What Are Your Roots? Are You Sure?

[chasfh]

Did anyone else see the "Roots" segment of 60 Minutes last Sunday? It has totally changed my view of my ancestry.

Here's the video -- it's about 14 minutes long:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3643658n?source=search_video

We tend to think of our lineage in straight line terms: you descend from your father, who descends from his father, who descends from his father, and so on. Using that line of thinking, we consider our ancestry to be rooted in some village in Europe or Africa or Asia, based on how we typically trace our lineage.

But the fact that few of us consider is that your lineage is more than your father's father's father. It's your father's mother's father, and your father's father's mother, and your father's mother's mother. And this doesn't even contemplate your actual mother's side, either. Her side is just as much your lineage as your father's side. And the farther you go back, the more complex it becomes. And chances are, they probably came from different cities and villages in different countries all over the world.

We all have two parents, four grandparents and eight great-grandparents. And it keeps doubling as you go back. By time you go back 10 generations, which is roughly the year 1750, you have over 1,000 10x-great-grandparents. Go back another 10 generations, roughly the year 1500, and you have over 1,000,000 20x-great-grandparents. (Or more exactly, over 1,000,000 grandparent slots, since one person will occupy multiple slots as, for instance, great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren -- essentially eighth cousins -- end up marrying, unaware they're related to the same person going that far back.)

This realization has turned my view of my ancestry totally upside down. Instead of tracing my roots solely to some village in Austria -- as I did thinking about it only through the prism of the lineage of my forefathers -- if I go back enough generations, I might very well have ancestors from every country in Europe, and who knows where else.

I'm a mutt! Probably all of us are mutts!

This is a paradigm shift in my thinking about the nature of ancestry.

[whitecapwendy]

unfortunately my roots are becoming more and more grey. I try to keep them covered up, but I can only afford the trips to the beautician about twice a year.......oh wait.

[holygoat]

I guess I'm more surprised that people don't generally consider their mother's side of the family when tracing their lineage than anything in that video. It just seems blatantly obvious to me.

[DaYooperASBDT]

I guess I'm more surprised that people don't generally consider their mother's side of the family when tracing their lineage than anything in that video. It just seems blatantly obvious to me.Same here. Perhaps it's partly because your surname is passed on through the father's side, and leads people toward tracing that lineage first?

[Blue Square Thing]

I guess I'm more surprised that people don't generally consider their mother's side of the family when tracing their lineage than anything in that video. It just seems blatantly obvious to me.

It's just harder to do though - the whole name changing thing. Unless you can find a marriage cert or something like a family bible it can be really difficult to find a birth cert and trace further back - certainly once you get to about 1850.

I got a lucky break on one side and got part of the female line back to the early C19, but that was more or less a break based on occupation of the same location - seems pretty much the entire side of one of my grandparents never moved outside of a twenty square kilometre bit of Lancashire. That and a fairly odd set of surnames helped - if they'd been Smiths it would have been a disaster... :-)

The other lots all happened to have been traced pretty well by other people and seem to come from all over the darned place...

[whitecapwendy]

I had the advantage that my maternal grandmother told me that her bloodline goes back to John Quincy Adams and John Adams. My mom worked on a family tree several years ago, but do not know what happened to that. She researched her dad's blood line to a French speaking community in Canada, and my dad's grandmother on his mom's side and family came over to this country from a small village in Czechoslovakia and settled into a Bohemian village in West Michigan. I have no info on my Dad's Dad. He was out of the picture --although he knew who he was.

[hueytaxi]

Dad's side were Huguenauts chased out of France for their religious (Calvinists) beliefs into Florida where the Indians wiped out many of them in the late 1600's or early 1700's. So we've been down here a while. Mom's side was a mix of Ireland and Scotland from the turn of the 19th century. The family was called Fullerton which is said to translate today as, "keepers of the King's falcons".

[zimm]

that's an interesting way to look at it Chas.

my maternal grandparents have done their geneology back to around the 1500's. my grandmother has ties back to early american settlers, and is very much a mutt. my grandfather has some interesting names in his lineage, including a relative who was a sherriff under a notorious "hanging judge," and MLB HOF'ers Lloyd and Paul Waner.

My paternal grandparents never had a lineage done, but my grandpa was of very German lineage, and my grandmother from what is becoming a very interesting British/Scottish family (as we learn more about it.) they were in British colonies in Hong Kong and Africa in the mid 1800's, and i have relations in Africa to this day.

but i can see how things can become more simplified as we look back at our relatives, especially considering how often cities and towns on the European continent changed hands over the centuries. We forget that the nationalities that we assign to locations now were really only defined in the last century and a half or so-sometimes even more recently than that...

[zimm]

Mom's side was a mix of Ireland and Scotland from the turn of the 19th century.

Scots-Irish? i knew you were good people...:classic:

[Oblong]

I'm related to Elvis.

[chasfh]

I'm related to Elvis.

So is everybody else in this forum, probably! :laugh:

Seriously, though, are you closely related to him? Say, within third cousin status?

[hueytaxi]

Scots-Irish? i knew you were good people...:classic:The Clan McClarty from Windy Gate, Ir and Fullerton from near one of the original Kingdoms.

[Blue Square Thing]

Dad's side were Huguenauts chased out of France for their religious (Calvinists) beliefs into Florida where the Indians wiped out many of them in the late 1600's or early 1700's. So we've been down here a while. Mom's side was a mix of Ireland and Scotland from the turn of the 19th century. The family was called Fullerton which is said to translate today as, "keepers of the King's falcons".

I can trace to Hugenot ancestry as well - my lot came from the Nantes area into Cornwall and then Wales apparantly. Their name was Budge which, according to my grandmother, derives from Bouche. Something about big mouths I believe... :-)

Mind you, I think half of what my grandmother seems to think is true about geneology is somewhat dubious ;-)

[hueytaxi]

Scots-Irish? i knew you were good people...:classic:The Clan McClarty from Windy Gate, Ir and Fullerton from near one of the original Kingdoms.

[hueytaxi]

BST, you spelled it the way our family always wrote it and I went to WiKi to be sure someone else would know who I was talking about. No idea where we originated and many of our relatives claim Dutch ancestry and the DeWitt name is common in the Netherlands. But apparently we were French.

[Blue Square Thing]

BST, you spelled it the way our family always wrote it and I went to WiKi to be sure someone else would know who I was talking about. No idea where we originated and many of our relatives claim Dutch ancestry and the DeWitt name is common in the Netherlands. But apparently we were French.

Oops - I missed a u I think. Never mind, I'll blame the French :-)

Wiki suggests there was a movement of Huguenot to the Netherlands though so, maybe it's through that route. I guess it's tough to go that far back though - I haven't really managed ot get any further than the beginning of the C19 on my quarter route I'm really interested in. I'll have to call in the various people who have looked at the other three quarters at some point - preferably before they die I guess...

Ian

[Team Mom]

Scots-Irish? i knew you were good people...:classic:

My Dad's side of the family is also a mix of Ireland and Scotland. That explains why our kids had red hair.

My aunt started the family tree on my Mother's side. My sister did it on my Dad's side. She updates both sides of the fmaily now. Unless my brother gets married and has kids our family name is done. Our son was the last of the DeWitt's. Its sad to think that both of our father's name is gone within our life time.

[eastside billee]

the most famous people I'm related to are:

Max Von Sidow and George Bernard Shaw
also
actress Linda Darnell

[hueytaxi]

Many of my senior relatives used to claim lineage including Pres. James Buchanan. But wait, he was a bachelor; are we all ********? Well, you probably answered this about me a long time ago.

[DaYooperASBDT]

Mom's side comes from Poland, but there's all sorts of German/Hungarian/Russian folks mixed in there, if you know Poland's history it makes sense.

Grandpa (Max) was born in Detroit, Grandma (Janina/Jennie) was born in Poland. He worked for U.S. Steel (Zug Island, etc), and she took care of eleven kids on a small farm in Lincoln Park (it's now an apartment complex!)

Dad's mom (Anna) was Irish, and she married a Welshman (Evan O.), probably born in Newcastle-Emlyn. Ian, have you ever wandered through there?

My grandfather (Evan O.) came over from Wales at a very young age. Great grandfather Evan was a coal miner in Forest City, PA.

Apparently Evan came over first, then sent for his Irish maiden and the kids, (Evan O., David, Polly, and Kate). I found a photo of the boat they came over on (the Alaska), very cool.

Never knew him, he died young, way back in 1927, before Dad was even born! BTW, my parents moved to the U.P. in 1948 - after 60 years I think you can call them officially Yoopers now! :cheeky:

[DaYooperASBDT]

Many of my senior relatives used to claim lineage including Pres. James Buchanan. But wait, he was a bachelor; are we all ********? Well, you probably answered this about me a long time ago.I never call a well-armed man a bastard. :cool:

[PuNk42AE]

I'm an unknown. ;')

[FloridaTigers]

My father came from Cuba, so I have a whole side of the family I've never met or seen. All of my paternal grandfather's family moved to Florida though shortly after the Cuban revolution. My grandfather was the last one to join em here. My grandma had to leave her whole family over there in Cuba and couldn't risk telling them that she was leaving. She never got to tell them bye. I know I have many cousins over there, and her aunt is here with us in Florida. Her mother is still in Cuba though, apperantly very ill.

My mother's side is all over the place. My maternal grandmother is Polish, and my maternal grandfather is Irish and Scottish. I don't think I'm related to anyone famous at all on either side. I'd have to dig even deeper down the line and find like a famous, 7th cousin or something.

[DaYooperASBDT]

My maternal grandmother is Polish, and my maternal grandfather is Irish and Scottish. I don't think I'm related to anyone famous at all on either side. I'd have to dig even deeper down the line and find like a famous, 7th cousin or something.Howdy, Cuz !! :laugh:

[PuNk42AE]

Kunta Kintay!

[Blue Square Thing]

Dad's mom (Anna) was Irish, and she married a Welshman (Evan O.), probably born in Newcastle-Emlyn. Ian, have you ever wandered through there?

Bit far west - the missus is from South Wales, but much further to the east - although quite close to where my family seems to have come from down there - Pembroke Dock.

It's on the road to Cardigan though, which might make a nice song :-)

[TheCouga]

Similar to Roger, my Dad's family was chased out of Germany in the late 1600's/early 1700's for religious reasons (Mennonites). My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Hans Herr, knew William Penn and got a lot of land from him when Pennsylvania was first being settled. (And yes, I am related to Tom Herr, the ballplayer). The Hans Herr house, one of the first built in that state, is still standing and is a tourist attraction. But both my grandmother and grandfather on my dad's side both have lineages that have been in eastern Penn. for many, many generations and date back to Germany and Switzerland in the 1600's.

My mom's family has been here for four generations, and they come from Switzerland and Austria, so pretty much all my ancestors even 10 generations back come from the same Germany/Switzerland/Austria region.

[hueytaxi]

Good thread!