how far back can you trace your ancestral roots?

Mine go back to Edinboro Scottland....Late 1700's.

Both great grandparents came on the boats. One from Hungary and other from Germany. That's as far as I got. I tried to find the ship that my German side came on but they changed their names from what I was told.

My grandmother, before she died, had
traced 5 lines back to Adam & Eve.
Don't ask me how that is done.
The Mormons do it.
Takes lifetimes.

incredible ADAM AND EVE??? That should be before christ.

I can go back to a Revolutionary War soldier who was born in about 1760. The family story is that he came from France, but his name was English and nobody has been able to trace him. His wife's side goes back a couple of generations earlier, but not with complete certainty.

Not very far. I have family in Ireland and in Russia though. I've been meaning to get around to tracing it.

last week

My sister got a line back to the Mayflower.
My parents were 'professionals' at genealogy research. They did their own and enjoyed it so much they volunteered countless hours doing others for many years.

While growing up we spent many weekends going to obscure old cemeteries around the state researching, tracing stones, etc. Looking back, those are some good memories. At the time we thought we were being tortured and punished!

Doc Holliday was my great uncle. My cousin has our history traced farther back than that on my moms side. My dad has stuff accu to my great great grandparents. I believe they came from Germany.

1668, Essex, Mass. Court records for profaning the Lord's day, by making Bricks on a Sunday! On my Dad's side. OnMom's I can trace back to prior to the revolution as well. The founder of Rhode Island was one of my ancestors!

And for the wild west connection, Dixie Lee the infamous Kansas city madam is also related to my ancestors!

Auswchitz....Bueckenwald.

I come from a small family and we don't talk about it.

my mom traced her side back to some castle ruins in scotland - soem tribal thing

my dad's side back to the german baptists in Pa.

1109 to a monk in Saint Abbeys. :)

Back to Alexander. But I never got any of the money.

I was gonna trace my family tree, but some dog was using it

Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain: 1000-1300. Cambridge Medieval Textbooks. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37797-8. * Burton, Janet "Thomas (d. 1114)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography' Oxford University Press, 2004 Online Edition accessed 11 November 2007 * Cantor, Norman F. Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England 1089-1135 Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press 1958 * Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third Edition, revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. * Spear, David S. "The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy, 1066-1204" The Journal of British Studies Volume XXI Number 2 Spring 1982 p. 1-10 * Vaughn, Sally N. Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan Berkeley:University of California Press 1987 ISBN 0-520-05674-4 In 1110, Nigel "being weary of the burden of his sins and the tiresome ways of the wicked world" retired to Selby Abbey 10 miles E. of Sherburn. In 1165 Gilbert, son of Nigel, donated to the Archbishop of York, "his Lord," land in Clementhorpe. Speaking of these charters, Farrar (1 Early Yorkshire Charters, 53) says: "The fact that Nigel gave part of his tithe in Huddleston, combined with evidence in later times of the tenure by the Huddleston family of a knight's fee in Huddleston, Wetwang and other places, prove that Nigel was ancestor of that family." "Nigel, the Provost, was undoubtly the ancestor of the family of Huddleston" The name de Hodelston was assumed by Nigel or by his son Gilbert, it is not clear which, and thenceforth it was the family surname. [from Huddleston Family Tables, by George Huddleston, 1935]

Saint Germain It is difficult to visualise, when looking at Selby Abbey today, that it was once a huge, rich Benedictine monastery complete with chapel, cloisters, stables, brew-house, kitchen, workshop, dormitory, cellars, barns and an infirmary, all surrounded by high walls with a huge gateway. Building began shortly after the Norman conquest, but its foundation is said to originate with Germain, a French nobleman and soldier, who was born around AD378. Germain became a Bishop as his life progressed and twice visited England to help unite Christianity. He died shortly after his second visit in 448 and was given a magnificent funeral at Auxerre where his shrine became a pilgrimage centre. More than six hundred years later a monk called Benedict (or Benoit) experienced a vision in Auxerre Abbey and received instructions from Saint Germain to go to Selby and build an Abbey. SELBY is a historic market town located approximately 14 miles from York. Selby's Life began over 930 years ago in 1069 when Monk Benedict of Auxerre, France, who had been granted a charter by William the Conqueror, built the magnificent abbey which still stands in the town centre today. It is believed that Monk Benedict had a vision that 'told' him he should build a church in England where he saw three swans. As he was travelling up the River Ouse, he spotted these three swans and decided this is where he would build our famous abbey. Selby Abbey is unique in the North Of England, it was the first monastery in the north to be built after the Norman Conquest. The building of the abbey took place between 1100 and 1230. The last piece of construction on the abbey took place in 1935. The abbey is 300 feet in length and 55 feet in height, making it of almost cathedral proportions.

Selby Abbey, is probably most famous for it's 14th Century "Washington" Window. John de Washington was a Prior in the Abbey in the early 1400s, and was related to George Washington. The window shows the Washington family shield, which is the model for the stars and stripes of the present US flag. http://www.selbynet.co.uk/abbey/

Taken from the work of Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr's book "All The Days of my Life"

The pedigree of this very ancient family is traced back to five generations before the Conquest. The first, however, of the name who was Lord of Millom was Sir John Huddleston, Knight, who was the son of Adam, son of John, son of Richard, son of Reginald, son of Nigel, son of Richard, son of another Richard, son of John, son of Adam de Hodleston in co. York. The five last named according to the York MS were before the Conquest.

Are you into genealogy? It is one of my addictions.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~virginiahuddlestons/captain_john_huddleston_of_the_b.htm

Both great grandparents came on the boats. Daddy's mommy on the mayflower, mommy's daddy on the titanic. Mommy's mommy was a showboat dancer and courtisan (transplanted from the courts of Louis XV, the Sun King, to the mississippi delta; transferable skills), and daddy's daddy came on a galleon, they staged a mutiny in the friday night ameteur theatre where the galley slaves entertained themselves, and soon there was no man left on board, except for Daddy's Dad, who was over bored with nobody else on board to play chest and Mononucleosis with. (An older version of Monopoly.)

Theoretically, however, my family tree has roots in Adam and Eve, and before that, God. My atheists cousins have a 100000-year-old tree in their family.

Sometimes you really puzzle me, woman.
You are such a brilliant creature, and
yet sometimes you can't get over the
simplest of problems.

HOW TO TRACE FIVE LINES
BACK TO ADAM AND EVE BY AN INDIVIDUAL

1. Take a white sheet, some
dark ink pen that writes
heavy and wide, and a transparency
or opaque paper.

2. Put down near one edge of the
paper on the paper, a gob, then
mark it thus: "Me". Then on the
opposite edge of the paper,
on the paper, mark two dots, "Adam and Eve".

3. Draw five lines betwee "ME" (or you) and "adam and eve.

4. Lay the opaque paper over your creation.

5. Trace the five lines from "me" (you) to "Adam and Eve".

Once you finish, there are no arguments, your five lines are traced.