My tree back to 1100's - I don't believe it.

[groom]

I think that some of the problem is the Ancestry advert which gives the impression that all you have to do is type in a name and your tree is miraculously taken back hundreds of years. New comers to genealogy don't realise that not all trees are well researched and they take hints as the truth, so accept without checking.

On another site there was someone claiming to have got back to the 1400s within days of starting their tree, but when questioned admitted they had a 200 year gap in the middle. 

[brigidmac]

My tree and my mothers are running into the thousands I am not a name grabber or seeking to go back to the middle ages

But I do expand my tree sideways I include all siblings and spouses in each generation .in laws and adopted and birth families

From experience I find that children,& adults  can be found on censuses with relatives not necessarily immediate ones

Also im interested in dna links how they work etc so sometimes fill in decendants of second and third cousins removed

It has proved helpful to adoptees and descendants of adoptees

Tho I may delete some of these branches so the tree remains manageable

Its a hobby we all do in different ways
I find it frustrating when people only follow father line or don't include siblings but its personal choice

[jettejjane]

Great comments Groom and Brigid. Agree with you both.

I started out just doing my paternal make line because it was easier, however I saw the error of my ways and researched the females, much harder, lol. And like you Bridgid I now go down many paths 

[brigidmac]

Ha haha jane we all change methods .I initially only sethad out to find my grandma s birth parents and if there were any half cousins for my mother didnt know it would be such an epic journey
Btw when was ypur ancestor  mayor .he looks almost regal

[iluleah]

My research started several decades ago was just to find out my grandmas name when my dad died as he always said he didn't know his mums name as she died when he was 4 yrs old... I know now ( but not then) all I had to do was look on his birth cert....

I like to research and PROVE my lines and like many I extend to siblings, their spouse and sometimes also research into their family especially when I have found really interesting people or interesting jobs or lives as I also like social history and soon found I learned about the connections of people in villages and families...as 'my lot' tended to be neither rich or rogues so less records, they have also enabled me to learn about new records I may never have had the opportunity to look at, like prison records etc...so 'my tree' is really 'my research' as it is not and never will be online anywhere no one can copy and paste it.

There is a natural end to every person or line as records get harder to 'connect' as the further back you get, for me it then becomes best guess or option and I clearly show that in my research and for some the line research stops as early as 1800 simply because I can't PROVE the right connection to the next generation as the records don't show proof ( for me) to go further  yet that line ( Ketts of Norfolk) goes back to historical events like Ketts Rebellion and hangings in Norfolk re: 'Ben' Kett in the 1500s and back to Toka the Francigine c960 who was the grandfather of Harold Godwineson (King Harold II of England) BUT it was interesting to 'research' it and is only for my eyes

[coombs]

Obvs rolls in the hay with the milkman, or a female ancestor earning a bit of extra money on the streets to make ends meet were never documented, we just have to be as sure as we can ever be that what we have researched is correct. I think autosomal DNA gets less reliable after 6 generations, I have not done any DNA tests so am a bit of a novice with DNA and the cm markers and such.

If you do find royalty, you will be related to a certain Mr Dyer who is now a game show host as well as playing a character who runs a boozer in Walford.

[jamie300]

Danny Dyer is my 29th cousin thrice removed   

DNA is irrelevant in such cases - but it's interesting to think that even allowing for adultery you could get 30 people in a room who'd all know each other intimately, including you and William the Conqueror. This could apply to most people in the UK and I see my tree as just an indication of who those 30 people might be for me.

[jettejjane]

Danny Dyer is my 29th cousin thrice removed   

DNA is irrelevant in such cases - but it's interesting to think that even allowing for adultery you could get 30 people in a room who'd all know each other intimately, including you and William the Conqueror. This could apply to most people in the UK and I see my tree as just an indication of who those 30 people might be for me.

I love it. People do say if you go back far enough we are all related. 

Like Iluleah I record the could be’s where my lines stop but only for my eyes. I often revisit these names to see if there is anything I missed. Under my gt x 4 I have 4 sets of possible parents all sound right to me.  In researching the tree in question I have learnt a lot and it has been fun examine all the names. Maybe one day I will find proof of a connection. Who knows and who cares apart from me

[chris_49]

29th cousin? I don't have anyone further away than 6th cousin and those are from the Skelceys, which is a very rare name. In all other lines I don't go further than 5th cousin. Reason is, I don't fully trust anything before registrations and censuses - too little evidence, and as the OP posts, you often have a choice. With Davies, Morris, Lloyd in my tree, there are a lot of options.

Finding a gateway ancestor so soon is, dare I say it, lucky. I've not found one in decades of searching and have given up. I put my direct ancestors(only) into a Geni tree (a site I distrust anyway) and got zilch in the way of matches. Not even the fantasists link to me.

Chris