Finding history a fascinating subject, a longing to find my roots began in my teens when listening to the fascinating and mysterious stories told by my elders of my ancestors who hailed from various parts of Europe - Scotland, England, Germany, Netherlands; and that is only going back three generations, so it could be even more of a mixed bag!
My husband's ancestors go back to the same period and came from Wales, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands; so my children have ancestors scattered in other parts of Europe, with Mom and Dad both South Africans.
It is no wonder that back in the day, most white South Africans were called Europeans, whereas the Dutch descendants were called Boers, as they were mostly farmers. I am proudly South African, but still very curious about my ancestry.
Something interesting I read was that most people with European ancestors likely are all related if one goes back just a thousand years, and have a blood connection to Charlemagne as well!
Genealogy
I'm sure when you saw my Family Tree you guessed what hobby I would love to pursue one day when I have time. This was supposed to happen after retirement, but of course, fate had something else in store!
I could pursue this hobby even more if I had loads of money for DNA testing as well as traveling to all the towns or cities where my ancestors lived many moons ago!
I think we all would love to find out more about our family tree and see how far back we could go.
When I was in my late teens, I started a search. I think you can guess my age by now, as there was no Google back then; only the library, birth, death, and marriage certificates, the latter almost impossible to obtain even today.
I peppered my grandparents, aunts, and uncles, as well as my parents, with questions, and meticulously wrote down what they knew and could remember being told by their elders.
It was a big black book and I'd even started building a family tree. I had many names written down; who they were, where they lived, what they did as an occupation, and many birth as well as death dates; some approximate of course, but still valuable information.
Family Secrets
Many of us would find a family secret if we dug deep enough, and my digging led to my mother telling me that she discovered in her teens that my Oupa was not her biological father! Her lifelong dream was to meet this man just once; not that she had any desire to become part of his family, but just to know what he looked like and be acknowledged. This dream was never realized.
When we moved home, my black book went missing; I frantically searched in all the boxes as we were unpacking, but my precious notebook was gone forever!
So, I started asking questions again, but the older folk's memories started fading, although I remembered some of the stories.
My Scottish great-grandfather married a lady of Dutch origin in the 19th century, and all I know of him is a story that was passed down generations. Apparently, he could not speak Afrikaans when he met my great-grandmother and neither could she speak English; I imagine his English would have been a charming Scottish accent. Other than that, I don't know anything else and there's no one alive who can tell me their names and the reasons why he traveled such a long way across the sea to live in South Africa; neither did I know which town or city he came from, nor what his occupation was!
What I do know, is that one of them must have had exceptional musical talent, as that was passed down to my Dad and his brothers. Perhaps they were both musical, as music is a universal language.
My Oupa's ancestors were part of the French Huguenots who came to South Africa in the seventeenth century and settled in what was then known as the Cape of Good Hope.
Some of my Ouma's ancestors came from England with the 1820 Settlers and settled in the Eastern Cape
Hubby's grandfather was of German descent, but his parents emigrated to Texas and during the First World War, he was sent to South Africa to bring horses to the country. It was here that he met the love of his life, a Danish lady. We do not know anything about her, as she died during childbirth when my mother-in-law was only five.
He never remarried and lived alone on a farm in the Eastern Cape.
If I had more facts, I could likely write a series of posts about my ancestors
DNA testing
This is one thing I'd love to go for and which would help greatly in my search for a more complete family tree.
My nephew who had a very special bond with Mom Lily, had an autosomal DNA test done when he heard about her dream. This test can determine a person's ethnicity and also find a match to living relatives from the past five generations.
He sent me his results and I recognized one maiden name from my Ouma's ancestry, so I made contact with her. This delightful young woman and I shared what we had found with regards to that side of the family, and she in turn enquired about Mom's biological father, as she still lived in that area.
She received a photo of the lady who was Mom's biological half-sister, but none of him.
Mom just shrugged her shoulders and told me not to dig anymore.
I believe people from that era tended to sweep things under the carpet and pretend everything is hunky-dory, while in reality, it is something that will always sit at the back of their minds!
Hopefully, I will one day find more time to pursue this hobby as there now are many online sites that will help me find my roots.
The strange thought always crosses my mind - if it were not for my ancestors, I may never have existed!
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It's a very interesting hobby, Lizzie. I too many times have been interested in knowing about my ancestors.
And on my father's side, I have some information because one of my uncles for a long time was researching and collecting old letters that my grandfather kept. His origins were Spanish. On the other hand, I don't know much about my mother's family tree on her father's side. I only know that my great-grandfather came from Germany during the first world war, but we don't know much more since my mother lost her father when she was fifteen years old, and she was never very close to my grandfather's family. Maybe with those DNA tests, you mention we could find some relatives in Germany. It would be cool to have the money to do so.
It is a fascinating subject and I hope that at some point you will be able to devote some time to it.
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Muchas gracias por el apoyo, feliz semana! :)
It's so fascinating to delve into one's ancestry not so! You need to speak to your uncle and ask him to share his findings with you before it's lost. Sadly some people don't respect the history of their ancestors & when they die, valuable old photos and documents are simply discarded, so sad!
So you also have European roots, it would be so interesting finding out what your uncle discovered. I only have 1 aunt & uncle left & need to ask them to write down what they know of the older generation; they both love writing so I'm sure it will be something they'll enjoy doing!
Thank you for commenting Eli🤗
My uncle has made a little diary with everything he has found and my cousin knows where he has it.
I don't like people throwing away old photos, I have a box full of photos that were my grandmother's. I have photos of her as a baby and with her sisters. The pictures are a treasure.
Most of the people here have Spanish roots, but there are also a lot of Italian and Portuguese descendants. By the way, I'm sure you know this page, but in case you don't. Here you can find birth and marriage certificates https://www.familysearch.org/en/
Thanks Eli, that is one of the sites I've been looking at as well. It's quite amazing when one starts searching!
Sadly some people don't have such respect for all the old photos. My uncle had quite a collection as well and put them in a beautiful album.
Have a great Tuesday🤗
Yes, when you start it becomes an addiction, hehe. My husband started using that site to search for old family documents of my mother-in-law.
I hope you had a good Tuesday. And have a lovely night 🤗
I think there was a lot of worry about reputation back then as well. Also just getting on with things due to war etc .. just buckle up and move on. When I was in the UK I researched my family tree which kept me occupied in lockdown. Don't think ive got time to write about it and it's so convoluted with so many people.
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I agree that's what it was all about, keeping up pretenses and struggling to get back to normality.
I really find it a fascinating subject. When my nephew had the DNA test done, it brought up results showing which people are a closer match and the lady I contacted was my mother's cousin's granddaughter, quite a mouthful!
I'm sure if my Mom had gone for the dna test, she could possibly have found her other family if anyone in that lineage had gone for it as well.
That's history now.
Have a great week @riverflows 🤗
You know we bought two DNA tests which sat on the shelf for two years, then we threw them out. We just worried too much about our DNA being used for nefarious purposes... But I'm sure we were just being paranoid!
Wow so many interesting facts about your family history. Don't you wish you could travel back in time and meet the folks that led to you?
I don't know much about my mother's side at all. I don't think I could even find out so it must remain a mystery.😌
I would love to be able to time travel & teleport as well, can you just imagine. There are so many questions that my Mom did not even know to answer when she was still alive!
I'm such a nosey parker that I'd want to pop into many times and places and drive them nutty with my questions :) I'd certainly come and visit you Carolyn and enjoy some of your delicious foods :)
Very interesting my friend, Celeste has gone into our family tree. My moms side is from French Hugenout, German and Netherlands. My Fathers side, is Welsh, Scottish and Netherlands. Hubbies side is mostly Netherlands. Family tree is something I would like to go into as well, very interesting subject.
Thanks for sharing.
There's so much family history lost and I think it's up to our generation to make notes of what we know, better still write about it here on Hive and share old photos so that future generations can see it one day!
I'm sure we have a connection somewhere.
Interesting story Lizelle. Eden and Lee's dad is more interested in the family tree. While I have never really shown an interest, I have found some old letters from my late mother and one day I might just pick up some gems of information - who knows
I find your post fascinating! I have been in charge of my family history for years! I used to walk through old graveyards and go to churches for the baptismal records. The births were recorded in the country and not all are updated digitally (yet!)
Stories from yesteryear were secreted away, making it hard to unearth history!
I have to wonder though, Lizzie. With so many younger people not choosing to marry and having kids anyway, what kind of family history will we have in 50 years? :(
Thank you for sharing your story! This was awesome!