I created the following template in case you want to make your own family tree in the "UsefulCharts" style shown in this video: cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1835/6621/files/family-tree-template.odg You can download it for free. It's a LibreOffice Draw file. I did a tutorial on it a few weeks ago: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j6iln5Bhz863d3k.html

So, I started watching this video with the thought, "Oh, a fellow Canadian is showing some of their family tree, how interesting", then Nova Scotia came up and I sat up a little straighter, "Oh wow," I'm thinking, "He has genealogical roots in my province! I wonder if he's Nova Scotian himself. This is hitting pretty close to home, youtube videos never do that". Then the name Johannes Becker comes up and everything screeches to a halt. For you see, my good sir, I know that name very well. Johannes Becker is my 6x great-grandfather through his son John Jacob (1752-1813) down to my mother and then to me. So, we are distant cousins, and my mind just broke a little bit. I REALLY want to pick your brain on our mutual line. So hello from your distant cousin and fan in Colchester, Nova Scotia.

Matt, you literally own an island! Sir Matt of Big Tancook, House of Baker.

All hail Matt of house Baker, High King of Tancook Island!

When you do a DNA test and get 100% Iberian and you still live in Iberia. GG

”Like anyone else, I have eight great-grandparents”, *laughs in Alabama

63 years old and fighting fires, even for today that is a pretty amazing accomplishment. Your 2nd-great grandfather Edward Condon must have been one tough guy!

This ranks as one of my most favorite of all your videos because of how personal it is. Everyone has a story; so glad you told yours (or at least part of it).

One of those Cajuns here! Nearly 60% of my ancestors are Acadians, and genealogy also allowed me to learn I'm a descendant of both Beausoleil Broussard and his brother!

I am a direct descendant of Adam and Eve. Beat that.

What a great video! I am also a descendent of Johannes Becker and Moses Levy. My great-grandmother was a Levy that was born and raised on Tancook. It is so nice to get more information on the stories and history of how these ancestors ended up in Tancook!

Still waiting for my dad to come back home from the grocery store where he's been missing for 14 years

Imagine doing this and finding out it’s in a straight line

1 of the more interesting migration stories in my family is one of my Great-great-grandmothers came to Canada through Barnardo Homes. One of the many British Charities that sent orphaned or abandoned kids from Great Britain to Canada

All of my great grandparents have very different stories. My dad's dad's dad could trace most of his ancestry to Great Britain through the New England colonies, my dad's dad's mom could trace most of her ancestry back to Germany through Pennsylvania, my dad's mom's dad was born in Sicily and part of the wave of new immigrants that came through Ellis Island, my dad's mom's mom could trace her ancestry to the Netherlands and Belgium through the New Amsterdam settlement in New York. All of my mom's grandparents came to Wisconsin. My mom's dad's parents trace most of their ancestry back to Switzerland, my mom's mom's dad traces his ancestry back to Norway, and my mom's mom's mom traces her ancestry back to Switzerland and Germany. ...after all that I call myself a South Carolinian. My friends say I am not a southern boi

This has me itching to work on my family tree again. I have an Irish line that's been a dead end so far--they immigrated recently enough that there's census records, but my furthest ancestor has a super common name and I haven't been able to trace which part of Ireland he was from or exactly when he immigrated. Meanwhile, the only thing stopping me from going further with my French ancestors is that Ancestry won't let me see the church records in France without a subscription!

“These are my grandparents and like everyone else I have 8 of them.” *sad Alabama noises*

A story about my maternal grandfather: I'm Dutch and my family has been for many generations (dating back to at least 1400 AD on most lines). And The Netherlands was occupied by Germany during WW2. Now, my grandfather had quite an adventure during the war. Not only did he and his family have Jews hidden away (One of which was born while hidden and actually showed up at my grandpa's funeral), but he also narrowly escaped a German conscription, by stealing someone's bike, which he later returned. So yes, you are right... Everyone has an interesting family story, no matter if you're rich or poor, famous or not...

Here’s a helpful tip that no one seems to mention: if you’re having trouble finding the parents or children of a deceased relative, look for their obituary, most funeral homes will post these online and they will include the deceased predecessed relatives (parents, children, siblings). They will also usually include the “survived by” members of the family from spouses to grand children

1:53 Not everyone has eight great-grandparents. Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen Baratheon only have four.

I found out I have ancestors with surname Levy when exploring my genealogy, and also saw that I have distant Jewish ancestry when I did a 23andMe test, so I think you may have provided me with a link. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing! I love hearing the stories involved with any family tree. My family name is actually Acadian with me being a direct descendant of the first family to settle on PEI.

Great history, Matt. I remember the episode about the Halifax explosion on The Great War Channel. Sorry for your family's tragedy. But to be a part of major historical events is no small thing. Thank you for the links. I am going to head over to watch videos about my mostly German ancestry. Always keep up the good work.

"It's a really simple story, there was a bad blight on potato crops in Ireland... Made worse by bad (British) government policies. " Not gonna lie, you had me in the first half. Glad you acknowledged that it wasn't as simple as failed crops.

Very interesting! Im currently working on my genealogy so i find this fascinating

My great great grandparents came to Canada during the Ukrainian famine With no money and had to work as farm hands for 10 years until they could afford a small 1 room house with 7 kids

Damn, all I know about my great grandparents is the fact that they existed at all

I’ve been waiting for this

How you find out these information I cant even know my grandfather dad....

Different but also good to mix it up a bit and I think you are someone special

I've spent the past few days binging on this channel, and aside from all the great work with all the family trees, I'm giving my biggest thumbs up to the fact that you use Ubuntu and Libreoffice. In all seriousness though, I might offer a few interesting tidbits that maybe not that many people know. I'm Taiwanese, and although Taiwan at first glance might seem relatively homogenous since the great majority of the people can trace their roots to southeastern China (aside from the indigenous peoples of course), oftentimes the families that migrated to Taiwan before the mid to late 17th century have some European DNA in their blood that might not be documented in their official family trees; this was because of Dutch and Spanish settlements in Taiwan, but of course at the time acknowledging that you conceived a child with a "red haired barbarian" would be a disgrace to the family. Also, of the Ming dynasty loyalists that drove the Dutch out, some were either Chinese Muslims or had Arab roots that went even further back in history; to this day there are families in southern Taiwan who follow the Islamic practice of burial within one day as a family tradition, even though the families themselves have not followed the religion for generations. Not much important info here, just that seeing this video reminded me of this.

You are someone special! Without you, we wouldn’t have this awesome channel!

Having explored my own genealogy, I would never say someone else's tree is not interesting. I have also helped others with their trees and invariably there is something meaty and interesting in every tree. Thanks for sharing yours Matt!

"Everyone has 8 great grandparents" Me who has 10 because my dad was adopted through marriage: Pathetic

Actually, your family history is interesting and nice to learn. Thank you for this channel.

I LOVE learning about people's family genealogy. Everyone's family has a plethora of stories and they're all fascinating.

Hey! You're almost a neighbour! What fun to find (completely by chance) on KZfaq one of the few inhabitants of Tancook Island. Thank you for sharing your family's history with its links to significant events in Nova Scotia history - very interesting!

Nice Video! :D And 3 interesting migration stories. Thanks for sharing them with us.

I had Huguenot Flemish ancestors who went to New Netherlands after they were hounded out of France. They arrived in 1661.

Fancy fancy, Mr. Baker. Thank you for sharing your family history with us

Great video, it is very interesting looking into your families past. I have recently dived down the rabbithole myself and was more than happy with my findings!

My great great great great grandparent is Barbarosa the great turkish pirate Im from Greece lmao

Hears Levi... ATTACK ON TITAN!!!

My maternal family migrated to Nova Scotia from Scotland on the ship Hector in 1773. I can actually trace all the way back to the Hector through the female line! So many people in my family love genealogy, and we have some really beautiful handmade family trees knocking around various attics in NS and PEI. We settled more around the Pictou area, up near the north of Nova Scotia. My grandma was born in Pictou in the 40s, so obviously doesnt remember the Halifax explosion, BUT she does have a copy of her mother's diary who lived in Halifax around the time of the explosion and wrote about her memories of it, so I've always grown up knowing about it. Its always so exciting to hear someone talk about Nova Scotia or the Halifax explosion, my grandparents moved to the UK in the 60s so I've only visited Canada 6 or 7 times. I love it so much and really feel connected to it. So nice to hear that one of my favourite channels has roots in the same province I do, and your ancestors have some connections to mine! Very very cool video my friend xx

I really enjoyed this one. Thanks for sharing Matt!

It's very interesting to think that how diverse and mixed every person actually is...

I thank you for your grandfather’s service in World War II

Thank you for the work that goes into your excellent captions!

I really enjoyed that you shared this with us. I think so much of history is about regular people just trying to find their way in life. It's great to get glimpses into this kind of history and remember that famous people are rulers are only a tiny bit of the population.

You inhabitants of the colony with you crazy family tree! ;) Mine is simple everybody is from the same region.

Loved the use of maps and other images used to supplement your family narrative while you traversed your family tree. Loved it! Would love to see more multi-modal integration of other types of media while stepping through any of your charts. Keep up the great work!

I love genealogy because every person in the tree has a story to tell. I am starting to study in order to become a professional, it marries two of my passions together: history and genealogy. I have learned a lot more history from doing this and I have a deeper appreciation for my ancestors.

Interesting story, I know from grandma, that my great great grandfather was a strongman in a circus.

If my dad wouldn’t have went toVietnam then I wouldn’t be here. History wouldn’t be the same.

Every family has an interesting story to tell. Another great video, thank you!

Bruh, you are special. You make the effort to make these maps. Thank you.

I would love to see charts on Nā Aliʻi Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian royalty).

I remember all my grandparents my great grandparents my great great my great great great I live in indonesia but my great great great great great great grandfather lives in china and he moves here to indonesia with a chinese diplomat named cheng ho. My great⁶ grandfather is a chinese royal family according to his clan name. And he used to write a book about his biography and we still continue that tradition. The book now is approx 3cm thick. And my great⁶ grandfather and his son and grandchild has 10 child so it would be hard to make my family tree. My mother only made a family tree from my great⁵ grandfather. But we knew the name thanks to the book that my great⁶ grandfather made.

I found this fascinating. In many ways, the family trees of 'ordinary' people are more interesting than those of royalty, because they are a history of struggle and survival. Thank you for sharing it. You must have felt so excited when you were able to trace a branch of your family back to the 17th century.

My heritage is Chinese and I have lived in Australia all my life and only speak English. I’m so envious of everyone who is able to trace their family histories in detail because they still have the language. Mine is full of lots of migration stories which are just that - stories passed down but slowly forgotten.

Thank you so much for sharing your family's history with us! And, as ever, for your thoughtful approach to history and engagement with politically resonant material.

Hi! Love the video and just wanted to ask... even though its a bit of a stretch, would you possibly consider creating a large family tree chart of Native or "Indian" royalty/leaders please? At least Native Americans i would hope,im Cherokee and Inca but i have a very hard time keeping all of the information on their leadership and monarchs in order, and i thiught you may be able to help seeing as your, well, a genealogicsl genius. The best im able to do is get my family tree of 6,000 prople, but historical facts are hard to come by.

I love this view of micro-history in the context of broader history. Thanks, Matt!

It was really interresting to see that story of your ancestors, I also find the fact interresting, that you have so many ancestors from such a tiny island, which is kind of a special place.

1:53 I only have 7 great grandparents don't assume things y'a don't know

Is there a way I can find my family tree?

You are so lucky to be able to trace so many ancestors! I’ve always been curious about genealogy and my ancestry, but sadly, the furthest ancestor I can trace back to is my great-great-great grandfather. I can’t go back any further even if I wanted to, since our culture didn’t have a writing system until the 18th century, and all stories, legends, and information were passed down through oral songs or poems.

Loved your video! So informative and interesting!

Could you do a video charting the many divergences of Protestantism following the Reformation? I have always wanted to see how every denomination was formed. :)

My friend family name is Levy. It comes from France, probably a Jewish family.

Three years ago we spent three weeks in the Maritime Provinces. For the first week we rented a house near Lunenburg and spent every day exploring the island. Big Tancook was one of the places we visited!

You've got some interesting stories here Matt. I tried doing a family tree but mine is a mess, thanks grandpa!

My family has traced back our roots to about 900 AD.

My great-grandfather was in the polish army during WWII

Such a great channel keep up the good work

Matt, Don’t hate on yourself. Your Special

Thanks for sharing YOUR story, like the stories that are part of the channel, it is equally important

There are no migration stories in my family tree. I've traced most lines back to the 1750ish and they've all been born, lived and died in a small area in northern Finland. My DNA came back to 97.6% Finnish. The only outlier was a distant indigenous ancestor on my mother's side. So boring!

That was highly interesting, thank you!

Wow, your family history is amazing, the farthest back my family history goes is 6 generations I know the names but not the stories and it's difficult to do further research when my family lived in a village and only kept oral records of their history. However, I've started compiling it in a written form so hopefully one of my descendants in a few generations will have a rich history

my family been here since 1735

I’m related to Alfred Heckmann a nazi pilot

This is very interesting! Ur ancestors are proud of u!❤❤❤

Greetings from another Nova Scotia. Very cool your family is from Tancook Island This video gave me all the feel as it mostly focused on Nova Scotia :D

First comment in this video

Thank’s for this interesting video; I have cousins that grew up on the Tancooks. Their mom is from Cape Sable Island, NS. I believe besides fishing, they may have worked on the ferry to.

That's so cool you have this information about your family tree

So nice to know you, Matt!

You have an interesting mix.. I haven't got higher than my Greek fathers side yet.. and i've traced some my Polish mothers side even though that's quite hard to do.. and apparently we have a mix of German through both her grandparents. One of my great grandfathers was called Janik and we can trace that line back to the 1700s. History, Anthropology and Genealogy fascinate me so much.

Wow, it's so cool you're related to the Halifax explosion!!!

Loved the video, just yesterday we found my mother's genology book and it was a treat. From my mother's side they immigrated as German Jews sometime around the 1640s and later on in the 1720s they became Mennonite's until a group split off and came Midwest and broke off their Mennonite heritage. My fathers side is fuzzy and unknown, we know its French and Cherokee *we have jokes about how that connection was made ;)* and we know they eventually settled in Oklahoma. My mother's sides is well documented and plan to read up more in it soon but the real mystery is my father's side, we know so little about it and a year ago we found out the current las name isn't the original but we had a more fancy French name and it got changed due to a series of adoptions. As a person who loves history my ultimate dream is to build up a family free from both sides of the family and see if there are other ethnic groups in the bloodline asides from Hebrew, German, French and Cherokee.

My aunt (who emigrated to America) recently went on a genealogy hunt and sent me a copy of her findings. I really should try and get in touch with some 2nd cousins.

Matt-I’m always fascinated by your videos. Particularly interesting to me in this video is your Jewish ancestry, as I am Jewish, and the fact that your family comes from Tancook Island. Almost five years ago we took a three week trip to the Maritime Provinces. While we didn’t get everywhere, during our week in Nova Scotia we took the ferry to Big Tancook Island and spent part of the day wandering around. If it happens that you have not been to Tancook in recent years, I would be happy to send you a few of the photos I took there,

That's super interesting. I'm german and our family lived here for pretty much ever as far as I know. I only know through narratives that my maternal grandmother came here from prussia, I guess around WW2, and one of my paternal ancestors probably came here from Austria. Now I want to know more about that. :D

So interesting. I love this series.

Interesting video. I couldn’t tell as much about immigration in my family. On my paternal line my great great great great grandfather moved into the house I still live in and my family name originates from a village close to where I live now. Only my mothers paternal grandfather moved here from northern Germany. He came here as a journeyman and stayed because he fell in love (and a funny coincidence: he came from Lüneburg, the german city Lunenburg in Nova Scotia got the name from) All the other Ancestors I know about were Swiss.

Very interesting video. Alas being Northern Irish, almost all of my ancestors for 6 generations were too, meaning all records die out in the mid-19th century - the record office was burned down in 'the Troubles'. Hopefully one day I'll be able to go back further like you, thanks for the video.

As a Cajun, I didn't expect this video to include le Grande Derangement. Like you said, we're all connected! Bonjour from Louisiana!

I learned a lot from this video actually. incredible

you're someone important and special to us and to your family :)