How wonderful to be able to visit the very village your family hails from, that's really going to be special!
My nephew recently did a dna test which gave him the names of third and fourth cousins and made contact with one who has been doing much geneological research into my granny's family (who hail from England btw) It's been a wonderful journey of discovery. Enjoy your trip Eric!
Poor Amstel having to diet, must be difficult! Gorgeous photo.
The internet is such a wonderful tool when it comes to genealogy. Many of the English churches have kept meticulous records going back hundreds of years. I recently had the good fortune of seeing my ancestor's (William Walton) signature from the 1600's. Did your nephew use 23andMe? That's the company my brother and I used for the DNA test. We're finding all kinds of relatives in Europe and the US. Thank you, @lizelle! I'm bringing the trusty laptop with me so I'll be taking lots of pictures and chronicling our journey.
That's so exciting Eric, I believe it's so important to find one's roots, enjoy your journey of discovery! Jason did his DNA test through ancestry.com, will check which company actually does it. It's quite a story, he's the one who lives in Minnesota. He was hoping to find anyone related to my Mom's biological father.
Mom only found out when she was a teen that the man she knew as her father married my gran to 'save' her reputation as such. The young man who was Mom's real father wanted to marry my gran but his family were against it as they were more 'upper class'!
Terrible how people were back then. We only know his name and where he came from.
I want to get Mom to do a DNA test asap and see if we find any links. All the people who knew about it have died. Mom just wants to know what he looked like or what her half brothers or sisters look like, if there are any. She's too old now for dramas so would never force herself on them.
The cousin Jason made contact with is trying to help too but she lives in Australia.
Her story is fascinating as well.
She discovered some of her family on her mother's side were classified 'coloured' back in apartheid South Africa and they were basically snubbed by the 'white' family and not spoken about and not allowed to keep in contact, so horrific!
Virginia made contact with one of them who now lives in Canada and is so excited as she will be meeting her 'darker' family soon!
Looking forward to reading about your discoveries!
Posted using Partiko Android
That is so interesting @lizelle! I hope you can find out more of the truth! So many think the world was better back then but, in many ways it wasn't.
My mother tells me about how her paternal grandparents shunned them because my Mom and her sister were Catholic. I can't imagine that kind of division and judgement, especially towards family.
My sentiments exactly! Cutting off one's blood relatives because of stuff like that is unthinkable today, although it still happens in some cultures, it's just horrible!
Posted using Partiko Android