With so many in isolation right now, I thought this might be a good way to spend some time. There are a lot of sites available for information and a five generation family tree is easy to find. I am getting started but many of my family have done extensive research.
Of my 16 fifth generation ancestors, 9 were immigrants to the US, coming from England, Wales and Ireland. Another generation back adds Germany. I figured for modelers, many of whom have an interest in history, this is a way to tie directly into the past.

I don't, but my wife and Aunt have done it extensively for our family. Turns out my wife is related to Daniel Boone and I am related to Winston Churchill (35th cousin or something like that )

Jesse

My wife does genealogy for her family. Over the years I've collected many of my mother's family stories including a book if notes my grandmother put together.

My grandfather's mother was sent to Siberia in World War I for being too friendly to the Austrians. They had emigrated to the US but were then offered land in Russian Poland for a great price. Just in time for World War I. My grandfather having been born in the US was able to return to the US.

One of my cousins traced my father's family back to Jamestown and there's a dissertation on my branch of the Willoughby family tree going back to the Norman Conquest. We even married into the British royal family back in Tudor times. We had supported the Plantagenets in the Wars of the Rose's but changed sides after a pile of relatives died in the bloodbath of the Battle of Towton.

I built a figure of one of them for my brother's birthday one year.

My father (US Army retired) met my mother in Germany where they were married in the 50’s. I can still recall bouncing around in my dad’s Jeep when we lived on US Army Base Wildflecken. In 1955, we boarded ship and migrated to the United States. During the transatlantic voyage, I recall there were rough seas during one dinner — spilling everyone’s plates (except mine) to the floor! My older half brother (now deceased) stayed in Germany and was raised by our grandmother (long story).

Fast-forward to 2017. My younger brother (US Army, retired) travelled to Germany — his mission, to decipher the German side of our family tree. The following is an excerpt from one of his e-mails.

[“I'm still in Cologne Germany, the city where my mother was born and raised in search of my half brother and his family all who I've never met. He is the son of my mother and her first husband who served in the German Luftwaffe and was killed during WWII. (Reason for not ever meeting is a story for another time). The past few days have been an emotional roller coaster of highs and lows, ups and downs as I searched for my brother. Each lead that seemed promising raising my hopes and excitement as I neared, only to be let down when it turned out to be a dead end. The final low was finding out that he passed away five years ago. My search now continues for his wife and kids, (my sister in law, nieces and nephews).

It has been an enjoyable experience walking the streets of Cologne and touring the famous Cologne Cathedral where my mother once went to church. I'm sure I must have walked the same steps into the church she took many years ago. I lit a prayer candle in the Cathedral for her.

Cologne was one of the heaviest bombed cities by allied forces during WWII. I remember the stories she shared with me as she witnessed and experienced first hand the near total destruction of the entire city. From 1940 to 1945 Cologne was bombed 262 times. On 31 May 1942 the first ever 1000 bomber aircraft raid, (1046 heavy bombers from the Royal Air Force, Operation Millennium), targeted Cologne killing hundreds, wounding thousands, and leaving 59,000 people homeless in one single 90 minute raid. During WWII, Cologne suffered over 20,000 casualties. By the end of the war seven-eights of the city had been destroyed and the population reduced by 90 percent, (most due to evacuation).

My mother was one of the injured, pinned under a rafter during a bombing when the house collapsed resulting in a laceration on her thigh. People freed her from the rafters and crudely sutured her leg with ordinary needle and thread leaving a five inch scar that looked like the stitching on a NFL football. She was an amazing woman who had so many stories as a child growing up in a city that was both a major target of Allied forces and was subject to Nazi rule.”]

Sadly, our parents are long deceased. However, my brother was able to reconnect us with our long lost family in Cologne.

—mike

Thanks for sharing. I joined Ancestry.com and Family Search, both of which tie into documents like passenger lists, some military records, church records and other census information. My grandfather was in the Army Air Corps, assigned to Ft. Lewis as part of the Spruce squadrons, cutting and prepping lumber to build airplanes. I went to Nottingham a couple of years ago to try to find information on my family line there but had no success. Another came from Portsmouth (Portsea) and served in the Royal Navy as a ships carpenter.

I am surprised at how little information is passed on in some cases, even by recent ancestors. Many of these sites allow stories to be shared but literacy is a fairly recent development so not much is available once you get back a few generations.