I just reactivated Ancestry to brush up my family tree a bit. Got a few shockers

[NewHendoLib]

Kind of mind blowing - if the various linking trees are correct, Sir Walter Raleigh is an 11th greatgrandfather on my mom's side - in the Gibbs family (which I've traced back to the Norman Conquests - Albert de Guibe in the 1200s.

Then - looked at another of his lines and found that William Brewster (Puritan/Pilgrim, came over on the Mayflower) is an 11th greatgrandfather.

Kind of makes one feel odd to learn some of this stuff. Another in that line goes back to Wales in the 700s...

So I worked on my wife's line and found that she has another of the Mayflower Pilgrims in her line, on her mother's side - John Howland, as a 9th greatgrandfather.

This stuff is addictive for sure.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. I trust the old family trees done by real genealogists of their day

Any tree from about 1900 onward could be suspect. Many trees they showed me were just mix and match and had no basis in the reality of the ancestors I've met, records I've documented.

Btw, one of my family lines is descended from John Howland's bro. It was a small world back then.

[NewHendoLib]

2. Agreed.

[applegrove]

3. I did some genealogy. I was able to totally disprove some supposed ancestry

that was sourced from a second cousin of my grandfather. My grandfather looked up the supposed family in Paris during the war and they were idestitute as WWII ended. He gave them some money. So some good came of that false rumor. I was able to partially prove a story from my grandmother.'s side. There are more questions as I dig into it. We'll probably never know the details but we know the story my grandmother told was all proven.

[NewHendoLib]

4. Yes, it is an endless exercise in digging!

I'm sure there are loads of errors in the tree I'm building, but it is fun to spend an hour here and there on it.

[global1]

5. I'm 74 y/o And Finally Getting Interested In Exploring My Family Tree....

How do I get started on that? Can you give me some pointers to get me started?

[TuxedoKat]

14. One way to get started

Is to go to ancestry.com and start a family tree. You will be amazed at what shows up. No doubt some distant cousins have already done a great deal of work. You may even see old photos of relatives that you’ve never seen before that others have uploaded. Your local library may have an ancestry membership which would be free to use. It’s great fun and you learn so much with this hobby. Ancestry has periodic sales for their memberships (Black Friday) and at other times as well.

[Irish_Dem]

6. It is so much fun to find out who are ancestors are, going way back.

Yes it feels odd, doesn't it?

[SCantiGOP]

7. You should remember though

That the accuracy of those trees depends on none of your ancestors ever cheating on their spouse.

[NewHendoLib]

8. Ha! Hell, they were Puritans!

[Hestia]

13. But they "bundled" as sleeping arrangements back then

basically, the entire family slept in one big bed, so makes you wonder about incest or how the milkmaid became pregnant...

[Doc Sportello]

9. DNA sometimes proves them correct

I have the genetic marker for the famous Irish chieftain Nialls of the Nine Hostages. Nialls was active, as it was reported he had many wives and around 400 children. Some researchers a few years ago were able to determine there are a million to 2 million men worldwide with that marker, so there are a lot of us who can talk about being related to him.

[Karadeniz]

10. I'd be interested in past life regression.....

[QED]

11. My sister and I did a lot on our tree....

and I've poked away at it a bit but had to put it aside due to work. Some of the suggested connections are crazy - one line goes to Brian Boru and another to Robert the Bruce.

I'm retiring in May and then I'll dive in some more. I'd love to go to the UK to dig.

[mitch96]

12. I always wonder how accurate these commercial ancestry companies are?

I did 23Nme years ago and then did Ancestry.com a few years later...
Lets just say there were disparity's... This gets me thinking about the TV ancestry program. Do they ever make stuff up for "programing" sake to make it more interesting?
Just curious..
m