Genealogy

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

my genealogical quest of my ancestors (and ancestors of my friends) continues to amaze me!! I'd love to see who my C/A friends are related to! (I know for certain that I'm 5th cousins with dAb here)...

Here's a run-down so far of interesting people in my tree:

Daniel Boone

Gen. Ceorge Armstrong Custer

Col. Timothy Matlack (he penned the official Declaration of Independence)

Louis Comfort Tiffany (of stained glass fame)

Prince William (Princess Diana was my father's 7th cousin)

Robert the Bruce

William Wallace

George Ross (signer of the Declaration of Independence)

Betsy Ross

Bishop Hans Herr (brought the Mennonite faith to America)

Burl Ives

George Lucas

former 1st Lady Barbara Bush (she's my "double" 7th cousin)

Lorenzo Sunderland (he brought back the first California gold dust to NYC, where the dust was made into the first gold coins minted from the CA gold dust)

and lots of others who fought in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, etc.

It is SO much fun to do the research!!!!

Anyone else want to share interesting info about their tree? (I know Tom's ancestor was on the Mayflower with one of my relatives, John Howland)

[Tom Wetmore]

By the way, I have just returned from a business trip to Salt Lake City and stopped briefly at the Mormon's Family History Center there. I didn't have much time to climb into the family tree, but it was interesting to learn about the amazing resources they have. I think my brother has used them quite a bit.

Here are some of the famous cousins, albeit distant, in my tree from the maternal side that my brother has found...

John Adams -- 3rd Cousin, 8th Removed

Henry Wadsworth LongFellow -- 4th Cousin, 5th Removed

John Quincy Adams -- 4th Cousin, 7th Removed

William Cullen Bryant -- 5th Cousin, 6th Removed

Ulysses S. Grant -- 6th Cousin, 6th Removed

Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- 7th Cousin, 5th Removed

And as you mentioned, from people on the Mayflower I am a direct descendant of three people through my mother -

Myles Standish -- 10th Great Grandfather

John Alden -- 10th Great Grandfather

William Brewster -- 11th Great Grandfather

On the Wetmore side the name goes back to the first generation that came to New England from England just 10 or 15 years after the Mayflower. One of the sons that came, Thomas Wetmore/Whitmore was among the first to settle in Connecticut. He had 13 children with his first wife Sarah Hall and 4 more children with two subsequent wives. Some of his descendants were British loyalists that fled to Canadian territory during or after the Revolutionary War. There are Wetmores scattered across Canada today that are distant cousins. (Gail, look for a Volkswagen dealership in Vancouver. It is owned by a Wetmore. My brother met him while vacationing out there.)

[Tom Wetmore]

I may have posted this before, but anyway here it is again...

Since both sides of my family tree go back deep into New England it is easy to wonder if the branches may have crossed or the ancestors from both sides may have interacted or known each other. Well, we have some evidence of just that. My brother (a much more diligent family historian than me) was in contact with relatives on my mother's side still living in an old family house in either Maine or Massachusetts that had been in the family for generations. In the process of repairing or renovating they had torn out an old wall and found a very old letter, I believe dating back to sometime in the 1800's, to one of the relatives then living in the house. It was from a John Wetmore who was traveling to the West. It was apparent from the letter that they were good friends. I am not sure which John Wetmore that might have been since there are quite a number of John Wetmores in the family tree.

Also, on the Wetmore side, apparently William Brewster would be a very distant cousin. Of the small army of children of Thomas Whitmore/Wetmore, the 4th son (I am a descendant of the 5th son) married a direct descendant of William Brewster.

And an interesting footnote on the Mayflower line, one of my relatives still living in Massachusetts has an item that came over on the Mayflower, a small pewter pitcher. I have only seen a picture of it.

[Gail]

That's pretty neat, Tom!

My Mormon relatives who are into the genealogy thing have shown us a couple things, that we do have one English ancestor who was some kind of aristocrat, and that Nancy Hanks (Abraham Lincoln's mom) was an ancestor. But I have not really been interested enough to delve more than that.

[phkrause]

That's Tom. I've also been to the Family History Center. We went to visit one of my SIL who lives near Jackson Hole. We stay in Salt Lake for a day, we took a tour and than visited the Center.

[Kevin H]

I find genealogy interesting, and I love hearing your stories. My grandfather's grandmother, Karen Gudem (1837 - 1927), has an interesting story. Her family owned a farm in Rakkestad as far back as the records go (1500) where they were already established as owning that farm. Her parents use to have parties on the farm. At one party (not known if it was one on their farm or not) she met a guy who was a trumpeter who was also a trumpeter/bugler for the Army. They fell in love, but her parents felt that he was below their class and forbade it. They decided to try to get the parents to change their mind by Karen getting pregnant. They succeeded on the first try. When the trumpeter heard that she was pregnant, he was at a party and had been drinking, and responded with "If a cake is going to pop out of the oven every time I open it, maybe I don't want that girl." Then later he was talking to others about how her dowry may be less now that she is not longer a virgin. Both these statements got back to Karen and she decided she wanted nothing more to do with him. Years later he still regretted it. He went on to become a shopkeeper.

Anyway, Karen had a boy named Albert. Time went by and the farm hired a new farmhand, Hans Hendricksen from the Hellerud Farm. Karen and Hans fell in love. Again her parents were furious because he was below their class. They fired Hans. Hans left, but Karen took Albert and went after Hans. Her parents came and took Albert back home expecting Karen to come back home, but she said that she knew what a treasure Hans was and refused to leave him. After 2 years her parents saw that Hans was a very kind man and Karen was really happen with him, so they accepted him as their son-in-law, bought a small farm for them that he named after his home farm. They had 12 children. As my Grandfather's father grew up Hans and Karen gave him the farm as they moved across the street (where in the future one of my Grandfather's brothers was to live), then later moved to a small house up the road until Hans died in 1917, then Karen moved back in with her son in the original farm that her parents got her when they accepted Hans.

Albert moved to Canada where his decedents did a lot of the genealogical work, although our cousins who live in the area also have a lot of the history.

On my Grandma's side, a few years ago when visiting some cousins on that side of the family, the one we were staying with asked what we would like to do, and I mentioned wanting to learn more about the family. He knew that my Grandma's dad came from the town of Tretten. He contacted the town and found that they had computerized most of the records and on the one disk had his full ancestry to they said 1614 and said they might be able to go back farther but need to load a new disk. My cousin said "I think 1614 is back far enough" (actually that generation has someone from the 1500's on it).

I really want to learn my Grandmother's mother's family. That we have not had the information on, yet should be the most interesting as they were in the upper crust, barons etc. My Great-Great Grandfather on this side was a sea captain. My cousin knew what district Great Grandma was from. I was surprised as it was inland bordered by Norway on one side and the district that contains Stockholm Sweden. So wondered about how he was a sea captain there, but then discovered that it had a very large lake, a river or canal that lead to the ocean and that the seaport was one of the largest seaports in the world from the 1840s to something like the 19teens or 20's, with ships taking timber and iron to all parts of the world. When I was in Norway in May, my son and I went to Sweden to that seaport and got to learn a lot about it, and saw a photo of one boat from the time period and got to go on one from the time period. Great-Grandpa, when my great grandma was 10, was at sea and the ship was wrecked in a storm. When they found his body his hands were folded in prayer. My great-grandma said that he had been a loving man and a religious man and that she was very impressed that his faith could hold strong after that disaster and this convinced her and her sister to give their hearts to God. The sisters moved to Norway and had a bakery, and it was open 7 days a week since Great-grandma's sister became a Seventh-day Adventist. The love for God that Great-Grandpa gave to his 2 daughters was passed on to my Grandma and influenced her to accept Jesus, and Grandma passed this love to my mom and myself.

Sadly I was not able to find any documents, Sweden has not computerized their records like Norway has. I'd love to go back and spend some time researching. But it was exciting to find the seaport, and to visit a church that was there when Great Grandpa was there and wondered if he worshiped in that church.

[phkrause]

stuff Kevin.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

What great family stories, Tom and Kevin!!! Real-life stories are often much better than fiction!

My 5th great grandmother, Catherine Lorisch, was about 8 years old when she, her father, and baby sister Elizabeth were taken captive by the Indians in Pennsylvania. The whole family had been out in a field when the Indians came upon them and tried to take Elizabeth. The mother hit one of the Indians on the head with a rake, but when she struck at them, they killed and scalped her. Catherine's father and sister were released after approximately six months, but the Indians kept Catherine. She was taught herbal medicine and was assigned to care for the old chief who no longer went out on hunts.

One day after she'd been in captivity for nearly 10 years, Catherine was out gathering food and herbs, when some white hunters spotted her. They told her to be back in the same area in two weeks and they would take her back to the white settlement. Catherine agreed, and went back to tell the old chief. He said she should go, and when the 2 weeks were up, he gave her all types of gifts: blankets, beads, moccasins, and medicines.

When Catherine married Peter Schaeffer in 1765, she used most of the gifts in her wedding...

[Kevin H]

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