Family tree

In our culture we have this concept, and while we are doing the seedlings and trees event, I am interested to know if any one have this in his culture, I know we are from many countries and back grounds, so I opened this for knowledge and fun, Family tree is a tree drawn on paper where the body represents how much deep you can dig to reach your roots, and there is the branches and the new branches that keep growing to produce more branches as many new members of the family get married and have children, when my grand fathers and uncles decided to start this they had to travel to our original country to find the elders who might help and recount the members of the family, with estimated births dates and deaths, they managed to dig deep for 400 years, and what help was that they find some records in the old church there which have a vault full of old records for marriages, baptisms, deaths and funerals, and births, and the search stopped at the point there was no older records, but the process is continuing up to date, and our tree have become big with more than 50 branches, while taking in consideration due to cultural reasons, they count the males, the females they appear at the tree but they do not start a new branch, considering they joined another family by marriage, so if you like this thread please go on and participate by telling if this concept is new, or known to your culture, and how much deep you can dig for your roots.

I have a colleague at work who have the longest family tree, that they could trace their roots for 1435 hijri years (lunar) which is about 673 A.D, his father rewrite it in gold letters and present it as a gift to our king since they share the same roots and it is on display in the royal court, and it had stamps from different mayors, judges, rulers, from modern days to the time of the ottoman empire and even before.

 

This is wonderful! Our family has kept track of the "tree" for some time and now my mother and my aunt are going back into history to find more ancestors. It's very fun and interesting every time they call and say that they have found another person for the family tree!!

 

There is also the "family tree" as an idea in Greece. But few families write in now. I remember when I was in primary school a teacher told us to make a family tree but I didn't get more far than my great-grand parents.

 

Yes the Family Tree is a well known concept in the UK abubadi. Unfortunately none of my close family have done one but it is something I may do in the future as I think it's very interesting!

 

Thank you very much labmommy30, Arielh, and fifitrixiebell, for participating, since this is familiar to you, does it have any differences than the one I wrote about like counting the ladies as branches when they get married and have children?

 

Oh, they can become quite complex! As a lady or a gentleman marry and then produce children and then those children marry and produce even more children, those branches sure could spread out quite far! We have even run into a few occasions where ( deep south family roots) the branches did not travel quite so far and in older times it was not seen as such a bad thing for cousins to marry. We have not found information going back so far as yours Abubadi, but one day with luck and hard work we just might get there!

 

I believe the family tree in the UK runs similarly to what you have written abubadi. My grandfather is in the middle of putting together one for our family although I don't know how far he's gone back yet; I do know that so far there has be no royalty, a deserter from the army, a business woman with a colourful income and a murderer. What I lovely family I have!

 

I have a family tree both on my mother's and father's side but both the relatives who used to do them have now sadly passed on. I am trying to fill in recent births but the 'furthest' branches are difficult. My father's tree goes back to the 1600's!

 

I think my mom was starting to work on a family tree before she passed away, but I never knew how far she got. She used to tell me stories when I was young about some of the more colorful family lineage. Supposedly I am related, thru my father, to a well-known family in the tire business. The story goes that two brothers came to America, the one decided to start this business and offered his brother a partnership in it, which the second brother turned down. Guess which branch my father's family came from?

 

That is a sensationally long family tree. Wow.
I have two cousins that have traced our common ancestry through New Zealand and back to the UK and Ireland.My great-great-grandad arrived here in 1884 and my cousins have logged 117 direct descendants from his first two wives, with the third wife having two daughters that still have to be traced.
Both cousins enjoy the challenges involved but it is very time consuming - like Farmerama!!

This is the way my cousins did it, a new 'branch' for each marriage that produces children.
Note; Ours was increasingly complex in that, twice, at different levels, a bother and sister, married a sister and brother , so two hookups, between two families...

 

Living in Australia, it's not uncommon for many families to be descended from convicts. Of course, Australia itself is a very multiracial nation and lots of families are relatively new to the country, only coming in the past few generations. But for those with more longstanding roots in the country, a common 'concern' is that one way or another the family came to Australia with the convicts. Although my family has roots in Australia back a fairly long way (a few generations before the 1850's gold rush), so far I don't think we've found any convicts - which is very good

 

What's a family history without at least one "undesirable" to color it up? My mom in law loves to tell how she has a second cousin, I think it was, who was a murderess.

 

Whaaow, I did not expect it to be that interesting, thank you all for what you added all of you, it is no shame if it happens that there is a murderer in the family, every one stands for his actions, and every apple tree through some bad apples every while, but I believe you are all good people, my family in our original country suffered a lot at the beginning of the 20th century, the country was under the occupation of the ottomans, and toward the end of their rule it was the worst times, my 6th grand father was a big land owner with big farms and have many sons, the Turks used to take the boys and send them to war in different countries, he used to pay gold to ransom his sons, but every year they would come back to ask more, they whipped him for hiding his sons, and one time out of pity they whipped his youngest boy who was thirteen years old until he could not sit down for a week, because he was very old that they though he might die under the whip, the Turks left to find them replaced by Britain after world war I, and when they left after world war II, we found ourselves under another occupation, so my grandfather and his brothers took their families and ran for their life's, and left every thing behind. they though for a week or 2 and it ends, but they found themselves refugees in camps, all the help they got was big trucks to depart them outside the country and living in tents, in no man's land, my father was 8 years old, my mother was in her mother's womb, the land was lost, our houses and properities, then our new country was established in 1947 as a state, then it turned to a kingdom a few years later, so my grand father's option was to join the army, then my father and elder uncle, and a new life started, the family grow big, now we have branches in many countries, in Australia, USA, Brazil, UK, Palestine and Jordan.

Over the years changes have to come, we have a lot of old habits that people are used to, but generally people start accepting the changes, for example:

- In marriage, the priority is for cousins, my father and mother are cousins, and my uncle married my mothers sister, but they decided not to allow that any more, now people tend to choose from outside the family.

- Marriages were arranged, so neither the boy or the girl have a choice, now a lot of people allow their children to choose.

- Man and women are not equal, in the eyes of the law, the religion, and the culture, now women proved them selves, they are fighting for their wrights, in education, jobs, voting, and things have changed, only there is 2 remaining issues, the inheritances and in the court of low were man testimony equals 2 women, and the same for the share of inheritances, these two issues are enforced by religion and I don't think that any body would dare to touch these issues.

 

abubadi66
this thread is indeed very interesting!
You asked me about differences but I don't know details about the family tree.
I like it when my parents or grand-parents tell me stories about the members of the family I never met, or I met them and now they have passed away.

 

I thought there might be differences, but it turned out there is none, and the concept is known to many, and that's ok, it was for knowledge and fun, people were interested because there was not much to do, but today, people like to spend more time on computers, phones and t.v, so social life is fading slowly, it is not big deal that you don't know much, a lot of people don't know, or don't care, you can start on your own tree, start with the things you know, and may be you can present it one day in the future to your children, the tree I mentioned about my colleague is unique, I was curious to know if somebody saw something like this, it happens that many kings and rulers in the middle east have trees that links them to a prophet, to gain more power, authority, and credibility in the eyes of his people, and it adds some holiness to their image, some claims are false, like Saddam Husain in Iraq, and some might be true, like the late king Husain of Jordan, and some who could not fabricate a family tree, instead they do something different, by linking their names to a holy place, like the late king Fahad of Saudi who added a title to his name, so instead of calling him your majesty, they call him the custodian of the two holy mosques, and his predecessors are following the same style, for me, all I hope is when I die, there is a place for my name, so some people may read it and wonder who is that person and what kind of a life he had.

 

This is a very interesting thread. I know some of my families history but only back a few generations and primarily only on my mother's side of the family. Both of my parents were from Oklahoma and were small children during the great depression and the dust bowl. Some of those stories are incredible. My fathers family went west, very "Grapes of Wrath" style but since he was so young he was left with another relative that lived in the city. He never forgave them for basically abandoning him and severed all ties. I do know there is Dutch and Native American heritage from that side of the family but not much more.

On my mother's side I had an ancestor that participated in the Oklahoma land rush. Primarily the background is Scottish, German and English on that side. I have a few heirlooms that were passed to me as my mother was the oldest daughter in her family and so was I. One I use often and that is a hand lathed rolling pin that was my great-great grandfathers. It's very cool to think of just how many pies and pastries that have been made with it through the years.

 

LDCrow - what a lovely heirloom to have. There is a programme here where people take things to be valued and then they are auctioned. People bring in small items which have been handed down through the generations, they say they are only kept in a drawer so they don't want them any more. They are valued at a few pounds, usually less then £100 and then sold. The seller is then asked what they are going to spend the money on. Usual answers are 'a nice meal out' or 'we are going on holiday next month and will use it as spending money'. WHAT? A hundred years or more of memories - I think they just want to be on the TV.

 

abubadi Thank you for starting this thread, quite interesting.

 

well my pedigree is a mix of welsh irish english and scottish ..... and being in Australia can you guess how my family got here ..... Yup a couple of convicts and a officer ..... and i'm not ashamed to say some of them were convicts even worse they were sent to van demons land now better known as Tasmania lol where the worst of the worst got sent lol.... one of them got deported for stealing half a loaf of bread to feed his ever growing family .... so i don't know if it came down to feeding my starving children or steal i know what one i would opt for The Irish side there used to be a castle that belonged to the family there are still some ruins there from it .... I would love to go there one day .... But oh i don't know I don't think i would be big on UK winters *giggles* i think we got the best end of the stick in the long run

 

But Igotfrogs we have lovely winters here - they match our summers!