Quick Questions #1: Ancestry

[tamaranth]

Inspired by a reference in Route 66 AD to Egyptian priests at the time of the Roman Empire, who claimed to trace their ancestry back 10,000 years:

How far back (in years) can you track your family?

Can you think of anyone who can track their family back before the Norman Conquest?

Comments

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

I can trace (or rather people in my family have traced and told me about it) my family back 400 years on my dad's side (I'm eligible for Daughters of the Mayflower in the US) and about 300 years on my mother's side - only particular branches of the family, though. My dad's side of the family is also supposed to be some long lost descendant line from the Welsh King Whats-it that lived in the castle in Cardiff, but I don't know which king exactly (and I've never actually seen the traced line).

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I'm vaguely related maternally to some of the bunch that went across from Westward Ho. Not that I know much more than that. But I did have some relatives in Charleston during the civil war who'd been there for a long time - the Edmondston-Alston house is some sort of historical monument now. Also on the maternal side the Shetland branch of the family can be traced back to something like 1590-odd, but with any real accuracy from about 1700.

My father's paternal side goes back a long way in Alsace, but I've never tracked it down myself.

[jhaelan.livejournal.com]

Daughters of the Mayflower?

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

A society for women who can claim ancestry from a passenger on the Mayflower. Rather irritatingly, I can't find a website, but it's kind of like Daughters of the American Revolution (http://www.dar.org/default.cfm) - part charity, part society.

[jhaelan.livejournal.com]

Rather cool and slightly vicarage tea :)