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Post by shep on Mar 21, 2007 12:02:07 GMT -5
Hi
Has anyone ever tried to trace their family tree? Does anyone know how to go about it? Does anyone have any stories to share?
Ali x
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Post by Girl Power on Mar 21, 2007 13:00:10 GMT -5
I haven't done it, but I have heard you can do it very easily through the Mormon church's websites.
There is also a new service that allows you to have blood drawn and trace where people with your DNA are living now. They can trace people who are related to you from hundreds of years back. It's very cool, but it requires that others have to have gone to the same service and had their blood drawn as well.
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Post by madvicks on Mar 21, 2007 14:06:00 GMT -5
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Post by prophecygirl on Mar 21, 2007 14:18:02 GMT -5
My Mum's currently tracing her family tree, using lots of different things. She went to Shrewsbury to see the birth certificates and stuff. I think she's got a couple of hundred years back, so I will ask how she's done it!
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Ouija
Supernatural Hunter
Reaper
Posts: 629
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Post by Ouija on Mar 21, 2007 14:19:28 GMT -5
My Granddad (my Dad's father) has had our family tree as his main project for about 5 years now. He's actually pretty far on with it, we're all traced back to the 16th century, last I checked.
That is the history of my surname, at least. I think that is the one that's been concentrated on the most, since there are millions of different routes to go in a family tree, and focusing on your surname seems most logical.
It's easier for my granddad though. My surname isn't exactly that common, it's fairly hard to find anyone famous who shares it. I think there's an old Australian tennis player, and some form of american movie producer, but that's it. So when you find one, we're most likely related. I imagine it would be harder for more common names like Smith or Jones though.
My granddad, as morbid as this sounds, pretty much checks out a vast variety of graveyards when he has the spare time. He gets a lot of information from them, along with the obvious records etc. I think he tries to avoid the internet actually. Only uses it for family crests.
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gerry
Private Eye
Posts: 453
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Post by gerry on Mar 21, 2007 16:28:37 GMT -5
Our family has a story of how we got to the US.
There were three brothers in England, too poor to travel to the colonies, so they did what anybody would do. They joined the English army during the revolutionary war, got shipped over and promptly deserted.
I don't know if that is actually true or not.
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Post by Girl Power on Mar 21, 2007 18:15:04 GMT -5
Our family has a story of how we got to the US. There were three brothers in England, too poor to travel to the colonies, so they did what anybody would do. They joined the English army during the revolutionary war, got shipped over and promptly deserted. I don't know if that is actually true or not. Oh my gosh! That's hilarious, and so smart! I think it's fascinating to learn the stories of past generations. A couple of years ago I connected to someone on my dad's side of the family for the first time. I've never had anything to do with them. This cousin had all the family dirt, I which I love. She told me that my dad's great grandfather was some sort of minor British aristocrat whose family shipped him to the US because he was such an out-of-control gambler and hard partyer and couldn't do anything with his life. Then my dad's grandfather was a professional gambler in the Old West who married a maid from a hotel in Nebraska. And then my dad's brother is a bookie. Then that guy has a couple of kids who have major gambling addictions, so gambling is like a family tradition! Nice. Personally, I hate gambling. I don't like to spend my money without having at least some kind of clothing or other item to show for it. But I think it's interesting how such dysfunctions and other behaviors get passed down from generation to generation. I think history comes alive when you can get the details of people's lives, and not just their names, children's names, and lifespan dates. It's great to collect stories from extended famiy members and people in the older generations.
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