If you trace your lineage ... you’re very likely to find out things you may have been better off not knowing.”
Like what?
That we are both among Biden’s Finnegan cousins
Qualites most people aren’t terribly proud of; criminal or adulterous behavior, multi-generations mired in extreme poverty. Unusual but still incurable diseases. All these are part of the human condition, but the average researcher may have hoped for more uplifting results, something worth chatting about vs worrying about.
Well, if you’re Kamala Harris, you might find out that your ancestors owned slaves.
There are some stories out there that the child’s uncles or other persons were actually their father.
This information, released, has a tendency to destroy family relationships.
“If you trace your lineage ... you’re very likely to find out things you may have been better off not knowing.”
Like what?”
I was wondering the same. The ones you can most easily trace way, way back descend from royalty, but having such ancestors doesn’t make you special. Nearly everyone whose ancestors came here before the Revolution can trace back to royalty.
Some of my fave ancestors weren’t royalty, but pig thieves. Very clever pig thieves. In early Colonial times, the settlers would mark their pigs by cutting notches in their ears and turn them out in the woods to fatten up on the acorn mast. Each family had a special distinctive “mark”. Then they’d round them back up for hog-killin’ time. My dastardly ancestors would snitch their cousins’ hogs and eat them up, which did not set well with said cousins. Finally, the third year it happened, the cousins called in the Constable (who turned out to also be an ancestor, but through a different line).
Oh what to do? My terrible pig-thieving ancestors cut the ears completely off those poor piggies! And claimed that was their “mark” when the Constable came to investigate. Well, the Constable was no dummy and didn’t buy it, of course. But there was no proof, the ears being long gone, so while the cousins got their pigs back, my ancestors did not end up in the stocks or the pokey or wherever pig thieves ended up in those days.
It’s funnier when you read it in the Colonial records, in the language and spelling of the time.
Actually, genaeology is a great way to get kids interested in history. You learn how people actually lived back then, about patterns of migration, and develop a great appreciation for those who came before us and made America a truly great nation, whether as farmers, blacksmiths, soldiers, shopkeepers, whatever. Extra bonus is they learn how to do primary research. You also come to appreciate why it was called “The American Experiment”. This had never really been done before. It was new, it was risky — but thanks to the great wisdom of our Founding Fathers, it turned out pretty darn well.
Now we’re in serious danger messing it up, of course. :(
Like your mum slept with randos and you and your siblings are all different halvsies…. Truth.
I did a trace on my ancestry and have 6 Presidents, several high profile actors/actresses and going back 30+ generations, I found Kings, Barons, Earls, Lords, Ladies, Queens, Princesses- even Vikings.
I figured the fireworks would come from my father’s Sicilian side but, surprisingly, it was my mother’s side.
www.familysearch.org