Ancestral Lines

digitS'

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Plant and other critter breeding ... my first flock of chickens post-farm kid were @baymule's "dirty birdies" that my brother gave me. Oh, they were nice hens but ended up in soup after I learned what limited performance they had with their season of laying. We are all interested in the plant lines in our gardening environments. Where do we fit in?

If we are of northern European ancestry, like most of mine, we can go back to those folks seasonally chasing cows around from mountain meadows to valley corrals. That might be about it for agriculture until a few thousand years ago when the plow made its way north. I find it interesting that archeological records of Indigenous People here have shown that tobacco didn't just arrive by long distant trade routes but that the hunter gatherers here were growing it. And, recent research shows that the horse was traded out of Mexico far earlier than the Spanish arrival in what is now the US.Of course, some native people were very involved in agriculture before the great displacement experiences they went through.

I've struggled to learn about my Native American heritage. How does my oldest uncle's statement that "Aunt Sis" was a "full-blooded Cherokee" fit with some historical records showing nothing but names and dates and their move to Choctaw country – coming through Arkansas immediately after the Civil War. What a mess that generation was in! It made sense that they were coming from the Philadelphia area, well outside of Cherokee country, if they had avoided the mess about 40-50 years earlier, carried out in their homeland.

Can't change history. But, it's difficult to learn about people living in some periods of time. For sure, we can't change history by not reading about it. Live in the moment? Sure. Right where I am but I did not come to be here all on my own. No sir.

Other branches of the family traced all the way back to the earliest European settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts. And, that "Dutch paternal grandfather," was his family already in the UK before he climbed on a British ship, arrived and began his boat building on Chesapeake Bay? How long before he migrated was that immigrant family there? No record. But, I just learned yesterday that this rather obscure Dutch name is found in families in Indonesia. Cousins? Hey, ya know, it all makes historical sense! ...

Steve
 

flowerbug

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i have various lines of research back a fair ways thanks to an uncle and cousin who were into it (1500s England and Scotland). however there are also some current wishes by one relative to not have contact with a certain family so i won't dig into that until later (if ever). another line has taken some trips to Italy to do research and go back but i've never seen or talked about the results with the people who were into that.

the funny ways things can turn out. at one time my grandfather on my Dad's side was working in the swamps of southern Florida and could have bought cheap land for pennies an acre - in what is now Miami... if that had happened i'd likely not exist. as it is i barely made it anyways. still happy to be here. :)
 

AMKuska

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If you are shy about sharing your DNA (with the strangers on Ancestry), the Mormon Church used to be the go to place to find out.
Just sayin'
Eldest DD refuses to give her DNA out to anybody.
There's more DNA privacy laws now. California, Arizona and Utah have all enacted them. I can hardly blame your Eldest DD since companies seem to be bent on making a profit any way they can these days. It would not surprise me if they sold off genetic information to research labs or what ever to make even more profit.
 

flowerbug

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if you have any closer relatives who've done their ancestry/DNA search then they already have enough of a linkage to you. from what i've seen they can find cousins, but i don't know to what degree of separation they start losing accuracy. seems to be several degrees removed though. i have so many cousins on all sides that there is a good chance they got enough of a pattern for our family already so i guess that genetic cat is out of the bag...
 

digitS'

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I did have a maternal side cousin say that she had done that ... She isn't on the mystery side and all she mentioned was the European "gene pools." Seems like there was one feature that sorta caught my attention but, hardly enuf raise an eyebrow. I'm not sure if she had it done to where they were comparing to other "cousins" tested.

Our shared ancestors include the Canadian grandfather who came to the US right at the turn of the century. Ummm, that's 20th from19th. He traveled by ship from Vancouver to San Francisco ... and then, came right back up north to work on farms and meet my grandmother. He finally retired and moved to southern Cal and then went back to BC during the final years of his life.

His family (both sides) were the most recent immigrants to North America arriving here about 1840. His wife's (my grandmother's) US ancestors stretch back 200 years beyond that as does my father's (200 years plus).

Both my grandmothers have relatives who have put a significant amount of research on the web, partly on the LDS website. It's fun seeing what they came up with - especially if there is some attached documentation. No attached document - weelll ...

digitS'
edit: to get my centuries right!
 
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baymule

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My husband was given a 23/me DNA kit. The results were interesting. In 1850, he had a black great(many greats) grandmother. That explained his mothers thick curly hair, and his too. The family tree branched and he had many cousins, both black and white. He was 3% black. He also was 3% Neanderthal, a greater percentage than most people. He asked me, “What’s a Neanderthal?” I pulled up a picture on the computer and told him, “It’s this knuckle dragging ape.” He didn’t think it was funny. I did. After that, when we argued, I’d call him a Neanderthal. :lol: :lol:
 

digitS'

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Nah, @baymule . The Neanderthals were a long way from apes.

Brains as large as other H. sapiens, surviving with the most primitive technology -- they were cold-weather adapted humans in Ice Age conditions. They weren't driven to extinction by Cro-Magnons. It would be interesting to know what percent of the population was of the two (+) groups, once both groups became established in that environment. Were they 3%? Less? They are still here :).

I will toss a little cave man in my ancestral line. Or, cave woman, yes ma'am, I won't forget get you, although I know so precious little.

When first coming across this information a few days ago, I became a little excited. Shared on TEG in something of a random, hijacked post ;). The LDS research shows that George Washington's great grandfather is also one of mine.

Keep in mind that with each generation back in time, grandparent numbers double and double and ... 4 8 16 32 ... so, 8 or 10 generations, one has a virtual village, a town of ancestors!

Combine this fact that early European immigrants to N America were quite few in number. Now, proceed through the years and children, born, growing to be adults, finding spouses, having more children ...

George's great grandparents were the first of the family in N America. 1650, or something like that. They had 3 children, one - an ancestor to George; another, to me!

However, I did a little more research. One young lady in my lineage, not from 400 years ago but a more recent 200, has very little documentation about her life. Kentucky, she died about 1850, even the dates they have listed have no documentation. There is a little mystery there. I may be able to do a little productive research on her children but, once again, there we are in a border state during a time of great disruption.

We are coming down to the time of Grandmother Pearl and her parents, the Spencer's, my great grandparents. They left and likely never went back. I am encouraged that it appears that they weren't the only ones in the family, those who migrated to Texas and those who stayed put. A larger number of people means that there may be more research and a little information gathered. Not just names and dates but census information, marriage licenses, a will filed with the county.

I can't really imagine that I will want to take this as far as DNA testing. I mean, after all and as we learned in 6th grade history class, George Washington had no children.

Steve, Pearl's grandson
 

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