So I've always had a fascination with my family history. We've got a very strong oral tradition, passing down stories from generation to generation, that I always wanted to learn more about, but never have.
More than that, not only do I wish to know about them, but about their descendants, too, people who aren't in relationship to me.
It seems this trend is not unique among my family.
My brother pursued it briefly as a hobby when he had free access to ancestry.com, my father is our de facto resource for family history...
...And now, my younger sister has done an INCREDIBLE amount of work in connecting dots, via some translation: official documents have some imperfections (especially given people's tendency to not go by their legal birth name), whereas verbal tradition can often be similarly close-but-not-quite perfect, and managing to combine the two, she has gotten very, very far.
While the subject I hold most interest in, our named ancestor of Daniel M. Lewis who immigrated to America frustratingly eludes the details (there's just no way to track him down because his name was way too common a name, even given family history of the unique circumstances behind his departure), in its place?
My sister found that our (seven greats) grandmother was THE Daniel Boone's sister. Meaning we are direct relatives and he was our uncle seven times removed.
...Okay, so distantly related, but still...my great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother was the sister to Daniel Boone.
The funny thing is, my sister's still learning more. She found a goldmine of information, which is continuing to as far as she can tell pan out accurately. The links are there, and she's finding them. Now, she's only going back for the most part to direct ancestors, not following their trees into our distant cousins, simply because there would be too many, but another thing I remember her mentioning is that we have an old female relative who was a writer, and a decently-known one (enough to have a lengthy amount of info about her) too. I didn't really catch the details, there (I was, sadly, multitasking because I needed to leave), butstill...goes to show you how strong some of those genes can be.
More than that, not only do I wish to know about them, but about their descendants, too, people who aren't in relationship to me.
It seems this trend is not unique among my family.
My brother pursued it briefly as a hobby when he had free access to ancestry.com, my father is our de facto resource for family history...
...And now, my younger sister has done an INCREDIBLE amount of work in connecting dots, via some translation: official documents have some imperfections (especially given people's tendency to not go by their legal birth name), whereas verbal tradition can often be similarly close-but-not-quite perfect, and managing to combine the two, she has gotten very, very far.
While the subject I hold most interest in, our named ancestor of Daniel M. Lewis who immigrated to America frustratingly eludes the details (there's just no way to track him down because his name was way too common a name, even given family history of the unique circumstances behind his departure), in its place?
My sister found that our (seven greats) grandmother was THE Daniel Boone's sister. Meaning we are direct relatives and he was our uncle seven times removed.
...Okay, so distantly related, but still...my great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother was the sister to Daniel Boone.
The funny thing is, my sister's still learning more. She found a goldmine of information, which is continuing to as far as she can tell pan out accurately. The links are there, and she's finding them. Now, she's only going back for the most part to direct ancestors, not following their trees into our distant cousins, simply because there would be too many, but another thing I remember her mentioning is that we have an old female relative who was a writer, and a decently-known one (enough to have a lengthy amount of info about her) too. I didn't really catch the details, there (I was, sadly, multitasking because I needed to leave), butstill...goes to show you how strong some of those genes can be.
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