Do you care about your family tree/ancestors?

[Tempguy]

I do. I wanna know if one of them was a duke. If not, I will be the first.


All jokes aside, I want to create a family crest and it would be nice if I actually had one from way back. If not, I'll start and hopefully begin a tradition of cool ancestors you can look back on.

I was involved in Iraq/Afghanistan so that's sort of a start. Hopefully my son will invent something or whatever.

[Sierra85]

If you don't care, and live long enough eventually you will.

seems to be human nature once you reach a certain age, you start to give a shit abt your lineage and forefathers.

[Aggrophobic]

Not really, no.

[frogger237]

Id kinda like to know more. I wonder how much a Genealogist costs.

[Deleted]

Actually it does. Maybe all your ancestors died at age 40 of heart disease.

If that was the case, I wouldn't want to know.

At some point, I had a test taken and the doctor asked me if they should check for indicators for problems that seem to run in my family. Like a higher risk of cancer etc. Didn't take me 5 seconds to decline and nope out. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

[Revi]

Yeah, I think it's interesting to know where I come from and what they did. I think it puts history and feats into perspective as well, from something very distant and unrelatable to something more human and familiar.

If that was the case, I wouldn't want to know.

At some point, I had a test taken and the doctor asked me if they should check for indicators for problems that seem to run in my family. Like a higher risk of cancer etc. Didn't take me 5 seconds to decline and nope out. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

But with most things they discover in those tests, knowing about it you can take steps to avoid it. It's a shame to die to something avoidable just because you didn't want to know about it.

[GrinningMan]

It's a curiosity, but I haven't ponied up the cash for the help in doing the research.

I imagine if people cared more about their family and such, the world wouldn't be in the position it is.

[Kaleredar]

Ancestors?

I guess they aren't really ancestors, but I do have family that were members of the Norwegian resistance against the Nazis in WW2 (two were caught and sent to concentration camps, one of them died there) on my mother's side while family members on my father's side, despite being poor coal miners at the time, played host to a dinner party attended by Abraham Lincoln.

Fun little snippets of history.

[Deleted]

But with most things they discover in those tests, knowing about it you can take steps to avoid it. It's a shame to die to something avoidable just because you didn't want to know about it.

Maybe. Maybe not. It's very hard to avoid certain types of cancer, for example - even if you know about the higher risk. And it will only cause you to have it in the back of your head constantly and worry about it.

If someone wants that bit of information, sure. I don't.

[Faenskap]

I wanted to find out more for a time, but it's really difficult. Not terribly exciting either, they seemed all to be working class/farmers leading I guess pretty insignificant lives (I'm proudly carrying on the tradition!). This I know

Great grandfather made some family in South America somewhere (was a sailor) (mother's paternal granddad). Married a German woman and died in Germany

My maternal grandmother was born out of wedlock. Her father was already married. Her mom died when she was 10, she went to an orphanage. Checking her maiden name (without finding her mother) it seemed they had many in the family dying early

Grandfather was a part of the Norwegian resistance duing WWII and was in Sachsenhausen for 2 years.

My great grandparents on father's side had 15 children. Wtf

All my great grandparents died long before I was born

But yeh, not terribly interesting and what they did or didn't do will have no bearing on who I am as a person

[Vizardlorde]

Nope, the old farts had too much time on their hands and they pooped out 10+ kids every generation til recently, it would be a pain to track them down all over 3+ countries.

[Rotted]

Can smell a bit of bs on this thread

Anyways, it's not overly important to me, but I'd say its deftinetly interesting, I've been meaning to start researching into the past more to check it out, as well as sending a blood sample away to trace my ancestors origins etc.

[Mihalik]

I don't really care.

I have a pretty complex family history, but one I was never much interested in beyond that of my grandparents.

On my father side, my great grandfather was Hungarian landholder, my great grandmother was Saxon (from Saxony). My grandfather was an unrepentant Nazi. He volunteered into the Germany military at the onset of the war, even tho he was Hungarian. My grandmother was Austrian from Burgenland. After WW2, my grandfather was largely unemployable in communist Hungary due to his bourgeois and Nazi background. He fought again in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. When the Soviets invaded he left the country first for Austria and later for Belgium and later for the US. Where nobody gave a shit about his Nazi background. (He died being a racist, anti-semitic loon).

On my mother's side, my grandfather was Greek and my grandmother was Turkish Jewish.

[Dezerte]

I'm a distant relative of pretty much every historically important person there ever was. No, I don't care much for it.

[primalmatter]

Of course.

They are the root of everything I am. I would go as far as to say those that don't are lost.

[derpkitteh]

it's something that'd be cool to know, but i wouldn't base my life on it.

[Deleted]

No, I'm not a dog competing at Crufts so it really has no impact on my life.

[Acidbaron]

As in you inherit such things?

We often see this as true because we pick things out we like, i know in my family there's a long line of people smart on the technical side of things, creative thinkers in that regard. What is true for me when i look at my brother i see a person who basically needed help hanging up a cupboard in his twenties. So i find most of it bogus.

I don't believe you get that from your ancestors, i believe it is more of a thing that because they can it inspires you to follow in their footsteps, you believe in it and therefor you put energy and time into it as you are confident that you can succeed. While it's actually yourself not your bloodline that is making it happen.

What seems more logical but does take out all the magic out of it.

[Mihalik]

Of course.

They are the root of everything I am. I would go as far as to say those that don't are lost.

You didn't inherit squat from your great-great grandfather.

The idea that who he was would somehow matter squat when it comes to who you are is hilariously dumb.

[primalmatter]

You didn't inherit squat from your great-great grandfather.

The idea that who he was would somehow matter squat when it comes to who you are is hilariously dumb.

Believe what you want. I know I won't be able to convince you otherwise. I draw strength on the memories of what my ancestors accomplished and have tried to match and succeed them where possible.