How Do They Do It In The U.S.

[Bilge]

This is meant to be light hearted and is no way a suggestion of foul play!

I really am frustrated and bemused

A number of tree's that I have perused in the last few days that have originated in the U.S. tracing their roots in the U.K.   Two went back to the 1100's one to the 1300's and the other to the 1500's.

I must say that I have had great difficulty tracing my ancestors back further than about the 1850's.

How do they do it and where do they dig up the resources?

If you want to see what I mean, find one then try and locate a single person on the tree from say 1500's.

[BettyofKent]

If you go on to RootsWeb & put in the search box first name Jesus, surname Christ, you will see people who seem to be able to prove they are descended from Jesus & Mary Magdalene. It seems to be mainly Americans who can do this, & like you I'm bemused as to how they can prove it.
There are trees on Ancestry that go back even further!

I wish these tree owners would come on here & give us some tips

Betty

[Aulus]

To answer your question, I suspect they do it by importing other people's trees.  Whether the other people's tree are correct or even in the slightest believable is a different matter!

Claiming descent from Jesus and Mary Magdalene is obviously (pace Dan Brown) plain daft, regardless of whether or not you believe they had issue (anyone see that programme on Channel 5 about Mary Magdalene a few weeks ago, by the way?  Pretty good I thought, and not just because it featured a colleague from just down the corridor at work.)

1500s is entirely plausible - I've done it through parish registers for one of my lines.  It's quite possible if I could hone my palaeographical and medieval/renaissance Latin skills I could get further back by looking for wills and other documents. 

Obviously you're only going to get back beyond whenever it was in the 16th century that parish registers were introduced if your ancestors were "someone" - not many ag labs are going to have left a trace in the registers.

So - if you're very, very lucky - it's going to be possible.  There's a book by Paul Chambers on Medieval Geneaology.  Not read it, so no recommendation.

[Aulus]

By the way, if you're stuck at the 1850s, you'd better start posting some of the details on the relevant county forums here on rootschat and get some help demolishing the brickwalls!

Unless, of course, all your great-great grandfathers were called John Smith and the later censuses don't say where they were born ...

[Bilge]

Thanks for that even if it were John Smith

I suspect that going on US trees his blood would be more blue that our current Royals.

 

[LizzieW]

Obviously you're only going to get back beyond whenever it was in the 16th century that parish registers were introduced if your ancestors were "someone" -

My ancestors on one line were "someone" from 1360 (my 16 x g.grandfather) to 1586 (my 8 x g.grandfather), so all their history is written up and available to all, then from 1586, I become descended from the 6th son of the family instead of the 1st and although my 8 x g.grandfather was left a house in his mother's will, it was his 9th son that continues my line - so guess what - they ended up as ag labs after all.

Lizzie

[Nick29]

I think that because most royals thought that they were naturally descended from Jesus Christ (although there was no proof that they ever were, either then or now), then any American (or anyone else) managing to find a connection between their family and someone from a royal family could jump on the "holy bandwagon".  However, it only takes one slip for the whole pack of cards to come tumbling down, which I found out a few weeks ago, when I got two couples living 25 miles apart muddled up, and suddenly I thought I had blue blood !  Sadly, one or two Roots Chatters brought me back down to earth with a thud, fortunately just before I placed the order for the ermine smoking jacket 

The moral of the story is....... if you are looking for something you desire in your family tree, you will find it.  I think I was convinced I had blue blood because I've always had expensive tastes 

[RJ_Paton]

To be fair to the Americans the practice really has no national boundaries and pro rata there are as many in other countries (including this one).

I have seen one compiled by someone who was potentially a distant cousin which claimed to go back through to the Viking period and a certain Mr & Mrs Odin. (Fortunately I was able to confirm he was not related - and I don't mean Odin).

[Siamese Girl]

I am quite happy that the line I have traced back to the 1560s is  accurate and true  - thats based on BMDs backed up with a very large helping of wills.

Why stop at Jesus?  With a gateway ancestor you are on the fast highway right back to Adam and Eve!

Carole