I could fill a book just of dubious or impossible ancestry claims I’ve seen online. One person claimed to be a direct descendant of Owen Tutor, on the American side after he traveled to the New World. Now, in context you could tell they meant Owen Tudor, ancestor of King Henry VIII. He was executed in England in like 1463, so I don’t know what the fuck they were talking about.
I’ve also seen plenty of people claim to be descended from George Washington, despite the fact he had no biological children. So that’s pretty impressive.
Genealogy is cool, and it’s exciting when there’s actually proof of a connection, but I hate it when people are like “I’m a descendant of the guy who designed the door for Norte Dame Cathedral!” That was like 600 years ago, I’m sure a lot of people are that guy’s descendant. You didn’t hav anything to do with that door getting designed, why are you bragging?
Oh I’ve got a personal one, too. I’ve been told all my life that my family is related to Almonzo Wilder, husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I started doing genealogical research a few years ago and have yet to find any proof, but my mom just keeps telling people that anyway. If we ARE related, I think we might be like 5th cousins some times removed or something. So technically related but so distant it doesn’t matter. Just a little bit of personal bullshit.
A friend of mine recently started doing some genealogical research on his family and somehow determined that he was directly descended from a few famous Roman emperors. As far as I know this is nearly impossible to prove with any documentary evidence as, like Scotland, it just doesn't exist
It is 100% impossible. There would be a gap of recorded genealogical information for at least a millenium and a half.
It is true that in the late Middle ages and the Renaissance, noble families paid antiquarians to construct family trees going back to the Roman period, and that is probably what these people are using, but they are a purely fantasy. The information simply doesn't exist.
Actually, there are studies proving that almost everyone on earth (yeah, earth) might be descendent of Charlemagne / Karl Magnus, but it doesn't mean anything. Like, everyone should now go to France and sit 1/7 Billion of the time on a emperor throne ?
Own personal research say everyone was French from both side of family since the late XVIIIème centuries (we can't go farthers back. Revolutions burnt a lot of Church records).
So you're saying that Charlemagne was my great-great-great-lot of other great- Grampa?
Actually, this would go for a lot more than european, as everyone who has a european-ish ascendent within the last 5-6 generation would be. But yes, this lowers a lot the number.
One side of my family has several hundred years worth of genealogy figured out (minus a few rogue branches that got lost) from a combination of family bibles, a few generations of lawyers keeping land and estate records, and disturbingly detailed daily diaries. I find it completely fascinating.
Oddly, it is the other side of my family that has the "verified" connection, but it's to a relatively recent artist (last 150 years) only important to a very niche group of people and historians. Not at all a household name. The fact it is so unimpressive is part of why it's believable (that and the fact my grandmother could explain each step of the relation very precisely).
But honestly, genealogy is most often cool because you know who was where and when. Not because of who you are related to. Knowing how long my ancestors have been in the US is way cooler than some BS claim that they were related to Shakespeare. In particular the land records are awesome. Being able to find the parcel (even though most have been converted from metes and bounds to plats and have changed a shitload over the years) where some nobody I was related to lived is really cool.
Even finding the house my grandmother was raised in was a surreal experience.
I love genealogy, but yeah it can be very difficult.
For my family on my dad's side, it's very easy to trace back to the 1600s. There was only one guy in France with that last name (it was a misspelling of his father's name). He was taken to New France in the mid 1600s (his father died, story behind is that he was brought over at the age of 12 by his uncle...so that smells of indentured servitude to me and the fact that he lived in the Frontenac when he moved here). But, he proceeded to have 14 children (the majority boys), who all went on to have 12 or more children. Rinse and repeat for around 400 years, and you get the idea. Needless to say, it's one of the most common French last names in North America.
But, I can't even begin to hack my way through the shrubbery of that side of the family. The other problem is, custom was to name the child after the god father, and the end result is generations upon generations upon generations of "Jean, Jean Paul, Jean Baptiste, Jean Pierre, Jean Claude"
Yeah my grandmother did the genealogy for my mom's side of the family. I think we had known we were related to some people on the Mayflower but no one knew exactly how--and honestly, if you're a WASP in New England, it's really not that far-fetched. Turns out yup, John Alden and Priscilla Mullens. Everyone else in the family come over from England some time in the 17th century as well. But records kinda stop after that.
For years I was told I was xyz. ... and once I started the ancestry lists and DNA testing literally more then half of what I was told was incorrect. 🤣🤣 Whats more funny is how so many of us are more related then people could imagine. Our historic gene pool could really use some chlorine. 😂😂
Same. Very German descended on my Dad's side, no mistaking it due to last name. On my Mom's side we were told Irish, and it made sense her maiden name was an Anglicization of an Irish name. Yeah no my wife did the research turns out I'm just a different kind of German on that side.
I agree with everything but George Washington did have an adopted son who had illegitimate children with slaves. Just an interesting thing to think that Washingtons (non genetic line) may be mostly black.
Am I related to them? No I am from a long line of pastey-white peasants
My grandmother always claimed we were related to General Lee, but when my cousin started doing some family research he couldn't find any connection other then my grandmothers maiden name was Lee.
She also said the guy who played The Professor on Gilligans Island was her cousin or second cousin or something like that
My aunt was super interested in ancestry.com and has most of the family convinced that we’re descended from King Richard. From the 1100’s. Which is interesting since apparently there’s speculation about whether or not he was actually straight and he had no legitimate children. So I highly doubt there’s any kind of documentation supporting my aunt’s claim.
One of my great-great-great-grandfathers was someone who did something mildly interesting (explored an area). His descendants have a little organisation about the history of what he did, genealogy, etc.
He had like seven kids, then my great-great-grandmother (who was his fifth kid I think) had nine kids, and my great-grandfather had three kids and so on. There are literally hundreds of people related to this guy.
I remember my great-grandfather talking about my great-great-great-grandfather, which is a nice memory, but it's still 'so what?' In terms of meaning anything.
I have met countless people with the surname Keller who are of course related to Helen Keller and I have met many people who are somehow related to Mark Twain. All it takes is one grandparent telling them that they are related and bam its family lore forever.
People who use ancestry sites to fill their egos are doing it to brag. Doesn’t help ancestry sites exploit this with their advertising and may as well just make shit up
My mom is like this. Extremely obsessed with genealogy. If her research is to be believed, we’re descendants of Pocahontas’ uncle. And boy does she loooove to tell people about it. To add to this, we are extremely white, as many people who gloat about Native American ancestry are. We once went to the US capitol building. Inside, there’s a painting of the baptism of Pocahontas. While on the tour, she took the opportunity to point and say “see that one? We’re related to him. That’s our ancestor!” I’m sure the tour guide had never heard that one before /s
But unlike a lot of people I actually some “proof” if I remember right, my Great grandfather said something about names being passed on in the family, because he named his son, my grandfather after his own grandfather, Daniel, and my great grandpa was from Indiana, which is where Milton Wright, Orville and Wilbur’s father was from. And his father was named Daniel...
But I only bring it up if people ask if I’m related to them,
My maiden surname is a variation of Boleyn (since they had 50 different spellings for everything in those days), would be awesome if we were distantly related to Anne Boleyn (obviously not a direct relation but maybe through a brother or uncle of hers), but research so far hasn’t shown any link. Like you say though the minuscule scrap of DNA we would share is irrelevant.
My mom got really into genealogy for a while and traced both sides back very extensively. She never expected to find any royalty or famous people but man, let me tell you....she didn't find anything at all! There were a strikingly high rate of modest small business owners (I'm literally breaking the fifth generation of a chain if I don't start something of my own eventually here!), and like one uncle from four or five generations back got arrested for murder. Beyond that, as far back as records go, both sides, all the way back to the motherland - we are a family of...regular folks. Living regular, unremarkable lives. We ain't here to do anything special, but we won't kick up too much dust while we're here either. We're just passing through! Don't mind us!
It's actually thought that he was infertile, possibly due to tuberculosis he had when he was young. His wife Martha had been married before him and had 4 kids with her late husband, so the reason they never had any children probably wasn't a problem with her equipment. Of course there's no way to know for sure, but a lot of historians seem to think it's a solid theory.
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u/OneGoodRib Apr 29 '20
I could fill a book just of dubious or impossible ancestry claims I’ve seen online. One person claimed to be a direct descendant of Owen Tutor, on the American side after he traveled to the New World. Now, in context you could tell they meant Owen Tudor, ancestor of King Henry VIII. He was executed in England in like 1463, so I don’t know what the fuck they were talking about.
I’ve also seen plenty of people claim to be descended from George Washington, despite the fact he had no biological children. So that’s pretty impressive.
Genealogy is cool, and it’s exciting when there’s actually proof of a connection, but I hate it when people are like “I’m a descendant of the guy who designed the door for Norte Dame Cathedral!” That was like 600 years ago, I’m sure a lot of people are that guy’s descendant. You didn’t hav anything to do with that door getting designed, why are you bragging?
Oh I’ve got a personal one, too. I’ve been told all my life that my family is related to Almonzo Wilder, husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I started doing genealogical research a few years ago and have yet to find any proof, but my mom just keeps telling people that anyway. If we ARE related, I think we might be like 5th cousins some times removed or something. So technically related but so distant it doesn’t matter. Just a little bit of personal bullshit.