Tracing Ancestry

[Shandon Par]

7 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Simple things amuse great minds. Or something.

Are you calling me a simpleton?

[Melanius Mullarkey]

14 minutes ago, Shandön Par said:

Are you calling me a simpleton?

No I’m saying you look a bit like Jim Kerr.

[madwullie]

I did a fair bit when my mum died as I found a paper family tree some American relative had completed in the times before computers (what a pain in the arse that must have been) in her bedside drawer and wanted to see if I could expand on what he'd done. Also, we were a side branch of his family so I was interested in focusing on us. 

Found ancestry pretty useful if expensive. Ordered a few birth certificates to clear up a few questions we'd had about certain relatives, and I ended up touch with my dad's cousin in Carlisle. 

Nothing too glorious as far back as we could go. Dad's side split, one side from England, one from way up north, highlight being some great aunt of his that lived till 100+. 

Mum's side pretty sketch but I'd always thought we were motherwell born and bred, turns out we're from South Lanarkshire and the small section of the family thatived in God's country were an aberration. One older brother of my gran had died in the first world War war and his pension went to his wife. Thing is, my great aunt remembers loads of stories about him, and noone had ever heard of his wife. But I ended up with the marriage cert and everything so that was a bit strange. Couldn't find anything else at all out about them. Kind of gutted my mum never found out about that. She'd have fucking LOVED that gossip 

More than a few on that side died in poorhouses, which is pretty grim to read about but it did lead me to looking into those and finding out a lot of general information about Glasgow / Lanarkshire history I hadn't know about. 

I'd say if you can handle the somewhat eye-watering cost of ancestry there is a really weird buzz you get from doing it and I would recommend. If can become all consuming but I really enjoyed it till I hit the dead ends. 

f**k giving some company my DNA though. Not into that. 

Edited December 17, 2020 by madwullie

[Fullerene]

I recall one clan book that was amusing.

The first chief of the clan was mortally wounded leading his men into battle.

The second chief died from an infection from some horrendous battle wound.

The third and fourth also died in battle.

The fifth emigrated to Brooklyn and became a fireman.

The sixth owned a grocery store in Queens.

The seventh worked as a Office Clerk in a small law firm in Lower Manhattan.

Sort of gave the impression that America was safer.

[UAE1929]

2 hours ago, madwullie said:

 

 More than a few on that side died in poorhouses, which is pretty grim to read about but it did lead me to looking into those and finding out a lot of general information about Glasgow / Lanarkshire history I hadn't know about. 

What I found sad was the amount of children that died. Didn't seem that uncommon for families to have around eight or nine children, with around half not reaching their 5th birthday. 

I found Ancestry best of the bunch, as you say the fees are quite expensive, but I didn't get quite a few free months trial throughout. 

Have to be really careful when you're going through records, just need to get one record wrong and it sends you off on a wild tangent. 

ETA

Supposedly Reddit is quite useful if you're ever stuck, numerous people on there who are good at tracing lines, or deciphering some of the writing that's an absolute bugger to make out. 

Edited December 17, 2020 by UAE1929

[DeeTillEhDeh]

My brother has has continued his research and now found a line going back to Charlmagne.

Not surprising given this:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2015/may/24/business-genetic-ancestry-charlemagne-adam-rutherford

[Falcor Roar]

Started doing this as I now have a son and seemed like a nice thing to do while we can't go anywhere.  Trying to find irish relatives is proving difficult though. I'm on ancestry uk. Is there a source people found useful for Ireland? It seems their entire census records were destroyed for several years. Are birth certificate easy enough to find?

[D.A.F.C]

On 16/12/2020 at 22:54, Rob1885 said:

I come from a long line of big, handsome rides. My father was a ride and his father before him.

And your mum lol

[Jacksgranda]

On 17/07/2019 at 05:10, Raidernation said:

I know one of my cousins managed to get my father’s side of the family back to the 15th century (aye the 1400’s for the uneducated)

That's quite the achievement.

[Sergeant Wilson]

I never liked any of my family that I met, I'll be fùcked if I'm spending money finding out about the rest of them.

[Jambomo]

I did this for my family, still working on it to be honest. It’s actually really interesting but just be aware of the noise of the skeletons falling out the closet

[UAE1929]

1 hour ago, Falcor Roar said:

Started doing this as I now have a son and seemed like a nice thing to do while we can't go anywhere.  Trying to find irish relatives is proving difficult though. I'm on ancestry uk. Is there a source people found useful for Ireland? It seems their entire census records were destroyed for several years. Are birth certificate easy enough to find?

Reddit really helped me with my Irish side of the family. I mentioned it previously, without using it, but have now used the genealogy subreddit where I have been stuck and in almost all instances someone has been able to help.

My main issue with the Irish lot was the change of surnames. O'Shea changing to Shea then changing back etc.

[Funky Nosejob]

My diverse and exotic DNA background was well worth £60 to discover. 

Then again, if my ancestors had been more adventurous I wouldn’t exist.

[PWL]

1 hour ago, Falcor Roar said:

Started doing this as I now have a son and seemed like a nice thing to do while we can't go anywhere.  Trying to find irish relatives is proving difficult though. I'm on ancestry uk. Is there a source people found useful for Ireland? It seems their entire census records were destroyed for several years. Are birth certificate easy enough to find?

What era are you looking at? My mum's side has Irish connections when they came over (unsurprisingly) during the famine. I traced them all through the Irish Genealogy website. 

Also with Ancestry, you will often find someone else has done the work already. Don't take everything as gospel truth though. 

[PWL]

2 minutes ago, Funky Nosejob said:

My diverse and exotic DNA background was well worth £60 to discover. 
 

Then again, if my ancestors had been more adventurous I wouldn’t exist.

Nearly as exotic as mine. At least you have some continental blood. The 1 other region on mine is England. 

 

[D.A.F.C]

14 minutes ago, Funky Nosejob said:

My diverse and exotic DNA background was well worth £60 to discover. 

Then again, if my ancestors had been more adventurous I wouldn’t exist.

Vasco de gama got about though.

[Funky Nosejob]

3 minutes ago, PWL said:

Nearly as exotic as mine. At least you have some continental blood. The 1 other region on mine is England. 

That 1% Portugal is identified on closer inspection to be “between 0% - 2%”. I really should investigate if there’s any way I can use my potential 100% Scottishness to force xenophobic racists to shut the fùck up.

[Falcor Roar]

16 minutes ago, UAE1929 said:

Reddit really helped me with my Irish side of the family. I mentioned it previously, without using it, but have now used the genealogy subreddit where I have been stuck and in almost all instances someone has been able to help.

My main issue with the Irish lot was the change of surnames. O'Shea changing to Shea then changing back etc.

Might give that a punt then.

10 minutes ago, PWL said:

What era are you looking at? My mum's side has Irish connections when they came over (unsurprisingly) during the famine. I traced them all through the Irish Genealogy website. 

Also with Ancestry, you will often find someone else has done the work already. Don't take everything as gospel truth though. 

It's not that far back, mid 1800s County Down. Census records are limited. Mclarnon is a common name too so too many potential leads.

Someone on ancestry has recorded my great grandfather's parents but they've put my great aunt down as deceased for 80 years and she emailed my sister last week. I could ask her what she knows but trying to avoid as she's a 90 year old nun with chronic health issues and I've not bothered my arse to keep in touch for the last 10 years. 

[Jambomo]

34 minutes ago, UAE1929 said:

Reddit really helped me with my Irish side of the family. I mentioned it previously, without using it, but have now used the genealogy subreddit where I have been stuck and in almost all instances someone has been able to help.

My main issue with the Irish lot was the change of surnames. O'Shea changing to Shea then changing back etc.

I had the same thing, variations of the same name because they couldn’t write and so went with how things sounded they should be written. There were a few X’s as signatures in early documents as well. 

[Jambomo]

If you are tracing family in Scotland the Scotland’s people is essential. It’s great, you can buy access and download certificates etc.