Ancestor List challenge, how far have you gotten?

Question

The ancestor list shows all your ancestors, up to generation 7. I've taken this as a challenge :) It works out rather well as for me at least, generation 7 is getting into early 19th century, late 18th century where things get challenging, but not impossible.

Unfortunately, you can only view someone else's ancestor list if you are on their trusted list, but the link is in the form of:

http://www.wikitree.com/treewidget/Dill-925/9

It's also accessible by clicking on "Family Tree & Tools" from your profile, and then under "Genealogy Research".

I'm missing 13 relatives (out of 64) from generation 7, each one is a very unique challenge. How far have you gotten? Does anyone have a complete ancestor list up to generation 7? What unique and interesting challenges did you face?

Comments

That inspired an interesting excercise. 1 name missing from the 5th generation (gt x2), and unfortunately he will never be identified (unless the legendary "suitcase of letters" manifests in the real world). 5 ancestors missing from the 6th generation (gt x3), 2 of them will never be found (unless the legendary "suitcase of letters" manifests in the real world). And in my 7th generation (gt x4) - there are 23 missing names out of 64, 4 of whom will forever be nameless, (unless, of course, the legendary "suitcase of letters" manifests in the real world), leaving 19 ancestors who are certainly out there to be found.

I'm quite pleased with that :) Out of a possible 127 ancestors, 98 are identified. A total of 29 names remain a mystery to date, 7 of whom are apparently lost in the sands of time .............

Answer 1

Hmm - my 5 generation chart looks very good, but my 7 generation - not so good. My first miss is #55, and then it gets worse into generations 6 and 7. #80/81, #84 - 95, #98/99, #101 - 111, #118/119, and #123 - 125.

Guess I've got some research to do...

Answer 2

I have entered everybody up to the fifth generation and then gone into depth on a few branches. Guess I should start working on filling out (=entering) up to generation seven. The research is done, just need to get it into the wikitree, which will take some time, since I prefer entering person by person to the tedious cleaning up and correction of a gedcom.

In generation eight I will have some gaps - a whole section from a parish where there was a church fire, where I'm relying on a published reconstruction. The odd guy here and there who moved from his home county in the 1700s, 150 kilometers away to the booming iron districts. These enterprising men usually came from Västergötland where there are 300+ little parishes that kept the records.

I have yet to be stopped by a "father unknown", it's always the records that run out - at least they run out of my field of competence.