This is really cool...

Welcome to the Leverguns.Com Forum. This is a high-class place so act respectable. We discuss most anything here ... politely.

Moderators: AmBraCol, Hobie

Forum rules
Welcome to the Leverguns.Com General Discussions Forum. This is a high-class place so act respectable. We discuss most anything here other than politics... politely.

Please post political post in the new Politics forum.
Post Reply
User avatar
Ysabel Kid
Moderator
Posts: 28430
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:10 pm
Location: South Carolina, USA
Contact:

This is really cool...

Post by Ysabel Kid »

... at least for me!

So, a little background. I've always been fascinated with my family history. Started in the 70's when "Roots" came out. My Dad was a student of our family history, and he drug us around that summer visiting old family gravesite where I did "grave rubbings" (putting a large sheet of paper over a grave stone and rubbing it with a crayon to get the relief - I still have some of them!). I loved that summer. He had gone back maybe 4 generations. Remember, this was well before the internet.

Fast forward to 2018 or 2019. My wife and kids asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I asked for the Ancestry.com DNA kit. They got me it, and it roughly confirmed what I already knew. Plus it gave me the basic membership, so I built out the family tree I knew of. You get "hints" for people on your tree, but 19 out of every 20 hints were behind their premium membership firewall.

Then, in 2020 when we were all stuck at home due to the pandemic, I asked for the premium membership. They got me it and the floodgates opened. Each night I try to go through one person's hints. I have traced some lines back 14 generations to the late 1400's!

So tonight I got a hint, a military record, for my 2nd great-grandfather, a veteran of the American Civil War, on the Union side (his father and brother fought for the Confederacy). Looking over the document, it says he "lost a personal horse and equipment" at the battle at "New Market, VA, May 15 1864.

So I looked it up and there is a good amount of information on the battle (won by the Confederates). And then this line caught my attention. It is the only battle in US History where a military school's cadets entered and fought in the battle.

Where have I seen that before? "The Horse Soliders" starring John Wayne and William Holden! I just rewatched this a few months ago!!!

And sure enough, that scene was indeed loosely based on the events at the battle of New Market.

Well, very cool to me! 8)
Image
User avatar
jeepnik
Advanced Levergunner
Posts: 7201
Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:39 pm
Location: On the Beach

Re: This is really cool...

Post by jeepnik »

My sister is our family historian. Turns out she used a DNA service and I am related to General Pickett of Pickett's Charge fame.
Jeepnik AKA "Old Eyes"
"Go low, go slow and preferably in the dark" The old Sarge (he was maybe 24.
"Freedom is never more that a generation from extinction" Ronald Reagan
"Every man should have at least one good rifle and know how to use it" Dad
User avatar
Ray
Advanced Levergunner
Posts: 3018
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:45 am

Re: This is really cool...

Post by Ray »

Deleted.
Last edited by Ray on Thu Jan 09, 2025 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
20January2025 !
User avatar
Scott Tschirhart
Advanced Levergunner
Posts: 4846
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:56 pm
Location: San Antonio, Texas

Re: This is really cool...

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

My two nephews took those DNA ancestry tests. Though they both came from the same father and mother their results were very different.

I’m fortunate in that all of my ancestors on both sides are buried in the same cemetery going back to when they came to Texas.
JBowen
Levergunner 3.0
Posts: 529
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2022 8:03 pm
Location: Arkansas

Re: This is really cool...

Post by JBowen »

YK, that is a neat find. I need to pay for the premium subscription and work on mine more. I have only been able to go 6 -7 Generations.

JBowen
User avatar
Ysabel Kid
Moderator
Posts: 28430
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:10 pm
Location: South Carolina, USA
Contact:

Re: This is really cool...

Post by Ysabel Kid »

I really enjoy exploring the hints. Ancestry is pretty good about sending you accurate hints (to the person you are reviewing), but you still need to play "detective" (which I really like) and evaluate the hints, make sure they cross-reference and make sense. Especially with someone with a more common name, or multiple generations with a continuing name (like me being a "Junior" and Y2K being a "III"). And of course the further you go back, the more sketchy the data.

Two interesting points on the DNA testing. Ancestry updates their database about every 6 months, so in theory, as more and more people take these tests, the results should get more and more refined. When I started I thought I was mostly Irish descended, but the DNA tests started showing Scottish ancestry. Sure enough, I found a bunch of lines into Scotland.

That leads to the second point. Unless you have an identical twin, you won't have the same "DNA lines" as a sibling with the same parents. It's like anything else, you may get more or one thing and less of another, may look more like your father while your sibling looks like your mother's side. So my mix will most likely be fairly close to my siblings, but they could have vastly more of "one line" than me and vastly less of another.

Makes it real interesting!
Image
Post Reply