Who else is a Genealogy Nut??

SummerAngel

I got the Ancestry.com DNA tests for myself and my two daughters last year and the results finally convinced my science-averse father that DNA is actually valid. Since both of my parents have been into genealogy forever the results clearly followed the pattern of family that they already knew. Because of their work I know I have a few revolutionary war ancestors and 5 ancestors who were on the Mayflower. A cool thing for me also is that my 12 times great grandfather is Myles Standish. I guess history class has changed since I was a child because my kids had no idea who he was until they read some information on the internet about him. I'm mainly Scottish and English on my mom's side, and Swedish on my dad's. It makes sense that I'm a feisty person!

FindingBalance

I read once that at least 35 million people are Mayflower Descendants! Myles Standish is one of mine as well, which I never knew when I was younger. I also discovered that both my parents descend from the same couple about 12 generations back, which didn't phase them one bit. I also have a couple of French Huguenots who came to New York about 1680, but it was so far back that the DNA test was not helpful in confirming any French lineage.

MCBaker

I have one fire and brimstone Hugenot preacher in my ancestry, in among the Dutch. He was during the Revolution. I have a touch of French, although the other two sibs did not. I thought from him, but if I can confirm that I have ancestors who moved from Canada to Wisconsin, then the French would make more sense. But right now I am reading The Jesuit Relations, where the New Amsterdam Dutch were generally bad guys , like I said, too busy to dive back into it.

Yeah, one of my New Amsterdam ancestors was Danish, but that doesn't register. Too far back. They generally stayed to themselves, so it shows strongly

DivineMrsM

How does one find out if they were descended from someone on the Mayflower? It wouldn’t apply to my family, but I’d be curious if dh’s family had any connection.

Meow13

If you can trace back your ancestors to the revolutionary war then it gets a bit easier. I found my 4x great grandfather through family records and us census records. Then my 5x great grandfather I found in an old newspaper and I found the grave stone. And because he was born in Connecticut I found Barbour Collection of town records. Others had done alot of tracing at my 7x great grandparents and beyond. So far I have not found a Mayflower relative most came from England in the 1630s mostly Salem area.

I found New York State during the 1700s to be lacking for records compared to Massachusetts and Connecticut.

I should put in a plug for Reclaim the records, wow they worked the courts to get marriage, birth and death indexes released to the public years 1880 to 1956. Found my great great grandparents marriage index in 1886, also many relatives death indexs in 1910 thru 1949 helped alot.

FindingBalance

You can find a lot of info through theMayflowerSociety.org

vlnrph

Both arkivdigital, a subscription Swedish genealogy website and Find My Past (lots of info on folks with history in the UK) had free weekends recently. Luckily, I had a couple of afternoons open to spend on the computer.

I was able to find names on a few passenger lists for relatives who left Scandinavia but got bogged down trying to read the old handwriting in church record books from the 1700s - they lacked any kind of useful index on line...

Locating articles in newspapers is another interesting source to pursue. The Library of Congress has the Chronicling America project that spans decades and is easily searchable, at no charge!

vlnrph

Time to bump since it's been over 2 years and I'm sure we have other nutty 'addicts' out there. I've been using COVID isolation time to update Family Search profiles of unrelated individuals by attaching sources, looking for obituaries, etc. It may help real descendants in the future.

The local public library allowed free use of their Ancestry subscription from home during the pandemic. Too much incomplete and wrong data has infiltrated that site however some folks have posted interesting photos. Find A Grave has been a favorite for submitting biographies.

Our son found a software program from a German company called Synium. I set up 4 trees, for each parent of my husband and myself. It has an interesting display and provides links so other connections may be added. It's private which means no inaccurate info can sneak in…

MountainMia

Yes, you definitely have to take some "research" with a grain of salt. Make sure you can verify what you find, preferably with original documents.

My husband is the primary family historian/genealogist, though I am intrigued and sometimes work with him. This winter I plan to work on actually writing some of the stories. The names and dates and places are fascinating, but understanding more about the context of their lives is what "brings them to life" again.

Beaverntx

One of the things I am working on is writing the stories of 5 brothers and their families after the Civil War. Amazing information in their pension files!

vlnrph

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Learned that Finding Your Roots hosted by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr is back on PBS this week with new programs for season 8. Looks like many of the upcoming shows have 2 guests which I think allows deeper dives into each instead of having 3 people in an hour.

I thought Genealogy Roadshow was fun to watch because they used ordinary people, not actors or sports/media stars. During the summer of 2020, ABC had The Genetic Detective featuring CeCe Moore who shares my Finnish heritage. OK however using DNA to solve horrific crimes is not my preferred research scenario…

Lisa Kudrow's Who Do You Think You Are? seems to be on COVID hiatus but might be returning to NBC after being on TLC for a long time. Tell us if you have favorite episodes from any of these (or whether you have seen Canadian or British series)!

DivineMrsM

vln, I am fascinated with stories of genealogical DNA being used to solve crimes, often to bring some kind of closure or perhaps answer a few more questions for the families of cold case victims. I’ve heard it is the technological break -through of our time.

I did like CeCe Moore’s brief show, I don’t think there were too many episodes, and it was kind of pieced together, but still interesting. She is an extraordinary woman who’s at the right place at the right time in history. She remains one of the few who does what she does, but I think she is blazing a trail for others to follow her. She has countless fans and followers who believe in the work she’s doing. Besides being so thorough and professional, she’s so compassionate with her approach and I think that human factor is what really appeals to people.

They say genealogy is the second most popular subject searched on the internet. [It really shouldn’t be a surprise that number one on the list is pornography.]

I never watched Lisa Kudrow’s show so I know nothing about it. I could never get into the Finding Your Roots show. But if Gates Jr. would ever want to research and tell me about my genealogical background, I’d be all for it!

MCBaker

Most of Dr. Gates' work on the show is with people whose lineages are difficult to track-- because of refugee status, slavery, or being Jewish. And they are also celebrities, or at least minor celebrities. I think the show is interesting.

I have some dead ends, one Irish, and the other said to be an immigrant from Germany (with the last name of Harris? Doubtful. Perhaps Canadian?). But given the other lineages which were easily traced given modern tools, really not problematic.