What made you interested in genealogy?

[STARINELSON]

I've been updating my family tree and just wondered what made us all interested in genealogy. I guess my interest stemmed from my dad's stories about when he grew up in the Depression era. I begged for stories of my paternal grandparents, who both died before I was born.

Anyway, I'm simply curious about other's interests.

 

[Maeyken]

I got interested when I was quite young. My paternal grandmother has several family tree books, and I loved looking through them and discovering who I was related to. (many of my third cousins went to my school). Ever since then I've been interested, and I've started piecing together my family tree. I've discovered that 3 of my 4 grandparents are distantly related to each other! (kinda crazy) That's what happens when your family stays all in one spot!

 

[Canelitas]

I believe my interest started as a very young child, probably was because my parents always talked about a place and people I had never met, which start making me curios, and wanting to meet them.

I must say this is an interesting hobby!

 

[Gardenia]

My grandfather would take me to a graveyard every memorial day, and point out the graves of his grandparrents, and others. Somewhere along the line he got really interested in the family tree, and he would bring me around to libraries and town halls and such while he was getting information. Just.. grew on me I suppose.

 

[immersedingrace]

My grandfather would take me to a graveyard every memorial day, and point out the graves of his grandparrents, and others. Somewhere along the line he got really interested in the family tree, and he would bring me around to libraries and town halls and such while he was getting information. Just.. grew on me I suppose.

That's cool! I do that with my nieces and nephews.

As for how I got started in this, it's a looooong story, but the following are the short reasons:

1) To prove a point to my dad. To look at my grandfather, my dad, and even me, most people ask if I have Native American blood. It's debated whether or not we do. I say yes. My dad says no. I love to challenge my dad and be right

2. To get closer to my dad. It's a way I can connect and have something to talk about with my dad. Our relationship is strained (NO, not because I like to challenge him), and he loves to talk about this stuff.

3. I'm a huge history buff.

4. It helps me get a sense of earthly identity, and to understand the "generational curses" (won't get into a debate OR discussion on this) that have plagued my family.

Blessings.

 

[njsisterinChrist]

My interest started when I inherited two family bibles from my Aunt. I knew a little about my mothers side of the family. But, when I saw all the names and dated written down and that they went back to the early 1700's I was really interested in finding out what happened to them all. My search as taken me through the Holmes, Dana, Butterworth, Quigg families and then into my husbands family. It is so much fun and I now have so much information to pass down to my children and my grandchildren.
I still wish I knew more about my father's family. I never knew and he never talked much to my mother about them either.
It would be fun to see if any of us are searching the same names.
Who are you looking for?
God Bless

 

[Sybaris]

What got me started was hearing in my youth that I was related to Wyatt Earp. Guess everyone assumed so since my g-grandmothers maiden name was Earp. After a few months of research it turns out they assumed right.

 

[STARINELSON]

My interest started when I inherited two family bibles from my Aunt. I knew a little about my mothers side of the family. But, when I saw all the names and dated written down and that they went back to the early 1700's I was really interested in finding out what happened to them all. My search as taken me through the Holmes, Dana, Butterworth, Quigg families and then into my husbands family. It is so much fun and I now have so much information to pass down to my children and my grandchildren.
I still wish I knew more about my father's family. I never knew and he never talked much to my mother about them either.
It would be fun to see if any of us are searching the same names.
Who are you looking for?
God Bless

Most of my research is southern families.Wren, Henderson, Yancey, Bragg, Wingo,Austin, Frederick & Britnell. I have been really blessed by help from other researchers. Wren and Henderson seem to be my brick walls lately. My husband is working on Nelson & Corley for right now.

 

[njsisterinChrist]

I'm working on my husbands family too.
His is hard because his grandfather was born in France and the name Gauvain is common there and in Canada.
I have found that researchers on most of the sites are very helpful. They share links and other sources. That has been a big help to me also.

 

[STARINELSON]

I understand. One of my famiy names, Yancey, seems to have originated in the States, due to mispronounciation or whatever.The reigning theory has yet(prolly never will be) proven due to lack of paper trails at that time. Supposedly, four younger brothers from one of the ruling families of Wales, came here to America and the name changed from Nanney to Yancey. The Nanney's ( what's left of that family) all seem to agree with the story... but no one shred of evidence exists to prove that the Yanceys were indeed the Nanney brothers. But, it's a nice legend and I think I'll keep it lol .

 

[pdudgeon]

oh i definitely had to smile at your story! our family has a similar one----
in our family there were three brothers who immigrated from Denmark. When the first brother came over he decided to Americanize his name and so he became Mr. Johnson. the second brother came over and kept the family name of Jensen. the third brother came over and on the ship met a wonderful family by the name of Mahoney. you guessed it---when they all met up in Washington state,my father told me that the local paper carried a story of how Mr. Jensen's two brothers Mr. Johnson and Mr. Mahoney were visiting! Fortunately i have a picture of two of the brothers (Johnson and Jensen)together.

 

[STARINELSON]

lol whre would we be without legends! At least, you have the pic to prove it ! All we have is word of mouth .. let's see.. about 200 years or so......think anything got changed during all those years ? hahahahaha

 

[J21]

I have simply always been a lover of history in general and genealogy is history that is really the most relevant to me!

 

[karykay]

I use to hear stories about people I did not know as a child. As I got older I started to ask questions now and again. And found out that I had some interesting people among my ancestors. But it is only now that I have bothered about the stories and started to do research to find out more.

 

[mikala]

My dad's sister made a book about his side of the family. I decided that mom's side needed their stories found and told. I have been to discover who were my mom's Irish ancestors that she heard stories about.

 

[JacquelineDeane55]

I've been updating my family tree and just wondered what made us all interested in genealogy. I guess my interest stemmed from my dad's stories about when he grew up in the Depression era. I begged for stories of my paternal grandparents, who both died before I was born.

Anyway, I'm simply curious about other's interests.

I had a deep yearning to know where I came from. My family has never been really big on genealogy, I guess I am the one that started it in the family, but collecting ancestors has been really hard and time-consuming.

On my father's side I traced it back to possibly Chief Eagle Plume and on my mother's side I am have really been struggling to find links that reveal my ancestors.

 

[Kingsdotter]

My family name inspired my curiosity. As I grew up, I learned that people in a neighboring country bore the same family name(pronounced and spelled alike).I knew there had to be a link. I soon found out that we are settlers in the country where I live. And I am originally from a neighboring Country. I have mixed feelings about it tho.

 

[HonestTruth]

I have a very rare Sefardic surname and found it in a book about the victims of the Inquisition. While what my ancestors endured was painful and shameful, I learned through research that they accomplished quite a lot over the centuries. Hopefully, some day I will get the full picture of the family history.

 

[William67]

When I was a boy I would listen to my great-grandmother tells stories about growing up in the mountains, and about her parents, grandparents, and even older family stories. My great-grandmother was born in 1881. She went home to be with the Father when she was 101 year old.

 

[Jacob Jilg]

I'm seriously considering signing up for an ancestry site, because my grandma on my mom's side says her family goes back to the guys from Kellogg's. And on my dad's side he has a grandmother last name Nitsche and there is a rumor that she is an American descendant of Nietzsche, so I want to play some myth-bust or confirm about my family tree and also learn interesting things among the way. I'm weary of heritage pay sites though, because I have a suspicion they just Google the same info I can Google.