Who's In YOUR Famly Tree?

Search
Go

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List
This thread has been locked
Messages 1 - 20 of total 38 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
Happiegrrrl2

Trad climber
Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 5, 2015 - 10:12am PT

Patrick Sawyer's post, stating that Samuel Clemmens was in his family tree, had me wondering about the various ancestors we all have. So this thread is to either brag, or dare to admit, those we can claim as direct descendant relatives. (Note: Fine to make things up, but if you do, please indicate that it is in jest).


My mother's family genealogy showed that way back there was Benedict Arnold (the Traitor!) and King Louis the XV(and thus I suppose the other Louis', but only XV was mentioned). Father's side, nobody you would know of.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Oct 5, 2015 - 10:32am PT
CMac's yer daddy before this goes one step further.

[Jest.]

edit: What's old Langhorne reading there?
snakefoot

climber
Nor Cal
Oct 5, 2015 - 10:34am PT
nobody famous, but one thing in common..everyone dies.
jstan

climber
Oct 5, 2015 - 10:37am PT
In 1795 my ancestor was on track to be hung for counterfeiting. He was only 18 and single at
the time so I have reason to be thankful they hung an MD instead. But it is nice to know at
least one Stannard was colorful.

Fish Finder

climber
Oct 5, 2015 - 10:38am PT
I come from a long line of alcoholics

There is a car wrapped around my family tree
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Oct 5, 2015 - 11:26am PT
I fiddled with online genealogy around 2000 and still look at it occasionally. My parents have been into it a bit and have done some midwestern road trips to look at places people lived, local records, etc.

I agree with Tami that connections back to royal lines are sketchy, because people often want to push their tree back as far as possible, even if the links are sketchy.
My mom started with a tree from a relative in Salt Lake City that he made in the 60s using the Mormon records. It had links to people back to around the year 1000 in England. However, we found later research online which showed one of the links was wrong, which broke the whole connection. The link was the grandmother of a guy named Bygod Eggleston (b. 1586). The records only show her first name was Dorothy, and somebody guessed her full name was Dorothy Bigod, which would link her to a royal line. But it was a complete guess and the ages don't line up....
I found some other links, but the chance of there being no errors seems very small.

One maybe interesting person we found in our family tree is Abbie Brooks. She wrote a couple of books about Florida, after the civil war, under the pen name Silvia Sunshine.
http://books.google.com/books?id=HRB38sDzxd0C&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=silvia+sunshine&source=bl&ots=VA3q9ta_NV&sig=72-fmdKZZs9rr9e_KjZh-2gp1xs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAGoVChMIvMb2yveryAIVAh6UCh1tjgia#v=onepage&q=silvia%20sunshine&f=false
We're related to her via her illegitimate daughter.
Abbie's dad gave her some support, as long as she did not contact her daughter.
And her daughter received some things from his estate.

Here are some of the cooler old (colonial USA) names in the tree:
 Lucetta (Lucretia) Kingsley (1797-1836) b. Rutland Co., VT [Abbie's mom]
 Submit Bishop (1713-1793) b. Guilford, CT
 Thanks (Thankful) Shepard (Shepherd) (1683-1724) b. Concord, MA [Quaker?]
 Thank Ye The (Thankful) Lord (1609-1681) b. Towcester, Northamptonshire, England [her grandmother - name a family tradition, I guess?]
 Jerusha King (1747-) b. Windsor, CT
 Zebulon King (1716-1793) b. Windsor, CT [his father]
 Obadiah Cooley (1646-1690) b. Springfield, MA
 Ashbell (Ashibel, Asaell) Phelps (1704-1787) b. Hebron, CT
 Arthusa Phelps (1769/70-1818) b. Hebron, CT
 Adonijah Ford (1748-1820) b. Norwich, CT
Happiegrrrl2

Trad climber
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 5, 2015 - 12:19pm PT
Well who knows...maybe they were fudging things back in the early 1900's when my mother's genealogy was made. People were marrying Euro men with titles and no income just to have the name!

Norwegian

Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
Oct 5, 2015 - 12:19pm PT
ragnar lodbrok.
thebravecowboy

climber
The Good Places
Mar 27, 2018 - 01:41pm PT
this guy.




some things never change


one can see the way that policing (and being "policed") can drive one to extremes




other side of the family shows a Scot sold here in 1661( to berwick, in today's Maine, for mere hundreds of dollars in today's $$). he was one of maybe 10% surviving the winter after losing to Cromwell at Dunblane - they died and survived, variously, in the basement of a f*#king cathedral). no word as to the name of the lone female prisoner on the same transatlantic, nor her end. no wonder I have always hated bangers&mash and that shite culture generally.
Jan

Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
Mar 27, 2018 - 01:58pm PT
I've done genealogical research for 15 years now and have traced various family lines back to the time they arrived in America. I don't go back further than that unless there is a DNA link to someone in Europe. In fact, many of my lines were only solved through DNA tests (Y-chromosome for males). I've also written narratives of 100 - 300 pages for about 8 family lines. Without a story involving them, they're just strings of names. In the process I've learned more American history than I ever did in school.

Among my relatives are Quakers who established the underground railway out of North Carolina, early Dutch settlers of New York, a Virginia ancestor who spent the winter at Valley Forge with George Washington and numerous other ancestors who fought in the Revolution. One fought at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, while numerous pioneers came west in covered wagons, some of whom had to defend themselves against Commanche Indians. One died with Bowie and Travis defending the Alamo at the tender age of 16. There were also several outlaws who ended up in Mexico.

My all time favorite is a Methodist circuit riding minister who spent most of his life sleeping under the stars, riding an average of 2,500 miles a year, preaching in West Texas saloons with a Bible in one hand and his pistol in the other. He's a great example of high ideals backed up by practical skills, and was known for converting some of the toughest, meanest cowboys in Texas to a more law abiding life.
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Mar 27, 2018 - 02:32pm PT
My father spent years immersed in genealogy. Researching online, interviewing as many relatives (both near and distant) as he could, and even traveling to England more than once to poke around in church records to clarify, as much as was possible, the kinds of confusion some of you mention above.

I now have all his records, but other than a cursory glance, have never looked at them. It's hard to imagine something I could care less about.

My parents gave me a wonderful upbringing. I loved them both deeply, and miss them more than I could have imagined. So I don't hate my family, or fear what I might find out.

But why would I want to find out more? To me, there are plenty of interesting ways to spend my time in the here and now, without digging around in the past to find out if I'm the nth great great great grand nephew of the Marquis de Whatsit. I'm happy with my guesses about black sheep, barmaids, traveling musicians, and explorers.

And, fwiw, I knew my grandparents reasonably well, and met my great grandfather a few times -- including at his 100th birthday. Seemed like a cool guy, and someone I would probably have enjoyed as a friend if we were contemporaries. And, of course, I met the usual boatload of aunts, uncles, and cousins when I was a kid. But I've long since lost touch with them, and have no real desire to reconnect.
Jon Beck

Trad climber
Oceanside
Mar 27, 2018 - 02:36pm PT
Kevin Bacon
Roger Breedlove

climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Mar 27, 2018 - 02:49pm PT
I am pretty sure that my earliest identifiable ancestor on my father's side is Charles Breedlove who registered a property transfer in Essex County Virginia in 1693. There are no records of any Breedloves prior to this date, so the assumption is that he and Mary, his wife, made the name up. The family lore is that five brothers came from England and farmed the land westward from Virginia to Texas. There is no evidence that there were five brothers named Breedlove. There are Breedloves in the UK, but they are all immigrated from the United States. I have gotten some mileage out of telling people who ask about my name that I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960 and my name is made-up, both true.

My paternal great granddad with his family around 1860, in Tennessee. The small boy on the left is my grandfather.
These two are my maternal great, great grandparents also around 1860, probably in the Oklahoma territories.

There are family resemblances still to these folks who were born in the early 1800s.

The second bit of information comes from Adam Rutherford's engaging science book, “A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived,” which explains the many ways DNA links us to our ancestors and how, in some ways it does not matter much. The most telling is that sometime around 1300 there were not enough people in the world to have unique ancestry for everyone alive since because of the doubling required. By the time one goes back to Charlemagne in the mid 700s, we are related to him and to each other, a tiny bit. I am okay with that as long as nobody shows up claiming to be a really really really long lost cousin needing a place to stay.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Mar 27, 2018 - 03:11pm PT
I was able to trace my lineage back many centuries ago to Eve (no known last name) who lived somewhere in what is now called Kenya.
originalpmac

Mountain climber
Timbers of Fennario
Mar 27, 2018 - 03:14pm PT
Captain John Sinclair, a direct ancestor. Helped George Washington in the Revolutionary War. Even further back are ancestors from the 3rd wave of immigrants to Jamestown in 1610.

Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 27, 2018 - 03:44pm PT
My dear deceased Memaw from West Texas told me as a child, I come from a long line of horse thieves and Squaw screwers. I apologize for the lack of political correctness.
Norton

climber
The Wastelands
Mar 27, 2018 - 04:06pm PT

Ardi and Lucy, originally
zBrown

Ice climber
Mar 27, 2018 - 04:25pm PT
About 1/2 of 'em are in Finland and you wouldn't recognize the names.


Trump

climber
Mar 27, 2018 - 04:43pm PT
Thanks for the thread!

John Alden.

How cool is that for the parent of a child of slaves?! Yes my precious child, I’m descended from the people who sailed the seas and founded the country of people who enslaved your ancestors. So then 400 years later in that country your mom was too poor to keep you and had to give you up and I got to keep you. Pretty cool how these things get passed down through the years, huh, my love?

Ah well, we all have our cross to bear, and mine is lighter than most people’s. No thanks, Society of Mayflower Descendants, I’m gonna take a pass. I’ll keep looking for the common ancestor inside of all of us. (me)

You damn newbie immigrants can all go back where you came from! (character jest)

Mouse, he’s not reading, that’s just a prop he uses to pick up chicks. (me jest)

This believing thing gets complicated, huh? It does for me! (me again)
Ricky D

Trad climber
Sierra Westside
Mar 27, 2018 - 04:47pm PT
My sister dug into ours for God knows what reason.

We've got an Irish novelist named Maria Edgeworth.
Southern slave owners - the Cochrans of Cochran County.
Some Welsh tunnel diggers, a couple of Irish louts who fled the Authorities.

Also a few feisty Scots and a Catawba Indian lass with a thing for feisty Scots.

We even have an honest-to-goodness White Collar Criminal...poor dear old Dad.

The rest were mutts and rescues from the pound.
Messages 1 - 20 of total 38 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
Return to Forum List
 
Our Guidebooks
spacerCheck 'em out!
SuperTopo Guidebooks

guidebook icon
Try a free sample topo!

 
SuperTopo on the Web

Recent Route Beta