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Mayflower 400: the science of sailing across the ocean in 1620

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Re: Mayflower 400: the science of sailing across the ocean in 1620

#11

Post by onetimemanytime »

hef19898 wrote: post #8
bserge wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been amazed by this ability to track your ancestors hundreds of years back. Were the records that good back then? I had lots of trouble getting birth records for my great-grandparents. The system in my country was terrible, if I didn't have the exact name and date of birth, they couldn't find anything. Nothing was digitized, maybe that changed but I doubt it. In fact, I did have the wrong day but fortunat…

My grandmother traced her family back to the 30 years war. No records after that. Churches are a very good source for that in Europe. That being said, I never understood the obsession with lineage.

why not? What's the harm in knowing.

Re: Mayflower 400: the science of sailing across the ocean in 1620

#12

Post by bserge »

dmd wrote: post #9
bserge wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been amazed by this ability to track your ancestors hundreds of years back. Were the records that good back then? I had lots of trouble getting birth records for my great-grandparents. The system in my country was terrible, if I didn't have the exact name and date of birth, they couldn't find anything. Nothing was digitized, maybe that changed but I doubt it. In fact, I did have the wrong day but fortunat…

My wife has managed to track one line of her ancestry (the Swiss line) back to 985. Swiss church records (Kirchenbücher) are online and extremely good.

Wow, that's amazing. Come to think of it, many people were simply born at home and not registered with the state in the 1900's, but they would get baptised, so the Church should hold the record of that.

I think the Soviet Union's laws against the Church might've player a role in the loss of records.

Re: Mayflower 400: the science of sailing across the ocean in 1620

#13

Post by wombatmobile »

bserge wrote: post #7
kyle_morris_ wrote: post #3

Apparently 2 million Americans can trace their lineage to a passenger on the Mayflower who fell overboard and survived by grabbing a rope trailing behind. They include FDR, H.W. And W Bush.[1] [1] https://accesswdun.com/print/2015/11/352412

I've always been amazed by this ability to track your ancestors hundreds of years back. Were the records that good back then? I had lots of trouble getting birth records for my great-grandparents. The system in my country was terrible, if I didn't have the exact name and date of birth, they couldn't find anything. Nothing was digitized, maybe that changed but I doubt it. In fact, I did have the wrong day but fortunat…

> I've always been amazed by this ability to track your ancestors hundreds of years back. Were the records that good back then?

"... between 1640 and 1700, the literacy rate for men in Massachusetts and Connecticut was somewhere between 89 percent and 95 percent, quite probably the highest concentration of literate males to be found anywhere in the world at that time. The literacy rate for women in those colonies is estimated to have run as high as 62 percent in the years 1681-1697.

"... Since the male literacy rate in seventeenth-century England did not exceed 40 percent, we may assume, first of all, that the migrants to New England came from more literate areas of England or from more literate segments of the population, or both. In other words, they came here as readers and were certain to believe that reading was as important in the New World as it was in the Old. Second, from 1650 onwards almost all New England towns passed laws requiring the maintenance of a "reading and writing" school, the large communities being required to maintain a grammar school as well."

-- Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Re: Mayflower 400: the science of sailing across the ocean in 1620

#14

Post by unfunco »

kyle_morris_ wrote: post #3

Apparently 2 million Americans can trace their lineage to a passenger on the Mayflower who fell overboard and survived by grabbing a rope trailing behind. They include FDR, H.W. And W Bush.[1] [1] https://accesswdun.com/print/2015/11/352412

H.W. and W Bush? What are the odds?

Re: Mayflower 400: the science of sailing across the ocean in 1620

#16

Post by hef19898 »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #11
hef19898 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grandmother traced her family back to the 30 years war. No records after that. Churches are a very good source for that in Europe. That being said, I never understood the obsession with lineage.

why not? What's the harm in knowing.

No harm, I'm just not that interested in that kind of stuff it seems.

Re: Mayflower 400: the science of sailing across the ocean in 1620

#17

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

kyle_morris_ wrote: post #3

Apparently 2 million Americans can trace their lineage to a passenger on the Mayflower who fell overboard and survived by grabbing a rope trailing behind. They include FDR, H.W. And W Bush.[1] [1] https://accesswdun.com/print/2015/11/352412

How do they trace their lineage to this guy? Word of mouth?

Re: Mayflower 400: the science of sailing across the ocean in 1620

#18

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

hef19898 wrote: post #16
onetimemanytime wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not? What's the harm in knowing.

No harm, I'm just not that interested in that kind of stuff it seems.

I understand your sentiment, but I gain humility and inspiration knowing how my ancestors lived and the sacrifices they made to have a better life.

To each his own.

Re: Mayflower 400: the science of sailing across the ocean in 1620

#19

Post by buran77 »

wombatmobile wrote: post #13
bserge wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been amazed by this ability to track your ancestors hundreds of years back. Were the records that good back then? I had lots of trouble getting birth records for my great-grandparents. The system in my country was terrible, if I didn't have the exact name and date of birth, they couldn't find anything. Nothing was digitized, maybe that changed but I doubt it. In fact, I did have the wrong day but fortunat…

> I've always been amazed by this ability to track your ancestors hundreds of years back. Were the records that good back then? "... between 1640 and 1700, the literacy rate for men in Massachusetts and Connecticut was somewhere between 89 percent and 95 percent, quite probably the highest concentration of literate males to be found anywhere in the world at that time. The literacy rate for women in those colonies is…

Would the group of literate people contain enough people also concerned with accurate record keeping? They seem to be relatively distinct and not necessarily overlapping skills or interests. And plenty of record get lost no matter how well they're kept. Fires, floods, disinterest, etc.

But for some people such a lineage is like a vanity address. And they will go out of their way to dig up a connection like this and absent that they will create one. Throughout the world it's pure gold especially for politicians, it establishes the kind of historical legitimacy and connection to land and country that's far more exclusive than "just" joining the military (the other common vehicle for populist patriotism, even if one would never be exposed to any real danger).

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