I started working on my genealogy and I never really appreciated all those cruddy bits of nonsense we have to do that leaves a papertrail until now. I just wish they had had more of them in the 1800's! And I wish all those records were digital. :p

Still, I found out my great grandfather fought in the civil war. Michigan, 23rd Infantry, Company G. And his first two names were the same as a Beetle!

Most of my family on my Mother's side were Samurai class, one was a mayor of a smaller province when the Samurai class went on the decline. On my Father's side there were Samurai class too, but either my Grandfather or Great-Grandfather was a nuclear scientist during World War II in Japan (go figure).

I never cared much for the whole family history bit, maybe because it's lot easier to find information if your Japanese, since family history is still a pretty big source of pride over there.

That and the fact that most of your family will revolve around one island instead of 34983948 tiny European countries.

One part of my family left Germany when it became apparent that being a Jew in Germany was bad for your health. One part left Switzerland when the town became too small (given that the town isn't any bigger today, I'm guessing the three brothers were going stir crazy). The remaining part, near as I can tell, were horse theives and poachers and didn't have much of a choice in whether or not they came to the US, they arrived when "being sent to America" was akin to "being sent to prison".

As for the 34983948 tiny European countries, it wouldn't be so bad to track if it wasn't for the fact that they kept invading each other and changing names/borders over and over again. I'm told that the poacher side of the family is English/Welsh/Scottish of some sort. Pretty much all we can get it down to is one island.

The other side is definitely Swiss/German but those guys sorta mixed it up a lot with the Romans so who knows....

My family on both sides comes from England, that we can track. For my mom's side of the family, the history is obscure. My father's side, Id like nothing to do with.

Stormie is part Ronin!

Cool.

I thought ronin were disgraced/leaderless samurai?

I'm a mutt.

My father's side seems to have roots in most of eastern Europe, while my mother's side seems to have roots in most of western europe, with a sprinkling of Blackfoot.

Ronin were masterless samurai (ronin means "wave man" literally someone who floats from place to place). They were usually held in low regard compared to other samurai (although still higher class than the merchant and peasants). As far as I know my family were not ronin, although I couldn't tell you what Lord they served.

'Well I'm the type of samurai that likes to roam around. I'm never in one place, I roam from town to town"

I've attempted to trace my mother's side of the family, but every thread I trace ends up at a courthouse that burned to the ground in the late 1800s taking all the records with it :(

No matter what branch of that side of the family I follow, it seems to dead-end there. I haven't looked in the past couple of years though, so it may be that the availability of more online resources would help get around the block.

Its pretty tough, most of those old records are not digital at all. Have you tried looking for census records, Kerech? That seems to be the starting point, and the easiest stuff to find.

I'm going to have to figure out how to get ahold of some of those Michigan civil war records. I don't think they're online in any way shape or form.

I figured I'd have no trouble with birth or marriage certificates but actually, they weren't common until the 1900's. Marriage stuff tended to stay with the church or pastor who did the wedding.

I just have this driving urge to figure out where my Mom's people came from since she really has no idea.

'Well I'm the type of samurai that likes to roam around. I'm never in one place, I roam from town to town"Does it scare anyone else when Aidon spontaneously bursts into song? At least it wasn't The Sound of Music! :D

You're lucky you were never in my guild in EQ hehe. I used to annoy the hell out of people with that =D

You might also want to try looking at the Mormon records. They have a pretty fair amount of information on an awful lot of people who were never Mormon.

That's definitely on my to-do list. If they'll tolerate my heathen presence.

Still, I found out my great grandfather fought in the civil war. Michigan, 23rd Infantry, Company G. And his first two names were the same as a Beetle!

So... your great grandfather's name was V.W. what?

:smile:

George Harrison! :D Oops... should have spelled it with an "a", Beatles.

You might also want to try looking at the Mormon records. They have a pretty fair amount of information on an awful lot of people who were never Mormon.

True.

They have vast vaults of information in retired salt mines in Utah, just storing genealogical records.

If what I discovered today is correct, my Mom's father's side goes all the way back to 1732 in New York. Or at least, the the farthest I can trace it so far. I suspect they were colonists! Probably from England, they're all named Anna, Richard, John, etc.

they're all named Anna, Richard, John, etc.

On my patriarchial side, we have records of the family going back to the mid 1600s. My ancestors had no creativity at all.

Johann Christian sire of Christian Johann (repeat for 200 years or so) sire of Johann Christian sire of Christian Rudolph (my grandfather was the first to break with tradition) sire of John Christian (updated for the new age I guess). Yes, we have nearly 400 years of the first son being named either Johann/John Christian or Christian Johann.

The surname is kind of like "Smith" in that it described the person's function, but since it is a very local dialect, it is rare outside a small part of Switzerland. As a result there is more than one family of us, and oddly enough, one of the other families did this Johann Christian/Christian Johann trading of names as well, even though the families weren't genetically related.

I can just imagine a small town of maybe 1000 people, half of whom all have the same first/middle/last names or variations of them. Talk about identity theft!

Ack... can't hold out any longer :smile: I admit it. I am compulsive about spelling mistakes. Pan, could you correct the spelling of bureaucrats in the title of this thread? I will feel soooo much better... :wiggle: (Ok... maybe I'm not so compulsive, but I've been watching reruns of Monk and his phobias are cool.)

My wife has been tracing her family for quite a while and she ran into the problem that during the 1800s there are several people named John in her family. There's John William Smith, John Allen Smith, John Wayne Smith, etc. (Smith is not her real name she's searching, it's just an example :)) - makes it tough, especially when searching scans of handwritten documents, or when you find information that omits the middle name for some reason.

I have checked with some Mormon records and they have no information back beyond the same point when the courthouse burned either. So I suspect they get a lot of their information from the same sources I've tried so far. I'm not giving up though :)

Let this be a lesson to us all.
No more burning down courthouses or public records buildings!!

are floods okay?

Its also tough when people decide to change their names! My Grammy changed from Ida Gertrude to Gertrude Ida (... big improvement?) Another Grammy's name was Sarah Ann but she went by Sadie. Don't do this to your ancestors!

A couple other things my wife has run into:

1 - someone who was always thought of as "soandso's sister", turned out to be "soandso's daughter"! Apparently soandso got herself "in a family way" and rather than be scandalized, the family raised the girl as another daughter of the marriage, rather than as an illegitimate granddaughter. When my wife tracked down the actual birth certificate she discovered the truth.

2 - My wife's family has a platter that has been passed down for over 125 years from generation to generation. The story was that the original family members brought the plate with them (it was a wedding gift) when the came to America from Scotland in the mid 1800s. Well, on the back of the plate is the name of the company that made it, so my wife was researching the company one day and found that the company didn't come into existence until the late 1800s, so there was no way it was a wedding present. Still, it's an antique and a family heirloom, but the story behind it isn't accurate for some reason.

Fun stuff :)

Kerech, sounds like your wife is really into the genealogy thing! I suppose I'm going to be. I should join a club or something. This is a lot more involved than running searches from my computer in the comfort of my own home.

Yes, she's really getting into it. She sent off for pictures of tombstones from a couple places and such. She hasn't actually traveled anywhere to research yet, but she's talking about it :)