How far back have you traced your family tree?

[boattail]

As a teenager my uncle told me of an upcoming family reunion and how it would be a good place to meets girls....ever since that day I really did not want to know much more than I already did.

My dad married sisters as number one and three. My cousins, brother and sister, married brother and sister from the same family. Two second cousins to me married each other. Some things are best left under the rock.

 

[Pops1911]

Wow! That's interesting. I have one family set several gens back - the man married his step daughter after his wife dropped off the scene. Took awhile to sort that situation out. I am lucky I didn't end up as my own grandfather. LOL!

 

[clanhanson]

We came over in the late 1800s to claim some land via the Homestead Act in ND. Norwegian settlers - it must have been a shock seeing endless fields of grass and flat horizon after living in a place of ocean views, tree covered mountains, and fjords. The tree is muddled prior to the early 1800s, but it seems that I've descended from mostly Scandinavians and eastern Europeans. Jo mer du vet/колкото повече знаеш!

 

[Siglvr]

Earliest ancestor (fathers fathers father etc etc) was in the White Company in Italy, fought as a mercenary. Mid 1300 ad. What I found interesting is that multiple generations all had the same name. So John was the son of John who was the son of john and they all had the last name. I had thought I was an oddity of having both my fathers and my grandfathers name. Nope, was common in my linage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Company

 

[Siglvr]

Oh, forgot the most interesting part. There was a facebook group of people with the last name which my daughter noted was doing geneology. I logged in to say said hi. Some fella with the same last name as me asked me who my grandfather was. When I told him the name and where he was born - he said: here's the linage and wham, there was my grandfathers father, his father and so on all laid out and going back to the 1300s. They'd already done the work.

 

[Pops1911]

Oh, forgot the most interesting part. There was a facebook group of people with the last name which my daughter noted was doing geneology. I logged in to say said hi. Some fella with the same last name as me asked me who my grandfather was. When I told him the name and where he was born - he said: here's the linage and wham, there was my grandfathers father, his father and so on all laid out and going back to the 1300s. They'd already done the work.

Nicely done! You, Sir, are my kind of Genealogist!

 

[CamoDeafie]

I was able to trace my family name all the way to 1840s in Wisconsin from Prussia, however the name is an actual town in Germany in the Eifel (not Eiffel mind you) area in North Rhine-Westphalia State; which was establisjed about 721, with the Castle being founded/seat of the House of Blankenheim in 1115.. we aren't sure how direct my parents' lineage is to the Counts of that name but its possible the Stateside family were simply just named after the town?

 

[Pops1911]

I was able to trace my family name all the way to 1840s in Wisconsin from Prussia, however the name is an actual town in Germany in the Eifel (not Eiffel mind you) area in North Rhine-Westphalia State; which was establisjed about 721, with the Castle being founded/seat of the House of Blankenheim in 1115.. we aren't sure how direct my parents' lineage is to the Counts of that name but its possible the Stateside family were simply just named after the town?

That is possible of not probable. The good folks on Ellis Island were not always reliable spellers of European names. Having your family's surname recorded as the town from which they came was fairly common as I have read. Lotsa Prussian folk ended up in the upper Mid West.

 

[coop44]

Talked to my sister, she did all the tracking. My mom's side of the family back to the 1600's in Bern Switzerland, pretty cool. Dad's family back to Arkansas in the 1700's, bunch of hillbillies. She is doing the dna thing to try and track two half sisters we didn't know we had until we were in our forties. Dad was married five times, surprised we don't have more.

 

[gunfreak]

We were able to go back to biblical times on my maternal grandfather's side and I'm about 75% Norwegian and some Scottish. It was really awesome.

 

[OldTengu]

Not terribly far.
Last name (mom's maiden) is a city in Italy, and prior to the early 50s, there isn't much history for that side of the family here in the states. Dads side came over from England in the late 60s, so my grandad could transition from the RAF to the USAF. I do know that the first record of anyone in my moms side of the family being in the states is of a fella who was a torturer that was brought over to "motivate" the natives to March on the trail of tears, but everything points to him going back to Italy.
Somewhere my mom has a picture of him sitting on a waist high pile of decapitated heads. Not sure where it was taken.
Also one of my moms cousins was the I5 killer.

 

[Longwalkhome]

My daughter traced the family history and as far as we know we didn't come from trees.

 

[WeaponizedMRE]

Never have, it's something I don't even slightly care about.

 

[Lilhigbee]

The farthest back I can claim is 1600s Norway. My aunt traced the family back to a farm there. She went to visit several years ago and found out it is still in the family.

 

[72scoutman]

I got as far back as my grandfather and grandmother, two families one with three girls and a boy, the other with three boys and a girl. They all married each other, while not insest in any way it makes for a pretty slim section of the tree. I decided maybe it was best to let sleeping dogs lay.

 

[wired]

I got as far back as my grandfather and grandmother, two families one with three girls and a boy, the other with three boys and a girl. They all married each other, while not insest in any way it makes for a pretty slim section of the tree. I decided maybe it was best to let sleeping dogs lay.

Hard to find girls in the holler. Gotta make yer own.

 

[72scoutman]

I'm sure it made the holidays easier not having to decide which side of the family you were going to spend time with.

 

[Ops]

adam and eve

 

[revjen45]

My parents were married - to each other.

 

[Capn Jack]

On my Dads side: Dutch Bakers back to the 1500's. The family name literally means, "Smoke House."
On my Mothers side: Conquistadors, with the De Anza Expedition building forts up the Pacific Coast.

All of that history and $2.00 will get you a cup of coffee almost anywhere.