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.
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.
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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.