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The journey of a thousand miles begins with...the perfect pair of shoes.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Who do you think you are?

Mr. Big Stuff. You're never gonna get my love.

Just kidding. I couldn't help myself though. :) If you sing that song for the rest of the day, well, you're welcome.

I'm sure you've heard by now there's a new show on called Who Do You Think You Are? where celebs trace their family tree and share it will all America to ooh and ahh over. Several of these celebs were on Oprah the other day and it sparked my interest. Especially when they mentioned that ancestry.com is offering a free 14 day trial. FREE! One of my favorite words. You know after shoes, champagne and Prada (or bet yet, in combination with). Anyway, I decided to check it out to see if I could find anything on my family. Boy howdy (weren't expecting me to say that, where you? I like to keep you guessing) did I! I've traced one branch of my dad's side of the family back to the 1200's and one branch of my mom's side back to the 1300's. Interestingly, both families come from the same area in England.
On my dad's side, I discovered far too few forks for my liking. Far too few. I know back in the day (what day? dunno) it was considered okay to marry your cousin (ewww), but I have the same great, great, great, great, great grandmother and grandfather 5 times. ACK! Of course that could explain a whole lot about my dad's side of the family. Just sayin. On his side I've also discovered Civil War soldiers, a few Revolutionary war soldiers (one of whom was a spy for the Patriots and again for the US during the War of 1812), several DAR "Grand Dames" who helped the Revolution by supplying necessities, hiding the troops and gathering information, a trader who drove cattle from NC down to the Gulf Coast area to trade with the Spanish settlers, a couple of judges, several brothers who were all Baptist ministers (and sons of a Baptist minister) who are credited with bring the Baptist Church to the deep south, and several Native Americans, including 2 chiefs. Not that you'd ever suspect I had a drop of Native American blood in me, being I'm so very pale. I also found several Howards in England during the 14 and 1500's that are believed to be related to both Ann Boleyn and Catharine Howard (2 of Henry VIII's wives).
On my mom's side, I've found several Civil War soldiers, an American Revolution soldier, a settler of Jamestown, several Native Americans (again, why don't I have any of that awesome coloring?) and a man who lived in Strattford Upon Avon, England and was dear friends with a writer you may have heard of called William Shakespeare. In fact he named one of his son's Shakespeare (my direct ancestor's brother).
Isn't that cool? It's kind of nice to see who all these people were who essentially got me where I am today. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here at all. I've been working fast ans furious going through records before my 14 day trial period is over because I don't know that I want to pay for it.
So, where do you come from? If you want to find out, go get your 14 day free trial and find out who you are.

BTW, I'll announce the winner of my giveaway tomorrow!



(who has no trace of the Native American blood that runs through her veins)

12 comments:

Allison said...

How very cool! I'm glad you found so much about your family. There is another similar special on PBS that I've watched where they take the DNA of people and can go back 250 years to see if they're related. It was pretty amazing.

Captain Dumbass said...

That is pretty cool. Sadly, once the Mothership departed after dropping off my parents any home at tracing my family tree were forever lost.

Amanda @ Serenity Now said...

MIHH!!! That is so cool!!! :)

I could care less about who Oprah or JLo or whoever are related to, but I'd love to find out more about my heritage.

How difficult was it to use? Do you mind sharing a bit more about how much info. you need to have to find out about your roots?

Best post I've read today!! :)

Sandy said...

Interesting. You got all that from Ancestry that quickly? It must be much better than it used to be. Maybe I should give them another shot.

Frugal Vicki said...

As if I didn't have enough to do. sigh now i have to not do something I am supposed to do so I can dink around with that. lol

KimAustin said...

Do you still have those high heeled leopard shoes you bought in STL? The zebra ones too? Where did you get those? I like this blog today that you have written; very interesting!

satakieli said...

That's really interesting. I know my grandfather has spent the past 10 years or so working on his family tree, but it's difficult to ask him about it because he's one of those people who likes to go on hour long stories about random crap like how one of our ancestors was struck by lightning while fixing a church roof.

I know his side of the family has a statue somewhere down in the South of England and a lot of people on my dad's side left for America.

All I really know for sure is that the families are Anglo Saxon on my mum's side and Celtic on my dad's side.

My husband's family tree is a little more interesting because it goes back to Brazil on his mum's side and then further back it goes to Germany.

A GAL NEEDS... said...

That is great information b/c I saw the first show where Sarah Jessica Parker found out her great grandmother was one of the Salem Witches but didn't get executed. I definitely want to check Ancestry.com out and thanks for the post. Came in from another blog 'cause your Blog title sounded interesting! I'm at 'AGalNeedsAtLeast2Blogs!' Happy Friday!

Crazy Shenanigans-JMO said...

That's awesome! My mom got into this stuff a few years ago and found out all kinds of really interesting things in our familys past.

Jenna said...

I am so tempted to join now!
Although I'm a little afraid that I'll find out my English Husband and I are somehow related and then it will all go "eww" If you know what I mean...
Anyway, how cool to know that much about your fam!

♥ Braja said...

From Viking stock, via Scotland :))

Unknown said...

My Dad just loves that site. He could spend hours and hours on there! : )

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