Since I intend to live to see the wildfire rising when I get a cake with 105 candles, I might be able to look up my own info one day. Might come quite handy, what with Altzheimer, dementia and all that 
Fun with genealogy
- Thread starter Kor
- Start date
I have Quaker ancestors who kept the most meticulous records. One of them, a grandson of the Plymouth Colony ancestor moved to PA to be with other Quakers. He kept getting kicked out of the church. He was accused of dabbling in witchcraft because he was always star gazing. He said that he was 'fascinated by the course of the stars in the heavens'. However he was also accused of 'spending too much time in the company of a woman whose husband came to an untimely end'' 
And a few years later, in about 1978, he was shot to death by police while trying to hide out in somebody else's house after another jailbreak.I discovered that a distant relative on another branch of my family tree was apparently the first person to escape from a certain prison in a rather remote area of my state.
Kor
My wife's family has a couple of interesting stories.Going back many generations, her family were jesters in King Henry VII's court. That ended when one of her ancestors took a liking to a particular woman who the king also fancied. As you can imagine, the king wasn't too fond of the idea of competing with his jester for the affection of a lady so the jester had to get out of town very quickly. The family moved to Cornwall, changed their name and eventually became rum smugglers.
In a related story, when my wife's grandparents were married, it was the joining of two families who had been at odds for generations. One family were a bunch of rum runners and the other family were the cops who were chasing them.
In a related story, when my wife's grandparents were married, it was the joining of two families who had been at odds for generations. One family were a bunch of rum runners and the other family were the cops who were chasing them.
Looks like I am the only one with a law-abiding family background
My ancestors all were farmers, craftsmen, railroad engineers, tax inspectors, postmasters and even a bishop. The latter was for a few years tutor of the later King Louis I of Bavaria - his moral influence on the prince was minute, I'm sorry to say. Louis was notorious for his affairs and finally had to abdicate because of a liaison with an Irish dancer.
Still, I'd have liked to have met this particular ancestor (my great-great-granduncle) - he had a great sense of humour and wrote a book "on human stupidity, it's causes, effects and cures" (or lack of). The Wikipedia pic on the English site is rather too official. I much prefer this private portrait:
My ancestors all were farmers, craftsmen, railroad engineers, tax inspectors, postmasters and even a bishop. The latter was for a few years tutor of the later King Louis I of Bavaria - his moral influence on the prince was minute, I'm sorry to say. Louis was notorious for his affairs and finally had to abdicate because of a liaison with an Irish dancer.
Still, I'd have liked to have met this particular ancestor (my great-great-granduncle) - he had a great sense of humour and wrote a book "on human stupidity, it's causes, effects and cures" (or lack of). The Wikipedia pic on the English site is rather too official. I much prefer this private portrait:
I have a third cousin, sixteen times removed (or something like that) who was a Supreme Court justice appointed by U.S. Grant.
Joseph Philo Bradley
Joseph Philo Bradley
I've done a little. Here's an interesting pic. A young Australis with his great-great-grandfather Matthew.
l]
Ohhh, I see the resemblance.
Yeah, y'got me. I hate Photobucket's new layout, plus it's so slow. :P
On second glance, it looks like you're related to Elvis and not so much to the sedan.
Let's see-
One, two, three, five, nine... fifteen!
On my father's side, the family has been traced back to one of the three Magi (I won't reveal which one here on the internet because the name hasn't changed that much over the centuries) and farther back. It's significant that Christianity later came out against magic, when that is in fact what the Magi practiced, along with alchemy, astrology, etc. Kind of goes to show that things were a bit different with Christianity in the beginning than what they were turned into later. But, whatever.
In the 1750s, the family came from Germany to Nova Scotia. Also in the 1750s, family on my mother's side came from Ireland to the Colonies.
In the 1750s, the family came from Germany to Nova Scotia. Also in the 1750s, family on my mother's side came from Ireland to the Colonies.
Interesting. Unless you are royalty it's very rare to be able to trace your ancestors back that far.
I've come to the conclusion that a lot of people today are either descended from Charlemagne, Atilla the Hun or Edward IV of England.
I know my own great grandfather left so many descendants (he had ten children and each of them had ten children and so on. My father was the youngest of 11) that if we were to get together in one place it would be enough to populate a small town. If you travel to the reservation where I was born and look at the last names you would see a lot of my kinfolk... it's almost a tribe within a tribe and that's not counting the people who are still descendants with different last names.
I've come to the conclusion that a lot of people today are either descended from Charlemagne, Atilla the Hun or Edward IV of England.
I know my own great grandfather left so many descendants (he had ten children and each of them had ten children and so on. My father was the youngest of 11) that if we were to get together in one place it would be enough to populate a small town. If you travel to the reservation where I was born and look at the last names you would see a lot of my kinfolk... it's almost a tribe within a tribe and that's not counting the people who are still descendants with different last names.
There are so many factors that influence how far back you can trace your ancestors: some cultures have a different name system, others rely on oral tradition, wars destroy written records, migrations lead to documents getting lost, estrangements between family members lead to wole branches of the family tree getting simply forgotten.
I'm pretty lucky as Germans are traditionally obsessed with registration, filing, documenting and all sorts of red tape. It's been a nationwide character trait for centuries. This way I can trace almost all members of my parents' respective families back to the 30 Year War (1618-48).
Before the 1630s we have only a document here and there, with decade-long gaps between them. War sucks!
I'm pretty lucky as Germans are traditionally obsessed with registration, filing, documenting and all sorts of red tape. It's been a nationwide character trait for centuries. This way I can trace almost all members of my parents' respective families back to the 30 Year War (1618-48).
Before the 1630s we have only a document here and there, with decade-long gaps between them. War sucks!
War does suck. During the American Civil War Union troops moving through the south burned courthouses in some places...destroying all the records. I won't call them damn Yankees because my southern ancestors were, for the most part, Union sympathizers but it has made it difficult for a lot of us to find our people.
Indeed. It's very similar here, with the 30 years war. Interestingly, neirther in WW2 nor in the 100 years war only remotely as much got destroyed.
Couldn't you trace at least some of your ancestors by the passenger lists of the large harbours? I take it most of them survived the civil war rather unscathed?
Tracing Native American or African ancestors would propably require genetic analysis due to a lack of written name lists (and whole nations having been extinct).
Couldn't you trace at least some of your ancestors by the passenger lists of the large harbours? I take it most of them survived the civil war rather unscathed?
Tracing Native American or African ancestors would propably require genetic analysis due to a lack of written name lists (and whole nations having been extinct).
