I recently started using Ancestry and discovered a lot about my family history. I even found out that I’m a descendant of Catherine Parr’s brother, William (Catherine was the sixth wife of Henry VIII). I’m also (apparently) a direct descendant of King Edward III of England.
I was wondering if anyone would like to share their family history, even if they don’t have a connection to royalty (yet). You don’t have to share surnames or details of living people, obviously, but maybe information about great-grandparents and earlier ancestors (like 2x or 3x great-grandparents) that you know of. It would be really interesting to learn about all of your ancestors!
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My great-grandma got an OBE, also I'm descended from Genghis Khan (but 41 million people are descended from him so I'm really not that special)
Wow! Only one of my great-grandparents was alive to see me, my dad’s dad’s mum, Mary. She was born in 1924 and died in 2019, which means she was 95 when she died. Possibly the oldest of my relatives to die. My other great-grandparents were James (1915-1964), Samuel (1919-1988), Mabel (1918-unknown), Walter (1902-1986) Veronica (known as Mona, 1914-2001), John (known as Jagger, 1911-1989) and Mary (known as Polly, 1912-2003). Polly was the last of my great-grandparents to die, James being the first.
My great grandparents fought on opposite sides during WWII. My mum was German and my dad was English. My mum's granddad served with the Afrika Corps from 1941 to 1943 until he was captured and taken to the USA as a POW. After the war he returned to Germany and set up his own mechanical engineering company that he eventually passed down to his son, my granddad, who in turn passed it on to my uncle who still owns it.
My dad's granddad was an officer in the Royal Navy, serving with the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean fleets. After the war he worked for Cunard on the Britannic and the QE2. My paternal granddad was also a Royal Navy officer from the mid 1950's until the late 1970's.
My parents met in 1975 in Germany. My mum was working as a civilian for NATO at the Rammstein HQ and my dad was based at the same HQ as a Royal Navy pilot and liaison officer, having followed his family tradition of Royal Navy service. They started a relationship and when, in 1977, my dad returned to the UK, my mum left NATO and came with him. A year later they were married and shortly after that I was born.
Wow, that’s interesting! None of my ancestors that I know of are German, just mainly English, Irish and some Welsh. Also some really far back are from Northern Ireland. My Grandad’s mum Veronica (known as Mona) was Irish and my Grandma’s mum Mary (known as Polly) was Welsh. Oh, and my 15th-great-grandfather John Hankowski probably has Polish ancestry due to his surname.