Genealogy Fun

[mommaduck]

Okay, I know we have people here that are really into genealogy for various reasons.

 

What got you into genealogy? Who are some famous or infamous people you found yourself related to (direct descent or cousins)? What are some odd or funny things you've found or learned along the way? 

 

 

[gardenmom5]

direct descendant of may revolutionary war soldiers/officers

direct descendant/niece founders of:

"hardin's station" & Hardinsberg, kentucky

Thompson valley virginia

Loomis homestead (dates to 1638)

 

a lot of religious freedom seekers - english puritains and french huegenots.  (reading their history made me MUCH less sympathetic for what happened to the french aristocracy.)

 

found my 5th ggf's house doing a name search.  it was the subject of a magazine article.  the house was moved and renovated.

my ggf's house is on the seattle historic register.

 

for cousins - depends how far out you want to go

I found out I'm 3/4th cousins with my mil.

 

1st cousin to shakespeare

direct descendant of rembrandt's grandmother

?cousin to john wesely hardin - outlaw

 

learned about the "great exodus" from england between 1620 - 1640 as every time I'd get the line back to england - I'd notice they were people of means in england - but they gave it all up to come to backwoods america where life was quite primitive (comparatively speaking).  so, I wanted to know what was going on.   they came as families - parents, children, grandparents.  so, there was a balance between the sexes - unlike in the south, where predominantly single men and there were more men than women for a long time.

 

byu has a 'relative' finder.  it relies on having a tree in family search.  anyone can enter a tree into family search and use it as a research tool.  it's free.  it can also be linked to an ancestry . com tree to link people.

[Junie]

I started getting interested in genealogy when I got married.  My MIL had done extensive research on dh's side of the family.  I wanted the kids to know something about my side of the family as well.

 

I found out I am a direct descendant of 9 Mayflower passengers.  Since extensive research has been done on these families I was able to patch in.

 

I have some Creek Indian blood and some French Huguenot as well.

 

It has made history become even more interesting for me.

 

 

People that my kids are related to (through me and dh):

 

Presidents Hayes, Ford, both Roosevelts, both Bushes, Coolidge, Grant, Taft, and Taylor

 

Norman Rockwell

 

Amelia Earhart

 

Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

Geoffrey Chaucer

 

the Plantaganets

 

Edward III

 

Charlemagne

 

Humphrey Bogart

 

Christopher Lloyd

 

 

 

[gaillardia]

My interest started when I was 7 but I didn't start doing research until I was in my early 30s, 20+ years ago.

A lot of people make a lot of mistakes in doing research, making assumptions, and not having enough documentation. That has been my biggest disappointment and frustration.

Finding out that dh had a great grandfather whose brother married the daughter of the wife's sister, was fun untying that knot. Lol.

 

Sad to learn that ancestors were buried alive for their belief in Jesus Christ and they refused to deny Him.

 

My dad's mom's mom was a Jones. She married a Smith. So, my dad's mom's maiden name was Smith. She married my dad's dad, who was a Jones from a different line than her mother, not related at all. From different areas, Illinois and Virginia. So great grandmother was Lucy Jones Smith, while her daughter became Sally Smith Jones.

Like most Americans, I'm related to a lot of Church, historical, science, art, and entertainment people.

Sad, unfortunate stories I've learned from historical documents during various early American conflicts and wars have been part of it too.

Census info that was a surprise from early 1800s and the way wills were written then too. Pretty cool stuff, some very alarming.

 

 

 

 

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[....]

I started really researching this about a year ago, because the older generation in our family is gone now and we found tons of pictures, tin prints, etc.   :(  I can trace about 5 branches of my family pretty far back and I'm recording everything/collecting the pictures/storing them, etc.  One branch of my family was easy to research, because a professor at a university in IL wrote a book about them.  That helped a lot.

 

Here's some of the more interesting things I've found:

 

1600s

-Direct descendant of shoemaker Quakers from England who "sold themselves into bondage" (those were the words that turned up in my research) for passage to America.  So, I'm assuming they were indentured servants?

-Direct descendant of one of the first families in Lyme, CT.  Great...great grandfather was the Town Drummer (who knew they had those back then  :001_unsure: ) and he fought in the Great Swamp Fight of 1675 during King Philip's War

-One branch of my family was made up of artists/artisans who helped build cathedrals in Germany

 

1700s

-Direct descendent of Hessians who came here to fight in the Revolutionary War...but for George Washington.  They fought with Francis Marion "The Swamp Fox".  For a long time, I tried to research and figure out why they were here fighting against the British and I finally found an article online about it.  Supposedly, because the British were using so many German-speaking troops in the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress thought it was a good idea to actively recruit German-speaking troops.  So, somehow, my great...great grandfather was recruited to fight.  It said somewhere that he didn't have his *own* weapons to use, so he stole them from the British.  Figures.   :tongue_smilie: 

-My family establishes one of the oldest Lutheran churches in America

 

1800s

-Some of my great...grandfathers marry Native American women.  One of my great...grandmas was Cherokee from South Carolina and the other (much more recent on the tree) was Blackfoot.  I don't know how they met...and I can't find any records of the women other than their names/ages/marriage dates/location.  Sadly.

- My great...great grandfather is captured/wounded at Battle of Missionary Ridge and dies at Rock Island Confederate Prison in Illinois.  I know from the book written about my family that they were still speaking German at home at that point in time.  They horribly misspelled his name on his conscription papers or whatever they called them and his tombstone.  His paperwork from Rock Island are posted online and it said he died of typhoid fever.

-Right after the Civil War ends, my family is responsible for a congressional act that allowed the state governor (I think it was North Carolina) to use military force to stop the KKK from harassing black families.  So, the KKK tried to assassinate my ancestors several times to the point where groups of family members had to pick up and move to other states.      

 

1900s

-Someone in my family serves in every war from WWI to Vietnam.

 

And as far as someone famous...I am distantly related to Elvis.  That's right.  The King.   :D

[gardenmom5]

My interest started when I was 7 but I didn't start doing research until I was in my early 30s, 20+ years ago.

A lot of people make a lot of mistakes in doing research, making assumptions, and not having enough documentation. That has been my biggest disappointment and frustration.

Finding out that dh had a great grandfather whose brother married the daughter of the wife's sister, was fun untying that knot. Lol.

 

Sad to learn that ancestors were buried alive for their belief in Jesus Christ and they refused to deny Him.

 

My dad's mom's mom was a Jones. She married a Smith. So, my dad's mom's maiden name was Smith. She married my dad's dad, who was a Jones from a different line than her mother, not related at all. From different areas, Illinois and Virginia. So great grandmother was Lucy Jones Smith, while her daughter became Sally Smith Jones.

Like most Americans, I'm related to a lot of Church, historical, science, art, and entertainment people.

Sad, unfortunate stories I've learned from historical documents during various early American conflicts and wars have been part of it too.

Census info that was a surprise from early 1800s and the way wills were written then too. Pretty cool stuff, some very alarming.

 

 

 

 

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words cannot express how much I agree with the bolded!

 

my mantra is:

document, document, document. . . and not just one form! . . .

I've found people who lied on their census forms.  (as opposed to the lazy census worker, or the next door neighbor giving information.  or the person giving the information was mistaken . . . ).  it can be quite fascinating to follow census records through the decades.   MO has their death certificates online starting in 1910 - a well filled out death certificate, has names of parents who could have been born a century earlier than that.

 

It drives me NUTS to have people wax excited about how they're related to ____.  yeah?  show. me. the. documentation.  getting into colonial america - is really easy to find information, because a) there weren't that many people here, and b) researchers have aggregated many source documents into easily searchable formats.

 

I found documentation showing a woman with the same name as my grandfather's younger sister (including a reference to her father having the same name as my great-grandfather) - was married to a man whose life inspired a tv show (ran for two seasons) about his career (decades ago, and decades before that).  from what I could tell (I couldn't ever get an age on the woman from the husband's information), the woman was younger than my grandfather's sister. (for reasons I won't go into - the thought she was lying about her age for social/etc. advantage, had occurred to me, as she was older than him. I had her birth record.)  -,

so I dismissed it.  I thought it was a case of "same name/different person"*** - I've now had contact with cousins on that side and they brought up that connection, based on their parents first-person recollections (and photographs) of her.  yep - same person.  I had wondered what had happened to her - the only one I couldn't find.

 

and sometimes, 99% documentation - isn't good enough. 

 

****I briefly worked in a medical office, there are many cases of some degree of: same name (first, middle, last), same birthdate, same birth place! - but two different people.  2ds has a friend his age - the day she was born, a baby in that same HOSPITAL born the same day - was given the same exact name.

 

I have had to let people down -  e.g. no, sorry, that's not your ancestor who got married in 1880.  that's my ancestor who died in 1877.  yeah, I know they lived in the same (very) sparsely populated rural area, and had the same name, and were born the same year (info is limited) - they're still two different people.

[gardenmom5]

  I know from the book written about my family that they were still speaking German at home at that point in time.  

 

 

I've a family friend who's family settled in a german settlement in kansas in the 1800's.  the settlement were all still speaking german, even the children.  it was common.  then wwi broke out, and everyone stopped speaking german and started speaking english.  those with prefixes - dropped them.

[mumto2]

When I was in 8th grade we had an English assignment to do a family tree and write a research paper about one of the countries your ancestors came from. We also had to give a presentation about an ancestor. That sparked an interest!

 

I started researching again in my 20's. My parents helped so we all enjoyed ourselves. Got to know a couple of really wonderful distant cousins who are now deceased which can only be described as a blessing. I also got to meet my best friend through meeting her mom(who I refer to as my second mother) thanks to a genealogy group I joined back in my 20's. For me it hasn't really been so much about who I may be related to but the stories and people along the way.

 

For the record I have been pretty successful. Traced into the 1500's with decent documents on one side. Helps that they lived in a small village in England. The wives marrying into that line have been a problem. A couple of very historically fascinating last names with no locations to do anything with.

 

One of my favorite ancestors escaped a German prison ship when it docked in the US, think conscripted forcibly into the navy. He is who I did my report on back in the 8th grade! :lol: He lived in fear of being forced to return so muddied his past as much as possible. Did a fabulous job! :lol: Both he and his brother (another escapee) took a rather successful trip to California in the mid 1800's and returned rolling in gold. Started a town and named it using their new last name. His 3rd wife murdered him after making him sign a new will!

Edited March 7, 2018 by mumto2

[....]

I've a family friend who's family settled in a german settlement in kansas in the 1800's.  the settlement were all still speaking german, even the children.  it was common.  then wwi broke out, and everyone stopped speaking german and started speaking english.  those with prefixes - dropped them.

 

Yes, I can see where they changed the spelling of their last name to make it look more American, too.  My mom and grandpa have a different last name spelling than my great grandpa.  I'm glad they kept so many pictures and tin prints and wrote the names down and attached them to the backs.  I don't know who did that- probably my grandpa before he died.  I was able to double check census records, military records, etc online against the names on the backs of pictures that my mom found when my grandparents died.

 

I posted about this in the other thread, too.  They were all *ahem* marrying within the family.   :huh:  My grandpa's grandparents were first cousins and one of the books written about them was talking about how they were very isolated geographically and were marrying cousins.   :D   Yay!  lol

 

As far as another poster talking about verifying information. Yeah, there are two branches of my family that I can't go any further back than my great-great grandparents.  There just aren't any records of them.  The only thing I know about them is what my grandma has said.  

[gardenmom5]

Yes, I can see where they changed the spelling of their last name to make it look more American, too.  My mom and grandpa have a different last name spelling than my great grandpa.  I'm glad they kept so many pictures and tin prints and wrote the names down and attached them to the backs.  I don't know who did that- probably my grandpa before he died.  I was able to double check census records, military records, etc online against the names on the backs of pictures that my mom found when my grandparents died.

 

I posted about this in the other thread, too.  They were all *ahem* marrying within the family.   :huh:  My grandpa's grandparents were first cousins and one of the books written about them was talking about how they were very isolated geographically and were marrying cousins.   :D   Yay!  lol

 

As far as another poster talking about verifying information. Yeah, there are two branches of my family that I can't go any further back than my great-great grandparents.  There just aren't any records of them.  The only thing I know about them is what my grandma has said.  

 

my maternal line, had been in a rural farm community for 50-60 years when my grandparents were born.  double marriages were common, as I've done research - I found I'm related by blood or marriage to easily half the town.

I think it was common - just because things were so isolated. it was a big deal to get on a wagon and travel.  and even after the train - you only went where the train went or you got off and traveled in a wagon.   

I was recently watching something on the railway in the south.  during the civil war - northern troops were also rebuilding the railroads and making them standard gauge, because they hadn't been.  that really limited where they could even go with a train.

 

-I also have two lines that end with 2ggp. . . I did ancestry dna to help push it back.  have results, got back another two generations on one line - though things are pretty wonky, but at least I know I'm looking in the right area.

on the other line - I have a lot to choose from (the 2ggm died, and the baby went to the grandparents - so, her father I'm looking for) - but it's possible it has now pushed me back over 100 years.  much more information, but still trying to make sense of it all.

Edited March 7, 2018 by gardenmom5

[....]

I’ve never understood the interest in genealogy. 

 

It's history!  I think people interested in genealogy are the same people who enjoy learning about history.

Edited March 7, 2018 by Evanthe

[gardenmom5]

well - for "fun", I was back on 23&me looking at my results.  I'm in haplogroup T.  apparently, only 8% of europeans are haplogroup T.  (including Tsar Nicholas II).  it's also uncommon on 23&me - 1 in 6400.

 

but it did come up with a 2nd cousin for me. . . .

[maize]

That’s an interesting way to look at it. Most of the arguments I’ve seen have this identity factor, as though something an ancestor did actually means they have a claim on it as though they did it, themselves. That weirds me out.

 

It seems like so much work for people who are just dust in the ground. I know my husband's aunt only does it because someone had to, so she stepped up. She’s enjoying it, butnwouldnt have chosen to be the family documentarian unless she absolutely had to.

 

There's actually a fair body of research showing that family stories and family history help kids develop a secure sense of identity and emotional resiliency.

 

ex: http://shared.web.emory.edu/emory/news/releases/2010/03/children-benefit-if-they-know-about-their-relatives-study-finds.html#.WqANa2obO1s

 

"Children who know stories about relatives who came before them show higher levels of emotional well-being, according to Emory University researchers who analyzed dinner time conversations and other measures of how well families work.

The research, by Emory psychologists Robyn Fivush and Marshall Duke, and former Emory graduate student Jennifer Bohanek, was recently published in Emory's online Journal of Family Life.

"Family stories provide a sense of identity through time, and help children understand who they are in the world," the researchers said in the paper "Do You Know? The power of family history in adolescent identity and well-being"."

Edited March 7, 2018 by maize

[Mbelle]

My uncle has done an incredible amount of work on family history going way back.  He is single and retired and this is a hobby of his.

I kind of get glazy eyed but do find it interesting.

 

I just got my 23andMe results back last week.

 

My parents did Ancestry.  I did not know they were doing it.  Previously they weren't interested or we could have done the same one had I known.

 

What is the deal with hooking in my fathers DNA?  I saw there is another website where you can hook in to more people..family tree?

 

We are all UK and Ireland descended, which seems to confirm my Uncle's research.  

 

I do wonder what my kids will be since I married outside of my region/country..but I suspect we are the exact same ethnic group.

[maize]

I have distant relatives on the Norse side that were known as the Bergslien artists. Bryjulf was a sculpter and sculpted a statue of King Karl Johan in Royal Palace Square in Kristianna in 1875. Knud had a painting on tour with the Lillehammer Olympics and was lost or stolen somewhere along the way. My grandfather had a genealogy chart that was passed down that tied us to the Smor family in 1240, but that has been disputed. Apparently, someone way back published Norse histories for families in the US in the Vossingen or some other similar publication and incorrectly tied Dal to Smor and many many families added that to their family trees.

 

I discovered my maiden name was not our true family name. My great-grandfather changed it after some years in the U.S.

 

My husband's side has many interesting stories. The only problem is I don't have enough proof tying his ancestor to a well-documented line. It's hard because the spelling of the last name changes. If I go back far enough, I can see a different spelling for each child. They are in the same area and share common names, but I'm not convinced. An interesting clue is that his family has passed down the middle name is "B" (just the letter) and that follows this line. I keep checking back to see if anything has been updated. Anyway, if he is tied to this line, he has Revolutionary War and Civil War vets. I lucked out when one set of ancestors helped found Strongsville and Berea, OH, so they were all profiled with pictures. One helped with the underground railroad in that area to get slaves to Canada. Fletcher B owned a mill and built a hall that was named after him for Baldwin U.  Hannah Alice Foster (1837-1926) was a suffragist and belonged to the Temperance Union and published poetry that got a personalized letter from the Queen and published a book. I found a copy on Amazon. She worked on a newspaper and for the university. 

 

Y DNA testing might be able to confirm your husband's line.

[maize]

I think I convinced him and now I'm just waiting for a sale. My mom and I are getting ours done since she's adopted.

 

April 25th is "DNA Day"--Family Tree DNA often has a sale about that time. That is the go-to company for Y-DNA testing.

[vonfirmath]

I think I convinced him and now I'm just waiting for a sale. My mom and I are getting ours done since she's adopted.

 

My mom's family keeps trying to get guys in the direct line of descent to do the DNA because we trace back to an orphan and can't figure out where the guy came from. (My great-great-grandfather)  The H- name is common in America. But so far as we can tell there are no connections to us.

[maize]

My mom's family keeps trying to get guys in the direct line of descent to do the DNA because we trace back to an orphan and can't figure out where the guy came from. (My great-great-grandfather) The H- name is common in America. But so far as we can tell there are no connections to us.

Y DNA would be best for this but an autosomal test might be enough. Someone from the earliest generation you have available would work best.

[....]

I sound exceedingly crabby ðŸ¤

 

You do!   :tongue_smilie: It's Ok.   :D   If there was a coffee emoji, I would send you one.  There's a *ahem* root beer emoji.   :cheers2:   

 

I read your original post and I found that being able to trace my genealogy was not a class/income thing.  It actually had a lot to do with church records.  Certain denominations just keep VERY good records.  I was able to find baptismal records, marriage records, etc that were traced back through Lutheran and Anglican churches.  I'm sure Catholic and LDS churches keep really good records, too.  Also, if they were in the military - even in the 1800s - there's a bunch of documentation online.  My great..grandfather who died at the Rock Island prison camp - I was able to see the US Army records of him from when he was captured, his death certificate and even a picture/location of his grave at Rock Island Confederate Cemetery.  And no one in my family was ever wealthy - I mean, I posted about how one set of family members sold themselves into bondage (which I'm guessing means they were indentured servants).  Well, and apparently we're inbred, too.  Lol.

 

Your grandma and the Mayflower thing...  You can google it, but at this point in history, they think there are about 10 million people in the US and 35 million people in the world who are descendants of the Mayflower passengers!  Cool, but she didn't have anything super-special to hold over people's heads.

 

Very interesting stuff! 

[gardenmom5]

I think I convinced him and now I'm just waiting for a sale. My mom and I are getting ours done since she's adopted.

 

 

could be interesting.   dd and I both did 23&me, when I go to the relative finder - it brought her up as my daughter before we were even linked.

 

 

(THE one if you want any health data.  I ran my ancestry through promethease - so much wasn't even looked at because ancestry doesn't have very many snps - it was interesting, but not a well spent $10.)

 

[gardenmom5]

You do!   :tongue_smilie: It's Ok.   :D   If there was a coffee emoji, I would send you one.  There's a *ahem* root beer emoji.   :cheers2:   

 

I read your original post and I found that being able to trace my genealogy was not a class/income thing.  It actually had a lot to do with church records.  Certain denominations just keep VERY good records.  I was able to find baptismal records, marriage records, etc that were traced back through Lutheran and Anglican churches.  I'm sure Catholic and LDS churches keep really good records, too.  Also, if they were in the military - even in the 1800s - there's a bunch of documentation online.  My great..grandfather who died at the Rock Island prison camp - I was able to see the US Army records of him from when he was captured, his death certificate and even a picture/location of his grave at Rock Island Confederate Cemetery.  And no one in my family was ever wealthy - I mean, I posted about how one set of family members sold themselves into bondage (which I'm guessing means they were indentured servants).  Well, and apparently we're inbred, too.  Lol.

 

Your grandma and the Mayflower thing...  You can google it, but at this point in history, they think there are about 10 million people in the US and 35 million people in the world who are descendants of the Mayflower passengers!  Cool, but she didn't have anything super-special to hold over people's heads.

 

Very interesting stuff! 

 

 

indentured servitude was actually fairly common for how people got across the pond (especially at certain periods of time, or to particular locations). generally, they didn't have any means = no opportunity in their own country.  so, they'd become an indentured servant (usually less than 10 years) to pay off their fare.

 

some areas have great records - some areas . . have had records destroyed. fires, earthquakes, floods ... do a lot of damage to availability of records.   then there is the wild frontier . . . . records would be really sketchy in the best circumstances.

 

the farther back an ancestor is - the more descendants they have, and the more cousins in connections their are.   if I go out far enough - I have a lot of famous relatives.   that just means I have ancestors who arrived during the great migration/exodus of 1620-1640 (when the laws changed and basically shut it down) from england when they were seeking religious freedom.   and there are millions of us in common.

 

 scandinavia is one of the easier places to do research - even for those with "no means' - because the church records were the gov't records and they tracked everything.   then there's that whole "they have two last names" thing. . . . one is the "farm" where they lived.

 

[frugalmamatx]

I started at the age of 11, because I was curious what those "blue haired ladies" were doing who met at the library the same time as our homeschool event. I was a huge history buff already, and loved making history come alive in my family. 

 

 

It's been a blast. Found a few famous relatives {George Washington, Davy Crockett}, a few outlaw stories {one ancestor ran a horse stop for the James Brothers and the Daltons}, a few surprises {turns out we're part Jewish!}, and a lot of tough people who inspired me. 

 

Still haven't solved the family mysteries though, even after nearly 25 years of researching. I'm hoping when my Genes For Good DNA comes back, I'll be able to solve at least one. 

[gardenmom5]

I sound exceedingly crabby ðŸ¤

 

you haven't been assimilated yet.  crabby is when you've been up until 3am every night for a week chasing a lead. genealogy is very addicting - at least half the people doing it have NO religious/cultural-tradition as motivation.

 

  and modern technology has made research MUCH easier.   digitizing records - people uploading cemetery information to findagrave.com internment.net or billiongraves...

and some people who've found that person before (the further back you go, the more people are researching that common ancestor) - have attached other family members through findagrave (even at different cemeteries), even uploaded stories about the person.

 

then there's online histories..   I mentioned upthread being the _niece of the founder of hardinsburg, KY  I went to their history page, and it talked about an _uncle who was missing from my records.  he was scalped by indians when he was 17.  he had only left the fort to go a few hundred feet to fetch the horses watering/grazing by the river.  I have more than one direct ancestor also killed by indians (one has been such a pain to find in the records.  I came across someone venting their frustration about his elusiveness, but he left two young children who are easier to find tied to the family and listed as orphans.)

[gardenmom5]

My mom's family keeps trying to get guys in the direct line of descent to do the DNA because we trace back to an orphan and can't figure out where the guy came from. (My great-great-grandfather)  The H- name is common in America. But so far as we can tell there are no connections to us.

 

my brother is one of those - if you put your dna in a database, men in black helicopters will come and get you. or maybe just "insurance companies will discriminate against you". I'm SO GLAD his son has done the testing so we have that y-chromosome done. (ancestry.  any dna service will have the y-chromosome.)

my father had a half brother (or two) - but I've never met them, and only found out about their existence as an adult.   I did attempt to contact at least one, but never received a reply.

 

 

re; y-chromosomes have very little change from generation to generation.  so, it's easy to trace the male line.

similar with mrna for females - passed mother to daughter.

most is everything else in between.

Edited March 7, 2018 by gardenmom5

[mommaduck]

We don't have money. I do as much through free sites and googling as possible. I have been able to connect with cousins I didn't know I had (I wasn't raised around ANY family and had actually been hidden from half of my family, name changed, knew about me, but couldn't find me till I contacted them). We have many people into genealogy here and there (some have the memberships I don't have and are more than willing to share information. I've even had complete strangers offer to look something up for me). One or two for religious reasons (LDS), but most of us because we have a love for knowing history, keeping the family stories (this includes finding out the family stories, some having been treated as generational secrets), and obtaining a sense of where we came from so we can see where we are going with more strength and clarity. And, yes, we have those lovely skeletons that we stick on the front porch and laugh over, because it beats crying and is part of our story.

 

My children and I descend from three Queen/Saints (Birgitta of Sweden, Margaret of Scotland, and the mother in law of one of Margaret's children...just can't remember the name off hand). 

 

Charlemagne (this means that some of us on this thread are, indeed, cousins :) )

 

The first kings of Assyria.

 

The first Englishman left in SC, traded for a Native, ended up a surgeon on a Spanish pirate ship, and introduced Carolina Gold Rice. His sibling was married to a known minister.

 

One of my ancestors got in trouble in Scotland for watering down the communion wine (LOL!)

 

One of my lines was an unusual case of a family group that moved from NC to SC, black men with white wives. It caused a ruckus. The people went to the magistrate and the magistrate told everyone to treat them like everyone else and they became part of the community...including marrying into the other families. Highly unusual for the time.

 

One grandmother was a brickwall for a bit...because she passed as an adult. Finally found her at a year old. Her father was a mail carrier on the SC islands.

 

I'm related to some politicians (some closely).

 

Some of my relatives also were part of Francis Marion's men (Swamp Fox).

 

Edited March 7, 2018 by mommaduck

[ThisIsTheDay]

I’ve never understood the interest in genealogy. My paternal grandmother was very wealthy and from a family who had meticulous records and so she kept it going, and my husband’s aunt is the documentarian for his family, but if they’re relying on me for any of that the recording will die in this generation, because I couldn’t give two hoots who slept with who or died where or married whatever.

 

It’s fascinating to me that people care about where they are from, actually. Especially in a society where it means very little in terms of social standing or property claim. Except the baptizing dead people thing... that’s a whole different kettle of fish for genealogy hoarding.

 

It's not that I care about where I am from. It's WHO I am from. As a kid, we lived across the country from my dad's family and saw them, including my grandparents, for short periods of time every 2-3 years. Everyone else still lived there. They were all connected and saw (still see) each other frequently. I craved that kind of family connection, and to see it drawn out on a family tree was a tangible way of seeing how we all connected. Even this week, as I posted a picture of my grandparents from 1970s on FB, two distant cousins commented about the memories it brought back. THEY saw my grandparents several times a year, their families didn't move away like mine did. As a child, I met one of these cousins once and never otherwise knew they existed--but they knew my grandparents, THEY had those connections that I didn't.

 

I was fascinated by my g-grandparents, who'd immigrated from Eastern Europe 60 years before I was born. They lived on a farm and hauled water from an outdoor well still in the 1960s. That was so completely foreign to me, as I lived in upper-middle class suburbia in Silicon Valley. My family came from peasants. I was a voracious reader and loved reading stories about people from other countries, but I couldn't find books about people from those countries that would connect me to how my g-grandparents may have lived.

 

And then, incredibly, my uncle from my mom's side of my family sent me a copy of a book--a 160 paged typed manuscript, written by two of my g-grandmother's sisters, detailing their life in Austria and travels to North America from the 1890s to the 1950s.

 

So the family history, MY history, was always something that interested me. I still love looking through the old papers, the digitized records online, census, Ellis Island, birth certificates, draft cards, European church books and seeing THAT connection.

 

 

It's history!  I think people interested in genealogy are the same people who enjoy learning about history.

 

History, and biographies, and people!

 

I think I convinced him and now I'm just waiting for a sale. My mom and I are getting ours done since she's adopted.

 

Two of my friends have found their bio parents from DNA testing. Each one had an idea but the test gave them definitive answers. One has been in sweet contact with her bio mom and dad for the past year or so. One just found out this week.  That's so incredible to me.

 

As far as the OP's question. Nothing terribly exciting to anyone unrelated. I did find a great uncle who captained a ship that was sunk by a U-boat off the coast of South America in WWII and, according to books written about it, lost only one sailor due to my uncle's quick thinking. He came to visit us a few times when we were growing up, always a quick day or two if he was in port in San Francisco. But that was never a story anyone shared at the time.

 

And his mother (who was from Austria, above)--her children believed she died in 1912 or so. In truth, I found out that she had a mental breakdown, went into some sort of insane asylum where she caught TB and finally passed of her TB ten years later. That was quite a tragic story.

 

Doing my husband's genealogy, we discovered that his g-g-grandfather fought in the Civil War and was taken POW for a year or so before the war ended.

 

Lastly, although it wasn't a big unknown, I researched my uncle who was killed in a plane crash in the early 1960s. I was able to find the NTSB report and the EXACT location of the plane crash. I now live in the state where he died, and several years ago, while I was in the city of the plane crash, I drove around what is now a freeway interchange. That was eerie, sad, poignant.

 

Those family connections . . . and I share them with my kids so they will have them too.

[scoutingmom]

Okay, I know we have people here that are really into genealogy for various reasons.

 

What got you into genealogy? Who are some famous or infamous people you found yourself related to (direct descent or cousins)? What are some odd or funny things you've found or learned along the way?

Looking forward to reading the other responses!

 

I am kind of on a break from genealogy for a while, but have done it for years. My parents did genealogy. Apparently I had naps on the floor (on a blanket) in the genealogy library as a child. There are pictures of me as a toddler by family related tombstones.

 

I got involved one summer when I was a teenager. My Dad had bought a genealogy computer program and was entering the family in... one person a day. That was driving me crazy... so I started by doing data entry.

 

 

Famous people... I hate to say it but I can't remember the name. But he was Lord Mayor of London. Oh, and one of my second cousins once removed (that I have never met) is in the NHL.

 

Not exactly infamous... but crazy works. One of my ancestors probably had bi-polar disorder. (Diagnosed in the 1800's with scitzophrenia). He had multiple stays in assylums. I was able to get copies of some medical records, including nurse logs - very interesting reading. The inmates worked in the hospital as a part of the therapy. My ancestor escaped one day by putting a box beside the fence and jumping the fence. There were days he refused to leave his bed. Other days he was super energetic and disruptive. He punched another inmate one day. One time when he was out he was picked up by the police in a state of undress. One time he negotiated vegetables for the assylum at a reduced rate. He was one of the first inmates in an assylum that was built by the inmates... so he helped build it. He died working in the fields of an assylum on a hot day.... I suspect he was worked to death.

 

A minor puzzles I haven't worked out, or how to even enter it. Thomas Dixon had a wife, Elizabeth, that died in 1851. He remarried, to Ellen in 1851. And there was a new baby in the family in 1851... named B. C. Dixon. (No idea if it is a boy or girl, or full name. Baby had to have died fairly young as I find no other mention. So... I don't know if Elizabeth or Ellen is the mom. Or if Thomas is the Dad for sure.

 

POSSIBILITIES:

1) Most likely Elizabeth is the mom, probably died in child birth. Thomas might have remarried quick so baby would have a mom.

 

2) Maybe Ellen was the mom. She had 3 illigitamate children while single previously. Maybe Thomas and her had an affair. Maybe (unlikely, but who knows) one of them killed Elizabeth. (Ellen has also had times in a mental assylum...)

 

3) Maybe Ellen is the mom and someone else is the Dad, and Thomas married her after his wife died out of sympathy (they lived very closeby).

 

I haven't figured out a way to prove any of them. And I can't figure out how to enter this child into my database as I don't know either parent for sure. I hate 'loose' people in the database that are not connected. Minor puzzle that doesn't affect anything, but still.

[gaillardia]

Someone once told me that I am the only person who cares about my family history. Jerk. It's not true! I love reading over your stories, people!

 

I found one of dh's great grandparents by surprise. I could find no death record because she had remarried and I kept trying to use the first husband's last name as her last name in searching death records. In marriage records I found her with a new husband using her first husband's last name. It hadn't occurred to me that she had remarried, no one had mentioned it. 

 

It is something I feel a great satisfaction from, uncovering one more name, or location, or relationship. 

 

 

[gardenmom5]

We don't have money. I do as much through free sites and googling as possible.

 

 

LDS family history centers.  you can look for one near you.  (it's also common where I am for librarian to not even be LDS).  It's  free - free access to several paid sites, including ancestry world.

 

and at home - you can use familysearch.org for free.   a nice nifty thing- is you can upload single people from ancestry to family search. (especially if you are doing ancestry on a library computer someplace.  (our public library also has ancestry.) records go too.  and when you get back far enough (usually only a few generations) - there are other people working those same lines.

[....]

Someone once told me that I am the only person who cares about my family history. Jerk. It's not true! I love reading over your stories, people!

 

Me, too!  I was on the internet for hours yesterday, reading everyone's posts and googling historical things.   :o

[....]

A minor puzzles I haven't worked out, or how to even enter it. Thomas Dixon had a wife, Elizabeth, that died in 1851. He remarried, to Ellen in 1851. And there was a new baby in the family in 1851... named B. C. Dixon. (No idea if it is a boy or girl, or full name. Baby had to have died fairly young as I find no other mention. So... I don't know if Elizabeth or Ellen is the mom. Or if Thomas is the Dad for sure.

 

POSSIBILITIES:

1) Most likely Elizabeth is the mom, probably died in child birth. Thomas might have remarried quick so baby would have a mom.

 

2) Maybe Ellen was the mom. She had 3 illigitamate children while single previously. Maybe Thomas and her had an affair. Maybe (unlikely, but who knows) one of them killed Elizabeth. (Ellen has also had times in a mental assylum...)

 

3) Maybe Ellen is the mom and someone else is the Dad, and Thomas married her after his wife died out of sympathy (they lived very closeby).

 

I haven't figured out a way to prove any of them. And I can't figure out how to enter this child into my database as I don't know either parent for sure. I hate 'loose' people in the database that are not connected. Minor puzzle that doesn't affect anything, but still.

 

Wow, I don't think you're going to be able to find the answer to that.  But, I'm an amateur, so maybe someone else has some ideas.  

[....]

I started another thread:  http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/670239-so-genealogyhistorical-questions/

 

Because I didn't want to ruin your thread with my really dumb questions!   :tongue_smilie:

[Carrie12345]

I'm not really sure why I got interested.  I like puzzles, and it just happened.

 

I might be a distant Trudeau, so that's cool. Haven't chased it yet.

Justin Timberlake appears to be my 12th cousin.  On that earlier cousin poll? I totally think 12th cousins are okay!

[maize]

I got involved in genealogy when I was in college--I took a genealogy class and decided to try to track down my great great grandfather. I'm still trying!

 

Great great grandma is the person I was named for, so I had always had a bit of an interest in her. She was an important person in my own grandma's life because grandma's mother (great grandma's daughter) died young.

 

G.G.grandma was married six different times. I've gathered information about each of those marriages. Marriage number 1 ended in scandal when she ran off with the hired help and tried to go to Mexico with him and her children. The story is all over the local newspapers from the time.

 

Most of the other marriages ended tragically with the husband dying of pneumonia or some such. My great great grandpa was husband #4; they were only married for a few months and their only daughter was born after he died.

 

We really don't know very much about him, the only thing that got passed down other than a name is that he was Swedish and very handsome.

 

My grandma took a DNA test that connected her to many relatives in Sweden, but so far none close enough to easily determine a common ancestor. I'm working with what we have and hoping more relatives will test.

Edited March 8, 2018 by maize

[Carrie12345]

I think a big part of what keeps me borderline obsessed is the concept of "This is what it took to make me."  While it all boils down to luck of the draw (thanks, 12xg-grandpa, for not dying in infancy, drowning as a child, or having a tree fall on you while chopping wood,) it's a pretty amazing draw.  And being able to connect a lot of it to the history I've learned is just plain old cool.  The good history and the bad history. It all happened, and I'm a little bit of proof.

[gardenmom5]

I got involved in genealogy when I was in college--I took a genealogy class and decided to try to track down my great great grandfather. I'm still trying!

 

Great great grandma is the person I was named for, so I had always had a bit of an interest in her. She was an important person in my own grandma's life because grandma's mother (great grandma's daughter) died young.

 

G.G.grandma was married six different times. I've gathered information about each of those marriages. Marriage number 1 ended in scandal when she ran off with the hired help and tried to go to Mexico with him and her children. The story is all over the local newspapers from the time.

 

Most of the other marriages ended tragically with the husband dying of pneumonia or some such. My great great grandpa was husband #4; they were only married for a few months and their only daughter was born after he died.

 

We really don't know very much about him, the only thing that got passed down other than a name is that he was Swedish and very handsome.

 

My grandma took a DNA test that connected her to many relatives in Sweden, but so far none close enough to easily determine a common ancestor. I'm working with what we have and hoping more relatives will test.

 

I have a similar.   ggm ran off and married guy in another state.   had a baby - and died when the baby was seven months old.   the baby was given to ggm's parents to raise - and he went on to a new wife and family.

that's also the one that really prompted me to do the ancestry dna - I've got a lot of dna relatives with that surname - not one the same family.  I think they'd fit together though.   and the closest match (in the correct state) - the husband supposedly married the year 2ggm died.  (she died in sept.)  -but he didn't have a baby with the wife until two years later.  so, I'm wondering if that is my ancestor - they could have been off a year for the marriage.

[Carrie12345]

Talked to ds tonight and found out he did his DNA testing and just got the results! His bio dad also did his, and came up almost entirely European Jew. Ds came up 45%, so I have a pretty good idea of what my eventual results will be, lol!

 

Anyway, looks like it holds pretty true to the lines I’ve been tracing. Ireland/Scotland/Wales, Western Europe, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Finland/NW Russia, and maybe 1-2% random bits.

[gaillardia]

Looking forward to reading the other responses!

 

I am kind of on a break from genealogy for a while, but have done it for years. My parents did genealogy. Apparently I had naps on the floor (on a blanket) in the genealogy library as a child. There are pictures of me as a toddler by family related tombstones.

 

I got involved one summer when I was a teenager. My Dad had bought a genealogy computer program and was entering the family in... one person a day. That was driving me crazy... so I started by doing data entry.

 

 

Famous people... I hate to say it but I can't remember the name. But he was Lord Mayor of London. Oh, and one of my second cousins once removed (that I have never met) is in the NHL.

 

Not exactly infamous... but crazy works. One of my ancestors probably had bi-polar disorder. (Diagnosed in the 1800's with scitzophrenia). He had multiple stays in assylums. I was able to get copies of some medical records, including nurse logs - very interesting reading. The inmates worked in the hospital as a part of the therapy. My ancestor escaped one day by putting a box beside the fence and jumping the fence. There were days he refused to leave his bed. Other days he was super energetic and disruptive. He punched another inmate one day. One time when he was out he was picked up by the police in a state of undress. One time he negotiated vegetables for the assylum at a reduced rate. He was one of the first inmates in an assylum that was built by the inmates... so he helped build it. He died working in the fields of an assylum on a hot day.... I suspect he was worked to death.

 

A minor puzzles I haven't worked out, or how to even enter it. Thomas Dixon had a wife, Elizabeth, that died in 1851. He remarried, to Ellen in 1851. And there was a new baby in the family in 1851... named B. C. Dixon. (No idea if it is a boy or girl, or full name. Baby had to have died fairly young as I find no other mention. So... I don't know if Elizabeth or Ellen is the mom. Or if Thomas is the Dad for sure.

 

POSSIBILITIES:

1) Most likely Elizabeth is the mom, probably died in child birth. Thomas might have remarried quick so baby would have a mom.

 

2) Maybe Ellen was the mom. She had 3 illigitamate children while single previously. Maybe Thomas and her had an affair. Maybe (unlikely, but who knows) one of them killed Elizabeth. (Ellen has also had times in a mental assylum...)

 

3) Maybe Ellen is the mom and someone else is the Dad, and Thomas married her after his wife died out of sympathy (they lived very closeby).

 

I haven't figured out a way to prove any of them. And I can't figure out how to enter this child into my database as I don't know either parent for sure. I hate 'loose' people in the database that are not connected. Minor puzzle that doesn't affect anything, but still.

Go with what you know.

Check the areas they lived in for cemeteries and census records. Look at their siblings, where they were buried.

Dh's family came from one of the midwest states that was heavily populated by the early 1900s. I was able to find more information than I ever thought I'd uncover. 

So much more record extraction is being done, where you've looked before and found nothing, you very well may have success now. Findagrave is a good site to use. There are also city directories and military records.

In findagrave, the records I have found list the siblings and the siblings' spouses of the deceased, as well as parents and possibly more identifying information on them. 

I don't mind trying to find info for people, but I know it is weird to give personal info to "strangers." There are several of us here willing to help, I'm sure.

[J-rap]

What's the point of knowing?  Well I, for one, enjoy thinking about the sense of "connectedness" we have with people over time...  not just through culture or geographical areas but DNA.  It's just kind of fascinating to think about!  

 

Also, knowing that I'm a direct descendent of this artist:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Werenskiold

 

...and seeing how much my ds looks like him is pretty fascinating too!

Edited March 9, 2018 by J-rap

[maize]

I find it fascinating to learn about the various circumstances that led to me being alive.

 

One set of great grandparents both lost their spouses to the Spanish flu epidemic. They ended up marrying each other, forming a his hers and ours family that eventually included eleven kids.

 

My grandpa was one of the ours.

 

There is something sobering in the realization that without the tragedy of the flu I would never have been born.

[elegantlion]

I started my own research when ds was a baby. I have two family members (on opposite sides) that have researched extensively and so it was easy to tie into their research. I spent hours on genforum.com when it was active and found several connections that way. 

 

We have a few interesting stories. Most of my ancestors immigrated to North America before it was America, so there is lots of relationship to city founding, exploring places in early statehood. For year, my maiden name line dead ended in the early 1800s. The wife's ancestry could be traced back to early Boston and, ironically, my maiden name pops up in her line there. I could never tie the husband to the line, but there was another family by the same last name in another part of Boston. It took me several emails and letters to others, but I finally found the connection to that family. 

 

My most famous, there is a huge amount of documentation that survives, is to William de Warenne, who was 1st earl of Surrey, a Norman who fought with William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Warenne (became Warren) name stops in my line with one ancestor. The wife was a Warren, her husband was (H last name). He was born in 1791 lived to be about 90 years old and is buried not too far from me. His wife, however, was buried back in the Tennessee. 

[mommaduck]

What's the point of knowing?  Well I, for one, enjoy thinking about the sense of "connectedness" we have with people over time...  not just through culture or geographical areas but DNA.  It's just kind of fascinating to think about!  

 

Also, knowing that I'm a direct descendent of this artist:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Werenskiold

 

...and seeing how much my ds looks like him is pretty fascinating too!

 

I have Finnish artists on my maternal grandfather's side.

[scoutingmom]

Go with what you know.

Check the areas they lived in for cemeteries and census records. Look at their siblings, where they were buried.

Dh's family came from one of the midwest states that was heavily populated by the early 1900s. I was able to find more information than I ever thought I'd uncover.

So much more record extraction is being done, where you've looked before and found nothing, you very well may have success now. Findagrave is a good site to use. There are also city directories and military records.

In findagrave, the records I have found list the siblings and the siblings' spouses of the deceased, as well as parents and possibly more identifying information on them.

I don't mind trying to find info for people, but I know it is weird to give personal info to "strangers." There are several of us here willing to help, I'm sure.

Thanks. As I mentioned I am on a genealogy break... I do think I have exhasted the records in the are (online and offline)... although we plan to look into the prison/jail records in the area for the schitzophrenic ancestor as we do know from medical records that he was picked up at times.

 

There are more pressing questions than this child too, although I find the child interesting because of the possibilities. For instance, my Dad had all the Canadians living in Canada in 1972 with his surname worked out to be descended from a Thomas or an Oliver, both from Ireland appearing in Canadian records about the same decade, in the same Province, nearby counties. Possibly brothers..... It would be cool to get DNA testing from Male descendants of both to find out...

[gaillardia]

About French Canadian records: @scoutingmom: I have had so much frustration with Canadian records because I do not read French so well (HAHA), and the old records are faded (online photocopies), and I don't know if what I'm seeing is the ancestor (or ancestral family records). This is with my DH's family. 

Are you Canadian? The information is in these locations: Montreal, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. 

 

About adoption: My mom was able to have some of the adoption information released to her about her grandmother (mother's mother), since the information was so old. There are some weird stories within the family. She apparently was adopted by a distant relative (maybe?) but we don't know what the relationship was, but you know how tightly knit various groups were...She was born Scottish and was adopted by a Scottish family. Unfortunately, her first new mom passed away and the second new mom was a nut case mentally unstable, really mean.

My grandmother and her sisters were all so cute. Grateful to have photos of them when they were little. Well, they stayed little, small women, under 5'.

[gaillardia]

I find it fascinating to learn about the various circumstances that led to me being alive.

 

One set of great grandparents both lost their spouses to the Spanish flu epidemic. They ended up marrying each other, forming a his hers and ours family that eventually included eleven kids.

 

My grandpa was one of the ours.

 

There is something sobering in the realization that without the tragedy of the flu I would never have been born.

On the other side of my family from what I mentioned above, my other grandmother had 3 sisters who died from the flu epidemic at the start of their adult lives. I forget their exact ages. One was married.

 

Grandmother had it also, and gave birth during this time. That baby didn't make it. 

[KarenNC]

I'd had a passing interest in the stories my relatives used to tell about family, but didn't start anything serious until my daughter was born. I went from career to stay-at-home mom in my late 30s, and all my friends were either fairly far away or working, so I needed something to keep my mind stimulated. I went at it pretty intensely for several years, but haven't done much in the last few. I may get more involved again now that my daughter is going to college. Overall, I've learned a lot about various periods in US history that I hadn't encountered before and a lot about documentation. There's a lot of clean-up work that needs to be done on my earlier efforts.

 

The majority of our families have been in the US since colonial times. In my case, both sides of my family have been in the same 75 or so square miles for 200+ years. On my husband's side, I turned up unexpected Cajun heritage and a line that goes back to New Amsterdam. 

 

It looks like we both have family lines that originated in Palatine Germany in the 1700s, though his went north and mine went south when they came over. I have connections to the French Huegenot and 17th century Virginia colonists. My grandfather used to tell my father we had Cherokee heritage, but I haven't been able to find any documentation of that yet, and I've taken that line at least as far back as 1860 in all branches, some much further. My grandfather was born in 1876, so it could be there and I just haven't gotten the brick walls all broken down. Looks on that side of the family would definitely support it, however. I wish he had been more informative.

 

Lots of confusing and irritating issues even with official records, but they're sometimes funny. He had one family in Alabama in the late 1800s with ten kids. On one census, the child's name is listed as "Finally."  :D By the next one, he was "Timothy." I can just hear the informant telling the census-taker, "and, finally, the baby," as he was very young in the first census.

 

You have to be prepared to find out things that aren't as pleasant, but they are what they are (or were). I already knew that my grandfather on one side was also his wife's step-grandfather (no blood relation), as I mentioned in the cousins thread, making my dad simultaneously his father's bio son and step-great-grandson (try entering that in most programs!). We joke that we have a family kudzu vine rather than a family tree. It took a long time to find one gggmother and when I did, it was because she had been in a mental institution for decades. It was fairly unpleasant to find evidence of an ancestor's extremely racist views in his obituary.

 

Of course, being from the South, we have our share of family members who owned slaves, though the majority did not. It was interesting working with the descendant of one of those slaves to try to piece together the history of both of our families. I'd love to know more about the story of a family member who had a free black woman listed in his household in NC in 1830. When I asked at a local historical site, I was told she was likely a cook for a local tavern or a seamstress, but unlikely to be a freed slave from NC, as they were only given something like 90 days to leave the state.

Edited March 12, 2018 by KarenNC

[gardenmom5]

 

 

Lots of confusing and irritating issues even with official records, but they're sometimes funny. He had one family in Alabama in the late 1800s with ten kids. On one census, the child's name is listed as "Finally."  :D By the next one, he was "Timothy." I can just hear the informant telling the census-taker, "and, finally, the baby," as he was very young in the first census.

 

You have to be prepared to find out things that aren't as pleasant, but they are what they are (or were). I already knew that my grandfather on one side was also his wife's step-grandfather (no blood relation), as I mentioned in the cousins thread, making my dad simultaneously his father's bio son and step-great-grandson (try entering that in most programs!). We joke that we have a family kudzu vine rather than a family tree. It took a long time to find one gggmother and when I did, it was because she had been in a mental institution for decades. It was fairly unpleasant to find evidence of an ancestor's extremely racist views in his obituary.

 

Of course, being from the South, we have our share of family members who owned slaves, though the majority did not. It was interesting working with the descendant of one of those slaves to try to piece together the history of both of our families. I'd love to know more about the story of a family member who had a free black woman listed in his household in NC in 1830. When I asked at a local historical site, I was told she was likely a cook for a local tavern or a seamstress, but unlikely to be a freed slave from NC, as they were only given something like 90 days to leave the state.

 

when my grandmother's youngest sister was born - it made the town newspaper.  __  T_ - "finally" got his boy.  uh,  . . . it was another girl.

 

I have ancestors I've very recently unearthed in Maryland - who owned slaves.  It can be easy to forget - Maryland** is south of the mason-dixon line,   The area was also open to free blacks, as both appear on the census records.   These weren't plantations (the stereo type associated with slaves) - they were small farms with only a couple slaves to help work it. - in the north, they'd have hired hands to do the same work.  and post - civil war, I find hirelings listed with the families on census records.

**-I've long known about ancestors who were in baltimore (before heading to CA) - but they didn't own slaves so it didn't even register it was a slave state.

 

I have remembered the story of the one and only slave in the very tiny (and very white) missouri town from which my mother's family hailed.   after the civil was was over - the man told her she was free to go.  she was 15, and had lived there since she was eight or nine.  she was to be a 'mother's helper'.   later the man found her in the barn, crying her eyes out.  I can hardly imagine how terrified she was to go out into the unknown world.  she was allowed to stay, and worked as a 'nurse' for people in town as needed.  apparently when she died, most of the town turned out for her funeral.

 

some interesting things I've found: a man with custody of all of his kids and is listed as a widower- except, I found the wife (ex?) - with a baby somewhere else.   I also found a husband listed twice: with his wife - and his mistress.

[scoutingmom]

 

 

About French Canadian records: @scoutingmom: I have had so much frustration with Canadian records because I do not read French so well (HAHA), and the old records are faded (online photocopies), and I don't know if what I'm seeing is the ancestor (or ancestral family records). This is with my DH's family.

Are you Canadian? The information is in these locations: Montreal, Nova Scotia, and Ontario.

 

 

Yes, I am Canadian. However, I only know high school French that I learned over 20 years ago.

[Carrie12345]

 

I have ancestors I've very recently unearthed in Maryland - who owned slaves.  It can be easy to forget - Maryland** is south of the mason-dixon line,   The area was also open to free blacks, as both appear on the census records.   These weren't plantations (the stereo type associated with slaves) - they were small farms with only a couple slaves to help work it. - in the north, they'd have hired hands to do the same work.  and post - civil war, I find hirelings listed with the families on census records.

**-I've long known about ancestors who were in baltimore (before heading to CA) - but they didn't own slaves so it didn't even register it was a slave state.

 

 

Last week, I came across mention of an ancestor that willed a young boy to his daughter. In New Jersey.  The North does not have clean hands.

[gardenmom5]

you know - this threat has gotten me back active in doing research.   I've found the grave record of a deceased child that was in no other record -and whose two siblings (whom I also traced through to their deaths) never married so the family died out.  one reason I always go sideways, then down.  not just "backwards".