Ancestry

Worldly and otherworldly topics
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Utisz
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Re: Ancestry

Post by Utisz » Tue Oct 05, 2021 7:26 pm

HighlyIrregular wrote:
Tue Oct 05, 2021 3:54 pm
MyHeritage found far fewer relatives than 23andMe so I tend to trust 23andMe.
I would have read that the other way around: the one that's proposing more relatives is more likely to be pulling shit out of its ass, hence giving more results.

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HighlyIrregular
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Re: Ancestry

Post by HighlyIrregular » Tue Oct 05, 2021 7:45 pm

Utisz wrote:
Tue Oct 05, 2021 7:26 pm
HighlyIrregular wrote:
Tue Oct 05, 2021 3:54 pm
MyHeritage found far fewer relatives than 23andMe so I tend to trust 23andMe.
I would have read that the other way around: the one that's proposing more relatives is more likely to be pulling shit out of its ass, hence giving more results.
A better reason to trust 23andMe is that they found closer relatives. The best MyHeritage found was a "1st cousin twice removed - 2nd cousin once removed."

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HighlyIrregular
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Re: Ancestry

Post by HighlyIrregular » Sat Oct 09, 2021 5:46 pm

So I asked on their message board about how to limit a search to a particular address. Ancestry supposedly has that feature for a people search but the results don't seem limited to the address at all. I discovered there's no way to search the board for a phrase. Every search is split into individual words and it doesn't support quoted phrases, so I had to ask since I couldn't find the answer. The next day I can't find a way to view my posts and I can't even find a way to navigate to the section where I asked the question. It's like I'm getting a more limited menu.

So today I discovered there are digitized, searchable white pages for the city I'm interested in. That was either done within the last three years or else I just didn't know about it and made a trip to the library three years ago for a non-searchable film version for nothing. It's on Archive.org. My first choice of search immediately resulted in a "not found." A shortened search term is taking forever, meaning about 20 minutes so far. Then I discover I can open a plain text version, so I do, and this is what it looks like:

■IH14O0 goMnvortlM

C44illo I7ax'77:

CanOilafiaClaaa 44(]0bu.iAv
C a ntal a ria C'W 5) 94,
CaaOalapl* Cithfr 9felA.ni.a
CaaMarIa tlraolal lb-.
Caa* l larla lr*i 2rP(rkF'
C aaO k lafla Jao 204 <>..-a.

* 19»4l.>'.'.Ckn>

>9«il
Rlh Mt4St


Mwial24at0

CS 4-3143
241-0946
NItMnai 5-4520
CE4 5a*4
a 4 0005
C« 1 7543
Ctarr^l 4-4054

IV^

KJ?023
CLow«< 1-444*
Nlaa-Inoi 4-9471
OEO 3O00
Cta»4l 4-3705
04-0927

a*-«a34

...now I see it was uploaded in 2015 so I made the trip for nothing. I mean, I couldn't view the image of the particular page I wanted but I feel like I'll be able to accomplish that much when I try again. The NY Public Library didn't say it was available online back then!

sitka
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Re: Ancestry

Post by sitka » Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:31 pm

I used to be really interested in ancestry when I was less sure of myself and felt a stronger need to fit in and belong somewhere. But having met lots of family as an adult and discovering we really have nothing in common, I don't feel that need anymore. My mom has been doing some research and one day a new branch just magically appeared going back hundreds of years, and she informed me that I'm something like 0.00000025% landed gentry. Somebody somewhere down the line must have really married down. You can all call me Lady now.

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HighlyIrregular
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Re: Ancestry

Post by HighlyIrregular » Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:59 pm

sitka wrote:
Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:31 pm
really have nothing in common
I think the genes I have in common with some of my closest relatives must be for things like the thickness of the membrane around our internal organs, pelvic bone density, and hue of brain. Show me an identical twin and I'd be interested. Still wouldn't want to meet him though.

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Utisz
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Re: Ancestry

Post by Utisz » Sun Oct 31, 2021 5:06 am

sitka wrote:
Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:31 pm
I used to be really interested in ancestry when I was less sure of myself and felt a stronger need to fit in and belong somewhere. But having met lots of family as an adult and discovering we really have nothing in common, I don't feel that need anymore. My mom has been doing some research and one day a new branch just magically appeared going back hundreds of years, and she informed me that I'm something like 0.00000025% landed gentry. Somebody somewhere down the line must have really married down. You can all call me Lady now.
Would urge a bit of caution there mi'lady. :hat:

Could of course be legit but I found something similar tracing me back to the high kings of Ireland, but it was a false lead. Someone connected some ancestor to a father with the same second name who was born before him. Been looking at a bunch of family trees on various sites, and the majority have claims that don't hold up to basic scrutiny, including stuff from people I know. It's easy on such sites to just click a bunch of stuff and have lines going back ten generations, but the further back the trees go, the less likely they are to be true. I think the sites realise that they sell on discoveries, not precision.

Of course it is mathematically likely that I am somehow related to the high kings of Ireland, but if they decide to reinstitute that, would not expect to be high in the order of succession.

Mx7xM
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Re: Ancestry

Post by Mx7xM » Thu Apr 21, 2022 8:57 pm

My sister went down this rabbit hole some years ago and managed to find records of my grandfather's family imprisoned in a British concentration camp during the Second Boer War. She even got photos of the archives. Bless the British Vogons and their bureaucracy.

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HighlyIrregular II
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Re: Ancestry

Post by HighlyIrregular II » Fri Mar 03, 2023 11:14 pm

I gained a little Italian heritage since my last post.
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starjots
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Re: Ancestry

Post by starjots » Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:04 am

Did a fair amount of poking on Ancestry about five years ago as well as the DNA thing with 23andMe and recently reactivated the account.

I got a few big takeaways from doing the research.

1. Families in the US a few generations ago were enormous. Ten kids were the norm in families in the 1800s, at least among my ancestors. Some had nine, some twelve, but ten was the most common. Having a wife die and being replaced by a younger wife was also fairly common, like ten percent. And of course the second wife kept churning out kids.

2. Most of my ancestors lived long lives. This was surprising given life expectancy rising, but those that made it to adulthood often made it into their 70s and 80s. I wouldn't generalize this to the entire population, but I think it says something about the US being relatively prosperous in the 1800s for farmers - there was room for everyone to expand out and grow enough food.

3. My particular family stayed put for generations in the same area. On my Dad's side, north Georgia from about 1840 to 1940. On my Mom's side, Denton County TX (north of Dallas) from 1870 to 1920. Only after WW 2 did everybody start moving all over the place.

4. My surname lineage traces back to an unmarried indentured servant woman living in Virginia about 1640, her kids taking her last name, which is kind of cool when you look at geneology stuff long enough.

5. It's a lot easier to trace men then women because of the name thing. This is kind of annoying.

6. OF my 1000+ relatives (almost all 4th cousins due to the 10 kid sized families generations back), very few share my surname. The most common is 'Smith', which is the most common surname.

7. The coolest thing is to come upon a picture or document somebody else has of some great great grandfather or grandmother, or a newspaper article or some such. It's then that such people become more real, you internalize that they actually lived full long lives, dealt with shit, had kids, got old, and died and were then forgotten. Until you see their picture.
Last edited by starjots on Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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starjots
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Re: Ancestry

Post by starjots » Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:06 am

HighlyIrregular II wrote:
Fri Mar 03, 2023 11:14 pm
I gained a little Italian heritage since my last post.
Wow, that's pretty Italian!

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