Family Tree

Just for the record. If one goes ten generations back, one has over one thousand ancestors (maybe fewer, because there could be some doubling up). Twenty generations back, one has over one million ancestors. Thirty generations back, over one billion. Thirty generations is roughly 750 years. One probably does not have to go very far back before everyone on earth at the time is an ancestor. That makes things easier than drawing up a family tree based on just a few ancestral lines, which may not not even be the more interesting ones.

I am fairly interested in my family tree. I, unfortunately, did not get to meet much of my mom's side of the family because they had passed away before I was born. I would have liked to learn from them and more about them. They would have taught me where their families were from and what I had running in my veins. I think that some people want to learn about their family history because they want to know if they were related to anyone famous from the past. People like to know who they were related to so they can teach, and maybe brag a little, to others. I have heard of people in my family that have done the genetic testing and found some interesting things. We figured out that we have little bit of polish and jewish in us, and I never knew that.

In elementary school, a girl would always tell everyone she was related to George Washington. I got jealous and started telling people I was related to Cleopatra. Why? Well, my last name is Lisk, and I learned that she had a monument called Cleopatra’s needle, and these monuments were called obeLISKs. My overactive mind since then was on a mission to find out if this was true. Which I never found out because my family tree, which my grandfather researched, only went back to the 1800s. My interests have increased to find the unknown Lisk ancestors to see if I have any interesting relatives to live up my boring surname. I hope that the modern technology today will continue to go through church records and local birth and death certificates to expand the Lisk family tree.

I believe everyone should know their family ancestry. This is important because in the article author Steph Yin says, learning about ancestries provides "opportunities", be that ranging from the probability of certain family members contracting diseases to finding cures for life-risking illnesses. Ive always been interested in my family history and I've even done a DNA test recently and found out I'm 61 percent Europe west (Germany, France, and Belgium), 16 percent Irish, 11 percent Great Britain, 4 percent Scandinavian, and 2 percent northwest Russia. Ive even found out one of my relatives from along time ago was from Austria but she traveled with her sister to Virginia and eventually died in Kansas. This has taught me where Im from and how I came to be. These are some of the reasons why I believe everyone should know their family ancestry.

Ive always been interested in my family history from a little kid till now. My dad's also very interested in it. People want to know about their family history because It is what made them unique. Ive recently used ancestry.com to build a family tree and I also did the DNA test to see what i am. I found out that I'm 61 percent Europe west (Germany, France, and Belgium), 16 percent Irish, 11 percent Great Britain, 4 percent Scandinavian, and 2 percent northwest Russia. They also said I have about 1000 plus 4th cousins or closer. I found out one of my relatives from along time ago was from Austria but she traveled with her sister to Virginia and eventually died in Kansas. I also have found old photographs from my great grandpa and grandma. All of this information has helped me to know who I am.

I love to hear about my family history from my parents and grandparents. It amazes me to think about how far away my family used to be, and how crazy it is we ended up here. I have never cared about what percent of me is German or Dutch or anything like that. I mostly like to hear about how my parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents met. I would much rather hear stories like that than have someone tell me I am blank percent this and blank percent that. Although I do not care for looking at genealogy websites like the one listed in the article, it is interesting to learn that the world’s largest family tree consists of 13 million people. It is also interesting to learn about how they can calculate what degree apart the people were like how Sewall Wright and Kevin Bacon and related, but by the 24th degree.

Our family histories can be enlightening - especially learning about the drunks and skunks. That having been said, my late father Henry once observed, "Dukes and queens do not migrate." Most of us (African Americans and Native Americans excepted) are here because somebody did not like the way things were someplace else.

L I’m always so intrigued by stories that my relatives talk about family stories. It’s just a part if my life that enjoy hearing about. I think that many people like to hear about their history because they just simply want to be informed about their background. Just by knowing your history you can find out so much about your culture, and the reasonings behind your traditions. It also could be a conversation starter and could allow you to inform others that you’ve probably had a family who served in some historic event. The only thing I’ve done is just interview relatives. Since the majority of my family lives in many other areas, it makes it difficult to really get a hold of so much information. Although I’ve learned that I have a last name that I share with many others and that all of the people that have the same last name is related.. The last name became famous when “Los Hermanos Pínzon” who were Spaniards and traveled on the ship La Pinta and were able to travel with Christopher Columbus. This story was shared by my great grandfather where he passed it on to my mother, which she shared with me. So I’ve recently found out that I am Mexican and Spanish. My mother and father both have Spanish and Mexican descendants. I just love to know that I am able to share this Hispanic culture and would be glad to be able to keep passing the family name as well as many other of my cousins also hold the honor of sharing this last name.

Researching my ancestry is one of my favorite things to do; I am completely fascinated by my heritage, genealogy, and genetics. Being able to know more about the ancestors that came before me and how I came to be is very important to me, and I’m sure many people feel the same. As for my family tree, I have traced most of my ancestry back to Great Britain, Japan, and Ireland, though I know of some German, Belgian, and Spanish ancestry as well! Even though it’s nice to know your history, I’m certainly glad that modern technology and transportation have aided us in forming more diverse relationships outside of local gene pools, and I hope this genetic diversity can lead to a decrease in birth defects and genetic diseases.

Personally, my ancestry and heritage has always been a prominent factor in my life. In fact, one of my clearest memories from when I was younger revolves around my dad, gifting my brother and I a golden coin with our family name engraved on it, from a factory in Germany that our cousins own. With the coin, he also gifted us stories and information about our family, and origins. My mom chimed in as well - speaking of how her side of the family was Slovakian, and Irish. My mother is very, VERY into our ancestry. In fact, she's one of the people who pays for memberships on those genealogy websites, like mentioned in the article. Her and my grandmother have always been curious about it, spending hours researching it together at the computer or over the phone. (My grandmother even paid to have official DNA testing done.) I believe that my mom's interest about it has rubbed off on me a bit as well, as ever since I was younger, I'd proudly share and brag about my heritage. Though, I do sometimes see an author with the same last name as me, or another classmate, or even a friend - and I can't help but wonder if somehow, we're distant relatives. Of course, I doubt that they'd be anything like fourth cousins (like sampled in the article), but, curiosity still gets the better of me, and I can't help but research it or ask about it, many times.

For as long as humans have walked the Earth, ancestry has been a major focal point in many cultures; ranging from the filial piety of the Chinese to the 'pure' blood-line of the Habsburgs of Austria. To me, heritage is much more than a couple names on a piece of paper. It is the recollection of hundreds of years of blood-lines - with geographic relocation, intermarriage, isolation and many other factors in the mix that ultimately determine "why" you are where you are today. As author Steph Yin says, learning about ancestries provides "opportunities", be that ranging from the probability of certain family members contracting diseases to finding cures for life-risking illnesses. Simply, there is much more good to find in trekking through the past than haphazardly ignoring the makeup of your ancestral motherhood. Personally, I love looking back at my family and peoples' history as it is an extremely diverse one. Bulgaria, the country which I have been born/raised in, has been conquered (and regrettably enslaved and killed) by the Byzantines, Greeks, Turks, and Romans. We are deemed to be a migratory Mongolic-Slavic peoples, sharing roots from Central Asia and Eastern Europe alike. It's amusing to try to figure out what I am, as I share Mongol ancestry through one part of my family and Slavic through the other. I enjoy how I can assimilate into both cultures and be proud of my origins, however historically disenfranchised or glorified they may be.

Just the other night I was talking to my grandparents about their ancestors and they told me that even they don’t know everyone in their family tree. They followed up with, “well we’ll know in 2-3 weeks,” so I guess I won’t have to wait long to see everyone whos related to me from my dad’s side. That’s besides the point, ancestry has always been cool to me but I’ve never been invested in it and I probably won’t be until my grandparents get the results back. Marrying relatives, maybe because it’s almost extinct today but wouldn’t you think it would be weird to marry even a fourth cousin? In my mind it is but back then it was natural as stated in the article. The closer you are to home the more likely you are to marry a cousin. I’m glad that 1875 happened and people came to the conclusion that this is weird. If they didn’t then it’s very possible my mom and dad would be related, gross. All and all I am very glad that people got some sense knocked into them and stopped marrying relatives.

You reach to feel the crippled, geriatric book high up in your home's forgotten shelf. You grasp the solid and slide it carefully between surrounding notebooks and books. After long awaited seconds, you achieve to get the solid out of its own home, as you begin to feel the weigh of it. Observing the book, it does not seem out of place with the other books, it just looks more crippled; signaling its higher age. Yearning to get to know what's inside, you place your hands at both extremes of the book and separate them slowly, bringing the cover of the book with you. The first page, you recognize, has something typed down, kind of erased so you are unable to understand what its saying. Your sight goes down at the only readable words in the first page. You automatically realize the letters form a known word in your mind, so known you recite them everyday. It is a common name, followed by your lastname! You wonder if the writer of this book is part of your family. You yearn to know more about your ancestry, your ancestor's ancestry; who you are, why you are here and not there. You have never done DNA testing, you wished you had, but money is an issue that is directed to needs. Suddenly though, this feels a need. You recognize a long awaited question: why am I here, not there, why am I here? Unanswered questions keep being unanswered, your history unknown.