sewbizgirl

I have tried ancestry.com out a few times when they offered a free trial. Found virtually nothing. It seems you need a lot of family info to begin with, to search. In my gut I feel most of the info is bound to be hogwash... how could anyone substantiate it? Like virtually all Scots thinking they are descended from Robert the Bruce. I heard that one all my life too, from my Dad's Scottish side.

I've decided that life is too short to spend it looking backwards!

Pat M.

My husband and I are 32nd cousins. HaHa

Trisher

I see that this kind of project is NOT for everybody. But I like it... and I am with Anniedeb. They can have my DNA and use it however. If some good comes of it - great. I have nothing to hide.

If there are skeletons in the closet, and some relatives don't match up who cares! Maybe looking backward with help us understand the future!

Just sayin'

Jingle

Our Daughter has traced mine and my Husbands families. She has gotten me pictures I would never have if not for her connecting with one of my distant cousin. I remembered names I had heard most of my childhood and that helped. My Husband and I did the DNA. I found my Mom was not right, she had told my late youngest Brother and I different things we were suppose to be. Years after she gave up ancestry membership one of my cousins on my Dad side contacted her. Some of the men on his side were not very nice men.

Since my parents and siblings are dead I had no one but my kids to share the findings with. It wasn't important to me but the Daughter cared about it. I am not worried about usage of our DNA results.

QuiltnLady1

A cousin of my father's did his family and traced them back to Robert Bradford and the Mayflower and DH has a relative who traced the family back hundreds of years in Germany and published a book. DGS has twice had to do a project on his ancestors and both times chose to use the Mayflower connection (there are millions of us related to the Mayflower folks floating around). I was using a program but got frustrated when I found that when I updated the program it started uploading info to Ancestry without my permission and then Ancestry started sending me emails that I had to access their site to look at my info so I quit.

Teen

lol.... I have relatives who have done the research and share but I spent my entire career in front of computer before I became a counselor...have no desire to do it now. And, it seems everyone is related to someone famous. My cousin found a distant relative was a bank robber and was hanged. I'm pretty sure this is reliable since the majority of my family and descendents are/were a bit on the wild side with questionable reputations. I enjoy hearing about what everyone finds out, though. Just not interested in doing the work. And, I love sitting around the table hearing stories of days gone by. Bought my mom a tape recorder this year. We are starting to record her stories. Fun..

Teen

Have fun with this hobbie... I received a copy of my great-great grandfathers immigration paperwork from a family member doing the research. So cool to actually see this documentation to validate the start of my family's American adventure.

Anniedeb

It is fun! So far my closest brush with fame is my grandfather's cousin, Maude Lambert, was a vaudeville performer, married to Ernest Ball... he wrote the music to "When Irish Eyes are Smiling"!!

marjben

I have no need to know my ancestry, good or bad. The people that do it casually or just for a hobby, I guess I get that, if that’s your interest, although it’s not for me.

I once heard a speaker say that she had found out as an adult that she was adopted and it had been such a devistating blow! She no longer knew who she was because she no longer knew where she came from. That’s the part I totally don’t get.

Battle Axe

I did mine on both of the major companies. The 23 and me came back that I traced to Greece!!!!!!!! I was shocked. The family history says we started in Northern Austria. But after the Greece link came back, I thought ok, where did these folks in Austria come from?

This is the migration pattern, from Italy (Roman) across the southern European continent, then northward into Austria and Germany, eventually to Scotland, then America. Well, yes, I probably am a little Greek.

Marcia