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Jdfm

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I wish I had the patience to research my family like that. I have information up to my grandparents grandparents, but no further. Would be cool to find out more.
 
My Auntie has examined our family tree as far back as she can find and it only got to roughly 1810-1820 from memory. Not much exciting but there's a belief we descend from the Vikings on my Mum (and Aunties) side which sounds cool.
 
Yeah, my aunt's been going crazy with one side's family tree.

My great-great-great (possibly one more great) grandfather turned up dead with his throat slashed in Haymarket. Official ruling was suicide, apparently. But his widow soon shacked up with a local publican. Interesting way to top yourself.

Kids ended up in the orphanage. Straight back into the army for them.
 

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Had the first ancestors on dads said come out on the 3rd fleet. Settlers and not convicts.

Related to Sir Francis Drake which I find pretty cool.

We also have some other interesting things but can't quite remember them now.
 
How hard is it to research all of this stuff? I have plenty of free time with uni and work, so I'd be interested. How do you kind of start out?

Aside from some relatively normal lineage (by anglo-Australian standards) info, all I know is that my surname roughly translates to/originates as pigsty cleaner in Dutch (though I'm not even Dutch, and if I am, it'd be at least 13 or 14 generations removed). I brought this up to a girl once (my surname is vaguely comical to people I've just met) and only now have I realised how bad of a flirting technique it was...
 
I have names going back as far as the 1500s (in one line of the family), but little info on the people themselves. Someday I'll probably have to head overseas to find all the records I can, beyond the ones online.

Or I'll just try and get an episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" made about me.
 
Related the to first Opus Dei priest in Ireland and the first Catholic Bishop of Sydney. Great Grandfather was a famous IRA leader in the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil war as was his brother. Great Uncle was head of the GAA and a famous football player and poet.
 
From both sides of my family I'm 3 generations from Convicts sent to WA.

My real paternal Irish (non convict obviously) grandma abandond her kids. My grandad ( I never met him) wasn't too worried either, he married a few weeks after he divorced her waited a yera or so then brought his kids from the orphanage home to meet their new Mum. She (my step Grandma . deceased) had 5 kids to him. He died young, mid 40's, cirrhosis and heart failure his ex army mates, local swim Club, Pub etc raised enough money to pay the house debt so my (step) Grandma would be OK.

Thats the good part. The story is pretty murky.
 
I think one of my ancestors was the first Jewish doctor in Spain.

Not sure how credible that is but its what the family tell me. o_O
 

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What is it with aunts and their crazy obsession with ancestor hunting? I've got an aunt llke that too. I love her dearly, but once she starts whipping out those books and photos at family get-togethers, I disappear faster than Presto the Magician.

I've never cared who I was related to. So many people will tell you that they have presidents, scientists, great leaders in various fields, famous pop people and so on in their tree. To that I say, "Nice, but that doesnt' stop you from being a *******, does it?"

In keeping with the spirit of the thread, there was a Mooster in prominent rank who was killed with Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Same last name and all. I descend directly from his brother who by flukey accident didn't travel with Custer although he would ordinarily have been assigned with that unit and his brother. Is that interesting? I think so, but it doesn't stop me from being a *******. Although, if you don't mind me bragging, I did inherit that gene which has so far kept me from being killed by 10,000 ****ing Indians. So I've got that going for me.
 
Around the turn of the 19th-20th century, my great grandmother was a stow away on a freight ship from Danzig in Prussia, Germany- now known as Gdansk in Poland. I am unsure of the details, what sort of ship it was and how she survived the voyage, but ultimately she wound up in Melbourne some months later.

The kicker- she is a second cousin (but one generation above, I believe) of Roman Polanski, and her maiden name was Polanski too. She was ethnically Polish, of course.
 
My mum is into all this sort of stuff, she tries to show me the big diagram she's drawn of the family tree, but i'm no more than vaguely interested. From what i remember, she said it's difficult to go back further than the mid to late 1600's i think due to no paperwork. That and also when you wanted to get married you went to a gathering of sorts and picked someone out of the crowd that was there to get married also? Again, from memory she might have mentioned that back around that era too your surname was dependant on what clan you were in at the time. But i think up until the 1960-1970's our family tree is all Scottish.
 
I'm related to Sir Joseph Banks and have relatives on my Mum's side that were pretty early settlers.

My Dad's parents were $2-pound-poms that came to Australia from England after WWII. They originally came to Australia but hated it. They found it hard to find work and people were fairly intolerant of foreigners. So, they decided to try New Zealand instead. It was even worse there! So they went back to Melbourne where they lived for over 60 years.
 
Barry Stoneham is my 28th cousin.
 

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Don Draper said:
Had the first ancestors on dads said come out on the 3rd fleet. Settlers and not convicts.

.
Click to expand...
between august and November 1791 the third fleet arrived one by one in sydney cove. Brought lots of convicts(nearly 2000), but the records I have speak nothing about any free settlers.

It did however signal the beginning of the Irish invasion (no political prisoners at first)
 
this seems the appropriate thread.

but why do people take such an interest in ancestry? I mean, you don't know these people they don't have an influence on your life, heck chances are you wouldn't have even liked each other.

to a point I can understand it might be interesting, but the lengths people go to, to me seems strange, I mean what are you missing out on in your own life to have to pin your life to some dead ancestor?
 
I know a lot about Mum's side because there's a woman who keeps the tree updated and all that. All boring though.

My Dad was born in Germany and I'd love to find out more about his side but there are no trees or anything, and he's hopeless to ask. You ask a simple question about the family and you end up with 2 hours of unrelated rambling and conflicting info.
 
Cap said:
this seems the appropriate thread.

but why do people take such an interest in ancestry? I mean, you don't know these people they don't have an influence on your life, heck chances are you wouldn't have even liked each other.

to a point I can understand it might be interesting, but the lengths people go to, to me seems strange, I mean what are you missing out on in your own life to have to pin your life to some dead ancestor?
Click to expand...
I think you're reading too much into it. People don't often go around saying "my great great grandfather was a *insert possible famous person*", so it's not like they're trying to make themselves feel superior due to who is in their family.

It's just interesting.
 
Igloo said:
I think you're reading too much into it. People don't often go around saying "my great great grandfather was a *insert possible famous person*", so it's not like they're trying to make themselves feel superior due to who is in their family.

It's just interesting.
Click to expand...
probably.

to be fair, I was in a shit mood this morning and one of those ancestery ads came on TV...:mad:
 

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