Genealogy?

[Riley/MN]

Not sure if this should go here, but I got ta thinking about this due to thinking about potential voyageur relatives... So how many can trace their lineage back to someone they either portray, or can place into an historical setting?

I was out to CT for a wedding and came home with a copy of my wife's mother's branch of the family tree. Nanny was a canuck, and we are seeing names back into the 17th century. I imagine some of these folks must have been involved with the fur trade...

I have played with some genealogy stuff, but I think this will get me digging some more.

Just generally speakin, how far back have you guys been able to trace your roots?

[Bigsmoke]

My wife is more of the genealogy person than I.  So, she has traced things back quite a bit.  On my mother's side of the family, it goes back to 1700's Italy.
On father's side, the German one, back to Alsace Lorraine - they immigrated here in 1,700's and settled in Taneytown, MD.  On father's mother's side, back to not the Mayflower, but the next one, which was named?  From there, in England, it goes back a few more hundred years or so.
From what I can tell, most all the Germans and English folks in the background were either craftspeople or farmers.

[Sir Michael]

My mother's family goes back to 1743 in Pennsylvania.

[Hank in WV]

At the time I wasn't much interested, but my mom used to delight in telling me we were related to George Mason (Bill of Rights) and I think she said Charles Mason (Mason/Dixon Line). Unfortunately I didn't pay much attention when I had the chance.

[Spotted Bull]

Mostly Scottish on my mother's side, with one wee Irish lass thrown in I think.  traced her Da's side back to the old home place in coastal Scotland, mid 1600's.  Her mom's side, well seems someone killed someone and had to change their name so the heritage kinda stops.

Dad's side is all German, traced back to the mid 1600's as well, on his Dad's side.  All Irish on his Mom's side.  Haven't gotten much done on her side yet though.

[Indiana]

I can go back on my Moms side to the early 1600's in America and beyond that in Europe.  Several members of the continental army, as well as a member of the KY militia at ft. boonesborough in 1778ish.  

My dads side has several members of the armed forces throughout.  One lost an arm in King Philips War.

I'm planning on basing my impression around the ancestor at Boonesborough.

[Two Steps]

Just generally speakin, how far back have you guys been able to trace your roots?

Far enough back to find one hung as a horse thief  
Al

[Uncle Russ]

Unfortunately I didn't pay much attention when I had the chance.

I wish I had a dollar bill for every time I've said that!

Some time back in the early or mid 1990's, somewhere around the time we got our very first computer, my wife tried her hand at tracing the family tree on line.
She didn't get very far with that little endeavor, but she did manage to run up a fairly healthy amount on one of the credit cards.
Apparently there was a whole lot less "free stuff" back then, and it was fairly difficult to get any kind of information without joining, or paying something.

Since that time we have pretty much let "by-gones be by-gones" while we keep repeating the fact that we both wish we would have listen a little closer when we were younger because we had a lot of that information just handed to us....on both sides of the family.  

As we now all know and recognize, It is extremely difficult to tell a 10 or 12 year old anything, when they already know about all there is to know about everything worth knowing!

Uncle Russ...

[Pichou]

Riley, go here

http://www.shsb.mb.ca/dbtw-wpd/textbase ... yageur.htm

Type a name in the box and hit enter.  

[Riley/MN]

Well, I don't parlay the Francois (remind me to tell you about almost getting kicked out of Marseilles...wait, how old are you?)

I do appreciate the link and got a bunch of hits in the right time frames for names I punched in, and babelfish couldn't handle the search results, but it is definitely something to look at.

BTW, Riley is a first name (in my case) and not from a family tie. We don't have much info on the Irish side going back, but I think Mom wanted to keep an Irish tie and Dad knew a kid named Riley, or something like that... I didn't meet another Riley (first name) until I was 30-something, and now they are all over.

[deadfallpaul]

My wife has traced her family back to the early 17 th century in Canada.
 There have been quite a number of them involved in the fur trade both as voyageurs and traders.
 I, on the other hand, am Scottish and also have gone back but not as far.
  We both incorporate these things into our persona's and it makes it more real and quite interesting as we find out more about each side of our families.

[Three Hawks]

My wife has traced her recorded lineage to the year 937 in Iceland.  She is descended from the first documented European child, Snorri Guðríðsson,  born in the New World (Vinland) around 1003-1005.   This on her Mother's side of the family.  

Her dad was half Cajun, 1/4 Icelandic, 1/4 English. His Icelandic heritage is easily traced, the rest not so easy.

My mom was equal parts English, Irish, Scots, and Welsh.  Dad was  American, made from 100% Norwegian parts.  The records from his family were lost in a fire in the village church in 1902.  His mom and dad came here in 1911.

Three Hawks

[bluelake]

Well, as the old joke goes in my family, when my mom would brag about her family coming from the British Isles before 1602, my dad (Odawa Indian) would say, "My ancestors were here to shake hands with yours."  

My g-g-grandfather on my dad's side was a French trader who married my Odawa g-g-grandmother and was himself considered to be Indian by those both within and without the tribe.  

On my mom's side, we have two famous cousins: Daniel Boone and Abe Lincoln.  My cousins (Mormons) traced the ancestry on that side all the way back to about the 12th century.  It included knights and military officers.  However, if you trace anyone's ancestry back far enough, you're bound to find somebody...

[Loyalist Dave]

My mom got into that stuff in the 1980's.  She traced her mom's side to where they got off the boat in New Bern NC, and her father was from the family "Abbey" which was bastardized into "Ibey" when they immigrated from Scotland (a sept of Clan MacNab) to Canada.  There is a Hessian from Hesse Cassel thrown into her mix.  My dad's family is all over the colonies, coming from Suffolk England.  Have a medal of honor winner in the Union Navy in the CW, but don't know what kind of cousin he is (they named a destroyer after him in WWII), and have a ship's captain and an infantry officer in the Continental forces in the AWI.

What was spooky is that I knew none of this when I went into the Marines, so I wonder how much my genes helped me make the choice.  The family moved east after several generations in California.  The ships captain was out of Baltimore and Annapolis (30 minutes from where I have lived most of my life), and I was stationed in NC about 30 minutes away from New Bern NC when she found out that one ancestor landed there when coming from England.  

Wierd

LD

[KHickam]

No French Canadians in my family tree, and no voyageurs as far as I can see - Just mostly scots/irish/english and some german thrown in.

Although, we are shirttail relatives of the Boones and have a US President in our direct line of descent (but from the wrong side of the blanket)