I got in contact with a branch of my distant family and found out that they are keeping immaculate records - I mean...the detail is AMAZING.

In fact, without my requesting it, they sent me dozens of print outs of family trees on my mother's side of the family - starting with me and tracing it all the way back to 1640 in France.

Now, my mother's parents were from Maine (what is now VanBuren), but the family traveled there by way of Quebec and from France, originally. Mom's side is very, very, very French/French-Canadian, both her mother and her father and eveything leading up to them.

I'm simply impressed and amazed to think that Louis Violet and Marie Doux getting married in 1640 in France resulted in me being here in Connecticut in 2011.

Do you know your family history? Where are you from?

That is awesome.  I don't know where I am from.  My great g'pa was an indentured servent, who became an alcoholic and written off by the family.  My great g'ma left my g'ma with an aunt to be raised, my great g'ma died of syphllis, she is not spoken of either.  My maternal g'pa died when my mom was 3 years old.  My maternal g'ma is the only who came to this country, she was the black sheep of the family for leaving.  She passed away ten years ago so the trail is cold.  Oh and my paternal g'grandpa was one of 13 boys,  for some reason unbeknownst to me my g'grandpa outed also.  Apparently there are a kabillion of them on LI, I googled my maiden name, but on one in the family is interested.  I would love to know all the dark family secrets. 

How cool Luci!!! 

Me and my mom are into family reseach, the longest back  we have traced it too is 1525 , in denmark, We are abviously not travellers on that side...I'm norwegian. A priest . That's on my dad's side...on my mom side it's more blurry. Some tater blood ( a type of gypsy) , so it's hard after some generations, but it seems we might have comed by russia. But the names change and dead ends...But my family has been Oslo people for about 220 years , and I think that is cool.

I traced a bunch back to Germany but got to dead ends.

A Geneologist found out I'm related to Eleanor of Castile. So yeah, that's pretty cool, but how far the might have fallen, lmao. We are not royal at all! Pretty much 4 generations back, this rich girl from an area that my mother was born married a somewhat poor craftsman but she was from a weathly family in the area. Tsk Tsk. haha just kidding.

I think it's pretty cool though, I found out that my great-great-great-great grandmothers name was the same as my daughters!

Ethnically from mothers side:

Irish/Scottish/French/German

From my father's side:

Native American/Welsh/Hebrew

Thats actually really cool that someone keeps that much records and that they go that far back.

I don't know that much about my family beyond my grandpartents. I know that my mom was adoptded and my dad moved over here with his parents from the Philippines when he was one.

So i've always thought it would be cool to know that much... I'm jealous lol.

-Skubss

Pretty cool :) finding out all that info must be fascinating.. I'm a mutt, ancestors from everywhere except asia, unfortunately I don't know much about my family's exact history. I am tempted to do one of those DNA testing things to see if I can find out the exact percentages.

aside: I thought you'd said you were a large percentage Native American? (sorry, have freakish memory)

on one side of my family, most of them had been in Massachusetts for over 100 years by the time of the revolutionary war.

had an ancestor that participated in Sherman's March to the Sea. all yankees in my family. or scots/welsh. well, okay, other bits here and there, but as far as the majority goes.

My sister traced part of our family back to 13th Scotland.  Thanks to the boards I found out I'm a distant cousin to our EE member Jilly. 

Otherwise, we're Irish, English, with some other bloodlines thrown in.  We have ancestors that were in the Boston tea party and the Revolutionary war. Ancestors were on both sides of the US Civil War. 

Oh dear sartori, I wouldn't tell that tale in Georgia!

I don't know much about my family history, as records either weren't kept, or never existed, or likely caught fire or something. I can trace my mother's mother's side back to what is now Odessa, but then was part of Russia. My mother's father's mother was likely a slave, or her husband was, so that trail is pretty short.

My father's family I can only trace back to my grandparents, and both were from N. Africa; one arab, one not. But there are also no records available, as it was a war torn country then, and it still much like that now. I think records are a funny thing to much of the country, and people laugh about it if you ask. I guess I can understand that, as surviving might come first, and writing things down second sometimes. I also do not have anyone over the age of 62 (my oldest aunt) on my mother's side. And I have never met my father's family before, but my grandparents have all passed.

Now as for where I'm from......I'm from Portland Oregon, and grew up in Central California, and have since returned my mother's (and my) place of birth, and am quite happy keeping Portland weird.

My relatives are from N. Africa, E. Africa before they, er, forcefully immigrated here, America pre-colonial/settlement, and former parts of the Russian Empire along the Black Sea. We moved around a lot. hehe.

My maternal grandfather's side of the family is from Glasgow, Scotland.

My maternal grandmother's maternal side of the family is from Cumbria, England

My fraternal grandfather's side of the family I can only trace back to the Revolutionary War due to courthouses being burned!

My fraternal grandmother's side of the family is from Thaxted, England

My grandparents (grandpa still alive) were always into geneaology.  I know he has records that go back far, but I don't know just how far.

As a kid, I would spend a week with them every summer.  We would spand that week traveling around in the travel trailer visiting grave yards to find dead relatives.  There is a picture of me somewhere next to a big stone where several female relatives were once scalped by indians...oh what happy memories!

Some records back to the 1600's, but they were all protestant and they came in very early to leave Europe.  There is a block for finding anything beyond the Americas.

All southerners whose family came in early have native blood as well (at least those descended from the Scots.  Scots, Scots-Irish, French, English, Native.  All ancestors were here by 1700, and nothing new mixed in (very southern). 

Sherman's march to the sea was a tremendous thing - I find very few people up north remember it - but it is clear and present to this day in the mind of the south.

so how do you start to trace your ancestors?

sunny you can start by using census records. My local library has a genealogy room for research. The Church of Latter-day Saints has online genealogy records, but they aren't perfect.

At some point when you get to your great grandparents, or great great grandparents, you can tie in to other people's research. Similar to what luci described.

Hmm that might be hard as they were born in Singapore and before the war, Scotland and Portugal.

sunny this is the link for the genealogy info from the Church of LDS. Just type in the name of one of your great grandparents and see what comes up.

https://www.familysearch.org/

Cool. Still can't find anything.

I've found my Great Grandfathers name on a list under the POW in Japan.

Ok awesome! Now you can get a copy of his military record from the nation he fought for. Then if it interests you, you can read all about the company he fought with.

Cool, I did not know that. He was the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.  Also known as Royal British Army, Scottish division

On my mother's side, I am predominately French-Canadian and Irish.  Grew up eating toutiere, but also boiled dinner!  Appears the Irish side may have come from Northern Ireland as a great aunt would talk of "Orangemen" and make reference to the religious troubles.  The French ancestors appear to have been in Montreal by 1650.

On my Dad's side - German with English/Scottish.  Luckily, there is a family member who loves this stuff and has traced the German roots to the 1500's in the Schwarzwald area of Germany.  My great great grandfather came over from Germany from Schwarzwald just after the US Civil War.  His mother worked on a "cloistered" farm ( haven't found out really what that was).  She became pregnant by the farmer's son.  We have records where the farmer's son appeared in court and consented to the child being allowed to take his last name.  The mother however was fined by the Court for becoming pregnant while not being married.  She died before the child reached majority, appears he may have lived with grandparents for a couple years before he and a cousin decided to set sail for America.  Later married a German girl here, but who grew up just miles from where he was from in Germany.

@luci and michele (if she's reading this thread) - maybe we are related with that French-Canadian blood!! lol

@ HadesMoon- My mother's family's from the Black Forest in Germany too :) most r still there

Oh- maybe we have a common ancestor too!!