I watched a show on PBS last night called "African American Lifes". The host, a Havard Professor, helped Oprah, Chris Tucker, Mae Johnson, and Quincy Jones have their family histories investigated. It was fasinating how they went through old records from as far back as the 1700's to find their ancestors. They even had DNA test to prove or disprove that there were indeed related to someone or came from a particular tribe.

Various members of my family have attempted to trace our roots for years, but with little success. Has anyone here traced their roots?

grammar edit
[Edited 2/9/06 13:55pm]

nope i wish i could. i dont know anything before slavery and that i have some navtive american relatives who have passed (my moms grandmother).
[Edited 2/9/06 13:52pm]

brownsugar said:

Yes, my family background is ugandan and indo-syrian. My ancestors are from Israel and the Caucus region of Russia. Fascinating stuff

My maternal grandparents tried to, and we know most of ours as far back as about 1800. Im just from simple working class Irish farming families, you know, the type that can barely read or write, let alone take care to register births Probably the biggest problem encountered in this sort of search. Unless you have Harvard professors of course. But we have a pretty good idea of our heritage anyway, and Im happy with it

There was a show about that on tv overhere last night too. It was about an English female actor.. Very facinating! They went back to 1600-something. One site of her family was filthy rich and the other site of her family was very poor.

I'm planning to ask my parents about their grandparents and I'm trying too investigate it further..

HowComeYouDontCallme said:

You should ask about it, I ask my Mum about it all the time because I forget! But you should write it down - if its not written down information like that dies with people

The big stumbling block in our family is our name changed atleast three times after slavery. It's also rumored some post emancipation ancestors dropped the slavery name altogether and adopted a new names which no one can remember.

susannah said:

I know... My grandma used to tell us stories about her meeting my grandpa.. about a bomb that dropped on her parents house in the war and killed her parents and some of her brothers and sisters.. I should write those stories down
Too bad all my grandparents are dead now.. I could write a whole book with their memories














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[Edited 2/9/06 14:27pm]

littlemissG said:

Similar problem well not really, but the Irish that came across the water to Scotland tended to change their names to fit in more with the Scots. My great great Grans (irish born) surname was Girvan, also a small town on the west coast of Scotland. Coincidence? I for one think not. If so we have no idea what her name actually was. Also, my great grandads name was down as being Cunnea, but we know that he couldnt read or write when he came over from Ireland, and it wsa probably meant to be Cunneagh. He just knew how to say it. Shame how these things get lost along the way.

HowComeYouDontCallme said:

Totally My Mums Dad died when i was 6, see if he was here when I was older Id write down everything the man said. As it was, noone else thought it important

susannah said:

I wish I did write those stories down

I'll ask the family about it..

from what I found out...
My mom has black(grandfather) and indian(grandmother,who's half black and indian), and my father is brazilian, black, and indian. So i'm all fucked up.

Yeah, I should have added the rest really, Im always paying too much attention to the maternal side. My Mums side is pretty much wholly Irish with some Scots (who we know came from ireland anyway) but we dont know much about my Dads, except his ancestos were from somewhere like Morrocco...again, never written down and now lost. But the word "arab" was thrown about a lot

Yes I have