Tracing youre ancestory .

[Macpherson]

45 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

My Grandfather traced his side of the family back about 500 years. I’ve the printout somewhere. Interesting to glance at, that’s about it. The whole family name dies with my Mother since she was an only child. 

 

I can kind of identify with that attitude although my story is very different as  my mum's 93 and now in a home and my 2 sisters and me have just cleared her house.. nearly everything she held precious ended up in the dump as it had little value to anyone but her.

 

She was obsessed with the [ dysfunctional ] family tree and which tbo I've no interest in, particularly as it was recorded in a very similar fashion to the covid stats in that the whole female line going back hundreds of years was totally unrecorded... which to me renders half of the story totally worthless, incompletable and untraceable.. as is probably most folks.

 

Therefore I'm  glad not to be burdened with  the speculative distant past, and I only look forward.. not that I like wot I see😄

 

All the best to you and yours for the coming year👍

 

[silky fox]

Fantastic thread Mr Stubby.I was adopted in 1968 at 2 weeks old.Throughout my life i have always felt there was a piece of the jigsaw missing. I was told  about my birth mother from a very early age and tried to trace her during the eighties but other than the fact she was of mixed race and was unmarried meant she was for some reason unable to keep me.The nurse at the hospital who was the only person i know who saw her and my Grandfather (Who was Indian) helped find me a home with her sister...i drew a blank until i joined Ancestry.com a few years back.My DNA results showed that i was just over half U.K and one quarter Scandinavian.The rest of my DNA from Northern India.Last year i received a message through the App. I had found the information i was looking for most of my life. Sadly my Birth Mother who was born in India passed away in 2000 but i have been in contact with my Older Sister ever since.I also have four older Brothers.The first time i spoke to them was the most significant moment in my life... All the best for 2023

 

 

 

 

[richyrich]

The DNA ancestry is the most interesting aspect- such as Y chromosome that passes from father to son. Discovered mine is Celtic. Ancestry.co.uk is pretty good for the DNA. I think the Y chromosome info may have been on Livingdna.co.uk- (or .com??). 

[nepia]

I don't know how detailed you guys are making your searches but a good friend of mine was given a kit for his birthday last year and ended up confronting his mother over the half brother neither he or his sister knew about!  Fortunately things have turned out pretty ok but it has led to a falling out between him and his sister over an indirectly related matter

[Mrblue5000]

Has anyone got a bit of inbreeding in their family tree? I know of a few cases of first cousins getting married and the kids seem to have turned out ok, well the ones that survived did anyway. I haven't done a DNA test yet. 

[Peasgood]

I expect nearly all family trees have inbreeding somewhere in the line. Even up until relatively recent times there wasn't a great deal of social movement, in rural communities especially.

I know of two married first cousins, they have had a long and happy life together and their children and grandchildren are all fit and well.

[scbk]

[peds]

10 hours ago, Peasgood said:

I expect nearly all family trees have inbreeding somewhere in the line. Even up until relatively recent times there wasn't a great deal of social movement, in rural communities especially.

 

 

From Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything 

Edited January 16, 2023 by peds

[PeteB]

When my parents moved to Chard area some 20 years back, they joined in a lottery funded group to do historical records.  Interviewing old folk in the parish, looking at old records etc. There was one record of a birth with the father being recorded as "she was overcome by a man on Bewley Down". Terribly sad!