I recently bought my grandfather an AncestryDNA kit. He believes that he shares a common ancestor or perhaps is a descendent from the 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant. He shares the surname and has been told by his relatives that are long dead that there is a connection on his fathers side to the president(The man pictured below). On his mothers side he believes that he is directly related to President Kennedys right hand man.
I may also be related to Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair on my fathers side, who was a high king in Ireland during the 12th century.
My research has taken me as far back as 1847 so far. I have identified an Owen Grant of Carnaney who died in 1847, It looks like his son James Grant moved to New York and had put on quite the extravagant funeral for his father, costing 3 pounds 1 shilling and 5 pence, about £2000 in todays money(can be seen in the church record below). The real question is who are the two people named murphy buried in Owen Grant's grave over 100 years later with no explanation?
Either the year on the headstone or the date in the church books is incorrect, these kind of errors are not uncommon, especially dating back such a long time.
My grandfather was also able to show me the grave of his grandfather, he never knew the man but was interested to find out more. After doing some digging I found his baptism record from way back in 1874, as a result of this I found his father and mothers names. I know the name of my Great great great grandfather, how cool is that?!
In this volume of the text you can see that the priest has added in that Bernard had married Mary Murphy in 1911, which confirmed my grandfathers inclination of the Murphy connection.
That's all I have uncovered so far, I hope you found this interesting because I certainly did!
Very cool.
Thanks, I hope I learn a lot more so I can share!
Were you able to track where they lived and when they moved? For some reason that always fascinates me to look back and see how old historical events actually affected the day to day lives of people.
I have yes! I will be making more posts as everybody is so interested. :)
Awesome!!! Can't wait to see it!!!
Do you use Ancestry.org? I love family trees.
I'm American. Grandpa from Amsterdam. I live in Vietnam.
My grandpa almost was on Titanic but was drunk.
That's pretty cool about your grandpa! I do but I am still getting the hang of Ancestry.org, I am taking time to not make any incorrect assumptions!
If more people gave dna samples and checked into their ancestry they may be surprised to find the "unexpected! " Thank you for sharing!
Yeah, it sucks that a lot of my living relatives haven't signed in for months and haven't uploaded a family tree!
All you need are a few names and you can find it through records, but it does take time. I do have information on the direct lines of the Irish Kings ! Fun!
No way really?! how far do your records go back?
All the way ..lol truly.
I would love it if you could share that info with me!
Genealogy is so interesting. I've been researching for a few years as well.
Very cool discoveries!
Have you made any interesting discoveries yourself? :)
I met an older relative on genealogy.com's forum, who sent me all of her research. It really helped a lot. I haven't discovered anyone who is well known, but I did find some really fascinating information about my family.
One thing I learned is that my great-great grandparents came to the USA from Germany, they brought some plants from their vineyard, grapes, and pears that are still sold in the USA today. It's a lot of fun making discoveries.
Oh wow, you really struck gold by finding that older member. Mapping Irish ancestry is very difficult because it's quite common for people to go by different first names on official documents vs everyday use! It's a weird quirk we seem to have haha
Very interesting!
Thanks, glad you agree!
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Pleased to make your acquaintance, your majesty🙂
Please, call me High King. ;)
Do you know which High King(s)? Grants tomb is mighty impressive in itself.
My Tree turned up a German Queen (?), some petty nobility and This one..
.
(Isabella of Castile)...
(Oh, how the Mighty Fall;)
That's so cool that you've actually traced it back that far!
We think we are related to Turlough O'Connor
Thats a link to the wikipedia page. He was King of Connacht (1106–1156) and High King of Ireland (ca. 1120–1156).