Spend 5 minutes with Anne Gillespie Mitchell aka Ancestry Anne as she walks you through 6 genealogy myths and why they aren’t true. 1. Native American Ancest… Video Rating: 4 / 5
Was your great-great-grandmother an Indian princess? Or did your family’s
last name change at Ellis Island? Ancestry’s Anne Gillespie Mitchell
debunks 5 of the most common genealogy myths: http://ancstry.me/1nPm74L?
gundamnook
What is the link to the Indian information? The link in the video is dead
and doesn’t go anywhere.?
AncestryCom
Canine esque
I find the Ask Anne debunking of Native American ancestry pretty
condescending. No one in my family said their Native American ancestors
were royalty, but in my family tree a 3rd great maternal grandmother was
Native American (and according to a paternal grandfather, so was his great
grandmother). I have DNA matches with people who share that family tree
ancestor. But Native American ancestry is not reflected in my DNA. So
maybe I didn’t get that DNA. But Ancestry should also make clear that this
is a pretty new and probably incomplete source of information. For
example, does their data reflect recently found (24,000 y.o.) remains with
Western European DNA in Siberia, which indicates that some Native Americans
may have had Western European DNA? I have questions, and they don’t relate
to thinking my ancestors were royalty. I don’t care about that; they could
have been slaves or convicts; I just want to find out who they were.?
Cyndi Norwitz
Very nicely done.
I would say though that the family tree myth is that they are all accurate.
I know so many people who think they’ve hit the jackpot and will simply
add them to their own trees. The truth is just as the video says, that
they can help you break down brick walls. I use the additional info (like
a maiden name or married name) to help me in my searches. But I still
independently verify everything. And at least once I’ve found my ancestor
in someone else’s tree but it turned out their ancestor was someone else
with the same name (which I shared of course).
The Ellis Island name change myth is number one that I hear among fellow
Jews. There were a few in my family too, which I have debunked.
Some others I’ve seen:
“All European Jewish records were destroyed in the Holocaust.” Not even
close to true. The Nazis destroyed many current records at the end of the
war (and cemeteries throughout) but otherwise were completely uptight about
saving and creating records. Even the Torah scrolls they stole from
synagogues were cataloged.
“I’m descended from such and such famous Rabbi.” This is the Jewish
equivalent of being descended from a Cherokee princess.
“We were lucky; none of our family perished in the Holocaust.”
Unfortunately, once you start researching extended family before the
1930’s, you’ll often find that, most Jews in Central and Eastern Europe who
did not immigrate far enough away did not survive (and virtually none
survived with their families intact). For many of us, this includes some
fairly close cousins.
“My ancestors spoke Hebrew for their everyday language.” “My ancestors
spoke Yiddish for their everyday language.” US Census forms and other
documents often recorded the mother tongues of Jewish immigrants as
“Hebrew” or even “Jewish.” Very often it was “Yiddish.” Hebrew was only
used for religious purposes. Until the creation of Israel, it was not used
regularly. Yiddish of course was very common. But a lot of immigrants
didn’t speak it in their home countries. My grandmother, for example,
reports that when her parents immigrated from what is now Belarus, they
only spoke Russian but had to learn Yiddish to get along.?
Was your great-great-grandmother an Indian princess? Or did your family’s
last name change at Ellis Island? Ancestry’s Anne Gillespie Mitchell
debunks 5 of the most common genealogy myths: http://ancstry.me/1nPm74L?
What is the link to the Indian information? The link in the video is dead
and doesn’t go anywhere.?
I find the Ask Anne debunking of Native American ancestry pretty
condescending. No one in my family said their Native American ancestors
were royalty, but in my family tree a 3rd great maternal grandmother was
Native American (and according to a paternal grandfather, so was his great
grandmother). I have DNA matches with people who share that family tree
ancestor. But Native American ancestry is not reflected in my DNA. So
maybe I didn’t get that DNA. But Ancestry should also make clear that this
is a pretty new and probably incomplete source of information. For
example, does their data reflect recently found (24,000 y.o.) remains with
Western European DNA in Siberia, which indicates that some Native Americans
may have had Western European DNA? I have questions, and they don’t relate
to thinking my ancestors were royalty. I don’t care about that; they could
have been slaves or convicts; I just want to find out who they were.?
Very nicely done.
I would say though that the family tree myth is that they are all accurate.
I know so many people who think they’ve hit the jackpot and will simply
add them to their own trees. The truth is just as the video says, that
they can help you break down brick walls. I use the additional info (like
a maiden name or married name) to help me in my searches. But I still
independently verify everything. And at least once I’ve found my ancestor
in someone else’s tree but it turned out their ancestor was someone else
with the same name (which I shared of course).
The Ellis Island name change myth is number one that I hear among fellow
Jews. There were a few in my family too, which I have debunked.
Some others I’ve seen:
“All European Jewish records were destroyed in the Holocaust.” Not even
close to true. The Nazis destroyed many current records at the end of the
war (and cemeteries throughout) but otherwise were completely uptight about
saving and creating records. Even the Torah scrolls they stole from
synagogues were cataloged.
“I’m descended from such and such famous Rabbi.” This is the Jewish
equivalent of being descended from a Cherokee princess.
“We were lucky; none of our family perished in the Holocaust.”
Unfortunately, once you start researching extended family before the
1930’s, you’ll often find that, most Jews in Central and Eastern Europe who
did not immigrate far enough away did not survive (and virtually none
survived with their families intact). For many of us, this includes some
fairly close cousins.
“My ancestors spoke Hebrew for their everyday language.” “My ancestors
spoke Yiddish for their everyday language.” US Census forms and other
documents often recorded the mother tongues of Jewish immigrants as
“Hebrew” or even “Jewish.” Very often it was “Yiddish.” Hebrew was only
used for religious purposes. Until the creation of Israel, it was not used
regularly. Yiddish of course was very common. But a lot of immigrants
didn’t speak it in their home countries. My grandmother, for example,
reports that when her parents immigrated from what is now Belarus, they
only spoke Russian but had to learn Yiddish to get along.?