My cousin in California, who has worked on this for about 20 years, gave me our grandmother’s side. It turns out we are from Detroit from back when it was a French fur-trading fort. 3 months ago

I’ve been doing this for years, as it has been an interest of mine literally since I was a child. Thanks to ancestry.com I even was able to trace my French-Canadian ancestors back to when they first arrived from France in the 1400s. I would love to find more information about my Italian ancestors on both sides, ever since discovering there are quite a few people with my name (or variations of it). Hopefully in the future I can get a paid subscription to ancestry.com to access the records, since I no longer have any grandparents to go to with inquiries. 4 months ago

Was told that I have Gypsy blood! Apparently I have an Eastern-European gypsy carnival worker back in my family tree, who lived in Preston. I’m pretty chuffed as I was starting to fear none of my ancestors had originated outside of Lancashire. Not that I’ve inherited any gypsy looks; I’m quite unusual in my family for being very pale, blonde and blue-eyed were most of them are dark. Maybe there’s a bit of Scandinavian in me!? 8 months ago

Went to see my aunt regarding something completely different, and ended up on the topic of family history, and turns out she’d already done some digging and managed to trace our line through my maternal granddad’s mother, all the way back to the 1600s! In all that time that part of my fam had barely moved out of the area we live in now which was a bit disappointing as I’d hoped for some exotic ancestors, but in no way does it make my local ancestry any less intriguing…

Turns out my great, great, great (give or take) grandmother was the illegitimate child of a servant girl and the son of the family who owned Haigh Hall in Wigan (massive old country estate, used to be the home of an Earl back in the day). The servant even tried to get her daughter in on the inheritance, but the family seemed to have closed ranks against her, I’m guessing to try and protect their own image. So I’m now going round demanding to be known as Lady of the Manor xD
The same girl is very likely to be descended from Alice Nutter, who was a “witch” in the Pendle Witch Trials, which is something I really want to find out is true or not. I’ve really had my imagination sparked by these revelations and am going to team up with my aunt to find out more!

I may be related to Sir Arthur Henry Rostron who headed the Titanic rescue and was a general all-round ledge. My mum was a Rostron and that surname was apparently very rare in these parts back then. Would be a very cool relative!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rostron 10 months ago

Unless I can read Medieval Latin I am as good as done. It is a fascinating journey, which has turned upside down all the ideas I was taught about history. In some places you cannot advance at all. Other times I expect the details are in the colonies.

I feel most sorry for the hundred’s of thousands of indentured British white slaves who were deported to their colonies including America. Many were too expensive to support on welfare, were rounded up on minor crimes or were kidnapped and sold through the market in Bristol. The trade only died out in 1956. 10 months ago

I’ve found out so much and continue to find out something new every day. I definitely won’t let this slide, it’s just too fun! Since this may take years to FULLY finish, I’m marking this as done. I’ve researched it,and I don’t intend to stop until all avenues are exhausted. :) 11 months ago

I’m trying out Ancestry.com right now, and it said it was having problems saving the info, and so a username and password were sent to my email.

Uh… I wasn’t asked to give an email, guys. D:

I’ll try again later… 11 months ago

to my grandmother before they started bombing runs over Europe in 1944. This was sent from their training base in England.
My mom had this is her possessions and we never knew it existed. Very cool 11 months ago

Includes two sets of his wings (Flight Engineer Badge and Bombardier or Aerial Gunner Badge) He was laid to rest with his Military Aviator Badge on his uniform, I think
Distinguished Flying Cross
Air Medal with 3 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters
Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
... Air Force Good Conduct Medal
Good Conduct Medal with 1 Silver Loop
European – African – Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
World War II Army of Occupation Medal (Japan)
National Defense Service Medal with 1 Bronze Service Star
Air Force Longevity Service Award with 4 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters 12 months ago

The nose art of his plane. The “Round Trip” crashed on takeoff after my Dad’s tour was over. I found a hand written letter in all of the massive paperwirk that my Mom had stashed away from the pilot to my Grandmother dated 1944 or 45 about how my Dad was so valuable to him and the crew. He mentioned that they would be going on a very critical mission soon that he could not tell her about but wanted her to know the crew was in good hands. Seems this pilot knew good leadership.

I gave the letter to my baby brother who is very involved in Boy Scouts with his wife’s sons. He thought it would be good to read to the boys . . . an example of great leadership! 12 months ago

Before he was my Dad 12 months ago

Pretty Self explanatory . . . now. This was always hanging up in the house along with his medals and other things when I was growing up. I never knew what i meant or bothered to understand until now. All I knew was that it said “bastard”. That was funny to me at the time 12 months ago

Wilbur L. Clark 1919-1984. Served in the Air Force 1942-1968 12 months ago

I’m coming close to marking this as done. I have been able to trace it back to the 1500’s using ancestry.com, and have actually exchanged messages with a distant family member! I will get all of my hints organized, then do some more digging and finally mark this off. I caught the bug, this is VERY fun and I may get into tracing other families as well! 12 months ago