Has anyone investigated their family tree and found anything interesting?

[IcouldstillbeJoseph]

I'm off sick and lying around watching rubbish daytime TV. Loads of those adverts for Ancestry.co.uk etc. It doesn't really interest me, but was wondering whether anyone has ever discovered anything interesting/significant in their family tree?

What a shame, Hecate - would be so interesting. But yes, without 'hard data' it's almost impossible.

You can use Tesco vouchers to buy Family Tree Maker and you get 6 months free access to Ancestry.

One side of our family is descended from Walter Tyrrell who may or may not have killed a king:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Tirel

i just signed up for the 14 day free trail - all of my family so far have been from the suffolk/essex area
also my parents told me they were going to call me mahala when i was born - looked back and 2 of my ancestors were called mahala ,but im sure this isnt an english name ?

Google is telling me Mahala is native american name in origin. No idea if its also an english name...

MY great aunt had to go to the country to have her baby she had to tell people her fiancee had died in the way 1st. there wasnt any fiancee and the baby was adopted nothing else as exciting as being related to bygamists or the well to do ,

In the form Mahalah, it's biblical in origin, and means 'tender' or 'tenderness' in Hebrew. Reasonably common in the 19th century in England.

Well the most exciting thing I discovered was that my great, great grandfather (on my paternal side) was a dance teacher in Birmingham and had a heap of children.

That's it, about as interesting as it gets. I've as yet to find any information at all about my paternal grandmother.

Haven't looked into my maternal side that much really, my uncle is so I'll scap it all off him when he's done!

We are related to the chap who arrested Guy Fawkes. An uncle in Australia has done a massive family tree on my Dad's side.

We are descended from the House of York. Apparently. (Personally, I doubt it.)

Have managed to get to DD's 7th great grandmother and grandfather tonight I think. Just need to do some checks tomorrow to check right people.

Does anyone use a particular good family tree maker, in terms of actually getting your tree drawn up?

At moment it is all on ancestry website but obviously that would go if PILs don't renew at end of year.

Hulababy, you can export your tree direct from Ancestry as a GECOM file. You can than load the GECOM file to software and it draws it all again for you in the software. So just export it before the subscription expires. Most software that is compatible with GECOM files should work. You're most likely to get the least amount of problems using their own software I would imagine.

One of my most illustrious ancesters (AgLab, natch :o ) died by "falling over a stile, drunk"

Most interesting one is the mysterious g.g.uncle who disappeared aged about 14 or so - family rumous has it that he went to the States, I've found a potential census entry and port record for him entering Canada at about the right time, but also I have copies of handwritten letters to the Chief Constable of the county where he lived, from his mother, asking them to investigate. Sadly there's no response from the police - when I get round to it I need to contact them and see if they have records of anything.

Another family rumour from ages past is that an ancestor was a sailor of some sort who died/was killed in mysterious circumstances off the coast of Guyana, and lost his fortune (gold) to the bottom of the sea/the two men rowing him back out to his ship.

One of these days I'll get back to it...

HecateHarshPants , why not go the DNA route? www.familytreedna.com/default.aspx Is there a living male descendant of your mystery ancestor? If there is, I'd get him to submit his dna. Maybe you can all chip in to pay for it? Sounds like it is the only way you can trace him.
I use the familytreemaker, plus I bought another familytreemaker that is merged with ancestry. I do not have a subscription to ancestry, just a free account, but I am sure because I bought the program my information won't vanish. I can't access other peoples trees and stuff though, however, it is available for free at my local library so I can go work there if need be.
They don't want your tree;s to vanish, as they charge people in order to access them right?
This is a source of irritation to me, that they make a profit on other peoples work. So I do not have my tree open to public, and only share it with DNA matches.

I looked at genealogy.com recently. Just as I miss my DGPs and wanted to know more and feel close to them. So I just googled my DGM's maiden name. I found myself on there so knew it was the right one but the errors made me really cross. It shows me as unmarried and 5 years older than I am. Same with DB and DU on there but not his DW or adopted DD and no links at all to DGF's side of the family so I'd me reluctant to pay for a subscription. I contacted the person who created the tree but haven't had a response. Just a warning to anyone who's thinking of trying it really.

no. there isn't. he only had one son, who died several years ago. That son had no children.

well, I say he only had one son, I mean he only had the one son (and my grandma) with my great grandma. Who knows what happened with this canadian woman or if there were any other wives out there!

It's a mystery, that's for sure. My mum does have a photo of him, I suppose my only chance would be 'do you know this man', in some canadian publication or something like that. but that seems a bit extreme

My interesting thing wasn't historic but current.... I found that my grandfather's brother had a son we didn't know about. We traced him and he lived around the corner from us!

We put a note in the door and he got in touch. Turns out his grandson is in the same year at junior school as my son. So.. to put it plainly, we found that my son was at school with his second cousin.

wonderingwendy - I have an aunt, now deceased, with a middle name of Mahala. I am not sure where it came from.

HecateHarshPants Hmmm. I guess you could try a family finder dna test, or one that tests both male and females? Maybe you'd maybe find a female ancestor/descendant of his, who could help with your trail? I don't know much about which is best, I will have to find out before I upgrade to a test that shows the females.

I am Canadian, if you would like to show me his pic. Imagine if I knew who it was! (unlikely but you can never tell)

I found out my grandfather had been married before he married my grandmother, and had a son. I found his son's grand daughter, she is my half cousins, and had lot's of stories to share with me. I also found out my great grandfather had been married previously to marrying my great grandmother. They didn't have children and she died a couple of years after marrying him, then that same year he married my great grandmother. I wasn't too impressed with that.

I also found out my grandmother had been married before too, and had 2 sons, my half uncles. My father never even mentioned to my mother that he had three older half brothers!

*I mean His sons daughter , his granddaughter. The connections can be confusing if I am not staring at the tree!

I looked into my Mum's side and we haven't moved from the area since I don't know when....when I found us STILL in the same town in 1700 and STILL living in shared rooms and working as stall keepers, I bloody gave up!

kbear - maybe were related

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