Ancestry and other such genealogy databases.

[BC38]

My boys are both adopted and have shown very little interest in their birth parents - but then they have known they were adopted since they could talk.

When my oldest was born, on a lark, I joined Ancestry.com and started trying to trace my family.

Maternal grandmother - dead end after a couple of generation
Maternal grandfather - same
Paternal grandmother - same
Paternal father - traced all the way back to a little burg in Germany in 1562!

I was really puzzled about that until it suddenly dawned on me.
My paternal grandfather was a Minister in the RLDS Church - a branch of the Mormon Church that stayed in Missouri when Brigham Young lead most of them to Utah.

Genealogy is important in the Mormon Church. That is why they have such an extensive ancestry database. So it only makes sense that Grandpa's genealogy had been traced so far back, and nobody else's had been.

That was 20 years ago. One of these days I'll check it out to see how far I can get with my other grandparents. I'm sure there is more data available now than there was then.

 

[arjay]

Mine has changed somewhat over a year and varies a bit between databases. I’ve found that building a tree (2700 so far) and learning the histories of various branches of the family and gaining access to nearly 1000 old photos to be the best part. (Lots of migration out of Scotland in the 19th century) Just last week a cousin found an obituary and a photo of a great uncle who emigrated to Canada in 1907 ,discovered a 3rd cousin who’s an hereditary peer married to a cute actress and I chatted with a distant cousin in Wales who’s maternal grandfather isn’t who she thinks he is [emoji44]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Camster]

I've found it interesting. My roots in the US go back further than I thought.
One ancestor was born on the ship coming here in 1828.
My family name was apparently carried through by his daughter, who wasn't married when she had two children.
A ggf was a cop.
On the other side of the family, names can be traced back to colonial times, as well as early 18th century northern Ireland.
DNA confirms what I always thought I was: virtually 100% Scots Irish, however the big surprise is that they also indicate that there is another less than 1% component. Someone might have been intimate with a slave way, way, back.
I'm not concerned about a gov't database. I've committed no crimes nor intend to, and I'm the last male in my tree.

 

[pharmer]

A friend of mine did it, found out it wasn't just hid dad screwing around. Found out his sister was really his half sister. And........I ain't doing it. Joe

 

[glowe]

One cannot correlate database genealogy with DNA testing. For those with European ancestors, it has to be understood that they traveled extensively and settled in many parts of the continent. They escaped war, famine, disease, tyrannical rulers, etc. Just because your 5th Great Grandparents came from Germany for example, does not mean they were German by DNA testing.

Normans are a great example. They were from mainland Europe and mostly French but in the 11th Century, they conquered England, many settling there. That coupled with the immigration to England from probably most regions of Europe over the centuries, makes it impossible to compare ancestry research with DNA. If you find your researched ancestry was 100% England, chances are that maybe half your DNA will be English. To that end, DNA will tell a person what ethnic mix they are, but has nothing to do with where their ancestors immigrated from to the New World.

I found that ancestry.com was a great resource to research my ancestry. I now have over 2,000 direct ancestors charted. Many go back to the 1500s and some before that. My entire ancestry is European, with one line from the 1800s being Native American. I am very fortunate to be able to find so much, likely because most of my America ancestors immigrated in the 1600s and 1700s. I have one decendent that came over on the Mayflower, a 7th Great Grandfather named Daniel Boone, and a wealth of information about what life was like in Colonial times. I would highly recommend this site. You can be as transparent or invisible as you want and keep your research private if you like.

 

[Echo40]

I know what you mean, a bit of family trivia that I knew from my father that Ancestry likely wouldn't have revealed to me otherwise, is that although my father's grandmother on his mother's side had a German-sounding accent, she was actually French, but was born in a place that was occupied by the Germans during the war and thus many of the folks who lived there ended up speaking a sort of Pigeon language that was French mixed with German with an accent to match.

Had I not known that little bit of trivia, then I most likely would have been shocked to discover that I'm genetically far more French than German according to Ancestry.

 

[arjay]

I’ve learned far more family history stretching back hundreds of years than my parents knew by using an ancestry acct and building a family tree. As your tree grows it can link up with other genetic relatives trees with your and their permission. The access that gives you to stories,photos and old records is amazing. I’ve got family that spread all over the old British empire,homesteaded,died in both world wars,etc,etc,etc

 

[klondike]

My sister is the genealogist and asked that I send in a DNA sample to see if if she could corroborate the family tree that she had assembled by comparing our results with others on the tree. Nope, did not match at all. Generations ago, the traveling salesman must have been very good.
All was not lost though as an oil landsman found us through this website and let us know that we had mineral rights in Texas that were to be developed. Not much value as the generations produced so many heirs but I can go out to dinner every month with my oil money.

 

[Golddollar]

The great-grandfather of my paternal grandfather's mother (makes me 7th generation from his landing in America) was naturalized in 1811 at the U. S. District Court in Wilmington, DE. How he got here was one of those stories that, as Dirty Harry Callahan stated, probably would not have appeared in Ancestry.com. He was on the ship Juneau that got caught in a storm off the Delmarva Peninsula and went down. He washed up at Yorktown, VA and eventually made his way to Delaware and got a job at Dupont. The fact that I am writing this is a testament to my ancestor's swimming ability.

 

[GypsmJim]

My paternal grandparents didn't get ere until 1921.
While we know what city they were from, nobody has been able to track any further back. The US government tried for both my father and myself for security clearances and they couldn't get anywhere past my grandfather.

Mine came here in 1894 from Germany. I knew the city they came from and even the church. Genealogy records in Germany were maintained by the church.

I put an ad in a German newspaper and located a gentleman that had my name and lived in the parish. He went to the church and paid the priest to do research for me.

It turned out that the church had been burned during WWII and the records from the 1800's were destroyed.

That ended my search for Great Great Grandpa.

On Mom's side, Great Great Grandma lived in the next town and we got records going back to the early 1700's.

 

[crankyoldlady]

Try your library Genealogy department for free help.

During the national shutdown, the Ancestry/Library portal is free to use from home.

Ancestry Library Edition

 

[carpriver]

Growing up I was told my mother's side of the family were Scotch /Irish while my dad side was welch, with a mix of Onadga American Indian. Mom's side the men fought in the Revolutionary War, the war of 1812 and the civil war while dad side were farmer but did fight in the Civil war also in the same unit as my mothers. I have no claim to what is true or untrue, I am an American I was born here by chance or the grace of GOD. I have no knowledge of the traditions from the "old world".

 

[CB3]

How he got here was one of those stories that, as Dirty Harry Callahan stated, probably would not have appeared in Ancestry.com.

In order for it to be found on Ancestry, someone has to put it there. You da man. Do it.

 

[chiefbob81]

Ancestry told me I have a great(x100) grandmother named Eve and a great(x100) grandfather named Adam. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

 

[Ματθιας]

I'm curious:

What happens to the genetic information after it is submitted? What do they do with it? Can they sell the info? Who owns it? Does person who submits it have a say or do they sign their rights away?