Please help figure this out?

Question

My mom claims that she found some spanish ancestry on her side of the family. I have not seen any proof of it and she claims she lost it when the computer crashed, it really did crash, i must have asked her 1000 times if we were part spanish, she always says yes, but I never believe her. One morning I woke up and I thought I heard her say she was fully Italian (she has an obsession with Italy since she has Italian in her) I must have heard this five times, I asked her about it and she said I was hearing things and the first time she said she was talking about someone else, Iasked her if she was lying to me and she said if we did have spanish in us she would say so, am I just hearing things, am I part spanish, or did I catch herlying what do you think?

Answer 1

What I think is that you have very little experience in genealogy. MOST persons with even a few months of research, can and do, get back hundreds of years. So.. why WOULDN'T she have found this?

Sorry the computer crashed.. but I have a feeling that you are not likely to take time to participate in the research, whether she had the record or not.  I have crates and crates of info.. and my kid's eyes get glazed when I try to tell them about it.

Answer 2

Family lore is not considered trustworthy by genealogists.

It can, however, be used as a clue on where to look should you decide to engage in genealogical research.

I doubt she was lying.

My major family lore, passed verbally through many generations, had about 13 important stories. I have found documentation to substantiate 10 of these stories (within one year of sporadic research). The remaining three still lack evidence. (However absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.)

You could probably rebuild the tree if you took the time. A good intro to genealogy is freely available on the net, and curling up with a book from a local library might spark enough enthusiasm to continue your detective work.

Good luck and happy hunting should you decide to become infected with the family-tree bug. It is a very rewarding endeavor.

Answer 3

trace your history yourself and find out....

Answer 4

talk to your other family members: grandparents, aunts, uncles, distant cousins, anyone, and then do the research yourself.

my husband had the same problem. his mother told him he was jewish, then spanish, mexican, italian, then he finds out he's gypsy. who the heck knows anymore? most of their family geneology is faked.