doing the genealogy dance...

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

(apologies to those who aren't interested in their ancestral heritage).....

Today I discovered more interesting personages in my family tree. On one line, I hadn't researched as far as I usually did, and took it a few generations further....and wound up on the Mayflower. Quite the surprise. "Degory Priest" was my 11th great grandfather.

Earlier, I found that my 5th great grandmother (and her father - my 6th gr grandfather) had been captured by Indians, who had killed the wife/mother. After being rescued by the militia (this was prior to the Revolutionary War), 5th gr grandma was the first medical "doctor" (using the medical/herbal lore she learned from the Indians) in the Ohio county where she was married. (And her marriage was THE event in 1765, where everyone who was able, was in attendance!)

My 8th gr grandfather was Bishop Hans Herr, who brought the Mennonite faith to America in the early 1700's from Switzerland and Germany. Most of his ancestors were Jewish.

The Herr family married into the Hershey family in Switzerland. (Yep, the Hershey family of "Hershey" chocolate fame.)

My 7th gr grandmother was the daughter of a Delaware "Turtle Clan" sachem.

My mom and dad are 19th cousins via King Edward III (Plantagenet). The common shared maternal and paternal DNA that I have is amazing!

My 3rd gr grandfather was 17 and fought with George Washington at the Battle of Brandywine. He was twice married and had 21 children. I actually found the estate in Fincastle, Virginia where he lived, which is, amazingly, still in the family.

My Quaker ancestors came from Aynho, England in the late 1600's. I contacted the Historical Group there and was invited to become a member. Aynho is just a very small (<700 population) village, and used to be an enclave for the Quakers.

Another of my lines came from Luxembourg - one of my DNA matches (who was predicted to be a 4th cousin) was actually an 8th cousin, with our common ancestor back into Luxembourg (my "cousin" thought it was in Germany - close, but not entirely correct).

The DNA test(s) have proved to be an absolutely invaluable asset for research and finding "cousins"!!!

*****

I've done research for other families, too. One was for a family in my home church here in Oregon. Come to find out, we share the same common ancestor, Bishop Hans Herr!!! All the way from Switzerland in the 1600's, to living less than 6 miles apart here in Oregon. So, my mom is 8th cousins with Mr. D, and myself 9th cousins, with his son, Bob. Also, found that Mr. D's 8th gr granduncle was convicted of being a witch in the infamous Salem Witch Trials, and was hanged. (Later exonerated in Oct 2001 - a bit late)

I decided to do the family tree for a childhood friend of mine. I unfortunately uncovered a "family skeleton" and decided not to share the information - my friend's "daddy" was not her biological father.. and I don't want to be the one to tell her.

But I love doing the research!!! Lots of fun (usually) to find out about my ancestors and the ancestors of others..

I'm also the "genealogical and general information" researcher for the consultant to the US Federal govt for geological sciences and engineering (who, among other things, is consults for flooding, dam/levee breeches, earthquakes, and other natural and structural disasters)

Sorry to run on ..... genealogy just really psychs me up!!! :D

[CoAspen]

[Naomi]

Yes Pam, genealogy is interesting and often informative. I am glad that you are so involved in learning about your Roots and those of others. Good choice about your friend! )

[Tom Wetmore]

Yes, it is fascinating! Really cool stuff you are digging up!

My brother has been working on our extended family tree and has come up with some interesting finds. Since both sides came to New England in the 1600's it's surprising there haven't been more overlaps in the trees. I think I've shared it here before, but I too had maternal ancestors on the Mayflower. Three, actually - Miles Standish (10th great grandfather), John Alden (10th great grandfather), and William Brewster (11th great grandfather). (Cool that our ancestors knew each other!)

The Wetmore ancestors came to Boston 10 years after the Mayflower and one son, Thomas Wetmore settled in Connecticut and was one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut. Most recently my brother is finding out that several of our paternal ancestors were Millerites, lecturers in the early Advent movement.

[phkrause]

I'm with CoAspen,

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

That's very cool about your Mayflower ancestors, Tom!! My Mayflower line went from Massachusetts to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Ohio to Oregon.

I've also discovered that in 1870, my 2nd gr grandfather lived in the same town where I and my family live now. I wish my father and grandpa had known about it. We knew he'd been amongst the first to have land in Portland, but had no idea he'd also lived out here. (His land claim in Portland encompassed most of what is now the Portland Int'l Airport.)

One thing that does have me puzzled are my mtDNA matches. (mtDNA traces one's maternal line) I only have 2 matches - one whose maternal line is strictly English, and the other is in Finland! As far as I knew, my maternal line was German. Can't figure that one out.

Very very fun! I'd love to hear who else might have some famous or otherwise interesting characters in their ancestry! Anyone??

[phkrause]

My wife did one on her parents and went back quite a number of years. She really had a lot of fun with it. She actually filled in some places where her uncle could not find. Not sure how far back she got. We put together a book on it put right at this moment don't know where its at. We did start one on my Mom's side and only went back a few generations. On my fathers side (the Jewish side) could only go back to my father's father, since we started after my father had passed away. So we didn't get the correct spelling of his last name. We understand that its very difficult to do genealogy on Jews. Also when we first started this, we happen to be visiting one SIL in Wyoming, so we got to go to the big Mormon library in Salt Lake City to do some research. I believe they are one of the biggest donors for genealogies in the US.

[Naomi]

No North American blue bloods in my genealogy .. with one exception my grandparents came as unauthorized political refugees. However, the one grandmother's two uncles were in the Revolutionary War ... one North, one South. They were at Valley Forge and stood facing each other bayonets touching when a shot was fired and the Union soldier fell dead.

[Jeannieb43]

This is an interesting thread....

My dear mother, after her retirement, took a genealogy course in the local community college. She then began researching her ancestry, and writing them up in a notebook. She told me one of her ancestors came over on the Mayflower. But I never followed up on what she learned.

My father's grandfather, however, came from Denmark. When he landed at Ellis Island he changed his name completely. He didn't want to sound "foreign" so we no longer have the name he had at that time [which would have been Rasmussen, or something like that]. He changed it to the most common of American names -- the name you'll find by the dozens, listed in any big city telephone book. Shucks!

[Naomi]

When we did our genealogy studies we discovered that many names were changed at Ellis Island, some for the reasons you gave Jeannie and others because of the language issues ... the person(s) doing the intake did not understand their names and wrote what they deemed most closely sounded like what the immagrant was saying.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Yes! Surname spelling changes were rampant at Ellis Island, but also during the all the Federal Censuses which began in 1790 for the US, and in the mid 1600's for Canada. There were often 2 censuses done in the same area every 5-10 years. One census only lists the Head of Family, with family members listed only by age and sex. The other census will actually list all members of the family, along with the approx year of birth, place of birth, where father and mother were each born. Unfortunately, that type of census only began in 1850 in some areas in the US, and even later for Canada. If you follow the trail of your ancestors via the census, you can really find out quite a lot.

One set of my 2nd great grandparents came from Alsace-Loraine, France. He was Catholic, she was Jewish, and were married just prior to immigrating to America (against the will of both families). They combined their surnames when they boarded ship to America to keep the respective families from finding them. It's been very difficult to find information on either of them or their families in France (though I have had matches with some of the Jewish "Roth" DNA-test participants).

pk, there is a great website for Jewish ancestry research... www.jewishgen.org Very nice folks there, and very helpful.

Jeannie, if you know when your great grandfather arrived from Denmark, his real name would probably be listed on the ship's manifest. They kept records of names, ages, and from what area the passengers were from. That would be a lot of fun to investigate!!

Naomi, I didn't think I'd find much in my family tree, either - but the further back I went, the more interesting it's become. I think it's very cool to have ancestors who served in the Civil and Revolutionary Wars. Very patriotic folks, and fought for what they believed in. My 2nd and 3rd gr grandfathers (father and son) were both in the Civil War - in the Battle of Shiloh, right smack dab in the "Hornet's Nest." My 3rd gr grandpa never made it home. He was injured at Shiloh, went to the Ft Jefferson Medical facility. I have a copy of his discharge papers....he was 63 yrs old (one of the oldest enlisted men to fight in the Civil War), listed as "feeble" and had "complete loss of memory." We don't know what happened to him.

[Liz]

When you shake my family tree, we also can trace our people to a woman on the Mayflower; also Joseph Smith falls out too, but I can't remember if it is through him or one of his wives. My husband's distant cousin was Mary Harlan who married Robert Todd Lincoln son of Pres. Lincoln.

During the Civil War, I had a Union Uncle that was captured and spent time in a prison camp. He kept a daily diary of his time, the weather, what he did each day. It is fascinating but sad.

I enjoy genealogy too.

[phkrause]

Thanks, I have joined the site.

[Jeannieb43]

Thanks, Pam, for the info about the ship's manifest. I'm not really certain that my gr grandfather's name was Rasmus; it's just what my aunt learned when she traveled to the home town in Denmark several years ago. [And now I don't even know what town that was.]

It's obvious I haven't been as persistent in researching as you have been....

[Tom Wetmore]

We haven't figured out the name change for Wetmore. The first family here was Whitmore. It appears that the name changed soon after they arrived, but there are documents that show the name of the same person spelled differently within that same document. (Where was spellcheck when you needed it!) I think it was a literacy issue as much as anything.

The roles during the wars also turns up some interesting stuff in our tree. Haven't found much on the Civil War, but during the Revolutionary War apparently a number of the Wetmores were British loyalists that headed north to Canada where you can still find Wetmores.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I was doing a bit of research on the Civil War and came across this entry in a book listing Civil War veterans in Michigan. Anyone see something peculiar????

[Gail]

LOL

[Guest]

How did he get in there? He should have been dead by then.

[Gail]

How did he get in there? He should have been dead by then.

Although I read somewhere that we are still breathing in his molecules of air... :)

[Guest]

I don't know if I buy all that...

[Planey]

Could he have been an emancipated slave? Some of them apparently took different names to separate them from their slave identities.

Of course I speak with authority from my home here in Australia...

Graeme

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I did a bit of research on ol' Julius. There truly *was* someone by that name who fought in the Civil War. He was an immigrant from Germany, and his wife's name was Frederika. Odd, how some folks will give "historical," or odd names to their children..

Another interesting genealogical "find" I'm running into was the surname of "Gould" consistently appearing in the family trees of many of my DNA matches, with the location in Kittery, Maine - the same Gould line as Ellen G. White's family. There aren't any Gould's in my line that I know of. Just another mystery to solve!!