Family Tree

Earlier this year, Ken got the idea that he wanted to trace back his family tree.  He signed up for ancestry.com and started researching.  And he got back pretty far.  I was impressed.  So I asked him to help me with mine.  But we hit a lot of roadblocks.  I just don't know enough about my family history.  On my dad's side, we only got as far back as his grandparents.  We didn't start my mom's side, though.  This was mostly because Mom told me her sister had been doing a lot of research herself.  She told me to ask for what she'd found, but I kept putting it off and never did get around to it.  Until the ordeal with Mom.  On one of the visits her sister made, I started asking her about it.  She told me she'd drop the info in the mail, but before she could, Mom passed, so my aunt brought the info in person to the funeral.  The last two nights Ken and I have been digging and finding what we could find.  My aunt hit a roadblock when researching her mother's side of the family.  She managed to get all the way back to her great grandfather Palmer, but couldn't find anything else.  We found back two more generations of Palmers before we came up short.  However, we found another branch. The wife of the last Palmer we found, my great great great great grandmother.  Her branch.  And from there, I found my great great great great great great great great great grandparents.  Major Brian Pendleton and his wife Eleanor.  I wish I could have found one more generation back because my aunt found back the same number of generations following another branch.  Apparently I'm descended from a man named Pardon Tillinghast.  

As it stands, right now I've been able to trace back my family tree to the year 1599.  This boggles my mind.  The fact that there are still records that exist that allow the tracking is insane to me.  It's hard for me to wrap my head around anything pre-internet.