So one of the side projects here in Ireland is family trees...
On my side my mom did some great work developing here family tree using Ancestry.com. The software is nice enough but they do charge for access to records and what not. More over US based is one fee, UK/Ireland another, worldwide another.
I did find a free website Wikitree that can take file from Ancestry as input. Using this I was able to find the missing link in my Dad's moms tree which is a name change from Hirrell to Harol when moving from Ireland to the U.S.
This led to finding that my grandmother Thompson's family hailed from Donegal, Ireland. We did a scouting trip during Christmas and likely met some distant cousins.
Recently, I got hold of Sarah's family tree. With the help of Ancestry.com I was able to link Sarah's tree with others and others... This led to over 28 generations of ancestors on her side.
The observations from this research
Ireland ancestry is hard to track- whether due to bad records, the turnover from English rule, name changes, it is unclear but it is hard to go very many generations back. I see 2-3 on my dads side, 3-4 on my moms side , 1-2 on Sarah's side before trail runs cold.
Canadians do great job with Ancestry, this led to tracking Sarah's ancestry to mainland Europe. Well over 6 generations of French on Sarah's side
We have turned out to visit many of the countries of Sarah's ancestors- Wales, Portugal, Ireland ... Will need to knock England off the list. Due to the lengthy tree for Sarah there are quite a few nobles (counts, countesses) and possibly the King of England. Quite entertaining stuff
Some stats to stew on
Rob's tree
Oldest American
Oliver Leonard 1749, Springfield ,Mass
States
Ohio, Kansas, Tennessee, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Illinois, California, Florida, South Carolina,Oregon, Virginia, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kentucky,
Oldest non-American
Daniel Joseph 1709
Yorkshire, England
Countries
Canada 2, German 5, England 8.France 1, Ireland 7.
>5 generations
Sarah's tree
Oldest American relative
John Davis 1643 , Massachusetts
States
Connecticut, Massachusetts, California
Oldest non-american relative
Ega Leutharius
Alsace, France B 565
Countries
Belgium 13, approx 110 canada, England 22, Germany 20, Ireland 10
Italy 4, Netherlands 2, Portugal 31, Scotland 7, Spain 5, France approx 190
, Switzerland 4,Wales 1
>28 generations
Even more fun when we actually get to meet some of these distant cousins...
Rob
