Family History Lost to Time

[jsbhike]

Have to wonder if the DNA genealogy businesses are what they advertise or a false front acting as a technological advancement on the Stasi stealing underwear.

[JediGuy]

Have to wonder if the DNA genealogy businesses are what they advertise or a false front acting as a technological advancement on the Stasi stealing underwear.

I won’t use them.

[SteyrAUG]

Father's side.

Ah well, partial credit then. LOL.

[AKDoug]

There's a website called Famous Kin. If you can determine a famous ancestor, it will list any number of notable people who have a common ancestor with you and how related. Like I have everyone from the Beach Boys to Wright Brothers to Clint Eastwood and Princess Diana and Debbie Reynolds for starters. Distantly related to be sure. I think the closest is Ben Affleck at 3rd cousin, but I decline to accept that.

Thanks for that.. Drew Brees (New Orleans Saints QB) and I share a common 5th great grandmother.

Added on edit: Holy Shit that Famous Kin website is a rabbit hole. Basically, if your relatives were early immigrants to Massachusetts in the 1600's you are likely to be related to almost every important American imaginable.

This lead me to run up the family tree of my great-grandfather that abandoned my maternal grand father at birth. Other than my great grandfather being a dirt bag, the rest of that family line was full of Revolutionary War participants.

[chuckman]

DNA testing can be very enlightening. I found two brothers and two sisters that way.

If you happen to be able to accurately trace to a famous ancestor, then historians have already done the heavy lifting.

Daniel Boone is my 6th great grandfather. I still have enough DNA shared with his youngest son Nathan (Nathaniel) to be accurate. Plus, my great grandfather had stories still (his middle name is Van Bibber). Through Daniel's wife Rebecca Bryan, we can make a direct lineage trace to names like King Edward III (of course I and II as well) William the Conqueror, Geoffrey Plantagenet through to Charlemagne and Charles The Hammer Martel. Rollo the Viking, King Louis VII, Henry DeBohun (signer of Magna Carta) -- you get the point.

There's a website called Famous Kin. If you can determine a famous ancestor, it will list any number of notable people who have a common ancestor with you and how related. Like I have everyone from the Beach Boys to Wright Brothers to Clint Eastwood and Princess Diana and Debbie Reynolds for starters. Distantly related to be sure. I think the closest is Ben Affleck at 3rd cousin, but I decline to accept that.

I forgot to mention, but I have no link to Kevin Bacon.

One of the reasons I did my DNA aside from the fun geni factor is that my mom had a son before she met my dad (yes, she was a teenage ho), so I have/had a half-brother floating around I wanted to find. I think I found him, but the person whom I think it is has not responded to a handful of messages I sent. And on the flip side, it's opened up a lot DNA-connected relatives and has sparked some great conversation.

I have not done Famous Kin, but there is also Famous Relatives, a sub-site of (free) Family Search.