[Jamestown1630]

I grew up in a family where genealogy was a very big deal. I’ve always thought it was kind of silly - how do you know it’s true? It seemed to me that it’s only ever as true as the women were honest.

The culture and tradition that are passed down aren’t ‘silly’ at all, though.

[z3n]

Interesting video. If all this is true, and it makes sense, how can these stupid geneology/ancestry testing companies tell you how much percent you come from various places.

I always suspected it was just a bunch of BS to get you to submit your genome. They don't really want to map you out for who you are, they want to add you to their map of how you are related (closely by a few generations) to.

But the video makes sense. All you have to do is go back 5 or 6 generations to see how the number of people in your tree gets rediculously large. You can pick anyone of them and realize that very little of their contribution shrinks due to all the others among their set.

Also, every one of us could probably point to famous historical figures in their tree. That's because it's rediculous how many thousands of people are in your tree if you go back far enough.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, prior to DNA testing, documentation is all we had, and even when there's a marriage record, not everyone is a fanatic about that. Also, I've found that other people doing the same lines find stuff I'd never heard of before (one of the sibs was born to the second wife, who only lasted a year before my grandcestor was widowed a second time), and there's also even less savory events that didn't get recorded. One of my cousins ran into a foundling ancestor who was a young child sitting crying on a late middle ages battlefield, and someone from the winning side scooped him up and raised him as his own.

[rexthecat]

How do you know it’s true?

Genealogists now add DNA matching to their profiles. It's very accurate. And yes, it does expose women who were being dishonest.

[9422WMR]

One thing always missing from these family tree diagrams is the mailman, or the milk man, or the traveling salesman.
Infidelity was just as present then, as now.

[OrioleFan]

How do you know its true?

My Mother got me stared and I computerized all her records.

My sources for genealogy include census data combined with birth, death, and marriage certificates, divorce decrees, WWI and WWII draft cards, newspaper clippings of engagements, marriage, birth announcements, obituaries, cemetery records, and personal histories related by family members. I manage my data in Family Tree Maker and maintain a family tree on Ancestry.com. My resources include Newspapers.com, Findagrave.com, and a small library of books I’ve collected over the years. You cross reference everything.

It addictive and I’m meeting lots of family members in my retirement years.