Yes i do know my heritage i went down the ancestry trail some years back, and it was a fascinating, exciting experience.
I tried to research both sides, and had some success with mum’s, but found my fathers side easier to research, as information was more readily available at that time.
So my search took me from generations of printers in Ipswich, to the seedy back streets of Jack the Ripper territory in London’s east end - great grandparents at that time living in a house on the same street where one of his victims was found. Yikes!
All fascinating stuff, and although it doesn’t change me as a person for knowing these things, it is my history, and i’m grateful that records exist today, which can help to piece together that history.
When we adopted the kids, it hit me as a bit off that Russian children not only get their fathers’ surnames, but their middle names are the patronymic first names. Where’s mom?
While I tend to think the most important purpose of a formal name is as a placeholder for posterity’s sake, I liked the idea of honoring my family in the mix, so they were each given my maiden name as their middle name. Better than a zillion hyphens a few generations down the road .
Ancestry addict here…the names Woollams English and Aumonier French have been used by several family members which I love, as names can so easily get lost forever otherwise…
I agree. I am who I am, and no matter who my ancestors were, it has no bearing on the person I have become. Nor will I be helpful in passing along any positive or negative traits to my future family ancestors.
I quite understand you not being interested RightNow, I was told many years ago that there is usually only one family researcher in a family so I wonder whether there is someone else in your family who is interested? I have traced one line of my ancestors back to the 1400s but if I talk about it to my family their eyes tend to glaze over!
@Bretrick Yes, I know about most of my father’s family heritage.
Some generations back they came across Europe as Jews escaping every kind of persecution imaginable with the surname of Levi (or Levy) and upon settling in Scotland (1700’s) as brewers and fishers, they adopted a Scottish name so as to assimilate better. As the family evolved and some intermarried, my particular branch moved down to London (Porto Bello Farm) and again changed the name by literally using their Scotish name meaning (the son of) to produce the new English name. During 1866 the main farmhouse was burnt down and 170 acres sold off as prime development land. As a consequence, The Portobello Road was swiftly developed to replace the farmland with many of the buildings still to be seen today.
EDIT … I married a young lady with a Swedish heritage, so that really mixed the genes up for our children
Bottom line, can you please enlighten me as how any of this ancestral info affects the person I am today? This is the question no one answers.
If I were related to country heads of state, or thieves of Norway, how an explorer of the New World was found in my background, what difference does this make in my current life?
Sincerely, I make my own life with my own choices.
I don’t think it does affect who you are today RightNow. I think those who research their ancestors do so out of interest rather than to learn anything about themselves. I researched my family simply out of that interest. No one else in my family is interested at all.
Yeah, we are, as the song goes, a great big melting pot. Now more so than ever before, what with the multi-racial world we live in. So at 50 plus, having lived and learnt, we know how dissimilar we are to our parents, and a million miles away (probably) from those relatives living in days of yore. Not a thing I like to dwell on.
My experience was somewhat different. Once i started my research into our history, other members of my family became fascinated and couldn’t get enough information, especially the young ones - nieces, nephews etc., who thought it was so cool that their great great uncle was a conscientious objector during the great war, was given non combatant duties, disobeyed an order, and was sent to prison for a few weeks as punishment.
It made me sad to discover that this great uncle was never mentioned within the family when i was a child, and if it hadn’t been for Census records, we would never have known of his existence.
It can be both interesting and life-saving to look at the DNA analysis of health conditions. For example someone knowing they have the BRCA gene might encourage them to seek cancer screening opportunities sooner. Particularly if they are adopted and don’t know their family health history.
One of my reasons for seeking a DNA test was to find out whether there was anything I should be worried about health-wise because I don’t know a great deal about my father’s family.
Thankfully no nasty surprises surfaced, but I was intrigued to find out that I have some sort of elite athlete gene. You wouldn’t know it as my best friend and I like nothing better than to chit-chat at the far corner of the sports field and watch the lacrosse ball go spinning by. Must be one of those recessive genes…
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