kentuckymom Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 I'm a descendant on my father's side of Vincas Kudirka, who wrote both the music and lyrics to the Lithuanian National Anthem. Here's the Wikipedia link about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincas_Kudirka I always thought it was cool to be related to someone who wrote a national anthem. He's even been on their money. My husband got one of the bills for me and framed it as a wedding present. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 21, 2015 Author Share Posted December 21, 2015 So many cool stories and connections! I'm surprised at the number of people whose families have been in the U.S. for so many generations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 Some of my ancestors built this place: http://www.groombridgeplace.com/ But the fellow my line connects through was an illegitimate son so he had to make his way across the Atlantic as an indentured servant. When I visited Groombridge in the early 90's there were still portraits of my ancestors on the walls but it was sold shortly after and I think the portraits may have been auctioned off. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elfknitter.# Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 Not a clue. Both sides of my parents' family came from poor farmer workers of a Caribbean island. We're lucky to find inaccurate baptismal records. Dh's family claims some kind of connection to Thomas Jefferson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lailasmum Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 (edited) Our only interesting connection is that my mum's cousin was married to Norman Geschwind https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Geschwind. Other than that my family are pretty difficult to follow back far, lots of poverty and ending up in workhouses makes it hard to trace them back more than a couple of hundred years in just a couple of places and no one really notable has turned up. Edited December 21, 2015 by lailasmum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 Not direct, but I'm descended from a sister of Martha Washington's somehow, so she'd be a many greats aunt. I can't remember the details, but it was in my grandfather's notes. My family has been in the US for many, many generations on both sides. My mother's family mostly came in the 1600's and the branch that led to us eventually moved from NY to Tennessee. They were Dutch and English. The Dutch family, according to family lore, had land on the Hudson River and then returned it to the Indians they "bought" it from because they thought it was worthless. Heh. My father's family came over in the early 1800's. After just a generation, a set of twins - David Jonathan and Jonathan David - moved to Georgia and started our branch. I know almost nothing about my paternal grandfather's family though. I'm pretty sure they had been in Georgia for many generations though - definitely since before the Civil War. All my family that I know of fought on the wrong side of the Civil War. Oh well. My family is descended from 10 of the Mayflower pilgrims. Also my step-father is a descendant of Hans Herr, a Swiss Mennonite. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Herr My parents and my brother went to visit a few years ago. Farrar: My dc are descendants of this person: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicely_Jordan_Farrar Do you know if you're related? Quoting so Farrar will get a notification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 Quoting so Farrar will get a notification. I have no idea. I know very little about my Farrar ancestors. It did start as a surname and became a first name ages ago in my family but I don't know where it started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 I have no idea. I know very little about my Farrar ancestors. It did start as a surname and became a first name ages ago in my family but I don't know where it started. I wish ancestors were easier to find. Our kids might be distant cousins! :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 I wish ancestors were easier to find. Our kids might be distant cousins! :) I've recently started getting into tracing genealogy through DNA; now that is a fascinating and adducting hobby! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 I've recently started getting into tracing genealogy through DNA; now that is a fascinating and adducting hobby! I've considered this for a few lines of my family, but I don't know how to start. Is it expensive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 I've considered this for a few lines of my family, but I don't know how to start. Is it expensive? Both Familytreedna.com and ancestry.com offer autosomal DNA testing for about $100. 23andMe also offers testing, but they just raised their price to $200. Whichever company you test through you can upload your data to a free site called GEDMatch, which expands your possible relative matches to people who use each of the different services. I had my parents and surviving grandmothers test, you get more matches that way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 Both Familytreedna.com and ancestry.com offer autosomal DNA testing for about $100. 23andMe also offers testing, but they just raised their price to $200. Whichever company you test through you can upload your data to a free site called GEDMatch, which expands your possible relative matches to people who use each of the different services. I had my parents and surviving grandmothers test, you get more matches that way. So $100/person tested. That's not too bad. And, iirc, you should have testing from both a male and a female in each line? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 For autosomal DNA testing male/female doesn't really matter. There is Y DNA testing that tracks only the direct paternal line (son to father to grandfather to great-grandfather etc. but that isn't very much help for genealogy research in general. Mitochondrial DNA tracks the maternal line (though it can come from either a male or female for testing purposes) but tells you even less about recent ancestral history than does yDNA. Autosomal DNA tests look at all your chromosomes and allow you discover relatives who have chromosome sections in common with you; by comparing family histories and triangulating with other relatives you can hopefully track down common ancestors. For example, DNA on one of my chromosomes matched to a woman in South Carolina; we figured out that we probably share common 5th-great-grandparents; the family name was in my line but it would have been difficult to trace back to that specific location and ancestor without the DNA match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueenCat Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 This does fascinate me, because my maternal grandmother grew up in Solomon's Island. I was looking around the old gravestones at St. Mary's and found family grave sites bearing her maiden surname, though I do not know if they are her relatives/ancestors. It is something I want to research and explore a bit. :) I do know that part of my family tree has a long history in southern Maryland, though I don't know how far back it goes. Would that be the cemetery on the campus of St.Mary's College of MD? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 Would that be the cemetery on the campus of St.Mary's College of MD? Yes, that is the one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 My great, great, great grandfather is Joseph Smith Jr. http://josephsmith.net/?lang=eng 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoutingmom Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 There is a major road in Ontario with an ancestor's name (his estate was there). I believe I'm decsended from a Lord Mayor of London (England) but that isn't a line I've worked on (another relative has traced that.) And a direct ancestor was committed to an asylum more than once and was worked to death in the fields there. Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueenCat Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Yes, that is the one. Used to walk through it to get to the little river beach when I was in college. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Used to walk through it to get to the little river beach when I was in college. :) Yes, we walked that little space and down to the beach. It is a lovely campus with lots of nice little nooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueenCat Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 :) Yes, we walked that little space and down to the beach. It is a lovely campus with lots of nice little nooks. The beach was very distracting to me when I was a student :laugh: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happi duck Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Genealogy amazes me. I'm not sure I know the names of my grandparents off the top of my head! It's cool y'all know this stuff! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn- Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 I am related to Boots Randolph on my mom's side. My grandpa used to tell story about playing with his cousin Boots. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_Randolph My mom's side has never been traced and I don't know how much documentation could be found. We just jokingly call her an American mutt since they have been here long enough that no one knows where they came from. My dad's side jumps across the pond quickly as 3 of my 4 great grandparents were the immigrants that came and the forth one was first generation here. No clue if we are related to any famous Europeans though. Just a quick update. I received my Ancestry DNA work up back and it came up with no surprises. We are European through and through. I have discovered another someone famous person up the family tree though (I mean you have to be somewhat famous to have a wiki article right?). Apparently I am a descendant of William Randolph and Mary Isham . Their claim to fame is having a ton of children who went on to have a ton of children with some famous ones in there (Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee supposedly trace back to these two). We were not shocked to find out that my mom's family has been here since the 1600's. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Thanks for the update! If you want to make more family connections with your 23andMe results (and run a variety of ancestry composition analyses) you can upload the data to GEDMatch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Just a quick update. I received my Ancestry DNA work up back and it came up with no surprises. We are European through and through. I have discovered another someone famous person up the family tree though (I mean you have to be somewhat famous to have a wiki article right?). Apparently I am a descendant of William Randolph and Mary Isham . Their claim to fame is having a ton of children who went on to have a ton of children with some famous ones in there (Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee supposedly trace back to these two). We were not shocked to find out that my mom's family has been here since the 1600's. Cool! Do you feel like you got your money's worth with the testing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasider Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 An aunt, somewhere back in the fam: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micaela_Almonester,_Baroness_de_Pontalba At least that's what I was told many years ago. I've not see the actual family tree. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeannpal Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 I am a direct descendant of John Hancock and this guy http://www.digplanet.com/wiki/James_Pemberton 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn- Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Cool! Do you feel like you got your money's worth with the testing? I definitely do. I got it out of curiosity about my mom's background, but the burning desire for the raw data. Considering I found out that I am homozygous for one of those lovely MTHFR mutations and one that controls Vit D absorption, I now have information that can help with several of my health issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 I definitely do. I got it out of curiosity about my mom's background, but the burning desire for the raw data. Considering I found out that I am homozygous for one of those lovely MTHFR mutations and one that controls Vit D absorption, I now have information that can help with several of my health issues. That's really interesting. I've been trying to decide whether we should go ahead and have my husband typed or wait until the technology gets better. Rich's family is from Equador...he's a first generation New Yorker. But his dad said HIS grandfather immigrated from Spain due to political upheaval. To muddle things further, his mom wrote down some names for him to look up and the names are all Italian. And his mom says her mother used to tell her she was part French. Let's just say he doesn't have a lot of facts to go on 😋 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Nyssa Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 I'm related to the Getty family. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaillardia Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 What exactly does "direct descendent" mean? All females (mother to daughter to daughter, etc.), all males (father to son to son, etc.) or just things like, my father's mother's mother's father's mother's father's etc.? To me, that is still direct. It is still family and descending. lol So, if we can count the jumping around and it's still parent to child linkage, Pocahontas is my 13th grandmother (13 generations back). I'm also related to a lot of other people that most people haven't heard of, but in some circles well-known. A new family acquaintance told me that our family line was in Pennsylvania in the 1600s, as I saw someone else had mentioned. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatureMomma Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 I'm a descendant of Pedro de Acevedo (sunk the Santa Maria) My husband is a desecndant of Thomas Edison, Benjamin West, his Maternal Great Grandfather lived next to Monet and was an artist himself and painted the same bridge and ran in the same circles of Impressionist painters. His other Great Grandfather is Frederick MacMonnies, who built the Liberte de France, and has work in the Met and museums around the world. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachskittles Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 My SO's 10th great grandfather is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doane . I do remember that someone (I do not believe directly descended) married Winston Churchill's grandson. I cannot recall the name off the top of my head. My family line has been traced to nobility, but I still need to prove it. One noble family supposedly went bankrupt, and lost their title. Another one left their noble life behind and moved to America. My 4th great grandfather fought under Napoleon. I still have a long way to go with my line. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TianXiaXueXiao Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Neat thread. My husband is direct descendent of John Alden from the Mayflower and I'm supposedly a descendent of George Washington. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countrygal Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Apparently my maternal grandmother is the 11th generation from John Hancock (who signed the Declaration of Independence.) Her maiden name was Hancock but her father only had 2 daughters and so he didn't have any sons to carry the name on. My aunt apparently has the lineage written out... I should get it!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 (edited) My husband is descended from a fairly notable but not household name 18th century composer. I won't list the name for internet privacy reasons because he's a directly descendant down the male line and the name is very unusual. Through one of his grandmothers, my husband is also descendent from one of the freeman voting members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Jacob Barney. He is my sons' 12th great grandfather or something. If you want to find historical records on much of MY family, you have to look at 18th century bastardy bonds, prison rolls (one of my grandfathers was born in prison but there were also a number of IWW members who were incarcerated on my dad's side) and lists of Civil War deserters. There are some more upstanding members of the family tree but none to my knowledge famous. My father long claimed a connection to Ely Parker (the Union Army officer who was Seneca) but he's not a reliable narrator plus the research I have done seems to point to my father's family's oft repeated claim to have some Native American ancestors being utter hogwash. Edited February 17, 2016 by LucyStoner 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingHope Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 (edited) My dh's grandmother was Icelandic whose ancestry goes back to a Scandinavian King. I just tell my children that they're Vikings (usually when they're pillaging the refrigerator between meals) and probably related to Leif Erikson. Edited February 17, 2016 by LivingHope 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Neat thread. My husband is direct descendent of John Alden from the Mayflower and I'm supposedly a descendent of George Washington. Your husband and I are cousins! We really should get together sometime and talk about old times... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TianXiaXueXiao Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Your husband and I are cousins! We really should get together sometime and talk about old times... That's so cool. His grandmother's maiden name is Alden. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 Thanks for the update! If you want to make more family connections with your 23andMe results (and run a variety of ancestry composition analyses) you can upload the data to GEDMatch. That's interesting! My daughter did the 23andMe a couple years ago. We'll have to plug her information into the GEDMatch. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 An aunt, somewhere back in the fam: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micaela_Almonester,_Baroness_de_Pontalba At least that's what I was told many years ago. I've not see the actual family tree. Wow, she experienced some pretty horrible stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 What exactly does "direct descendent" mean? All females (mother to daughter to daughter, etc.), all males (father to son to son, etc.) or just things like, my father's mother's mother's father's mother's father's etc.? To me, that is still direct. It is still family and descending. lol So, if we can count the jumping around and it's still parent to child linkage, Pocahontas is my 13th grandmother (13 generations back). I'm also related to a lot of other people that most people haven't heard of, but in some circles well-known. A new family acquaintance told me that our family line was in Pennsylvania in the 1600s, as I saw someone else had mentioned. I believe "direct descendent" means related through blood, not marriage. (Gender doesn't matter.) So, your father's mother's sister would count, but not your father's mother's sister's husband. Got it? And whoa! Pocahontas!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 Your husband and I are cousins! We really should get together sometime and talk about old times... I was just going to say... some of you must be very distantly related!! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luanne Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Stephen Douglas...my father's mother was born a Douglas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 I believe "direct descendent" means related through blood, not marriage. (Gender doesn't matter.) So, your father's mother's sister would count, but not your father's mother's sister's husband. Got it? And whoa! Pocahontas!! I'm pretty sure a direct descendent would be a however-many greats-grandparent. Offspring of offspring. Otherwise you're tangentially related. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Charlemagne. But, based on how far back he is, I suspect the entire board is likely related. I would define direct descendent as a grandparent to some degree. I would not consider it a sibling of a grandparent. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skirch Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Not direct, but we share some grandparents. Her great grandparents are my 3x great grandparents. She is my 2nd cousin twice removed. On my maternal grandfather's side. http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-parker-9542045 Charlemagne. But, based on how far back he is, I suspect the entire board is likely related. Yes, my maternal grandmother's line goes back to Charlemagne as well. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Charlemagne. But, based on how far back he is, I suspect the entire board is likely related. I would define direct descendent as a grandparent to some degree. I would not consider it a sibling of a grandparent. I found a who website devoted to how on my dad's side we are somehow descendent from Charlemagne. But I delved into the dude's site (our great great grandfathers were brothers or something) and his research is utter crap. He also made so many factual errors in the portion dedicated to the civil war period, as in claiming Sherman came through their county on his March to the Sea when we all know full well exactly which route Sherman's men took that I just find him to be an unreliable narrator. I can't substaintiate his point of entry claims or who the first in our family to hit colonial soil were because of bastardy bond records so I rather think he just made it fit when it didn't. Maybe he didn't like our family's undistinguished bloodline, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 I found a who website devoted to how on my dad's side we are somehow descendent from Charlemagne. But I delved into the dude's site (our great great grandfathers were brothers or something) and his research is utter crap. He also made so many factual errors in the portion dedicated to the civil war period, as in claiming Sherman came through their county on his March to the Sea when we all know full well exactly which route Sherman's men took that I just find him to be an unreliable narrator. I can't substaintiate his point of entry claims or who the first in our family to hit colonial soil were because of bastardy bond records so I rather think he just made it fit when it didn't. Maybe he didn't like our family's undistinguished bloodline, lol. He is still probably there somewhere. He is so far back that at that level grandparent, you would literally have billions. I have found grandparents where they were grandparents more than once. Not so far back...something like 3rd or 4th great grand, there is a grandpa whose first wife are my grandparents then later he married a different grandma of mine after she was widowed from a different grandpa of mine. Found this out after doing 23andme and realized we had 3 same grandparents, just different combos. The cousin...my grandpa and 2nd wife are his grandparents as are the first wife with her first husband. It is all very exciting and gives a lot of historical insight to how people lived. Areas were small, your spouse dies, you likely need to quickly remarry to live, not for love. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 He is still probably there somewhere. He is so far back that at that level grandparent, you would literally have billions. I have found grandparents where they were grandparents more than once. Not so far back...something like 3rd or 4th great grand, there is a grandpa whose first wife are my grandparents then later he married a different grandma of mine after she was widowed from a different grandpa of mine. Found this out after doing 23andme and realized we had 3 same grandparents, just different combos. The cousin...my grandpa and 2nd wife are his grandparents as are the first wife with her first husband. It is all very exciting and gives a lot of historical insight to how people lived. Areas were small, your spouse dies, you likely need to quickly remarry to live, not for love. Well, mathematically every person of European descent probably has some connection with Charlemange or any other European alive 1000+ years ago. The website owner I found for my family though was suspect in that he was claiming a direct, documented trail back to Charlemange with evey generation spelled out. Given that there's no reliable data on who our shared third great grandfather's father even was or who it was that came from what is now Germany likely no more than 1 generation before that unknown fourth great grandfather, I think he just picked a close enough name even though the dates don't jive and smashed it together with some other family's direct documentation because he wanted it to be so. Just like he wanted it to be so that Sherman came through our family's county and torched it when Sherman's men came nowhere close to that spot on that famous campaign. I suspect he has delusions of grandeur, lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoutingmom Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Didn't find this with dna..... but I'm descended from a person who was committed to an assylum.... they worked him to death too. Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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