How far back can you trace your ancestry?

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NoReserve

Senior member
Feb 4, 2005
219
0
0
I have traced my dad's side back to about the Civil War. I think thats like 7 generations roughly. I think I could go back further if I really wanted to look harder.
 

Zenmervolt

Elite member
Oct 22, 2000
24,514
44
91
Germanic peasants on Dad's side, and Briton (i.e. irish/scottish/welsh) peasants on my mothers. No real point to tracing them precisely. Dirt-poor farmers aren't impressive. :p

I think they'd be proud of where their progeny have ended up though. Middle-class is a nice place to be.

ZV
 

Landroval

Platinum Member
Feb 5, 2005
2,275
0
0
I have two family strains I can date back to the 1500s. I'd love to follow some of the other paths, but it takes a really long time to go further.
 

Doggiedog

Lifer
Aug 17, 2000
12,780
5
81
My dad's side was samurai. My uncle, who past away, is the oldest male in my family and had pics of my great great great granddad in all his samurai get up. My mom's side is samurai too but I think the family history might have been lost on her end.
 

RelaxTheMind

Platinum Member
Oct 15, 2002
2,245
0
76
My ancestors were a village of head hunters in the philippines. When I was little I used to go to cultural dances with my parents... minus the skulls. First time i was told that i was like COOL!... then they told me it was actually shameful to have a heritage like that. oh well.
 

moshquerade

No Lifer
Nov 1, 2001
61,504
12
56
Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind
My ancestors were a village of head hunters in the philippines. When I was little I used to go to cultural dances with my parents... minus the skulls. First time i was told that i was like COOL!... then they told me it was actually shameful to have a heritage like that. oh well.
oh hells, we ALL have ancestral skeletons in our closet
 

Landroval

Platinum Member
Feb 5, 2005
2,275
0
0
Originally posted by: her209
Back to Ghengis Khan.


A few years ago I was reading either Science or Nature (can't recall atm) but there was a blurb about some genetic research that showed Chinggis Khan (or a single relative, obviously they do not have his DNA to confirm) was the direct ancestor of something like 8% of men in Asia alive today :Q

Ah, Here is an abstract I found... I think it was summarizing this study :Q
 

malbojah

Golden Member
Dec 6, 2000
1,708
7
81
My grandfather has the ancestry thing for our family traced back 7 generations (last I heard)
 

Excelsior

Lifer
May 30, 2002
19,047
18
81
I only know my Irish side back to when my great-great-whatever grandfather left Ireland in 1798. I know my German side back to somewhere in the 1700s, they were carpenters.
 

Gigantopithecus

Diamond Member
Dec 14, 2004
7,664
0
71
Well documented to 1066, not so well documented to ~800.

Originally posted by: moshquerade
Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind
My ancestors were a village of head hunters in the philippines. When I was little I used to go to cultural dances with my parents... minus the skulls. First time i was told that i was like COOL!... then they told me it was actually shameful to have a heritage like that. oh well.
oh hells, we ALL have ancestral skeletons in our closet

My family rose from minor to middle nobility by helping to put down Irish rebellions. Then the gunpowder plot was hatched at our house! (That's when we got kicked out and sent to America.)
 

amol

Lifer
Jul 8, 2001
11,680
3
81
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Originally posted by: Amol
you know what's weird?

if you go WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY back . . .



we're all related! :Q

That's the scariest fvcking thing I've ever read here! :Q

:Q
 

Mill

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
28,558
3
81
My Aunt traced my mother's side of the family back far enough to where we found out that I'm the great x 100 grandson of Charlemagne.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
91
I can trace my mom's family back about 4 generations.

on my dad's side, I've traced his father's family back to the 1600's when they came to Quebec from France; I've never been able to make the leap from Canada back to France, though. on his mother's side, we have it traced back to France in the 1700's... my paternal grandmother is actually from France, though, which makes the transatlantic jump a lot easier to make.
 

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,974
140
106
..early 1700's Cork Ireland..grave markers suggest 1600's..found a record of a ancestor that was banished and sent to Australia on a prison ship by the british..and never returned to Cork..and there's another bunch of us in Fargo ND..and are old country Irish..still trying to figure that one out. But we're all related to the banished guy from Cork..banishment runs in the family. :D