How Far Back Can You Trace Your Lineage?

[AlwaysAVFC]

Growing up I knew very little of my Dad's side of the family. He died of cancer before I was 1. My Grandad was still a big part of my life but much further than that I didn't know much.

I have though got a family bible passed down to me which goes back to my relative that was alive from 1649-1723 so I do actually know the paternal line to there. Which I think is 8th Great grand parents.

I don't have a common surname but unfortunately I will probably be the end of my particular line, as I have a daughter so if she has a child it possibly won't have my surname depending on circumstances. 

I did do a little research on ancestry which was useful. I mentioned on here a while back heir hunters got in touch with me about possible inheritance. I worked out my link to her using the site. That turned to nothing though as a closer relative came forward and a will.

[Unused Sub]

On 16/03/2023 at 19:07, Villadevon said:

My great grandmother, Lizzie Littlewood had a cousin Wilfred Albert Littlewood (their fathers were brothers) who played 51 games for Villa.

Must be great to know. This is what I have on him from Villa programmes:

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, Unused Sub said:

Must be great to know. This is what I have on him from Villa programmes:

He's one of our own. 

[fightoffyour]

No goals?

[Villadevon]

2 hours ago, Unused Sub said:

Must be great to know. This is what I have on him from Villa programmes:

Many thanks for posting this mate!!

I have him in a few team photos and press cuttings but nothing official from the club until now.

[Villadevon]

1 hour ago, fightoffyour said:

No goals?

Here's one.

 

 

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, fightoffyour said:

No goals?

He was a fullback. Although they seemed to think he might make a winger. Probably never made the grade. 

[psavfc81]

I started this about 5 years ago after I retired. Sadly my mother had died the previous year. She was my last living relative from that generation.  Like many I was not interested years ago but now find it fascinating.

The one thing I would stress is find out as much as you can while those generations are alive.

My mother never talked about her past and now I find out she was in Nazareth House Rednal from 2- 14 yrs old in the 1920 -30s.   She had an estranged mother who I never knew existed and was alive until 1968 when I was 16.  My mother also lived in Jardine Rd next to VP.  None of this I knew.

I have used Ancestry which I find the best.  Their website is superior to Find my Past.  Ancestry have 50% off sales 2-3 times per year so I just rejoined last week.( Approx $15 / month)   Family Search ( Mormons)  is ok and free but again not an easy interface.

I'm back on both sides to the 18th century.

I live in the US so visiting churches etc for research is not possible.

If you have a detective like mind I'm sure you will find family research fascinating.  Plenty of red herrings from inaccurate entries and other linked family trees.

Haven't found a  first team Villa player yet although my Dad had trials in the 20s, most likely with the reserves but cannot find info. I do have an Olympic silver medalist from that era though.

[His Name Is Death]

Can trace it back quite far on both sides (one line on my mum's goes way, way back). Considering I wasn't expecting much when I started out, it's turned out to be very interesting, without giving away too much detail. British, Irish and Silesian German, mainly, with a bit of Polish and Dutch.

There are a couple of family legends/tall tales that I'll probably never find the answer to. There's a story from my dad's cousins about French republican soldiers staying in Roscommon after the French expedition of 1796, but good luck ever trying to prove it. Despite the tremendous efforts made to restore Irish public records in recent years, a great deal of them were destroyed in a fire during the civil war of 1922, one of the saddest things being that they were supposed to be even more detailed than the English records you can find in abundance. As it is, I can barely get beyond the mid-to-late 19th century when an Irish ancestor comes up.

The other was a claim from a distant cousin that we have Spanish ancestry, which seems pretty unlikely in late 18th/early 19th-century Birmingham, though I did get a 'Spanish & Portuguese' marker on 23andme (same percentage as my 'French & German' one) before they updated the chip. Now I'm "100% British and Irish", which is nonsense.

I did trace that particular line back quite far and found no likely candidates. My guess is there was an Irish ancestor with a 'swarthy' appearance and this was taken to mean Spanish by Victorian Brits.

Edited March 21, 2023 by His Name Is Death

[His Name Is Death]

No Villa players, though. Sorry. 

[Unused Sub]

2 hours ago, psavfc81 said:

Haven't found a  first team Villa player yet although my Dad had trials in the 20s, most likely with the reserves but cannot find info.

I’m keen on the reserves. If he had took part in the summer trials in August I wouldn’t have any record but if he trialled during the season I might know him. I’ll just need a surname if you’re interested.

[mjmooney]

Anybody good at deciphering Victorian handwriting? 
This is the marriage certificate of my paternal grandparents, in Dublin, 27 Jan 1896. Some of it I find illegible. 

RC Church of St. Andrews(?)
Groom: George Mooney
Age: (looks like 'full', presumably meaning 'of age') 
Condition: Bachelor 
Profession: Silversmith 
Address: 10 (York?) Street
Father: Michael Mooney    
Father's profession: (Porter???) 
Bride: Bridget Murphy 
Age: Full 
Condition: Spinster 
Profession: n/a 
Address: 42 King(?) St South 
Father: Bernard? Gerrard? Murphy 
Father's profession: (Looks like 'car owner', but that can't be right) 

 

Edited April 11, 2023 by mjmooney

[A'Villan]

Cuchulainn was to be my first name, ended up being my second name. 

My surname is very similar to the above mentioned.

I was diagnosed as mentally ill for sharing my feelings on my lineage.

I may well be.

[villaajax]

While having a look at ancestry.com I found that my mum has a cousin she didn't know about who had traced that side of my family back to the 1500s. That's the Dutch side.

As for the English side, I can't find much past the mid 1800s

[Risso]

On 15/03/2023 at 18:35, dAVe80 said:

My Mom has been doing family tree stuff, and it brought up some skeletons. My great great great grandfather got a 10 shillings fine for striking his father, my great great great great grandfather, when living in Spon Street in Coventry. Obviously this is very embarrassing and distressing, finding out I have relatives from Coventry.

My great great grandfather was a padlock maker in Brum. He seemed to be up in court every other week for being pissed. Eventually, he fell into a canal (whilst pissed, obvs) and drowned.

[Designer1]

33 minutes ago, villaajax said:

While having a look at ancestry.com I found that my mum has a cousin she didn't know about who had traced that side of my family back to the 1500s. That's the Dutch side.

As for the English side, I can't find much past the mid 1800s

Have you tried looking up the surname Jones?

[mjmooney]

I didn't have to go very far back before finding some infant mortalities I never knew about. I knew my Dad was one of three brothers, one of whom had died in his early teens of meningitis. What I didn't know was that those grandparents had already lost another child, a girl, only a few months old. 

And the same on my Mom's side. I knew her two sisters and one brother, but the records show there was an earlier brother who had died as a baby. I'm not sure she even knew about it. 

Thank **** for modern medicine. 

[villaajax]

25 minutes ago, Designer1 said:

Have you tried looking up the surname Jones?

Why would I look up my wife's family tree?

[dAVe80]

5 hours ago, Risso said:

My great great grandfather was a padlock maker in Brum. He seemed to be up in court every other week for being pissed. Eventually, he fell into a canal (whilst pissed, obvs) and drowned.

I was going to like/react to this post out of courtesy, but I couldn't find the right one to use. 

[gwi1890]

Did the dna test on Ancestry 48%welsh 31% southern bantu people 15% Cameroon, Congo Western Bantu, 2% Eastern Bantu, 2% eastern nigerian, 2% irish. There’s already been some extensive work done on my mothers side  tracing all the way back to a Catalan man in late 1500’s . My father’s side is very vague I never met him and have 53 matches on his side all 5th cousins and beyond which would likely mean that our common ancestor would be placed around the 1800’s it’s likely that Bantu or Zimbabwean men in that time would have had more than one wife and multiple children. It’s quite a unbelievable how traces of our dna our ancestors left behind. I have matches along half the continent of Africa to all over the UK , the US , Australia ,Ireland and Philippines.