Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Yikes!

mr les is French Canadien. They named all the med Joseph and the women Mary. DIfferent middle names. They also named the men Maria. Thankfully I am not the one who was researching that

My maternal side is Norwegian. My great-great grandfather had 8 children, 5 boys/3 girls. The 5 boys were: Ole Knut, Knut Ole, Ole Ole, Knut Knut, and the youngest, my grand grandfather...Oscar Julius (who they called O.J.). We speculate they ran out of names. : - )

[leswp1]

My maternal side is Norwegian. My great-great grandfather had 8 children, 5 boys/3 girls. The 5 boys were: Ole Knut, Knut Ole, Ole Ole, Knut Knut, and the youngest, my grand grandfather...Oscar Julius (who they called O.J.). We speculate they ran out of names. : - )

Ooof. My Swedes are making me nuts- they have no surnames, just [x]sson or dotter. I gave up and am letting my cousin- of some sort- dig thru it. He is a Swede and has access and language skills. Turns out we have ~30 relatives that came over around the time of my GGF. Never knew. He was persona non grata after he cheated on my GGM and lived with his mistress in DeLand FLA. Apparently FLA didn't have consistent State records til way after 1910. They were the East coast version of the wild west- late to settle and later to be civilized. Inconvenient and frustrating

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Ooof. My Swedes are making me nuts- they have no surnames, just [x]sson or dotter. I gave up and am letting my cousin- of some sort- dig thru it. He is a Swede and has access and language skills. Turns out we have ~30 relatives that came over around the time of my GGF. Never knew. He was persona non grata after he cheated on my GGM and lived with his mistress in DeLand FLA. Apparently FLA didn't have consistent State records til way after 1910. They were the East coast version of the wild west- late to settle and later to be civilized. Inconvenient and frustrating

Yeah, we have a ton of that as well. Fortunately, my great aunt was extremely interested in geneology and our family's history to the point where she would take vacations to Norway to research baptism/marriage/death records. She got that side traced back to the late 14th Century, when she found out that our line actually came to Norway from Denmark. The first generation to have a legitimate "surname" (actually the name of the family farm) was the generation that came over to the United States in the late 19th Century. According to my great aunt, they picked that surname because they didn't understand the question being asked on the immigration form. : - )

[leswp1]

Yeah, we have a ton of that as well. Fortunately, my great aunt was extremely interested in geneology and our family's history to the point where she would take vacations to Norway to research baptism/marriage/death records. She got that side traced back to the late 14th Century, when she found out that our line actually came to Norway from Denmark. The first generation to have a legitimate "surname" (actually the name of the family farm) was the generation that came over to the United States in the late 19th Century. According to my great aunt, they picked that surname because they didn't understand the question being asked on the immigration form. : - )

Cool. My GGF changed his given name because he thought the name sounded too Jewish and this apparently was not good. My Aunt was into looking into things but there was so much info missing that she couldn't get anywhere. We didn't know he changed his name. I am so sad that she passed before the Cousin saw a post on ancestry and contacted me.

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Cool. My GGF changed his given name because he thought the name sounded too Jewish and this apparently was not good. My Aunt was into looking into things but there was so much info missing that she couldn't get anywhere. We didn't know he changed his name. I am so sad that she passed before the Cousin saw a post on ancestry and contacted me.

That's unfortunate about your Aunt. There are definitely times that I wish I would have been more interested in my family's history when I was younger and could have asked questions to people who would have either had the information or been able to point me in the right direction. On my paternal side, most of the leads I was able to develop stem from a recorded interview I did with my grandfather before he passed away. It was actually a part of a research project in undergrad, but I was able to use the recording later on to figure out some leads.

Changing names though, that definitely adds to the difficulty of the search!

[leswp1]

That's unfortunate about your Aunt. There are definitely times that I wish I would have been more interested in my family's history when I was younger and could have asked questions to people who would have either had the information or been able to point me in the right direction. On my paternal side, most of the leads I was able to develop stem from a recorded interview I did with my grandfather before he passed away. It was actually a part of a research project in undergrad, but I was able to use the recording later on to figure out some leads.

Changing names though, that definitely adds to the difficulty of the search!

Started as a project in grad school. Have hours of interviews from both Aunts that I taped in the mid80s. They have both passed. My Father is 90 and knows very little. He is periodically interested, sort of. His wife vehemently expresses how foolish (and other derogatory things) she thinks wanting to know things like this is so either I catch him alone or its a no go. Haven't been able to do that for the last 10 months.

My Aunts were interested but my GM was either not aware or not forthcoming when she told stories about the fam. Heard lots of anecdotes of the Maternal side- the GGGM was a midwife- married or cohabited with at least 3 diff men- bore children from each. Apparently was quite a character. Went out one Christmas Eve to help with a birth and they found her the next morning in the barn, frozen solid. Apparently she died on the way home and the horse just went into the barn and waited.

The Scottish side is much easier- better records and the propensity for family to keep tabs on each other. Went to visit my Mum's cousin and she reeled off >100 family members from multiple generations, back to the early 1800s- names, locations, who they married, where they emigrated to, dates, etc. She corresponded with most of the living ones. Helps that most of my family has been on the same farms since the late 1400s. ::yikes::

[geezer]

I got my Ancestry results which was interesting, to scroll through all my Finnish distant cousins- more useful was the report I downloaded on the implications of my genome from FoundMyFitness which accurately predicts my current health issues, and warns of future causes for concern, and gives dietary guidance. There are genetic reasons why I can't have more than two cups of coffee, and why I crave bread, eggs, etc., and why other certain issues have been getting worse as I age. One thing that's easy to change is that I really do need more fish oil than most people. The exercise thing will be more challenging.

[dxmnkd316]

Discovered the exact village my family name hails from. In 1905 it had like 120 people in it. Crazy!

I had been looking in what I thought was the village church records. Turns out they were “district” church records.

I also found a site that hosts tens of thousands of historic maps. I was trying to find some of my other family roots in that area (wives via their maiden names are easier to find if you have village name since they really only have birth and christening records). Noticed one of the fields on my GGG-grandfather’s birth records and realized it was his hometown! I had completely ignore the field because it wasn’t easy to read, much less translate from German. Once I realized a few key letters lined up, it all came together.

The village is so small that Google street view still hasn’t reached it and it doesn’t even get a label. But people still live there!

[leswp1]

Discovered the exact village my family name hails from. In 1905 it had like 120 people in it. Crazy!

I had been looking in what I thought was the village church records. Turns out they were “district” church records.

I also found a site that hosts tens of thousands of historic maps. I was trying to find some of my other family roots in that area (wives via their maiden names are easier to find if you have village name since they really only have birth and christening records). Noticed one of the fields on my GGG-grandfather’s birth records and realized it was his hometown! I had completely ignore the field because it wasn’t easy to read, much less translate from German. Once I realized a few key letters lined up, it all came together.

The village is so small that Google street view still hasn’t reached it and it doesn’t even get a label. But people still live there!

This is WAY cool!

I just connected with some cousin in California. My GGF's Uncle's GGGgrandson. I am not even going to try to figure out what that makes him to me. We have a boat load of cousins of some sort in Wisconsin- Door area. And some in Ephriam. I guess one of them owned a big resort up there until he finally sold it - Peterson was the last name.

Meanwhile.... it seems like all the people who came over were not particularly interested in talking about their roots so still no info on they whys and who was with who

[JF_Gophers]

After a couple year break i've come back to my research on my family. A few dead ends still as records for some countries are non-existent or unreadable (Czech Rep). But, currently my biggest pain point is records with contradictory information. I wonder if it was common for people to give incorrect dates on documents. Because i have exact matches for several family members on several documents all with birth years that are more than 2 years apart. Makes it impossible to know for sure if they are the correct people!

[leswp1]

Have the same issue- some records will list baptism date as birthdate which is irritating. I also have paper trails with exact info except for year. Or people who list different years on same type of document while listed with the same people. I wonder if some of it is word of mouth and the person who is giving the info.

[Kepler]

After a couple year break i've come back to my research on my family. A few dead ends still as records for some countries are non-existent or unreadable (Czech Rep). But, currently my biggest pain point is records with contradictory information. I wonder if it was common for people to give incorrect dates on documents. Because i have exact matches for several family members on several documents all with birth years that are more than 2 years apart. Makes it impossible to know for sure if they are the correct people!

This reminds me of a town in Russia that had a huge number of men who were > 80 years old. It was because when they took a census every male between 15 and 50 claimed to be 51 to be exempt from the draft.

[leswp1]

This reminds me of a town in Russia that had a huge number of men who were > 80 years old. It was because when they took a census every male between 15 and 50 claimed to be 51 to be exempt from the draft.

interesting

[Fighting Sioux 23]

interesting

The Russian draft is allegedly the main reason my Great Great Grandfather (paternal) came to the United States. That line had come from Germany (~Frankfurt) over to then-Russia (modern day Ukraine) when Catherine gave great benefits to Germans to move to Russia, which included draft exemption. The story is that as my Great Great Grandfather was growing up, the rules had apparently changed and he was going to be eligible to get drafted. So, him and his two brothers came to the United States.

[burd]

My maternal side is Norwegian. My great-great grandfather had 8 children, 5 boys/3 girls. The 5 boys were: Ole Knut, Knut Ole, Ole Ole, Knut Knut, and the youngest, my grand grandfather...Oscar Julius (who they called O.J.). We speculate they ran out of names. : - )

My paternal and maternal sides are both entirely Norwegian, though it appears some Ole (or Ingrid) must have jumped the fence with a Finn at some point in the distant past.

When UND plays the Gophers, I feel the blood of Ragnar Lothbrok pulsing through my veins.