This is addictive...
I started this several months ago.
I've traced some relatives back to the late 1600's, with the first immigrating here in 1750.
Veterans from almost every war dating back to & including the Revolutionary War.
Well, are we related???? 😛
Well, if you're interested:
Sons of the American Revolution (SAR)
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW)
Hmmm, Florida - Maybe you've got some Confederate in you. I'll give you this one too:
I have in the past put quite a bit of time into genealogy. My perspective now is:
1. Find out everything your relatives can tell you before it is too late. You can always dig in the records later. In particular, they can tell you a lot besides names and dates.
2. Count your progress in "generation equivalents". Knowing a reasonable amount about your parents counts as one generation, 0.5 point each parent. Grandparents count 0.25 point each because there were 4 in that generation, etc. That Revolutionary War ancestor counts maybe 0.00098 point because you had 1024 ancestors in that generation. You know a lot more about your background by filling in another great-great-grandparent than tracing one line back to Charlemagne.
3. The chances are far from perfect that all of your biological male ancestors for many generations back were who the records indicate. Even in "good" families.
4. A lot of "research" published on the web and filed with LDS is pretty casual about accepting likely connections as absolute truth. If you are thorough, you see enough discrepancies to call a lot of it into question.
