Thread:Noah Ricepudding/@comment-32823535-20200130204901/@comment-32823535-20200131171603

ancestry.com is the most popular. The family has been doing genealogy for generations. The tradition is that we go back to Lady Godiva, King John (through an illegitimate child), and even Charlemagne, although it wouldn't surprise me if most of Europeans are related to him. But I've never actually seen the links, but I have seen A LOT of other people who have some pretty strange things in their trees, where they make a link without any common sense, like women having children too young or too old, or even after their death. I saw one person with a woman in his tree, and he had a death date for her, but also had a link to a census record supposedly for her AFTER her death. The problem is that ancestry will give you all these hints, and most of them are NOT matches. So I don't know how accurate the genealogy is that links me to those people. It may just be wishful thinking.

But I love doing genealogy, especially in England. Norfolk is wonderful, because most of the church records have been microfilmed, and are available to view online.

Do you know about Welsh last names? They did the "patronym" thing. Your last name is your father's first name. Gets very confusing. The Norse countries also did that, and you still see the remnants. Peterson, Johnson, Oleson. I haven't worked enough in those countries to know when they stopped that way of naming. One of the great things about genealogy, I find, is it makes history much more relevant. My aunt's sister died in the Spanish flu epidemic. Some of my family was still in Russia when the revolution started. I have 3 family members that all died during the American Civil War, but it looks like they were not in the army. Do you know why/when the Church of England started keeping records? There is one parish in Norfolk, where the first page says that they are now keeping records, because Queen Elizabeth (I) said they have to.

If you have any ancestors in Norfolk, watch out, I'll try to make you give me names and dates so I can research them!