents, birth, baptismal, death certificates, etc.

[brandycr]

Sorry to disappoint you, but there just aren't any reliable genealogical records for anyone much earlier than a few generations before Charlemagne, around 800 AD, and those are only of the royaly and aristocracy of course. Virtually everything prior to that is legend, myth and conjecture. As are quite a few genealogies after that time.

thats how i found my lines royal records got lucky.

[gilmore]

<<<Quote:
Originally Posted by gilmore
Sorry to disappoint you, but there just aren't any reliable genealogical records for anyone much earlier than a few generations before Charlemagne, around 800 AD, and those are only of the royaly and aristocracy of course. Virtually everything prior to that is legend, myth and conjecture. As are quite a few genealogies after that time.



thats how i found my lines royal records got lucky.>>>

Let me be clear: even the royal lines prior to a few generations before Charlemagne are legend, myth or conjecture. In other words we know to a reasonable degree of certainty who Charlemagne's immediate ancestors were. We do not, however, know who were the ancestors of those people. They cannot be reliably connected to anyone earlier. From time to time various people have made up all sorts of fanciful stories about descendancy for them from Adam, various Norse, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, etc, but they simply are not creditable, i.e., the stories fall apart under scrutiny. There are no valid, reliable genealogies going back earlier than the 700's AD.

[Riverkilt]

Be careful of this genealogy work, its as powerful an addiction as kilts.

I started back in the '70s and still have the bug. Have been lucky in the documentation dept. But oldest lines go back to the 1500s.

Like Gilmore says, we've a bazillion ancestors. Both my parents lines go back to the same three families aboard the Mayflower, making them 13th cousins. My mother was joyful when I found that. She said now she could get an annulment after 35 years of marriage.

I like genealogy since many of my ancestors were Scottish, Welsh, and Irish, giving me a solid excuse to buy more kilts!

Have met lots of online cousins and been able to share lots of actual documents handed down to me through the family.

Ron

[Hachiman]

G'day folks!!

I've been reliably informed (i.e. professional geneologist did the research, not myself) that my family roots extend as far back as the Battle of Hastings and 1066. That's when my Norman ancestor came over and soundly thumped the local Anglo-saxons.

A little later on, and I have William Wallace entering my family tree (again, professional geneologist - I'm not just making the assumption due to my mother's maiden name being Wallace). I knew there was a reason I liked tartan ;)

A bit later again, and my Great-Great-Great-Great Uncle decides to start a newspaper in London...he called it "The Times"....

And then...nothing. We've been pretty boring ever since! LOL

cheers

Hachiman

[Kid Cossack]

As the Scottish country dancers down in Compton all say, "it ain't where you're from, it's where you're at." I'll hasten to point out that that's how I look at it, and I certainly admire tracking down the family tree.

[Shawnesse]

Before my mother passed away. She had one line back to 464 AD. She had proved that she was related to George Washington and Daniel Boone. Someday I will try to put the information she had collected on a computer. If you have any questions PM me.

[Arlen]

Personally, I can only trace my family back to the lat 1600's, but my fiance recently traced her family back to, yes, I'm serious, Odin, the Norse God.

It turns out that one of her ancestors was princess Contsance of England. Who, being royalty, was descended from pretty much all European royalty, a couple of kings and queens of jeruselam, some of Julius Cesar's generals and some Norwegian and Danish kings who were adamant that they were descended directly from Odin.

Obviously there was a lot of trying to back up claims and correcting of errors that other people had made, but it was still pretty cool.

I think it's possible to go back that far, but it can be really tricky and there is so much that's unreliable.

I have to say, Kudos to you. And good luck with the continued search.

[turpin]

OK. How's this? I can trace my middle name "Turpin" in a direct maternal line through the Gordons, Campbells and Macdonalds back to Thorfin Rollo Hausakliffer Einarsson, b. 890 on Orkney, d. 997 and his great grandson, Thorfin II "the Black" Sigurdsson Earl of Orkney b: 989 d: 1064.

Turpin is a form of Thorfin ("Th" pronounced hard T), or Thor of the Finns.

[Piper]

My father was an avid genealogist. He spent the last 25 or so years of his life tracing our family tree. I did a bit of leg work for him from time to time, and his older brother frequently worked with him for the final 10 years. The results are interesting. He traced a Welsh line back to 3 digits (600's I believe), and there are other lines he couldn't get back beyond 1920 or so in South Philly. Seems our family name (Young) comes from either Ireland or Scotland. My father initially listed the earliest Young he found as coming from Kincardine, Ireland. I've been unable to find such a place, but there is a Kincardine Shire in Scotland, with a large number of Youngs in the area. But the family's been in America for a while. When people ask me if I'm Scottish (big, ruddy faced, bearded piper in a kilt), I explain that my ancestor may have come from Scotland, but we have the records of his marriage in Philadelphia PA, in 1742, so I figure that makes me an American.
I know some of the earlier genealogical records tend to be suspect, but the Welsh line was researched by my Uncle, while he was over there a few years back. He lucked onto some old church records. From what I understand, under the old laws you could be held responsible for fines and assessments incurred by certain of your relatives, so they tended to keep pretty good records. Don't know if that's actually the case, but it would be an incentive to keep decent records.
Another interesting tidbit that turns up is that we've had family on both sides of every conflict this country has had from the French & Indian War, through WWII.