Machelle's Blog

How far back in your family tree can you go?

Growing up, I really didn’t know much about my family outside of my immediate family. My immediate family included my mother, my father, my sister (Alyssa), my brother (Michael), and me.

Outside of my immediate family, I only knew a handful of aunts and uncles. Part of this was because my mother’s family separated a bit after her parents (my grandparents) passed away in 1977 in a fatal auto crash (when my mother was 3). When I got older, I found out that my grandparents (on my mother’s side) had a total of 11 children (my aunts and uncles).

This prompt started me on a bit of a journey – I started digging into my family tree using Ancestory.com and talking about it with my family. It has been really interesting. I have even been able to locate newspapers with information about my grandparents’ accident. I did know a couple of my aunts growing up but they very rarely talked about family. I still have a long ways to go but I did get a family tree started in Ancestory.com and the oldest relative I have found on my mother’s side is my great-great-great-great grandfather.

On my father’s side, my oldest known relative is my great-grandmother (my grandfather’s mother). I hope to start digging more into this on my family tree soon!