Genealogy

2523 Views 11 Replies 7 Participants Last post by kyteflyer, Aug 8, 2018

kyteflyer

Discussion Starter · Aug 4, 2018

Anyone else doing it? I began a search for my birth parents some 25 years ago, but until Ancestry.com, had not even come close to finding anyone. Through the magic of the DNA test, I found my father's family (father had passed away at the age of 44) and discovered 2 half brothers and a few cousins. ON my mother's side, no DNA hits closer than 4th-5th cousins, but somebody who was doing her own research on behalf of her husband, found me and sent me a snail mail. Turns out that her hubby is a cousin on my mother's side.

So I was able to find out lots of medical information I had no access to, prior to a) joining Ancestry and b) doing the DNA test. Until then, all I had was dead end everywhere I looked.

Alas, my mother had also passed away at the age of 69.

What I have found out: I was never going to avoid getting diabetes! *Both* sides of the family have multiple members and long histories of it, both T1 ad T2. I've also found out that my risk of heart disease is huge, as is my risk of stroke. My father had cardiomyopathy, my mother had some kind of heart disease but it was a stroke that did her in. I'd been hoping to get that information 25 years ago.

The most interesting aspect of the Genealogy thing is finding royalty. Hilariously, I'm directly descended from King Robert I (Robert the Bruce) of Scotland. Most branches of the family tree peter out after a few generations, but that lot just go on.. and on... and on...... all the way back 30 generations!! (thats another 8 beyond Robert) I'm currently trying to get to the end of each branch. Its just fascinating, especially when you get info going back that far. Ancestry doesnt have all the answers, some have to come from historical texts and good ol' wikipedia, as well as family knowledge, but ohmy what a ride!

See less See more

Save

Reactions: 2

1 - 12 of 12 Posts

Chaidragonfire

· #2 · Aug 4, 2018 (Edited)

Supposedly my father is American Indian, which makes me half. According to the laws, anyone thats at least half can submit application to become a full-fledged Indian. BUT..............

I don't have my fathers information. Nobody in my family would say anything about him, when was younger. All I was ever told was "he's American Indian".

Supposedly he died around the time I graduated high school. I remember being shown a clipping from the local newspaper, but thats about it.

The sister of a friend is a big guru of Ancestry.com, so she said she would help. Well, they spent a year trying to find SOMETHING on him, and the closest they could find was some guy with the exact same name buried near where I live now.....and no, it's not him.

I have my mommas old divorce papers, but it doesn't have his SS number on there, or drivers license, or his birth cert or anything..........It's just their names, the lawfirm they used, and their signatures. Yes, I contacted the law firm, but they said anything that old has been long destroyed.

He was in the air force, but the station he was at was made defunct in the early 70's and torn down. I contacted the air force for some help on this, but they never responded.

I've been looking since high school and have not had any luck. I've even contacted all the American Indian organizations I could find online and most of them were nasty and hateful. One or two said they didn't have any information on the name I gave them.

A private detective costs around $2,000...which I dont have. So, I came to a dead end years ago.

See less See more

Save

kyteflyer

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 5, 2018

Oh that *is* a shame. Perhaps you could do your own ancestry search, the things you find would make more sense to you than a friend of a friend. :-/

Save

mbuster

· #4 · Aug 5, 2018

My dad used to tell that his grandmother was an Indian woman. My DNA test told me otherwise. My wife does genealogy research and she couldn't find proof of that either.

She also did some research for a neighbor that was trying to find his native American ties so that he would be eligible for special consideration in bidding on government contracts. As much as he wanted it to be true, it just wasn't there. I'll ask her to see what specific resources that she can think of to check.

Save

Reactions: 1

Hearts Jounrey

· #5 · Aug 5, 2018

With my genes which total 24,000, rumor has it some pranksters late at night decided to arbitrarily flip about 100 genes sequencing chains and then leave my body unnoticed to my immune system. With all the abnormalities I have, its the most plausible explanation to why Im the way I am.

Save

Reactions: 1

etherea

· #6 · Aug 5, 2018

Chaidragonfire said:
I have my mommas old divorce papers, but it doesn't have his SS number on there, or drivers license, or his birth cert or anything..........It's just their names, the lawfirm they used, and their signatures.

I don't know if it's the same in other states, but in Arkansas marriage records on the state level have social security numbers. Do you know when/where they were married? Also, if he's listed on the social security death index you can get the number and a copy of his application for the ss#.

Save

kyteflyer

Discussion Starter · #7 · Aug 5, 2018

mbuster said:
My dad used to tell that his grandmother was an Indian woman. My DNA test told me otherwise. My wife does genealogy research and she couldn't find proof of that either.

She also did some research for a neighbor that was trying to find his native American ties so that he would be eligible for special consideration in bidding on government contracts. As much as he wanted it to be true, it just wasn't there. I'll ask her to see what specific resources that she can think of to check.

Its funny how families have myths about their ancestors. My adoptive parents (hereafter known as Mum and Dad) always claimed famous people. Dad loved to tell that he was descended from Sir Henry Wotton, the poet, and Mum always claimed a descent from Sir Christopher Wren. No evidence for either of them, that I can find (I'm doing both family trees, sadly DNA doesnt help with the adoptive mob)

Save

Chaidragonfire

· #8 · Aug 6, 2018 (Edited)

mbuster said:
My dad used to tell that his grandmother was an Indian woman. My DNA test told me otherwise. My wife does genealogy research and she couldn't find proof of that either.

She also did some research for a neighbor that was trying to find his native American ties so that he would be eligible for special consideration in bidding on government contracts. As much as he wanted it to be true, it just wasn't there. I'll ask her to see what specific resources that she can think of to check.

I found an old photo of my father, and yeah, he's American Indian. You can definitely tell. I remember his face from when my momma tracked him down after we moved to Dallas. But I was about 10 years old at that time.

I wouldn't know why I would be told he was American Indian and nothing else about him. If he wasn't, then I don't think anybody in my family would have stated he was.

I've also been asked by a couple of American Indians I happen to run across over the years, what tribe I'm in. I told them I wasn't in any tribe. They said my facial bone structure was definitely American Indian and I should find my tribe. I gave them the lowdown on the pitfalls of me looking for my fathers information.

Save

rsfletcher

· #9 · Aug 8, 2018

I'm in to Genealogy too and found the branch that seemed to pass on that Type 1 Diabetes mutation to me - The Fuegs from Ohio who came by way of Switzerland back in the 1800s - the last person from that branch who died from it (because it went un-treated - no available insulin) was relatively recent in 1943.

Even though Insulin had been discovered by then it was not being mass produced and many people did not have access to it. This usually resulted in a slow death by those inflicted.

Pretty terrible!

Save

alamogirl

· #10 · Aug 8, 2018

I did ancestry.com for a while, but I thought it wasn't very user friendly, so I cancelled my membership. Maybe it was operator error...LOL! I was looking for my dad's SSN. I thought his discharge papers would have that, but it didn't. I was thinking of taking a genealogy class that is offered by the school district.

Save

Reactions: 2

kyteflyer

Discussion Starter · #11 · Aug 8, 2018

rsfletcher said:
I'm in to Genealogy too and found the branch that seemed to pass on that Type 1 Diabetes mutation to me - The Fuegs from Ohio who came by way of Switzerland back in the 1800s - the last person from that branch who died from it (because it went un-treated - no available insulin) was relatively recent in 1943.

Even though Insulin had been discovered by then it was not being mass produced and many people did not have access to it. This usually resulted in a slow death by those inflicted.

Pretty terrible!

We really have no idea how lucky we are, being born and living in the time we do. The past was horrendous for many except the rich, the future seems doomed by many things which I wont go into because they involve politics and society. Whatever the case, I consider myself to have been very lucky.

Save

Reactions: 2

kyteflyer

Discussion Starter · #12 · Aug 8, 2018

alamogirl said:
I did ancestry.com for a while, but I thought it wasn't very user friendly, so I cancelled my membership. Maybe it was operator error...LOL! I was looking for my dad's SSN. I thought his discharge papers would have that, but it didn't. I was thinking of taking a genealogy class that is offered by the school district.

Persistence pays off. They are always getting new information from new sources, as they become digitised and available publicly (not everything is, of course). I started 2 years ago, and I had nearly no information. At first, my birth mother was not even turning up in searches. Then, quite suddenly, there she was, and it all went from there.

The other thing to remember is that you'll never get information on people who are still alive: Ancestry is very hot on privacy, which is as it should be.

Save

Reactions: 2

1 - 12 of 12 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Genealogy

kyteflyer

Attachments

Chaidragonfire

kyteflyer

mbuster

Hearts Jounrey

etherea

kyteflyer

Chaidragonfire

rsfletcher

alamogirl

kyteflyer

kyteflyer

Top Contributors this Month