I was thinking of posting something on genealogy and stumbled across this thread so I'll try it first.......
Mother -- 1/2 Swedish, 1/2 Polish-Russian
Father -- Colonial Massachusetts (Mayflower) and Colonial Virginia (including Pocahontas). Had my Y chromosome tested via DNA (
www.familytreedna.com) and found the Colonial Virginia dude originally came from Scotland (had no idea our name was Scottish) where the Clan has specific place on the map. Now I can wear kilts!! Prior to that, we were Danish Vikings before settling in Scotland. Google "haplogroup" and see how this works.
Through my Mayflower ancestor we go back 23 generations to 1180 AD. I'm fairly confident of the accuracy of that line since Priscilla Mullins was one of the better known Mayflower passengers and I think historians have researched her ancestry pretty well. On another line we go back to the year 1030 AD, an ancestor born in France but died in England. Part of the Norman Conquest of 1066? I would have thought so but the date and place of his son's birth contracdicts that. Not as confident of the accuracy of this line until I get time to look into it further.
The year 1030 is only 22 years short of 1,000 years, which blows me away that people can trace a family back that far. Thanks goodness for the anal-retentive British and their obsessive compulsive record keeping. Amazingly, I read once that many Americans can trace their ancestry back to Charlemagne (who lived in the 700's / 800's). That connection so far has eluded me but I remain hopeful. In fact I also read that if you are of European ancestry you are probably descended from Charlemagne as well as each of his 22 wives. This article also says that 80% of all marriages in world history have been between cousins!!
Collapsing Pedigrees - Intermarriage of Cousins
Just picking up my genealogy research again after a many-years (or is it "many-year"?) absence, and learned that Dallas is one of the top 10 genealogy libraries in the US! Who knew? Definitely will be spending some major hours there looking for my Charlemagne connection.
Any other genealogy hobbyists out there, PM me! It's probably too nerdy a topic to clutter up the general board.