A friend of mine was adopted and recently received the names of her birth parents. She was able to research her biological and adoptive ancestry. It turned out that the adoptive and biological sides are related back in the 1600's.

I have been active in genealogy since the 80's. Since we retired, I have introduced this wonderful activity to my husband. He only knew his grandparents' names and that was all. He has never been in close vicinity to any relatives. He has since met a first cousin in West Texas and in contact with other cousins. He feels the root connection and is tracing his family. With just a little information he has gone back to his 3rd great grandfather and has learned about his ancestors. Working puzzles is an enjoyable pastime for him so genealogy has fueled his interest in putting his family puzzle together. It is addictive.

I have traced my paternal grandparents etc. back to my 5th great grandparents. I even found a picture of my gggrandmother when I checked Find a Grave website.

We have a Genealogy Center in our city with very a knowledgeable staff when we hit a brick wall. The center (as well as our local library) has a library subscription to ancestry.com for our use.

Good luck with your projects.

Howards
 

[QUOTE=jeank;6068655]My brother did the research for our family. He traced us back to John Howard and Elizabeth Tilly of the Mayflower.

Any relation to Mathew Arundell Howard? Both of my parents decend from him. From 2 different children.
My Niemeyers in Ohio are my brick wall.

My father was born in Scotland too, and my daughter has traced our family on that side to the 1700's. My mother's family came from England, Irish and Scotland and I am 3rd generation on her side. My daughter has done some incredible research and she now has a huge family tree on Ancestry.

I am so hooked on ancestry. Have my grandfather back to the year 932. The reason I can go back so far in his family. His 13th GGF was King Robert the Bruce. Mean little ***** he was. lol

My daughter got into it a few years ago and turned up some information that amazed me. For example, my dad's mother was a Smith by birth, and I always assumed that tracing a name like that would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Not so! Census records would list a Smith family with a particular set of kids, their ages and names, and the respective kids were listed again 10 years later, 10 years older and the same list of names, minus the ones who grew up and lived elsewhere, but not too far away and clearly were the same ones because their ages were right. There's much more information out there than I ever expected to see. My daughter lives in St. Louis and when she discovered that the family had lived in Greene County Illinois before some of them moved to Nebraska, she drove about an hour and a half and found grave stones and sent me pictures. Nobody in Greene County today still has my dad's family name.

She found that one of my Dad's ancestors in Virginia had signed a petition in the Revolutionary era. I had always assumed, since my aunts had talked about them being Scots Irish, that they hadn't come to this country until the Potato Famine in the mid 19th century, but they were talking about their mother's family and didn't know much about their dad's. I think women are generally more likely to tell their kids about their own family background rather than their husband's, and it's ironic because it's not that side of the family that gives you your name.

The long standing pattern of women taking their husband's names makes it much harder to trace the female lines. Without DD's research we didn't even know my great grandmother's maiden name. She found that she was listed as a weaver. I had her picture but never knew that about her.

The fact is that ten generations back (starting with 2 parents, then 4 grandparents, then 8 great grand, etc.) there were 1024 people who had equal opportunity to pass on their genes to you and only one male antecedent passed on the last name you got at birth. That's just the generations you can count on your fingers while operating a calculator. One more generation back and each of us had 2048 9-great grandparents! It's not surprising that the farther you go back the more likely you are to discover that you're related to someone interesting.

I've been searching my family Stillwagon who lived in NY . I'm back to 1822 for Henery Stillwagon married JUlia A. Fields and can't get a sure fix on his parents. I do enjoy searching, so I take 2 or 3 months for genbealogy and the rest of the time hopefullu quilting for xmas gifts.

One of DH's cousins is very interested in geneology and traced their fraternal side back to the Mayflower, because she wanted to join the Mayflower Society. DH could care less. Then she looked at one of the interesting names in the 19th century and started researching her. She discovered that her father, one of DH's great, grandfathers (maybe it was great, great) was Sitting Bull. I think THAT is interesting. DH could care less about that, too. No one in this century had any inkling about that. I'm wondering if it's really true. DH says it's not who our ancesters were or what they did. It's who we are and what we do with our lives that matters. I agree with him, but I still think it's interesting to know about your heritage.

Several years ago I was given genealogy info a cousin had completed about 20 years ago....before computers! Supposedly we are related to one of the signers of the Declaration of Independance. His name was Thomas Stone from Maryland. He was an attorney, a farmer, and a "gentleman" meaning he had some money. My maiden is Stone, and my grandfather's name was Thomas Stone. But my grandfather was a poor farmer in western Kentucky. I've researched this connection, but one son of Thomas Stone's from MD has no heirs. I question the validity of my cousin's tracing. On my Mother's side we go back to county Kilkenny, and came through Ellis Island in the late 1800s. I'm third generation Irish American.

I have had my DNA tested and come from the United Kingdom and Scandinavia.

I want to work on it more but am very busy with quilting, embroidery, and grandchildren.

Yes, my DH found out he is couins with George Washington. His gggf helped carry Lincolns body from Ford Thearter to the hotel. Came back to Indiana ( posey co.) Went to the local schools and showed the kids Lincoln blood on his unitform. Me Hanging judge Roy Bean is my claim to someone in history. Love family reunions.