The 8% Error?

**Singlemalt** · 12th March 11, 09:10 PM

I appreciate your take on this Mark. I am not particularly troubled by this. In fact it kind of comforts me in the commonality of all mankind. We really don't know who our brothers/cousins are so we should treat all people as though they could be.

At one time I was driven to search back as far as I could in my genealogy. More recently I have decided to try and learn as much as I could about the more recent lives and character of my more immediate family, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who actually had a direct impact on me rather than some (maybe) ancestor two centuries ago.

If anyone out there still has a grandmother (or great-grandmother) around I suggest you make a big pot of tea and spend a whole afternoon asking her questions. I suspect you will learn a lot more about what makes you...you than ancestry.com will ever teach you.

Cam

**chrisupyonder** · 12th March 11, 11:43 PM

My surname could be Norman (France), German, Jewish, Viking and who know what else on my fathers side. Mothers side Norman, German, Irish. So I am a blend of Europe with hint of middle east on the side and a lot ended up in Scotland after the Norman invasion in 1066.

**ForresterModern** · 13th March 11, 05:42 AM

Originally Posted by chrisupyonder

My surname could be Norman (France), German, Jewish, Viking and who know what else on my fathers side. Mothers side Norman, German, Irish. So I am a blend of Europe with hint of middle east on the side and a lot ended up in Scotland after the Norman invasion in 1066.

Similar story here but even the surname can have a lineage of various heritages at different historical times. Foster derives from Forrester which historically originated with one specific person from a noble Flanders family, to England and southern Scotland with the Norman Conquest, settled in Scotland and northern England, some parts then moving on to Northern Ireland, some still there, some Scots-Irish immigrants to the US or elsewhere, some to Australia, some back to Holland then on to the US, some to the US or elsewhere directly from England or Scotland, where the name has been modified in various places over centuries to the many variations of Forrester, Forester, Forster, Foster, Vorster, etc....

And that is only my patrilineal surname line. Even worse when one traces the other English and German and even other Scottish lines, even some native American thrown in there for a little genetic and historic spice. As said above, we are all cousins in one way or another, and should treat all like we are each others' familiy (well better than some family in some cases).