Lots and lots of genealogists in the family. I started taking up the hobby about a decade ago, because there are still mysteries we haven't solved. We can't seem to track my surname immigrant 4th Great-grandfather back across the pond to Merry Old England. (We just might find that he was on the run, avoiding a lynch mob or something.)
I come from all sorts of folks. Lots of farmers and tanners and carpenters, Hugenots and Mennonites. Regular folk. But we do have a line or two that goes back to royalty. (This is more common than people think, over here in 'Murica. MANY younger sons of Dukes and Earls emigrated to the colonies, -- they weren't going to inherit, they had the money to travel and bring necessary goods and tools -- it was a good opportunity.) So I'm a double Plantagenet. On both my mother and father's side. Henry II and Eleanor of Acquitaine were my 24th Great-Grandparents. Yep. I'll claim Eleanor. She was a tough lady.
What I think is even more fun is that my parents share a distant ancestor. They have the same 17th great-grandmother. My father descends from her daughter her second husband, and my mother descends by her son by the first husband.
I like to find the bravery of immigrants, the courage of descendants who first took a stand against slavery - - I like to find the stories, and share them with family.
I come from all sorts of folks. Lots of farmers and tanners and carpenters, Hugenots and Mennonites. Regular folk. But we do have a line or two that goes back to royalty. (This is more common than people think, over here in 'Murica. MANY younger sons of Dukes and Earls emigrated to the colonies, -- they weren't going to inherit, they had the money to travel and bring necessary goods and tools -- it was a good opportunity.) So I'm a double Plantagenet. On both my mother and father's side. Henry II and Eleanor of Acquitaine were my 24th Great-Grandparents. Yep. I'll claim Eleanor. She was a tough lady.
What I think is even more fun is that my parents share a distant ancestor. They have the same 17th great-grandmother. My father descends from her daughter her second husband, and my mother descends by her son by the first husband.
I like to find the bravery of immigrants, the courage of descendants who first took a stand against slavery - - I like to find the stories, and share them with family.
"The family that prays together...is brainwashing their children."- Albert Einstein
