Comments on: Hitting the Norman: Tracing Your Roots on Ancestry.com (in a hurry)

By: JamesLeeStewart

JamesLeeStewart — Sat, 09 Nov 2013 04:44:27 +0000

Are you kidding …I’ve been a member of the Church for 47 years and I still can’t park in the lot unless I’m there on official business. But I’m there a lot and it feels like a second home. Go ahead and park Rodger I’ll vouch for you ! I’ll get em to waive the Abraham clause !

By: Kent Bankhead

Kent Bankhead — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 09:33:13 +0000

I too have tried tracing my ancestry through ancestry.com and other sources–hitting dead ends around the 1700′s, when, I’m told the records were destroyed in a fire. Bankheads were thought to originate around Kilmarnock–or Northern Ireland–depending on which source you believe; however, Bankheads are listed as a sept of the Boyd clan. If any one has more information on this, I would be most interested. Thanks!

By: John Ferguson

John Ferguson — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:36:35 +0000

I have been searching the site for my ancestors and at one point found myself linked to almost every Royal House in Northern Europe. Some serious double checking and it appeared that one of the hints provided was seriously wrong, they had included offspring that didn’t exist and someone else had used the right names but they were the wrong people. My Royal background,while it existed, seemed to contain every Royal line in Europe and stretched back to the pre Christian era. Although it was all a fantasy I discovered so much more about Scottish history and realised just how multi cultural our country is. When I got into the serious work of building a validated tree I found the most amazing tales of strength and tragedy and much more depth in the lives of the ordinary everyday Scots.Oh and Irish and English Flemish and French.

By: Kelley Davis

Kelley Davis — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 05:37:06 +0000

I followed the same path and discovered that I was decended from every royal house in Europe prior to 1500. I figured that millions of others could also claim this because, as you stated, there are so many ancestors. Oh well, guess I won’t give up my day job. Well at least my son thought it was neat that we were desended from both Robert the Bruce and Edward the I. Although he would have rather the ancestor had been William Wallace.

By: rodgermoffet

rodgermoffet — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:18:42 +0000

Our kids School is just across the road from the Mormon church. As soon as I can trace my line back to Abraham i’ll get to park in their car park!

By: Dorothy Landoll

Dorothy Landoll — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:36:24 +0000

Hi cousin!! Yep, a lot of us go back to Robert the Bruce, the St. Clairs, James “the Good” Douglas, etc., along with the ones we might not want to claim! I’ve been doing this since the early 1960s (days of microfilm and letters). I’ve discovered the lesson is to learn about the awesome people in history we’d never have heard about otherwise. Just think how much history our kids here on this side of the pond would learn if they set the kids on a journey to search their family.

When we were in Scotland (sigh, back some 10-12 years ago now…), I did – oops, tried to do – some research on our McDuffie/McDonalds that came from Skye. Unfortunately they apparently didn’t live on Skye as they told their kids back in 1765 – I think they just named that island because no one had heard of the smaller one they actually lived on. But nothing more than we already had – at Armadale Castle they suggested we go island hopping and checking local churches. Aw, but, there was no time or money – next time.

Ancestry.com is good if you look for confirmation but too many just put in stuff – can that mom REALLY be younger than her son? Did they have a type or a wrong connection there?