Posted on 04/02/2011 5:17:39 PM PDT by Germanicus Cretorian
I’m related to Charlemagne.
Leni
Sincere sympathy to the young lady upon learning she is the 18th cousin to this this >>>>>> in the WH..
The date on the original story is Aug 2010.
Before contraception and modern medicine-— Yes really.
Doubtless that is true. My grandma isn't in any records I've found anywhere, and I have her letter of acceptance by her local chapter. That was a big deal in small towns. I was never interested. I only have two or three who fought, and would have a hard time proving any of them with the exactitude they should require. I think their records can be an aid if you do more independent research. A mistake can get replicated indefinitely.
I was just going to post something similar.
Genealogy is interesting and fun but I think “family secrets” mean most of us don’t really know what we think we know.
I have several brick walls also. One is that I am descended from a certain family name in Penn Dutch country in PA. Ha! That probably narrows it down to oh, say, thousands of people. As you probably know, there are a million Millers, Yoders, Fishers, etc.
Another is someone who emigrated from Scotland in the early 1800’s. Haven’t started my out of the country digs yet, unless they are well documented.
I’ve got a royal line going to the Howards in tudor England. That seems interesting. And I am a direct descendent of the early Scottish Kings, Malcolm being one of them. But as you know, there’s no end to this stuff.
What I find interesting is if you can find stories from even several hundred years ago, there are traits that really do seem to carry through many generations. My family was always politically involved, always readers and either educated or self taught, always religious pioneers, always ferociously dedicated to personal freedom and liberty. There is also a physical trait I have traced back about 400 years, that is interesting.
I have Millers in my family which can be tricky. I believe Mignier dit Lagace and then Meunier were the earlier spellings in my line.
it’d be interesting to know exactly what database she was accessing
I respectfully disagree that a 'directed' computer search of 500,000 names would take 'no time at all.'
You have to input names. You have to review the results. You have to check each set of results to see how it fits with other results that you have; it's like fitting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The problem is that so many published genealogical records are garbage.
Getting into the DAR, SAR, DoC and other organizations was a source of pride or society in small towns and applications were often accepted based on one's family status and not the quality of research. Census records were taken once a decade. Wives who were married after one census year and died (childbirth, typhoid, smallpox) before the next never appear in a census - but the next wife appears to be the mother of the children in the census. Other genealogical records of the same family, based on a family Bible, will show an entirely different mother.
You can't reconcile those differences with a directed computer search and nobody, not even the LDS, knows which records are wrong or right for many families.
If 'directed computer searches' worked, then genealogy as a hobby wouldn't be so interesting . . . or so difficult.
Maybe you could get in on one of those Japanese steaks. Drop by the White House. Tell the President that you're his long lost 17th-cousin-once-removed and give him a hug. I mean--after all--you are family. He might even put you up for a night or two. He should! You would if he dropped by your house!
Someone else has confessed here on FR--one of your other cousins--but in private. I've promised not to out him. Sorry again! I feel like a home-wrecker--or family wrecker--or something. I just hate keeping family apart like this, but at least I've reuinted you and the President.
That's one version. Some Gaelic scholars believe an alternate translation for Kennedy is "ugly headed". Having watched Teddy age over the last 40 years, I tend to believe the latter.
CC
Oh well, I wonder if I will get one of those Obama Family Reunion T-Shirts?
I am also a family genealogist. I am with you. impossible. Weeks how about months on one name! LOL. It is fun though.
Happy Hunting.
The first problem is that in 1676 or thereabouts "they" held Bacon's Rebellion. As part of the compromise to bring an end to that situation, and to re-establish the legitimacy of Royal rule in Virginia, just about every male in the colony changed his surname. Some changed a lot; some changed a little; but Washington does not have any of those who did not change their surname in his lineage.
There's no simple way around this problem. The noble lineage of the Lee family has the same problem.
Dutch wasn’t foreign in New York whereas English was.
If not, get a Magic Marker, make one yourself, and go on to the Framily Reunion. They wouldn't dare kick out a close family member. Seventeenth cousin is plenty close enough. Have a good time, and be ready to do lots of huggin' and kissin'.
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