Jeanne at socrates_399@yahoo.com writes: << If only we could work in the opposite direction: If only you could know where you came from "right away", you start with taking your kids to their ancestors' homeplace in a quaint village, maybe a rousing ceili at a cousin's house, exploration of a nearby folk park, then work forward in the research, showing those young upstarts the generations unfolding like a red carpet right up to their birthday... Sigh. >> Jeanne, Here was my Dad's approach. For Christmas, 1955, he gave me a many-page typed booklet of my "Lineal Ancestors". It starts off with the local U.S. lineage. Lots of early Dutch settlers and also English - including John Bowne and Benedict Arnold (the latter, via two separate lines - not a good omen) and eventually got back to England through, at least, William Cary, sheriff and mayor of Bristol, Somersetshire. Then the lineage goes to John of Gaunt, and his grandpa, Edward II. As Dad noted, I "am related to every English king since Edward II, who was the ancestor of all succeeding ones". I have seen this fact mentioned on various websites, too. And then we have the branches. Charlemagne, King Coel ("Old King Cole", Mark Anthony, Malcolm and Duncan, William the Conqueror, Alfred the Great, Godiva, Uther the Pendragon, Constantine the Great, Llyr (King Lear)....... and my favorite, El Cid (I left out the accent, so as not to confuse Rootsweb.) This sort of document - in addition to making a braggart out of me (remember, this was 1955, before everyone "knew" they were descended from Charlemagne), this book has been copied by my grandchildren and used by them to establish their own "bragging rights" to a distinguished family. The only trick is to get hooked-into the English crown somewhere. From there, the published history is replete with connections - and all you have to do is copy it. Dad went a step further, and - with a bit of whimsy - connected to Worth Smith's "The House of Glory", which connects the Queen Mum in England back to Zedekiah - through dozens of dubious early Irish kings - and beyond. Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, and his daughter, Teah Tamar Tephi, came to Ireland. Much of this "history" was used by the British-Israelites as a reason for starting to dig-up the Hill of Tara in 1899 - looking for the Ark of the Covenant (and no Harrison Ford in sight). So now, my genealogy - such as it is - connects through Zedekiah back to the Bible, and I discovered that I am a direct descendent of Adam and Eve <gr> !! This sort of a "document" is a great way to get younger people interested in your family genealogy. A few significant names, a few wild characters (Dad says he's still looking for "horse thieves" in Mom's genealogy), and the kids will become interested. Dad's approach to genealogy has always been oriented more towards a "pedigree" approach. Farther back than 300 years, he stopped going-off into more branch lines and concentrated on carrying-back the more fruitful branches - rather than just expanding to even more cousins (although George Washington was my cousin - 15th cousin, 14 times removed.....but as Dad says "There may be a closer relationship through another line."). I've rambled enough. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts