What do you know about your ancestors?

[TruiColours]

i dont know that much , all i know is my family came from Ireland in the 1700s

A lot... right back to 1540’s. It’s amazing how many records were kept! First female ancestor was burnt at the stake for heresy. Nice work, Spanish Inquisition!

Likewise, a lot - back to the 1680s. None of them burnt at the stake for heresy - what was her religion, @justilou1 ?

One was executed as a witch.

My dad's family came from a village in Gloucestershire and I seem to be related to most of the grave yard. The family is listed in the parish records for as far as they go back. We were definitely 'trade'. .

Mum's side, not much. dggf was a Londoner and dggm was from Alsace.

My family ( or one strand of them on mums side originate from the Border Reivers). They were raiders.

Hi Op
I like this, Good idea for thread,

I am adopted, come from British welsh afro-caribbean background, into a welsh christian background, I from midlands my gran, and one of my auntie living in alum rock, salty area.

I don't know much about my ancestors wish to know more,
often find TV series "who do you think you" are quite interesting, especially about social history aspect of this kind of think

Quite a lot. Like the vast majority of English people, my English ancestors were working class. Though not all my ancestors were English or even European.

A problem I've found with this hobby is wading through the misinformation and Hollywood style historical fantasy coming from the USA.

On one side, Mine come from Chartres and fought for/with bonnie Prince Charlie apparently. My direct ancestors emigrated from Scotland to NZ, the poorer cousins I guess. The well off ones still there mix in high society. It was interesting as I lived in England a few years and don’t much enjoy it, but when I travelled
To Scotland my spirit would relax when we crossed the border. I felt at home.

I don’t know much from the other side except we were Eastern European

I don’t know much at all about individual people but did a 23andMe test and I have English, French, German, Portuguese, Anatolian and Filipino heritage.

Loads. I have a Huguenot bloodline that's very well documented, which connects through to a minor royal family, which in turn connects back to a family of chieftains in whats today Belgium, circa 50 BC. Thank the Romans for keeping meticulous records of the peoples they conquered.

@HuguenotJo - Sephardim (Sephardic Jew) Her husband was tortured and survived. He took their kids from Portugal to Spain then France. The next gen went to Jamaica. They were documented officially as “merchants”, but they are known as being the only known Jewish pirates. They worked with the Dutch East India Co, picking on the Spanish Armada. Seems fair. They may not have liked what the Spaniards did to their mum.

@justilou1 Fascinating!

They had sex. That's about it.

I can’t go too far back. But, both my dps are Hungarian. I’m my mother’s side my gran had a surname that I’ve researched as Scottish, it’s a short surname but pronounced differently in Hungarian. That’s as far as I got.
My dfs surname is a county in Hungary, so that’s as far as I’ve got. Not sure I’d get far tracing back of how easy it’d be to do?

I know one strand were middle Eastern merchants who travelled the silk route and ended up in another country where the majority of my ancestors are now from.

THe ancestor I most proud of is my great grandmother. She had 6 children and her sister had 5. Sadly her sister died during childbirth, so she took in her sister’s family and brought them up with her own children. DGGM ran a boarding house in the Isle of Dogs as well.

DNA tests show English, Irish and Swedish roots which fits in with anecdotal family history and also where family lived.

I know a bit going back mostly 3-4 generations.
One strand is mostly English - farmer's, farm labourers, then further back is a man incharge of a work house (an Oliver Twist type character).
Others ran a shop in London, back in the 18th and 19th century. And others were taylors.
Another strand is Jewish, I don't a huge amount though, but every now and then my parents still get invited to a bar mitzvah.
The Irish-Anglo-Indian side is jumbled. The Irish chap seems to have gone to India and married a local in the 1820s - thence lots of mixed marriages.
Along with the mix of Christianity (RC and CofE), Hinduism and Judaism there's a mix of nationalities too, which I love, but it does make it harder to trace family history.

DH's was born in the next village to where his father's family has been traced back to the 1400s, which most definitely makes for an easier ride!

Watching with interest -thinking about getting a 23 and me for my children for Xmas -would be interesting to see what different mixes theirs would come up with.

Maternal GM’s family German and Jewish, although some seem to have converted to Christianity. From what is now Szczecinek in Poland and Kaliningrad in Russia. Maternal GF’s family were Huguenots (waves at @HuguenotJo !) from northern France. I don’t know anything about my DF’s side of the family. They were supposed to be English and from Sussex, but DF was very dark and looked Mediterranean/Middle Eastern.

I have a copy of my great great grandmother’s baptism certificate, which I think is a fake, as it was issued in the 1930s (she was born in the late 1800s ) and the village records describe her family as Jewish, so maybe a friend did it for her as protection.

My great uncle spent time in Theresienstadt and managed to escape and get back to U.K. My great grandmother’s sister disappeared in the war and was never heard of again, and another resurfaced in Berlin after the war, with a Polish husband. We also have Hungarian relatives and my Mum says the whole family was visiting them when war broke out, and had to get back to U.K. with half the family having German passports. They made it back to London, green bombed out twice, but all survived the war.

We know absolutely loads on one side and barely anything on the other.

One parent had done a 23 and me test and so far it has not told me anything other than a couple of names back up marriages I've found in my research on ancestry.

The other parent is doing an ancestry dna test so we will see how that goes.
If you are interested in the family tree side, it is worth putting in the effort on something like ancestry to find those people and also joining local Facebook groups for the area your family is from.
It can get expensive, if you have Scottish relatives - information is held by scotland's people and they charge for showing you. As do some regional locations, like Essex.

There are also bigger groups like ancestry helpers where you can go and ask for advice, such as reading certificates.

@MrsSchadenfreude , some of mine were in Terezin too, but didn't survive. Perhaps they helped your great uncle get out.

I'm from miners stock from as far back as I can go to. My nana and I were not very close. She was very possessive over my Dad and gave my Mam a lot of grief. Well before my Dad was born, she had 2 daughters die in infancy and a son die in his teenage years. Her daughters were both named after my great grandmother. She went on to have my Aunt but she given a different name. I have no idea how they died but was within 4 years of each other around the time of the first World War/Spanish flu. I'll need to request their death certificates.
Its just so incredibly sad and it made me think very differently about my Nana

My mums family were weavers from brittany , I always find it amusing that she loves sewing and knitting etc , must be in the blood !
My ex dp auntie wrote a book about their family , Jews driven out of Ukraine/ Russia, so my son has a very mixed heritage . I have the book for him to read when he is older if he is interested.

I find it fascinating that if you eg identify one strand back to the say 1600s there will be many hundreds (I did the maths once maybe over a thousand ??) who have as much relevance as an ancestor and about whom we know nothing.
Having said that mine are a mix of German English Irish and Belgian immigrants to the USA over the centuries.
One of my ancestors was a close friend and then pall bearer for buffalo Bill another was a famous Native American site archaeologist/campaigner in the late 1800s. Adopted by several ‘tribes’ in honour. Have remarkable photos and ‘stuff’ Re all of that. Much donated to museums - more meaningful than sitting in london !
Most others seem to have been farmers scrabbling out pretty tough lives.
Support to those with more recent tragedy in their families.

Mums side of the family-loads. Dad’s side of the family-next to none. There are records but for whatever reason, Dad wasn’t able to tell me anything of interest. Could sign up to geneology.com because I think its all there, but I’m a very private person and would sooner not.