What do you know about your families history?

[Caydens Cat]

Things get weird when you do a 23 and me (along with my son) and some race/ethnicity shows up that nobody will fess up to… there’s an untold story somewhere in there!!!

 

[havasujeeper]

There is always "one" in the woodpile!

 

[Nordie]

I have a ton of history on my dad's side. Years ago my grandma had emailed me a whole history. Unfortunately I no longer have that email. That side of the family was traced back to the mid 1700s, and had settled near St. Louis Missouri. My Grandma on that side was an oakie and made the trek to Bakersfield, CA. During the great depression my Great Grandfather was a lineman for AT&T, and my Great Grandmother was a switch board operator.

My dad's side grandparents met in the Air Force during the Korean War, my grandpa ended up stationed in Alaska for a bit, and my Grandma ended up at the Pentagon in the basement decoding intercepted messages.

My Great Grandpa Harris turns out that he liked to start families and then go and start a new family. This is when we really learned some of the Harris family. My great grandfather Harris had 7 kids and his wife had passed away, no one knew this until about 2010 when those kids had found my grandpa. Great Grandpa married my Grat Grandmother and they had 5 kids. He was also early to the Vegas deal, and had homesteaded a large area of the city that is now residential and commercial.

My mom's side I really don't know much about them. It seems that they have always been settled in the Chicago area. The only thing Grandma has really told me is that her father died in WWII in a submarine that had sank. I would like to learn more about my mom's side as I resemble that side of the family more so than my dad's side of the family.

 

[coolchange]

I’ve got a lot of info back to early 1800s. And a letter from Europe to family member In the states dated 1753. I just came across a bunch of list and names of dates I need to go through. Somehow my matriarchal grandmother was adopted into the Todd family. Mary Lincoln, Todd.
All I have to say is if you’re going To dig in, be ready for what you find.

 

[Kachina26]

I had a couple of aunts that were big into it. Travelled all over visiting grave yards and halls of records. Had it all the way back to England. Then 23 and me came along. DNA stops the whole thing at a "non-birth event" in the 1860's. Guessing I'm descended from a civil war orphan or some sort of infidelity. LOL

 

[cofooter]

The fam history is meticulously documented on my mom's side of the family all the way back from the early 1800's in Poland thru current day. Dad's side is still a bit of a mystery, I started to look into dad's side a few years back and couldn't find a lot (on the free sites of course...), but what I did find was a bit weird, maybe something about a divorce for gramps back in the early 1930's when divorces weren't that common, somehow got the idea that there was some abuse involved, also some strange dates in the late 1930's on gramp's wedding to the woman I knew as gramma and my dad's b-day, maybe shotgun...? Records are foogy and the last time I tried to do more (free) digging, the census data wasn't yet released for the decade I needed... No biggie, dad is still dad, gramps is still gramps, gramma is still gramma; they're all I've ever known.

Sometimes its better not to know the details.......

 

[Orange Juice]

We made it back to 300 years (one side) finding us outside Boston. That was a DNA match, that helped filled a bunch years before the revolutionary war.

We built riverboat in Pennsylvaina, in 1820-1890’s, and floated coal on it to as far as Baltimore. We Sold the coal, and then disassembled the riverboat and sold the wood. We had a decent siize “family clan”, and did well, until the Railroad made it unprofitable.

 

[Angler]

Ex wife traced my Family back to Ireland and Germany.
My Mother's maiden name was O'Shaughnessy.
No wonder I enjoy Beer.

 

[RitcheyRch]

My dad's (RIP) cousins has a pretty detailed map on ancestry.com. I just requested the DNA testing from ancestry.com so will be interesting to see what that says versus what I've been told over the years.

 

[TPC]

We fought in all the USA wars. All of us were in the engineers except my dad was in the Air Corps and his brothers, one a tanker the other infantry.
WW1 all were engineers.

When I went to the County Recorder to record my DD214 the clerk gave me a number to find a book in a vast warehouse and sign it.
I opened to a page that had well over and beyond a century of my past relatives that signed and had recorded their discharge papers too.
That was mind blowing.

 

[DILLIGAF]

I have written a lot of what we know about my family over the years here on RDP.

I consider myself Hillbilly Royalty as we are related to both the Hatfields and McCoys.....Family is from W VA and Kentucky and was here before the USA was formed. Have lots of info on my Moms side but very little on my Father as he and his brother were orphans and lived in orphanages for a bit. Many still live in the areas of W VA.

 

[OCMerrill]

Adopted 1966.

I have tried 23 and me and Ancestry.

Ancestry produced hits but nobody would respond to my messages.

Fuck all that, I will never revisit it. I think the rejection or ignore factor made me realize I don't want them in my life anyway.