It is a tedious task for those who have not had family members who came before you to track & record your family history, but it is well worth it. The discovery of who came before you in your bloodline will help you understand what is in your blood now & why you are, partly, who you are. And, for many, they discover someone in their bloodline they identify with on a greater level.

You are in no better position, this day in age, with the internet and all the material & information out there, to discover your most recent beginnings. Obviously the further back you go the more difficult it can be. If you can find information on family crests, family colors, ties to historic events, etc, then you will open yourself to a new way of thinking about your familial ties.

Very interesting that you bring this up now...i am about 90 Scottish (remainder Irish/English) and have just started investigating my name, which was one of the foundig families in Scotland. What i've discovered already is that they were historically famed as writers and poets, with a touch of religious figures here and there. I will very likely have the opportunity to study my m.f.a. for a month in Scotland in a year, and with my Celtic dragon immediately connecting thiese past couple weeks, i am eager more than ever to track down my heritage.

Good stuff Magnolia.

- Endy

Thanks for brining this up, as it is very useful information to aquire.

I started tracing my Family Tree on Ancestry.com back in 199? and with the help also of family Bibles and relatives. In some cases, relatives I have never met except online. Second and Third cousins and the like. To date I have 2039 names going back to 1550 mostly in England, Scotland and Ireland with a beginning of Denmark. Also some American Indians, Creek and Cherokee.

I also have a fairly thick self printed book that a first cousin did back in the 1980's (I think it) that goes back into France and some others. All the way back to Queens of England and France, and all the was back to Charlemagne. I really need to dig that out and see about connecting it with the one I am working on.

I haven't done much on it the past few years but have been meaning to get back to it. It can be really fascinating and enlightening.

i am lucky enough to have an uncle who is obessed with family history.so i got a copy of our family tree a long while back and have been adding to it ever since.

researching your family history when possible is awesome,you get to learn so many neat things and i have some ancester's i would seriously love to chat with.

my lineage is super small...my father has updated our family tree somewhat.
But, it is sad, as there is no Crest for my Paternal last name anywhere!
As my last name is a spin-off of a more common one, which is not all too common. :facepalm::

I have adoptions on both sides of my family so it's really hard to go back very far. The great-grandfather that gave me my family name was actually adopted and took his adopted parents name so I have no idea what my real family name is

Its kinda sad that my parents dont care but i might be able to squiz some information from my granpa tho but i am greek for sure lol just diferent parts

This is some of the info i discovered on my surname...



This Spanish surname of MENDONCA was from the medieval given name MENENDO from the Visigothic personal name Hermenegild, composed of the elements ERMEN (whole, entire) and GILD (tribute). The personal name was borne by a 6th century member of the Visigothic royal house, who was converted from Arianism to the Catholic faith, and became an enormously popular saint, as a result of which the given name was very common in Spain in the Middle Ages. In the 8th century, Spain fell under the control of the Moors, and this influence, which lasted into the 12th century, has also left its mark on Hispanic surnames. A few names are based directly on Arabic personal names. The majority of Spanish occupational and nickname surnames, however, are based on ordinary Spanish occupational and nickname surnames. The name has variant spellings which include MELEMDEZ, MENDEZ and MENDUS. Pelayo Y Menendez Y Pelayo (1856-1912) was the Spanish critic and poet, He is regarded as the founder of modern Spanish literary history. He was professor at Madrid (1878-98) and director of the Biblioteca National from 1898. His writings all exemplifing his traditionalism and Catholicism include 'The History of Aesthetic Ideas in Spain' (1844-91). Another notable member of the name was Ramon Pidal Menendez (1869-1968) the Spanish philologist and critic, born in Coruna. A pupil of Menendez Y Pelayo, he became professor at the University of Madrid in 1899, and founded the Madrid Centre of Historial Studies, and carried on the tradition of exact scholarship. His 'La Espana del Cid' (1219) is the finest Spanish modern historical study. He published works on Spanish ballads and chronicles and important historial grammars of Spanish. It has long been a matter of doubt when the bearing of coats of arms first became hereditary and it was not until the Crusades that Heraldry came into general use. Men went into battle heavily armed and were difficult to recognise. It became the custom for them to adorn their helmets with distinctive crests, and to paint their shields with animals and the like. Coats of arms accompanied the development of surnames, becoming hereditary in the same way. The lion depicted in the arms is the noblest of all wild beasts which is made to be the emblem of strength and valour, and is on that account the most frequently borne in Coat-Armour.



Being of Portuguese origin i was not too impressed to learn that it was Spanish...

...Oh well...! :facepalm:: I will just wait now for my "Anything in your Blood" reading from CH for better news, :lol:

I feel a sense of loss when I think on my own genealogy -- all records were destroyed during the Chinese Communist Revolution. Going even further back, my paternal side supposedly had ties to Chinese royalty -- no direct emperors -- but royal officials (i.e. scribes, advisers).

What I do know only extends to my grandparents on both sides but what I do know is quite tragic. My maternal grandfather was from a small fishing village near the Yangtze River and he reinvented himself as a rich businessman in Taiwan. During the Communist takeover, angry villagers threw my grandfather's mother -- my maternal great grandmother -- into a locked church (calling grandpa a traitor) and she froze/starved to death

On my paternal side - my father is the oldest of five children but there were four others before him, two of which were twins.. but all four before him died in infancy of malnutrition during the Japanese occupation of China. My paternal grandfather was an airforce pilot and worked with the U.S. to fight the Japanese. He unfortunately died well before my birth but he has been a presence in my life, due to my father's prolonged absences. It's been difficult to make out his words -- all I hear is Chinese and I can barely understand/speak my native language... (pretty retarded, if you ask me) :facepalm::

In any event, genealogy is fascinating and I just recently purchased a binding to pull through some of my ancestors! I'm very very excited, as all the history of my family has been buried and lost (if you haven't figured it out, I'm Chinese American). My maternal grandmother, prior to her passing, traveled extensively in her late years to recover our family history but found nothing.

As a sidenote: my boyfriend is like 80% Scottish and he carries a Scottish surname. His mother was an illegitimate child and the whereabouts of her real father were never disclosed; his father was adopted! We have a wooden family crest hanging in our home... I'd love to check out Scotland and trace his clan ancestry.