A trip through Ancestry gave Karen a great tale of family history

Karen had always been curious in nature, a trait that recently saw her discover a family secret that had been buried for more than 100 years.  Karen’s grandparents didn’t speak much about their family history and both she and her parents grew up with many questions about their past.  With a profound desire to learn about her ancestors’ lives and her family’s identity, she embarked on a quest to explore her personal history, but soon into her research, she hit a “brick wall” – a dead end in her research that she couldn’t seem to get past.   Luckily for Karen, she was given the opportunity to work with a genealogy expert from Ancestry ProGenealogists and this is how the further branches of her family tree were revealed.  After searching through historic records such as birth certificates, newspaper articles and marriage records, and by utilising the results of Karen’s AncestryDNA test, the Ancestry ProGenealogists helped her discover that Karen’s great-grandfather James was born illegitimately and that her family name, Lockett, may not be her true biological name. Karen’s great great-grandfather (also called James) married the love of his life Mary, while she was pregnant with another man’s child. He humbly took on the role as baby James’ father and the real story of Karen’s great grandfather James and his loving parents was kept a secret…until now.    Karen and her family were astonished to learn the truth about their past and the discoveries have sparked a desire in Karen to pursue her next research quest – to uncover the identity of her true paternal ancestors.  Karen said: “Working with the Ancestry ProGenealogists was a dream come true. I have researched my family history for years, but I had hit a brick wall on my father’s paternal lines and receiving this help from experts was invaluable to get me on the right… Read More