# Ancestry - Family History



## ktbi (Jun 25, 2011)

I've been tracing my family history and building a family tree for close to a year now and having a lot of fun with it.  Is anyone else doing this for their family tree? Have you been successful.  I found that using Ancestry.com is helpful, fantastic actually, but you have to watch the mistakes - and there are a lot.  I've seen many family trees where the kids were documented as being born before the parents, or other obvious mistakes. Someone will import/copy the erroneous data, it spreads, and before you know it - everyone has it wrong.  I've been using official records (census, draft, etc) to verify every link. I've gotten back to Johannes De Hibernia (1045-1088), my 27th Great Grandfather. One of my Grandfathers was a Colonial Soldier and died as a British Prisoner of War. I've found other interesting stories and the best part is that this is my family!

 I'd like to hear of other success stories.  Anyone?     Ron


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## Steve/sewell (Jun 25, 2011)

I am related to Lucy a hominid with a hair lip and a bad limp.She was the first true vegatarian and refused to bath.She wore corrective pantyhose, depends and had a wicked mustache that when you kissed her she would about poke your eye out it has been said in family Bibles.She is my great grandmother to the 5000th power...........Now seriously my Dads brother has done a very good job with our familys history dataing it back to New Foundland in the late 1600s.I also had a relative that fought along side of George Washington at the battle of Mommouth in New Jersey.My dads side is also related to Eleanor Roosevelt.I will ask my uncle Bob what he can share with me. A very nice job Ron,prepare for endless nights searching and waiting for responses from other distant members


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## RedGinger (Jun 25, 2011)

I have done as much as I can on that site, without paying.  I've had a few matches, but can't contact them without the $ part.  My friend is having a lot of success with her family tree on there.  Her husband did a lot of research on her family history as well.  He was able to find my grandfather (born in 1885)'s draft card and that his wife and I might be related!  She is my best friend, so that is pretty cool!  I hope to be able to do more research in the future.  Wonder if I'm related to any people on this forum?  Any geneaologists on here?

 I am also really interested in taking one of those DNA tests, to determine what parts of the world your ancestors came from.


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## nydigger (Jun 26, 2011)

I have done mine but most stuff is recent within the last 150 years. My wife on the other hand I have traced back and found out she is related to a pair of the first settlers of Orange County, New York. They were Sarah Wells and her husband William Bull, that beat my family search by about 150 years or so lol....ok so I actually got hers back to 1598...so count in first European settlers of US


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## rockbot (Jun 26, 2011)

My daughter has a copy of our family tree. My grandma and aunty's made a pretty good one years ago but it does't go back that far. No relatives left in Portugal
 that we can contact.[]


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## Plumbata (Jun 26, 2011)

I haven't researched much into my family history, but according to family lore the Rockwell side of my family (my father's mother's family) came to New England in 1630. My mother's father's family, the Vinsons, arrived very early in New York also. Apparently I would be considered a 3rd cousin to Norman Rockwell, and am also related to George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party/Movement. He was so notorious that there is a wikipedia page about him... []


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## RICKJJ59W (Jun 26, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  RedGinger
> 
> Wonder if I'm related to any people on this forum?  Any geneaologists on here?


 
 Id be afraid to find out  lol[8D]


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## Poison_Us (Jun 26, 2011)

My wife did it on Ancestry.com for a year.  She did subscribe and did all she could in one line of her family.  But the trail ended at the Atlantic and she couldn't continue unless she paid for the European package as well, so it ended.  She did a short, immediate branch for my family, but a good portion of that was done by my aunt back on the left coast [8D]
 She had fun with it, and she discovered a few relatives and even had a visit with one while we lived in WI. and still hears from here now and then.


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## RedGinger (Jun 26, 2011)

I did have my grandmother's one family tree.  It was all in German, but we were able to decipher some of it.  Funny that there were a couple of Elise's, the same name I had picked out if I ever had a daughter.  I wish I still had that tree.  I would like to find out more about my father and paternal grandfather's side.  I do know we are related to President Woodrow Wilson on my grandfather's side.  Other than that, it's all Morrisons, Gallaghers, Hurleys, James, Flannerys, and other Scotch-Irish immigrants.  The settled in the South as so many did.  I find it interesting that the Southern accent we know today, derived from their accent.  I didn't even know until my best friend, with similar ancestry told me that.


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## ktbi (Jun 26, 2011)

I'm only 3rd generation American on my Mother's side and I ran into a lot of roadblocks trying to access international records, so I coughed up the additional bucks for that access.  It worked out and I've learned quite a bit. Most of my family is from Scotland, England, and Ireland. I was not aware that the Southern Accent is Scottish/Irish derived.  That is interesting....Ron


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## bostaurus (Jun 28, 2011)

My very smart brother started researching our family tree years ago, before much was on the web, and then I picked it up from there.  It is a lot of fun and very interesting.
 We actually traced our family back to Adam!  No kidding!  
 It is funny... Irish monks...way back in the day....decided that since the king was supposed to have been given their right of kingship from God then they needed to have an unbroken line from Adam.  So they did their "research" and were able to come up with an unbroken line back to Adam.
 So, if you can trace your family to the British or Irish royal family you can trace back to Adam. We have a couple of folks that came to Jamestown as poorer relations of upper crust families.   If your family is from England you are probably in the lineage of the royal family whether you can show it or not.  There have always been a lot of folks in the "peerage" and they have always been very profligate.  There are probably more folks related to the Queen through the back door than those that were "to the Manor born".


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## Baydog51 (Jun 28, 2011)

Ron, I started on my research about 15 years ago. Traced my paternal line back to his ship arrival in Virginia in 1635. I also spent a lot of time on my maternal line and currently have about 2300 names in my data base. Ancestry.com has a lot of good info but it gets very expensive to use them the way they break it up in packages. I have found most of my info at the local library. If you live near a large size city, their libraries will have a substantial geneology dept with lots of info for free. Also the Mormon site familysearch.com will have much info for free to search. Also USGenweb will have a lot of info for free. Looking at the cemetary listings will give you many leads to family groups. Have fun.---Gary


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## ktbi (Jun 28, 2011)

Thanks for the tips Gary...I planned to use ancestry.com on turbo-drive and then drop them.  I will check those sites you mentioned.  I found that Google Books has been a treasure trove too. Surprising what shows up there.  I've been researching this for about two years, have over 1500 people documented, and feel like I'm just getting started.  I'm trying to find stories, references, anything I can for each person.  Yesterday, I found one widowed Great-Grandmother from around the 1600's listed in the Scotland Census.  Her occupation was listed as 'pauper'. That struck me as sad for one, but a little strange to be listed like that. 

 Melinda, I totally believe what you are saying about we all go back to one source. I found one reference for my family that goes back to almost 1000BC!  No documentation and this is the only source I can find - so I just dropped it. But the billions and billions of people we have now all came from that group of a few million back then. and the pool just gets smaller the further you go back.

 Thanks for looking and good luck to everyone diving into this. 

 Post updates if/when you find them.  It's interesting.  I will do the same...
 Ron


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## RedGinger (Jun 28, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  rockbot
> 
> My daughter has a copy of our family tree. My grandma and aunty's made a pretty good one years ago but it does't go back that far. No relatives left in Portugal
> that we can contact.[]


 
 Rocky, did you know Lobey was part Portuguese too?  I know he was mostly Italian, but had some Portuguese ancestry, and probably some other ancestry too.  I know a lot of the Portuguese in New England came from the Azores.  What part of Portugal is your family from?


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## RedGinger (Jun 28, 2011)

Hey Ron, here is a small section of a Wikipedia article in reference to the Southern accent:
 "Southern dialects originated in large part from immigrants from the British Isles who moved to the South in the 17th and 18th centuries. Settlement also included large numbers of Protestants from Ulster, Ireland, and from Scotland."


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## BillinMo (Jun 28, 2011)

I've often wondered if ancestry.com is worth it or not.

 My aunt researched my dad's side of the family some years ago, and using some online resources managed to trace back to some of the original Dutch settlers in New York (before it became an English colony).  I'm not sure how accurate it was, since a few birth/death dates don't seem to line up at all. 

 My mom's side emigrated more recently (Civil War and afterward -- all Irish) and I've been wanting to work on that.  I'm old-fashioned enough that I like poking through old library records like the census schedules and city directories.


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## carobran (Jun 28, 2011)

my grandfather told me that one of my ancestors was a knight in England


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## SAbottles (Jun 28, 2011)

Ah yes; he may have been a knight once - but once a knight is enough !! []


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## bostaurus (Jun 28, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  RedGinger
> 
> Hey Ron, here is a small section of a Wikipedia article in reference to the Southern accent:
> "Southern dialects originated in large part from immigrants from the British Isles who moved to the South in the 17th and 18th centuries. Settlement also included large numbers of Protestants from Ulster, Ireland, and from Scotland."


 There are some really good books out about the Scots-Irish (those protestant Scots from Northern Ireland, Irish and Welsh(the authors term them "celtic" tribal people) that settled the south.  Seems the English, Germans, etc.  that settled on the Eastern coasts encouraged the immigration of these folk, who they considered rather barbaric, so they would settle in the wilder western regions.  They let them handle the beasts and Indians.  They tended to be wandering folk so they would settle in the wild areas for a few years and then move on farther west.  The English, Germans, etc, that tended to move in,  settle down , build homes, farms and towns, would then move into the areas they had "tamed".  They greatly disliked these wild folk.  They were useful for a purpose but they did not want to live near them.  The tensions were very high between the "Celtic" peoples and the other settlers.  They were said to be filthy, ill-mannered, promiscuous, and violent (just the reason they wanted them to settle the western part of the colonies). Many of these stereotypes continue to this day with the ramshackle homes, feuding, "Daisy Duke' clothes, etc.  
   The tensions were very high and during the Revolutionary War these tensions became excuses for both sides to commit horrible atrocities including the killing and torture of women and children.  
 It is said that some of the reasons that the South held out for as long as it did during the Civil War was due to the Scots-Irish, Irish and Welsh emphasis on fighting for a cause (and just plain fighting) and their ancient traditions of fierce loyalty to a clan, in this case a state.  It did not matter what the fight was about...you fought  with the clan.
 As far as the language there are some really, really good books on it.  Even within an area of the country as small as part of a county, language has been broken down to show the influence of the folks that settled there.  My family has Scots_Irish, Irish, Welsh and English.  In my late grandmother's speech you could hear accents on some words from East Anglia and that part of her family came over in the early 1600's!  Did her family always pronounce those words that way or did she pick them up somewhere else?  We will never know.  Don's grandmother always used a certian word to call in her cows...we found out reading one of those books that it was an old Scottish word for 'cow'.  She did not know that...her father probably never knew that...the family had been here for 250 years...  Really cool stuff.


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## Baydog51 (Jun 28, 2011)

Let me throw out one more site for you http://www.genforum.genealogy.com/

 You can go there and put your last name in the forum search and it will take you to tons of other folks already researching your family. Sometimes you get a lot of needed info that you haven't found yet.


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## ktbi (Jun 28, 2011)

Bill - To me, ancestry.com is very much worth it.  It's a little expensive and it's crazy to make those payments unless you are actively using the site though. I would not be anywhere near where I am now without being able to use ancestry.com to kick start my research. I paid for a year, pretty much wasted it, and then renewed for a second year to make up for lost time. I doubt I will stay for a third year, unless that third year is somewhere down the line and I find I need it again to start filling in the blanks. 

 You can find all the census documents, birth/death/marriage records, passenger lists, newspaper articles, etc. independently, but ancestry.com simplifies the search and puts them all in one space.  Plus you get access to other family trees and non-published family documents that you can import into your own tree.  You will find many, many mistakes in family trees, so try to validate everything with at least two sources.

 Laur/Melinda, thank you for the history and references. I bookmark all that and read it when I have time, so I really appreciate it.

 I found out that my 12th Great-Grandfather, Thomas Ireland (1503-1545) married Margaret Bold, who was Anne Boleyn's sister.  That makes him King Henry VIII's brother-in-law. Unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but interesting anyhow.....Ron


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## RedGinger (Jun 28, 2011)

That's interesting, Melinda!  I am reading about the Revolutionary War in a book series, called Outlander.  The Scots were so abused by England, and when the particular ones in this fictional book, settle in North Carolina, some of them want independence from England and fight.  Others, are so fed up and dreading more war, that they don't fight, or they fight for England.  

 Then, there were the Protestants (mostly Presbyterians it seems), and Catholics.  The Presbyterians were very mistrustful of the Catholics.  

 You should really check out this series, Melinda.  I think you'd really enjoy it.  My friend who got me into it, lives in the South and she and her husband both have ancestors that came from Scotland/Ireland.  She is the one that told me the origins of the accent.  I think it's fascinating.  What was the word for "cows" you were talking about?


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## RedGinger (Jun 28, 2011)

No problem, Ron.  Thanks for your info as well.  In some cases, with very little info, it's hard to find out about relatives.  On my father's side, I have hardly any info.  I'm not even positive of his mother's maiden name.  When I hit the lotto, I will hire a P.I or someone to find out some things for me.  I don't want contact with him.  I always wondered if I hat any siblings, but I don't think I do.


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## RedGinger (Jun 28, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  bostaurus
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
 I wonder if that is where some of the American "Irish Travelers" originated?  Of course, they have them in Britain as well, so who knows?


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## BillinMo (Jun 29, 2011)

Thanks for the info, Ron.  Sounds like it might be worth trying for a short time.  

 I also happen to live just six miles from an impressive genealogical library here: http://www.mymcpl.org/genealogy

 So... I have to ask because I suspect I can't be the only one.  Anyone out there doing genealogical research related to bottles and glass?  I've done some digging into Samuel Oakman, who was behind several glass companies in the Boston area from around 1870-mid 1890s.  I've found a lot of interesting biographical information about him but still have a lot of loose ends.


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## ironmountain (Jun 29, 2011)

I started researching my dad's side and found the farm that dates to the 1400's and is still in operation as a horse farm (or whatever it would be called) in Finland.
 I even found names of my grandfather,great grandfather etc on some passenger lists for boats bringing ppl to America. tracked them through the St Lawrence Seaway to the U.P. of michigan where they eventually settled.


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## bostaurus (Jun 29, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  RedGinger
> 
> That's interesting, Melinda!Â  I am reading about the Revolutionary War in a book series, called Outlander.Â  The Scots were so abused by England, and when the particular ones in this fictional book, settle in North Carolina, some of them want independence from England and fight.Â  Others, are so fed up and dreading more war, that they don't fight, or they fight for England.Â
> 
> ...


 She used to holler what sounded like "sue-cow" or sometimes she would just yell "sook"  
 In "The Story Of English" by Robert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil  it says that the Scots-Irish used  "sook', "sookie" or "sook cow" to call in the cow herd. I thought I remembered it as Gaelic but it was not.  It originally came from the Old English word _sucan_ meaning "to suck".  It would make sense that it was Old English as her family were Lowland Scots that came over  just before the Revolutionary War.  They were from Aryshire near Kilmarnock and the Loudon estate.  As far was we can tell they were not part of the Loudon family though that was the last name and they did come from that town.  Most probably a line born from a tryst of the Lord and a servant girl.  The gentry tended to have more kids in town than in their homes!
 Most Scots-Irish were also originally Lowland Scots before they moved, or were sent, to the Irish Plantations. They were Church of Scotland (presbyterian)...and I think of of the Covenanters were sent over too.
 That is a very good book on English.  it is the companion to a PBS show that was done years ago.  Another good one is "The Stories of English" by David Crystal.  It is more scholarly and a drier read but if you are really interested in origins of English and accents it is great.
 A good book about the Scots-Irish in America is "Born Fighting: How The Scots-Irish shaped America" by James Webb.


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## bostaurus (Jul 3, 2011)

James Webb used "Born Fighting" for the title because the English used to say that the Scots-Irish were quarrelsome and were 'born fighting'.


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