Tracing Family roots

[arrogcow]

And just cause someone else says that you have a connection, doesn't make it so. My mother has been doing our family tree for years, and doesn't believe it unless she has authentic documents in her hand. She has found many errors in other people's reconing. To date my earliest verifiable ancestor is 1664, but some of the fanciful ones get me back to Longshanks (which now gets me kicked off of X-marks)

Adam

[Kid Cossack]

As the Scottish country dancers down in Compton all say, "it ain't where you're from, it's where you're at." I'll hasten to point out that that's how I look at it, and I certainly admire tracking down the family tree.

[gilmore]

I have one line of mine back to 515 in the Holy Land.Have Queen Mary of Scots in my line and tons of royals got lucky because tapped into royal records and they keep close tabs on bloodlines.Lol now if 143 (think thats the right #)people would die Id be queen lol .Can you see me as Queen?

Virtually everyone of European descent is descended from royalty. We have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 greatgrandparents, etc. Continuing this, if we go to, say 1215, the time of the signing of the Magna Carta, we have billions of ancestors of that generation, more than there were people on earth, let alone Europe and especially the British Isles. If we continue to Charlemagne, 800 AD, the number is in the trillions. So, every European who lived then who has living descendants is the ancestor of each of us. As the say, we are also descended from Charlemagne's stableboy, but he being poor, left no records, which are the documents of the transfer of wealth, by marriage, descent, enfeoffment, etc.

If you do enough genealogical research, you will invariably find that you have ancestors among the gentry. These descend from the aristocracy, who in turn descend from royalty. This is especially true in the British Isles, a more closed gene pool.

I don't know how many royal descents I have, but they include in England, Edward III, Edward I and John; too many Welsh kings and princes to list including Llewellyn the Great, the last prince of Wales, too many Scots kings to list, Charlemagne, St Louis of France, etc. I do not take pride in this, and am not at all special or unique. These historical figures have millions of descendants. For those of us who do genealogical research, royal and aristocratic ancestry is helpful since it has usually already been throroughly researched, we don't have to worry about it, and can spend our time on a much more exciting area: original research that no one has yet explored, a much greater source of pride to me than my ancestry.

[Shawnesse]

Before my mother passed away. She had one line back to 464 AD. She had proved that she was related to George Washington and Daniel Boone. Someday I will try to put the information she had collected on a computer. If you have any questions PM me.

[gilmore]

And just cause someone else says that you have a connection, doesn't make it so. My mother has been doing our family tree for years, and doesn't believe it unless she has authentic documents in her hand. She has found many errors in other people's reconing. To date my earliest verifiable ancestor is 1664, but some of the fanciful ones get me back to Longshanks (which now gets me kicked off of X-marks)

Adam

It's an unfortunate fact that the further back you go genealogically, the more time you spend sorting out other people's errors rather than doing original resarch, but that's just the way it is.

As to Longshanks, many if not most people now living in Scotland are probably also his descendants. His grandson's, Edward III's, are certainly well into the millions. A genealogical wit once called him "the father of the British middle classes."

[pipesndrumsnun]

That is amazing how far you were able to trace your family. We have mine only up to the mid-1700s...Alexander MacArthur from Isle of Skye, Scotland. I'd like to know more, but have been unable to find much information.
I've seen a post on X-Marks where someone (don't remember the name, unfortunately!) has a Clan Arthur Clan Crest (MacArthurs and McArthurs, as well as many variations!) as their avatar...maybe we are related?!

[Graywolf]

Be very suspicious of royal bloodlines. During the late middle ages they were often made up to justify the ruler's claim to the throne. Be especially leary of bloodlines that lead to Charlemagne. Everyone who wanted to claim royalty latched onto him as the firat Holy Roman Emperor. I myself have seen "family trees" linking me as a direct descendant of Kenneth McAlpine. These may or may not be true. In fact, Duke of Argylle during late the middle ages had a family tree tracing his lineage back to Adam and Eve. They are fun, but do not put too much stock in a tree unless you have done the research yourself and have copies of the documents, birth, baptismal, death certificates, etc.

[Arlen]

Personally, I can only trace my family back to the lat 1600's, but my fiance recently traced her family back to, yes, I'm serious, Odin, the Norse God.

It turns out that one of her ancestors was princess Contsance of England. Who, being royalty, was descended from pretty much all European royalty, a couple of kings and queens of jeruselam, some of Julius Cesar's generals and some Norwegian and Danish kings who were adamant that they were descended directly from Odin.

Obviously there was a lot of trying to back up claims and correcting of errors that other people had made, but it was still pretty cool.

I think it's possible to go back that far, but it can be really tricky and there is so much that's unreliable.

I have to say, Kudos to you. And good luck with the continued search.

[Livingston]

And just cause someone else says that you have a connection, doesn't make it so. My mother has been doing our family tree for years, and doesn't believe it unless she has authentic documents in her hand. She has found many errors in other people's reconing. To date my earliest verifiable ancestor is 1664, but some of the fanciful ones get me back to Longshanks (which now gets me kicked off of X-marks)

Adam

And mine shows the same along with about 18 different Kings of Scotland and the Picts. So, I have one tree for fun and one that I'm sure of...just doesn't go back as far.

[gilmore]

I have one line of mine back to 515 in the Holy Land.Have Queen Mary of Scots in my line and tons of royals got lucky because tapped into royal records and they keep close tabs on bloodlines.Lol now if 143 (think thats the right #)people would die Id be queen lol .Can you see me as Queen?

Queen of what? Are you Maria Vladimirovna of Russia?

Click here for a list of all 4,804 of those in succession to the throne of the United Kingdom, as of January 1, 2001 http://www.wargs.com/essays/succession/2001.html