Genealogical discoveries

[Cearbhall]

What are some of the things that you've learned in your research? Is there anything that you regret finding out?

If you've taken a DNA test, has it led to new information and connections?

 

[Tolworth John]

I've never done any genelogical reasearch, but my aunt did anddiscovered that her grandmother had not married her grandfather. At least no record of a marrage could be found.
This was kept very quirt untill my aunts mother died, she would have been horrified.

 

[Tohu va bohu]

Well, I discovered that I’m a direct descendant of Odin, and of Audumbla, the Norse cosmic cow of creation, and of the family of Jesus (both by way of King Arthur and by the secret Holy Grail/Templar genealogy that Dan Brown made famous), and I forget how many more. But I suspect that some of those internet family trees might not be entirely reliable.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

I have been following up my family, trying to trace out all the various family lines back to when they came to South Africa. My grandmother started this process, poring through baptismal records and death notices and such.

She did this during the height of Apartheid, so every time she found a non-white ancestor, she summarily stopped or fudged a good European one. So now I have a good framework, but I have to check her work and correct and extend it.

The first generations of Europeans that came to South Africa married their freedwomen or the daughters of slaves. Phenotypically I look white, but I have Bengali, other Indian, Malay, Timorese, Angolan, Malagasy, Khoisan and even one Chinese ancestor in addition to my Dutch, German, French, English, Scottish, Italian, Portuguese and Danish ones. It can be quite strange, although the vast majority of my ancestry lies with the French, Germans and Dutch.

I found an ancestor called Maria Kickers who had four sons. Her husband then claimed they were all another man's and a big divorce case followed. Eventually she admitted they were another other man, Friedrich Botha's children, but people in the case testified she had other affairs.
With modern genetic evidence, one of the four Botha boys turns out to be another man's child - Ferdinand Appel. For 300 years a quarter of the Bothas weren't really Botha. I am descended from fake and true Bothas myself.

 

[blackribbon]

Most of mine has been done in pieces. I did learn from my grandmother's research that her side came over on the Welcome with William Penn....and there is a cool relative that used to smuggle things like medicine from the North to the Confederate soldiers by quilting them into her skirt. Though is sounds like she was popular enough on both sides that no one really tried to stop her.

I did do my husband's family and learned a whole lot about Southern history. He had two immediate relatives that fought for Texas' freedom in the Battle of San Jacinto, multiple relatives who were Confederate soldiers, a governor of Texas, and had multiple college educated women in his family in the late 1700s & early 1800s in Georgia. It also appears that he has relatives who were part of the later settlers at Jamestown though I was using someone else's research and need to verify that a bit better sometime.

 

[Phil 1:21]

I've never done any genelogical reasearch, but my aunt did anddiscovered that her grandmother had not married her grandfather. At least no record of a marrage could be found.
This was kept very quirt untill my aunts mother died, she would have been horrified.

For what it's worth, a lot of records can't be found. It doesn't necessarily mean the event didn't occur, only that a record of it has not been located. In New Jersey, for example, parents weren't required to register the birth of their children prior to about 1885.

 

[Rescued One]

The brother of one second great-grandmother was murdered and on another line, my second great-grandfather was put in prison for spousal abuse and adultery, and died in prison from a staph infection. One ancestor was accused and aquitted of witchcraft but two of her sisters were found guilty and hung in Salem.

Another ancestor came over on the Mayflower. My Crawford line supposedly descends from Robert the Bruce, but I no longer trust the accuracy of research that goes back that far.

 

[jmldn2]

What are some of the things that you've learned in your research? Is there anything that you regret finding out?

If you've taken a DNA test, has it led to new information and connections?

 

[jmldn2]

I love genealogy. I've been researching all 4 sides of my heritage since the 1970s. I have also taken the DNA test and found out I am as much Irish as I believed I was English. I have also met many people through my research and love it. I regret nothing I have found. Everything has contributed to my unique self.

 

[JacquelineDeane55]

About 15 years ago when I was 15, I did A LOT of genealogical research at my local library. I was just wanting to know so badly where I came from, what my family's past was.

But now I have lost interest.

Grandma tells me that Queen Mary of Scots was an ancestor of mine.

There is no longer a monarchy in Scotland, right? I don't know much about Scotland, but that doesn't mean I don't want to know!

 

[jmldn2]

Genealogy takes a lot of time and much, much patience. Lol. I don't have a lot of either. But I try and spend a bit of time each day to work on mine a bit.

 

[USincognito]

I had a lot of work done for me by my cousin 1x (my great aunt's daughter), my aunt and my father. I had a lot of the basics in 2001, but let it sit aside until 2 years ago when I took an Ancestry DNA test. It turns out my father was my grandfather's only child with my grandmother and my aunt was trying to find her and my uncle's real father. I was the control subject. My uncle found a long lost half-sister a year before he died.

For myself I discovered that my "orphaned" paternal great-grandfather was actually descended from some fairly prominent families in the North Shore of Massachusetts and one of his (and my) ancestors was Roger Conant who founded Salem, Mass.

Speaking of Salem, I am descended directly from witch hysteria victims Susannah North Martin and Mary Towne Easty and John and Elizabeth Proctor were my great-aunt and uncle. Trial juror John Dane was my 8th great-grandfather.

I recently discovered that I have two "proven" royal gateway ancestors Thomas Nelson and Olive Welby Farwell.

 

[jmldn2]

I had a lot of work done for me by my cousin 1x (my great aunt's daughter), my aunt and my father. I had a lot of the basics in 2001, but let it sit aside until 2 years ago when I took an Ancestry DNA test. It turns out my father was my grandfather's only child with my grandmother and my aunt was trying to find her and my uncle's real father. I was the control subject. My uncle found a long lost half-sister a year before he died.

For myself I discovered that my "orphaned" paternal great-grandfather was actually descended from some fairly prominent families in the North Shore of Massachusetts and one of his (and my) ancestors was Roger Conant who founded Salem, Mass.

Speaking of Salem, I am descended directly from witch hysteria victims Susannah North Martin and Mary Towne Easty and John and Elizabeth Proctor were my great-aunt and uncle. Trial juror John Dane was my 8th great-grandfather.

I recently discovered that I have two "proven" royal gateway ancestors Thomas Nelson and Olive Welby Farwell.

Genealogy is wonderful. You learn just enough sometimes to give you that desire to continue on and on and on. I have royalty as well as some "commoners" in my history.

 

[USincognito]

Just discovered a third Gateway Ancestor.
Category: Gateway Ancestors

Anne Derehaugh.
Anne (Derehaugh) Stratton (1585-1642) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

 

[chunkofcoal]

One thing I found out when I was poking around in my genealogy was that a lot of people from north-east Tennessee- including my ancestors - sided with the North during the Civil War. Apparently part of Tennessee wanted to secede from the rest of the state at one point. I thought that was interesting and didn't know about that part of history until I started researching my genealogy.

 

[jayem]

My niece gave my sister and me AncestryDNA kits last Xmas. My sister said her DNA results showed 98% Central and Eastern European origin (Germany, Poland, Russia.) With 1% Southern Europe (Greece, Italy.) And <1% Middle Eastern. (No idea how that got in the mix.) We've never done any geneological research. But this fits with the family lore of my mother's ancestors being German/Polish, and my father's being Ukrainian. I was always told that my Russian ancestor immigrated to the US because he was going to be drafted into the Czar's army. Maybe it was a smart move. I can imagine that conditions in the Russian army back in the day weren't so great. So I'm probably not descended from any notable historical person. Just from a draft dodger.

I'm wondering if I should send in my DNA kit. Suppose my results are very different than my sister's? What would that mean?

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

I'm wondering if I should send in my DNA kit. Suppose my results are very different than my sister's? What would that mean?

Nothing much. You might have very different DNA results, since theoretically, you might each have received a different half of each parents' chromosomes. There will probably be significant overlap though.

That 1% Middle Eastern, if not merely an artefact as these markers have a very low specificity, might be from Tatars or hangers on of some or other Khanate that ruled the Ukraine (Golden Horde, Crimean Tatars, Astrakhan, Kazan). Likewise, there was a strong Greek presence in the Crimean peninsula and littoral of the Black Sea, up till the fall of Constantinople. So easily explained by having a Ukrainian ancestor.

My brother did his, and came back with <1% Masai. We do have one ancestor in the 17th century, from an Arab trading family of East Africa, brought to the Cape as a slave, which I assume accounts for it.

 

[USincognito]

I was making so many discoveries in Essex County, MA that I had to take a trip back up that way.

- Discovered that the Macy-Colby house in Amesbury belonged to my ggf Anthony Colby.
Visit The Macy-Colby House | National Register of Historic Places | Amesbury, Massachusetts
- Took a photo of the Amesbury first settlers monument. I have 6 of the 18 listed.
Golgotha Burial Ground | First Puritan Burial Ground Landmark in Amesbury MA
- Took a photo of the Hannah Dustin (ggm) statue in Haverhill.
The Gruesome Story of Hannah Duston, Whose Slaying of Indians Made Her an American Folk "Hero" | History | Smithsonian
- Took a photo of the Newbury first settlers monument. I have about 23 of those listed.
https://www.sonsanddaughtersofnewbury.org/lower-green-monument
- Discovered that the John Whipple House in Ipswich belonged to my ggf John Whipple.
John Whipple House - Wikipedia
- Visited the Old Buring Ground in Ipswich and found several graves of ancestors, aunts, uncles and cousins.
Old North Burying Ground
- Visited the Parson Joseph Capen (ggf) House in Topsfield. Also located on the property is the Zaccheus Gould (ggf) barn.
Parson Capen House - Wikipedia
- Took a photo of the Roger Conant (ggf) statue in Salem.
Salem Massachusetts - Salem Tales - Roger Conant
- Took photos at the Proctor's Ledge memorial to the Salem hysteria victims. Of the 19 victims, I'm descended from 3 of them and also a great-granduncle and great-grandaunt.
The Site of the Salem Witch Trial Hangings Finally Has a Memorial | History | Smithsonian

 

[jmldn2]

What are some of the things that you've learned in your research? Is there anything that you regret finding out?

If you've taken a DNA test, has it led to new information and connections?

Mine has. I'm as much Irish as I am English. I never knew that. Plus, as far as religion goes, I've found some religion in my ancestors lives I never knew.

 

[Jonaitis]

I discovered that our family, on one of lines, goes back to William Tyndale's sister.

Eh...it is close enough