To ask if you’ve researched your family tree...

[ethelfleda]

Did you find it relatively easy or not?

I appear to have reached a stumbling block... my maiden name isnt that common and managed to go back to the 1700s
My parental grandmother is German and I have no idea how to trace that branch
My maternal grandmother was welsh and surname was Jones... my maternal grandfather (also welsh) was an Evans!

Just interested to see how well others have done and did you uncover any interesting stories or anecdotes from your research?

Yes, my username says it all.
I have a wonderful colourful ancestry that I've managed some branches back to 1700's which is a feat itself considering many of this lot didn't register, or unofficially changed names.
i've gone from a beginner level to intermediate, but only research for family and help friends if they are stuck and I can.
Mine came as a complete shock to me, I had no idea.

Oh, forgot to say. One ancestor is written about quite a lot, appears in Bunyons tales. He fed a whole village on hedgehog during a famine.

We found some cousins in the USA from my gt gt gt grandfather's brother who emigrated, which was rather fun.

Yes, I have.
I'm born in the States to immigrants, so I'm a first generation American. Dad was born in Western Poland in the 1920s (which was then Germany) to a Czech mother from Bohemia and a German father. They were Eastern European Germans.
Where you have to look is in record books (births, baptism, marriages, synagogue books- it wasn't too common for even Jews to register at the synagogue because if you were born in the middle of the countryside, your synagogue could be days away, so you'd register as a non-Christian at the local parish).
Where were your German family from? I can give you a steer if you give the geographical location.
And what sites are you using?
You may have hit a stumbling block because perhaps, for example, in 1746, this may have been the first branch of that migrated from Hungary or Bohemia or Romania or Ukraine to that part of Germany. So you would hit a wall searching German records and prior to, for example, 1746, you would start researching Czech records, Polish records, Hungarian records, etc. Also try Prussian records.
I am on My Heritage and I also use familysearch.org.
Ancestry as well.

Doing mine, and DH, with varying degrees of success. Common surnames are one issue (I have 3 separate branches of Smiths, two of which are even in the same area but appear to be unrelated); families moving around are another; but the absence of records is my main stumbling block. On one line I've got back to royalty only because the minor aristocracy in the 17th and 18th century left Wills and leases. All mine are English. DH has 2 separate lines of Irish Catholics and it's pretty hit and miss finding those records.

Along the way I've found plenty of skeletons. Makes life interesting!

Vanguard
I cannot find any records at all of my German grandmother’s family. All I have are her parents and siblings! They are from the Rhein Valley- I think she said she was Prussian actually.

I’m on ancestry.com

I only managed to go back to 1700s on her (English) husband’s side (my paternal grandfather)

The most interesting for me was finding a distant relative on ancestry who has loads of photos of ancestors taken in the late 1800s.

Also look into your DNA.
For example, if you're showing up as having a substantial amount of Balkan or Southern European, etc, I'd start looking into that region (especially if you're German): Slovenian books, Slovakian, Serbian, Croatian, even French parish books (Alsatian), Switzerland, etc.
There were swaths of ethnic Germans in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Danube Swabians, for example. Bessarabian Germans of Romania. You have the Alsatians Germans of France. So you may want to look in regions of Europe which were home (up until WW2) to ethnic Germans outside of the Republic itself.
These Germans tend to be mixed with Slavic DNA, which would throw up a Balkan link, for example. I am 'half German' but I'm genetically very little German. I can find my Czech side, no problem. But like you, I hit a wall with my Swabian German grandfather from the Rhine valley. I had to explore further. I won't bore you with my stuff.
But yes, look at your DNA and start looking at parish books in areas of Europe you are genetically linked to.

Isn't that interesting? I too have hit a brick wall with my Rhine Valley German side- which is producing Spanish and French DNA, as well as Southern European and some Ashkenazi.
I've been so engrossed in one side of the family, I've neglected this side of things. But you and I have hit the same wall!
Rhine valley Germans were typically wine makers at that time. You may want to look in Alsatian books.
Also the Prussian books! Bavarian church records, birth records.

Mum's Irish. Too easy.
I'm enjoying digging around all over Europe on dad's side though.

Yes, the skeletons.
I have such an odd mix of DNA (which has been verified on two other tests), I'm beginning to question if great-granddad was actually The DNA Donor (or was it the milkman?). Isn't it totally fascinating?

Only got as far as you, OP.

My sister has researched our family through the Ancestry website after carrying out a dna test. Mum and dad are both Irish and many Irish records were destroyed in the 1922 civil war so it's been quite difficult from about four generations back. Some discoveries have been quite interesting though, for our family and her dh's (who's family tree has a connection to ours about seven generations ago). There's a lot of other fascinating stuff (only to us) about hardship, raising a sibling's child, moving to England/America never to be heard from again etc. Good luck op, I hope you're able to find out more about your German ancestry.

There is an offer on the ancestry DNA test vanguard so I think I might just go for it. I’ve been wanting to do it for ages!
Would like to know more about my heritage. For instance, only me and one other cousin are dark haired, dark eyed and olive skinned.... everyone else is fair!
Maybe we were the milkman’s 😆

Yes, and I found out that three of my great-great-great-grandmother’s siblings converted to Mormonism in the mid-1800s and moved to Utah to become polygamists!

My dad researched ours and got back to Tudor times. Distant relative was the last woman to be burned at the stake in England.

1500c is very impressive research nico

I think we always knew by word of mouth passed down from generations about the burned at the stake woman. She was fairly well known at the time and from a well known family so that made it easier.

Another relative is an apparantly famous poet who I don't think anyone's has actually heard of but he does have a museum for him so maybe he's famous in some circles. John Clare? I keep thinking I must go to the museum sometime.

Please don’t get me started about my ancestors 😀 I find it incredibly all consuming so even when I’m trying to take a break from actively working on the family tree I’m watching stuff related to whatever ancestry.com migration/genetic community at various points in the timeline I was last looking into, or reading books about it. Also really enjoy collaborating with my dna matches.

Frustratingly still haven’t pinpointed who my maternal grandpa was but have finally found enough close relatives who’ve shared their family trees to get a sense of lineage. My mum’s genetic community is ‘Ohio River Valley, Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Settlers’ mostly via Germanic Europe. From my dad’s side I have ‘Central North Carolina, Southeast Missouri & Southern Illinois Settlers’ via Scotland, ‘South Carolina Settlers’ - Scotland, Ireland. Native American gt gt gt grandma. Sephardi and general Southern European, 3 regions in Africa -colonial melting pot.

Easy: my parents & their ancestors collected lots of very helpful info
Hard: lots of info my parents & family had collected... was wrong!

Sometimes if you can't go back further than go sideways, or get more depth about your relatives. Poking around, I found out my grandmother had an aunt married to James; James left his wife for her teenage cousin. James' dad testified against James in the divorce proceedings. Aunt was the eldest of 9 siblings of whom only 4 made it to adulthood. That kind of depth.

DNA testing brought me zero new info or collaborators. I suppose it validated relationships that me + existing collaborators had already confirmed.

The Witchfinder General seems to have persecuted some of my ancestors. It's fascinating when you see your family history intersecting with significant history, like the Highland clearances or US civil war, slave-owners and so on.

If you can only do one test and you’re sort of serious about the genealogy I definitely recommend ancestry, we also did 23andme and one other 🤔 I’ve forgotten what it’s called (also uploaded the raw dna to various other sites) - they do vary a little. I range from 48 to 70% European and the attribution is more precise with some sites than others - so ancestry might nail a region down to, say, Italy and Sardinia while 23andme will be just ‘broadly Southern European’. But ancestry have the biggest database and although obviously your dna doesn’t change the percentages and regions alter as more and more people are tested and the science improves.

I also love the dna circles which just appear by themselves where ancestry compare your dna and your family tree to all the other site users and puts you together if you share a common ancestor.

It was surprisingly emotional at times. I really struggled with some of the awful shit some of my ancestors did, even though I know it’s not exactly fair to judge them by the standards of today.

My tree has religious genocidal zealots, slave-owners, a gal who married into KKK, the wrong side in US civil war, compulsive liars....

DH has a distant cousin who left one large family in NZ to start another in Australia (about 1920). Descendants from the 2 families are still trying to come to terms with the acrimony in their heritage.

My grandad did ours years ago before he died. Really interesting findings! His surname is Swan and he discovered his great-great (not sure how many greats) uncle was Joseph Swan, this guy - en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan - very cool! His wife, my nana, has the maiden name Bell. She's related to Alexander Graham Bell! Can't remember exactly how though.

That makes me feel better YeOldeTrout 😀

It’s all been fairly educational too. Ask me anything about the General Land Office!