Sir John Campbel 1635-1717

[hardsocks]

I am researching my Campbell famiiy tree and was sent a photograph of Sir John Campbell and he looks just my brother. I thought it was him now do I trace my history to see if there is any connection to him?

[Forfarian]

First of all, there cannot be any such thing as a photograph of Sir John Campbell if he died in 1717, because photography was not invented until well over 100 years later. Maybe what you have is a photograph of a portrait painted during his lifetime.

If you want to find out whether of nor you are related, the traditional way is to work backwards from yourself and your parents, starting with what you know and finding from documentary sources who your grandparents were, and then your great-grandparents, and so on.

Without knowing where you are and what you already know about your own immediate family it's not possible to advise you what your next step is, other than to tell you that the best place to find information about your Scottish ancestors is www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk, and to warn you never to believe anything you find online unless it's an image of an original document. In particular, do not trust any family trees you find on Ancestry, FindMyPast, GenesReunited, Geni, Geneanet or any other commercial web site. See https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=714261.0 for more on this.

In this day and age, and with a name as common as Campbell, you might also like to look into taking a DNA test and see if it comes up with any likely links to others who may also be descended from Sir John.  See https://www.rootschat.com/forum/ancestral-family-tree-dna-testing/ for advice on this.