Why would I care to trace the roots when the branches are not very interesting to me? OK I know my ancestors came from France, Ireland, England, Poland, I am related to the industrial duPonts and a lot of southern families. We all have ancestors but why should I let mine define me?
There is absolutely nothing in your answer that has anything at all to do with my question. In other words, I didn't ask about what interested you before doing the search or what prompted you to search, nor did I ask about what defines you.
Nothing weird, but something interesting. The men in my maternal grandfather‘s family, his grandfather, great-grandfather etc were all ministers in England. It was weird to me because of my grandfather's personality and the personality of his brothers.
If it's true, the story of how one branch of my ancestors landed in the US is pretty funny. The tale goes that my great-great-great (maybe 4 greats) grandfather attended a going away celebration on an English ship that was America-bound the next day. He allegedly drank too much and passed out in a corner somewhere, and when he came to the next day, the ship was already miles out in the Atlantic.
While tracing the earliest ancestors of both my parents I found that they lived less than 10 miles apart, Mom's side in Alsace, France, and Dad's just across the border in the Black Forest of Germany.
Nothing weird, but kind of sad. I found out why there's so few people in my father's side of the family. Apparently most of them stayed behind in Europe and "disappeared." The few survivors fled to America when they realized what was going on.
It is kind of weird to think that if that never happened, I wouldn't have been born. That and the hurricane that forced my mother's family to move after destroying their business. My genes must be cursed or something..
This post was edited by Patchouli at August 25, 2018 6:29 AM MDT
Nothing particularly weird, but I did hit a couple dead ends. Nothing is known about my great-great-great-grandmother Monaghan, other than that there were seven white women in that gold mining village (back then it mattered) and Mrs Monaghan wasn't one of them. Australia's aboriginal people never developed writing. Another ancestor called himself "John Smith", 'nuff said.
I have a king in my family tree! Unfortunately the family riches didn't trickle this far down. I found out after I got married that my husband also had the same king in his family tree so I married my 33rd cousin. My great-grandpa, my grandpa, my uncle and my cousin are all named after the king.
~ 
officegirl 