Shaking the family tree to see what falls out

[sharpchick]

And getting fodder for another story. . .

I've been researching my dad's side of the family. There have been rumors for generations about how people married into our family.

His maternal (6X) great grandparents apparently married under duress after the following:

At a Courte held the 28th May 1667 for the Countie of Sommersett in the province of Maryland. Comrs present, vizt, Mr William Stevens, Capt William Thorne, Mr James Jones, Mr John Winder, Mr George Johnson.

Whereas Elyzabeth Johnson was presented by the Jury of Enquest for having a bastard Child, the said Elyzabeth appeared and said the Child’s Father was Peter Calloway, Peter owning the same before the Courte.
Whereupon the Courte doth order that Peter Calloway & Elyzabeth Johnson be both publickly whipped or otherwise the man to pay one thousand pounds of tobacco & the woman flue hundred pounds of tobacco for a fine;
As alsoe the said Peter Calloway to put in securitie for the Child’s Maintenance that the Countie may Come to noe Charge;
And both to giue in securitie for their good behaviour;
And the said Peter Calloway to pay unto Elyzabeth Johnson one hundred pounds of tobacco for her abuse.

I can see several possibilities here. . .

 

[impressive]

I did the same for the historical novel I'm working on -- although not quite as far back. Fun, huh?

 

[sharpchick]

It sure is. . .

Seems we go back to 1685 across the ocean, where several men from our family were arrested following the Monmouth insurrection against James II and mysteriously vanished. Some far flung relatives also looking at the same branch of the family have hypothesized that the "religion" issue for our folks wasn't Catholic v. Protestant, but another faith. . .

 

[impressive]

It sure is. . .

Seems we go back to 1685 across the ocean, where several men from our family were arrested following the Monmouth insurrection against James II and mysteriously vanished. Some far flung relatives also looking at the same branch of the family have hypothesized that the "religion" issue for our folks wasn't Catholic v. Protestant, but another faith. . .

I dug far enough back to learn that I'm my own 6th cousin once removed and 7th cousin once removed. Those frontier settlements were a bit sheltered from varied breeding stock.

 

[sharpchick]

I'm sure I'll get there, too - although so far, mine don't seem to venture very much farther west than east Texas.

 

[Weird Harold]

I've been researching my dad's side of the family. There have been rumors for generations about how people married into our family.

My mother's maternal grandmother commisioned a geneology of both families for my grandmother and her new husband. When it was completed, she burned it.

Apparently she was greatly offended because there were so many outlaws among the new in-laws.

Family legend has it that Billy Bones, the pirate, was one of the ancestors she was offended by.

 

[Guest]

 

[impressive]

If you shake my family tree, you just get nuts.

ba da bing!

 

[MagicaPractica]

We've done a bit on our family tree. One of the interesting things was that one of my ancestors was convicted of witchcraft in Salem but she was not put to death.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

One of my cousins has been doing this. We've found out that we had an ancestor on the Mayflower (of course, I'm sure lots of people in the U.S. can claim that one, lol... and I think it was this same person who has some kind of personal article in a museum somewhere). We had someone in our lineage who was Irish Royalty or something of the sort. We're a mixture of German, English, Irish and Native American (more than one tribe, I believe). There may be other nationalities involved, but I know these for a fact.

I wish I had the time and money to invest in doing something like that. I think it would be very interesting.

 

[impressive]

I wish I had the time and money to invest in doing something like that. I think it would be very interesting.

More time than money, really. I started researching in 1988. For almost 10 years it was VERY slow going -- visiting libraries and courthouses and cemeteries and writing letters to parishes in Italy and Croatia. Then, when I got online, it got MUCH easier & I made tons of progress.

Now, with a database of over 20,000 "cousins," I've pretty much tapped the available information. Every so often, I'll get a ping on a message board post, but most of the lines are as documented as they're gonna get.

 

[Oblimo]

My family tree can be very depressing because of all the pruning done by the Nazis and Polish militia a little over 60 years ago.

 

[MagicaPractica]

My family tree can be very depressing because of all the pruning done by the Nazis and Polish militia a little over 60 years ago.

That's my Father's side of the family as well.

 

[The_Darkness]

I'm decended from the House of Stuart, the House of Tutor, German Royalty, Prussian Royalty, and a fair smattering of other aristorcrats from other countries. You want to talk about being your own cousin....damn.

My mom's a published geneologist and goes to Salt Lake City to hit their archives a couple of times each year. The farthest line back that she can trace with at least 75% certanty goes back to 350 or so BC. Most of it she's lucky to have much past 1000 AD, and her own family she can only go back half-a-dozen or so generations. Brothers not speaking to fathers and separating themselves from the family, etc.

My family name ancestors can't be traced back before 1856. We have a relative who showed up at Ellis Island from County Killkenny in Ireland, we know he was from there, but we can't find any documentation besides what he told Immigration officials that he's actually from there. Something about a courthouse burning down with census and tax records inside. Lots of my family still lives over there, but we don't have a definate, positive link on which branch of the tree we belong to, and sadly, I don't think we ever will. Too bad, too....family name has a long history of kicking ass, starting most prominently while fighting with William the Conquerer in 1066.

 

[FallingToFly]

My family name ancestors can't be traced back before 1856. We have a relative who showed up at Ellis Island from County Killkenny in Ireland, we know he was from there, but we can't find any documentation besides what he told Immigration officials that he's actually from there..

Heh... yeah, I'm only third (maybe fourth, have to think... generation American. My great-great grandfather on my mother's side was known to everyone as "Squire Liddle." His wife was French, a Dumar. Both were immigrants. On the other side of my mom, the only thing known is that Great (x2) Grandpapa called himself Taylor. However, he isn't listed at ellis ISland, so he probably changed it somewhere along the line, for whatever reason.

The other side is Kelly, and all I know (or care to) is that they've been in the country for about 150 years, that my Great great grandfather bought a Native American wife (who everyone claims was not Native American, but there's actually a notation of him trading some stock for her) and then remarried and had another child with a white woman. I'm actually 1/8 Shoshone? I think that's the correct spelling.

Now, something really funny, in reading a historical view of Irish clans and obscurely famous feuds- the Liddles and the Kellys feuded for several generations in Ireland. My dad was a Kelly, my mother a Liddle- and then my grandad had to go and hammer the coffin nails in by singing "Frankie and Johnny" at their wedding reception.

No way in hell they could have stayed together.

 

[Tom Collins]

If you shake my family tree, you just get nuts.

You shake mine, and you get chimps...

ba da bing!

Ba da bing...

 

[southerntierguy]

We've done a bit on our family tree. One of the interesting things was that one of my ancestors was convicted of witchcraft in Salem but she was not put to death.

One of my ancestors died in Salem jail awaiting trial ... but she did confess to witchcraft, so she likely would have been convicted.

 

[sharpchick]

More time than money, really. I started researching in 1988. For almost 10 years it was VERY slow going -- visiting libraries and courthouses and cemeteries and writing letters to parishes in Italy and Croatia. Then, when I got online, it got MUCH easier & I made tons of progress.

Now, with a database of over 20,000 "cousins," I've pretty much tapped the available information. Every so often, I'll get a ping on a message board post, but most of the lines are as documented as they're gonna get.

Time intensive it is.

I wondered how long you could "watch" threads on those message boards. Do you have to go in every once in a while, or does it just save your watched thread forever? (I'm only on ancestry.com and genealogy.com right now.)

 

[cloudy]

My dad's side we have traced back to something like the 1300's. My mom's side just goes back to the Dawes Roll, and the removal to Oklahoma...no further.