How far back do you know your family history?

[Memories]

Thanks to my grandmother and aunt, I know ours very far back. One branch goes back to 12th century Scotland at a certain Abbey. Other branches go back to 1500's and 1700's. They even managed to write a publish a small book about it that includes several photos.

I was surprised at how little some people know of their family histories beyond their grandparents.

Anyone have any really interesting stories to tell about their ancestors?

[D. Shelton]

Back not very far (19th Century England) . The Great Preacher Spurgeon ,
who has no doubt rolled over a few times listening to me

[HHP]

double post

[HHP]

I had a ancestor who was a King's Magistrate in Pulaski Couty , VA. There's a record of him settling a dispute over a cow for the sum of 1 pound. He shows up later as an officer in the Continental Army. Must not have liked his old boss.

Another shows up as enlisting as a private in the Confederate Army in the last year of the war at the age of 43. Don't know what he was thinking.

Our illustrious ancestor was Alexander Hamilton who among other things, finished 2nd in a duel. Haven't gone back into the family roots in Scotland other than general stuff about the Hamiltons.

In short, come from a long line of troublemakers.

[fitness1]

My paternal great grandmother was Shawnee and the great granddaughter of Chief Pucksinwah (Tecumseh's father)

[Bob Womack]

We go back as far as a record of when a pair of brothers with my family name, just back from the crusades, were named as sheriffs in East Anglia. Along the way our coat of arms ended up in St. Margaret's chapel at Westminster Abbey and my ancestors were on the, I think, third or fourth boat to Jamestown. On my mother's side, the Surveyor General and Secretary of State of Jamestown, William Claiborne, was my ancestor. He arrived in 1621.

Bob

[chitz]

Not too far back, but almost 100 years. I have read the passenger manifest when my grandparents came over from Sicily in 1924. (with papers)

[HHP]

Originally Posted by chitz

Not too far back, but almost 100 years. I have read the passenger manifest when my grandparents came over from Sicily in 1924. (with papers)

People who came from Europe in the teens and twenties amaze me. They had to put their entire holdings at risk, the cheap/free land was all gone, little or no safety net, and they generally were non-English speakers. I always thought they had more guts than some of the early settlers who came over.

[chitz]

Originally Posted by HHP

People who came from Europe in the teens and twenties amaze me. They had to put their entire holdings at risk, the cheap/free land was all gone, little or no safety net, and they generally were non-English speakers. I always thought they had more guts than some of the early settlers who came over.

True. In spite of all that, my grandfather became quite successful as a stone maker. (headstones)

[Dru Edwards]

12 century Scotland, wow. That's going back a long time.

My great, great ... grandfather (my father's father, etc) immigrated to Nova Scotia (NS) from France in 1708. I'm the nth generation born in NS. On my mother's side, it goes back to the mid 1600s (1664 or '65), again, in NS.

The older I get the more I'd like to know about my family's genealogy.

[buddyhu]

On my mother's side, we can trace back to arrival in the colonies and (later) Martha Washington, with a few other illustrious characters in the family tree in the centuries after Martha. On my dad's side, only go back as far as my great great grandfather, who was apparently a horse thief in England who fled to the US. Growing up, I heard lots of interesting stories and cautionary tales about various ancestors.

[kydave]

I go back to my great-grandfather x 7, a French Huguenot who left his land in France in the late 1600s and came to Jamestown in 1700.

One of his 7 children was a surveyor, hired along with Daniel Boone, by the Governor of Virginia to survey what would eventually become Kentucky, where the family ended up.

During the surveying, my ancestor's party was attacked by Indians with all killed except him. He was captured and returned to the village, supposedly because the Indians thought the compass he had hanging around his neck was serious mojo.

He was rescued by Daniel Boone.

Much of the family history was researched and documented in the 1920's book, "Colonial Men & Times" and the later book, "Westward Into Kentucky."

For you Civil War buffs, there is an interesting story about another ancestor, Robert Paxton Trabue. He supposedly was to be promoted as a "Fifth Confederate General" after Shilo, but died on the way to Richmond to receive the promotion.



Interestingly enough, considering my move from Kentucky to Northern California, my great grandfather on my dad's side came to CA to log redwoods for a few years in the early 1900s, before returning to Kentucky.

I wish I knew more on my mom's side. Her maternal grandmother (my great) was a Cherokee.

[WmRob]

"Our illustrious ancestor was Alexander Hamilton who among other things, finished 2nd in a duel." Spewed coffee out of my mouth. Thank you for that one.

My maternal side of the family is traced back to the early 1700's while my fraternal side is traced as far back as siding with Scotland's Robert the Bruce.

[dirkronk]

Dad's side...
Grandfather Dutch (came to Canada 1925 and from there to the U.S.) and I know his story well, but not much about previous generations...except that they had no originality regarding names: it was always Jan begat Dirk begat Jan begat Dirk, etc., going back about six generations worth. Family Bible tells that much of the tale, but not what occupations were. A few years ago, I finally found out that "Ronk" is a place name (hinted at by the fact that there are "van Ronk" families, but mine must have dropped the "van" way back) on the NW French coast...today spelled Roncq. My guess is that we Ronks/van Ronks were French ex-pats or possibly Nederlandish sailors, fishermen, etc., who got our butts kicked over (or back) to Holland by Normans at some point several centuries back.
Grandmother Belgian (followed with my dad and aunt in 1928, when my Grandfather established legal residency in the U.S.). Her dad was a railroad man, in charge of the train between Antwerp and Paris, pre- and post-WWI. Don't know anything prior to his generation. Pretty sure there was an Italian back there somewhere, though...family name was Nicasi, which the family said was a derivation of Nicosia.

Mom's side...
Grandfather of Scots-Irish stock, forefathers arrived here in 1677 (my cousin Tom did extensive research, even has the name of the ship somewhere) ...another great-great-something-grandfather named Shadrach Reedy was in one of the Virginia companies of Washington's army at Valley Forge...illiterate, though, so Tom had to track him through pension records made out by other people. Nothing before the 1677 date, though. Post-Revolution, mixed bag, apparently mostly frontiersmen, some of whom married with Native Americans (two tribes that I'm aware of).
Grandmother of mixed Dutch/German/Skandinavian ancestry. Name was Jannke (so Yankee with a soft "a"). I know absolutely zip about her parents and earlier generations, except that there were plenty of farmers in the mix.

Dirk

[RedJoker]

Mom's side traces back to a castle in Scottland and a knight leaving from Wales in the late 1600's to come to Virginia. Lot of interesting characters in between with some portions that read more like a family stick than a family tree. That's rural Appalachia for ya...