Ancestral Lines

Marie2020

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I found this really very interesting and seriously considering checking one of these DNA places out. 🤔 which one is another matter to ponder on

 

Marie2020

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On my above post, "My Acestry" is apparently only for Americans? I'd still like to try though
 

digitS'

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I thought that this was interesting to show the limits of genealogy.

I looked up a surname in Wikipedia. Not the best source?? Well, at least it is edited and that says that there is more control than might be with some random website.

I will leave the name out but the origin may be somewhat similar to my own so I was curious. What I find is "... a surname that is believed to be of a Scandinavian, English, or Irish descent." Well, which is it?

I'm aware of the immigration and invasion histories and that 500 or more years have passed since the name was taken as a surname. I cannot go very far with family histories and beyond, with the family name, there is essentially no certainty. None. With my own name, it is Dutch, or is it Scottish, or, maybe, German? And, with immigration to southern England prior to immigration to North America ... decisions by those, perhaps making a break from a past, might enter the picture.

In my own life, I once met a man who knew and worked with my immigrant, Canadian grandfather. I was about 10 or so. He asked my mother, "How is Jack?"

Mom had to tell him that that "Jack" had died a half dozen years earlier. As we were leaving she told me that his coworker knew her father as Jack. That wasn't his name! Later, I learned that he used his grandfather's name when he came to the US!

Why did he do that? Some events in that young guy's life were unknown even to his children. It doesn't seem that he was interested in even visiting his parents after crossing that border. It was not until they were dead and gone that he and my grandmother (empty nesters :)) moved back to BC. They had contact with 1 of his brothers and his children. Or, at least, contacts with his adult children. These cousins came to know my aunts and uncles and their families. I should have asked the one Mom was friends with and I visited, something about Grandfather Jack (Douglas) ;).

Hank, uh Steve!
 

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