Genealogy: in pursuit of family stories

Nathan

Nathan

SF VIP
Location
High Desert- Calif.
My genealogy "quest" began in the late 90s when my great aunt revealed that her grandfather(my great grandfather) was orphaned at age 3. Great Aunt Pearle sent me a nice one page document outlining life in Salisbury, NC around the turn of the 19th/20th century. That gave me time and place, two important parameters in genealogy research.
My primary mission was to answer an obvious question: Was the surname my g.g.f. carrying the surname of his birth family, or the adoptive family? My Aunt Pearle probably could have given me all the details, but she was quite elderly, lived far away and didn't seem able to negotiate a telephone call.
Three months of searching microfilm at the local LDS Family Library yielded valuable evidence. I found my g.g.father on the 1860 Census, that of course yielded his father and mother's names, which became the basis of a more broadened search in the coming years.

This isn't a personal diary, but I will be adding more posts to this thread. Feel free to share stories of your genealogy quest, if you like.
 

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Nathan said:
My genealogy "quest" began in the late 90s when my great aunt revealed that her grandfather(my great grandfather) was orphaned at age 3. Great Aunt Pearle sent me a nice one page document outlining life in Salisbury, NC around the turn of the 19th/20th century. That gave me time and place, two important parameters in genealogy research.
My primary mission was to answer an obvious question: Was the surname my g.g.f. carrying the surname of his birth family, or the adoptive family? My Aunt Pearle probably could have given me all the details, but she was quite elderly, lived far away and didn't seem able to negotiate a telephone call.
Three months of searching microfilm at the local LDS Family Library yielded valuable evidence. I found my g.g.father on the 1860 Census, that of course yielded his father and mother's names, which became the basis of a more broadened search in the coming years.

This isn't a personal diary, but I will be adding more posts to this thread. Feel free to share stories of your genealogy quest, if you like.
Click to expand...
Good work. Be careful, you might get hooked!
 
I finished a very difficult trace 3 weeks ago for someone. Secrets in this family everywhere. I finally got to the bottom of why one man didn't think his brother was genetic, but adopted. It turned out that was true but now I had to prove it.

The mother born 1906, had her first child at 17 while living at home and changed her name saying she was married but still living at home. She had 2 more kids while living at home. Left home when she was 25 and lived on her own. I could find no proof of her marriage.

Her kids grew up and went on their own. Her oldest son was married. So when she got pregnant again at age 40 she asked him and his wife to foster care for the baby and they did. They went through the county to do this, thus assuring a payment for caring for the child of 500$ a year. Right before the child went to school they adopted him. So the child went through life thinking and believing his brother was his father.

This was the second most confusing and sad case I have ever weeded out, but I am glad I was able to. All the players are dead except for the man who contacted me.
 

@dusty, I believe you mentioned being a professional genealogist? Once when I was stuck I commissioned a distant relative who was a genealogist to give me a "kick start" in the right direction. Was a case where my ancestor Levi was [maybe] related to one of two Jacobs in the same area. Turns out that one Jacob was his father and the other was his grandfather.
The genealogy 'affliction' has driven me to search broader and wider, and in many cases is more interesting than the original track.
 
A long time ago I did a hunt for someone who wanted to know more of the mystery birth of her relative. This was before the internet so I had to go to certain places, and spent time on the phone.
Turns out I couldn't solve it. Years later with the net I got to the core of it and found out that this mystery child was born to her mother through incest by the mother's father. So the child was raised by her grandparents in the same house as her mother lived. She was the half sister of her own mother and daughter to her grandfather.
 
Nathan said:
My genealogy "quest" began in the late 90s when my great aunt revealed that her grandfather(my great grandfather) was orphaned at age 3.
Click to expand...
So my g.grandfather lost his parents, how? My imagination is pretty prolific, thinking of al types of scenarios as to what happened. Well his father(Levi) was deaf, that was noted on a Census document, 1850 or 1860. I had the idea that perhaps he and g.g.gm were in their buggy, and got hit by a train because he couldn't hear it coming. shrug.gif Years later, my aunt( from the other side of the family) told me she had heard that they had both died of Scarlett fever. What's still puzzling, is that my g.gd and his 3 sisters did not get sick.
 
Genealogy can become frustrating.

I am a Conservative Jew raised in a Mormon family so as a teen I was handed my genealogy going back 400+ years, also showing the family arrived in the New World from Holland in 1748.

Except for my illiterate paternal grandfather who never saw the inside of a school everyone else kept diaries or journals and logged births and deaths in a big Bible. The family were blacksmiths and kept very neat business records that I inherited and sometimes read. A lot of their services were paid for by customers with eggs, firewood and coal. A haberdasher once paid with a suit.

My deceased wife’s genealogy is incomplete. Her great-grandparents were jewelers in what is now Yemen, but after a few years in Turkey they went to Poland.

Her paternal grandparents were sent to the US to escape persecution, but were denied entry due to Polish quotas, so they went on to Venezuela. After six years and obtaining Venezuelan citizenship they came to NYC, settling in the lower east side before moving to The Bronx.

I can’t go back any further than the Venezuelan records because everything in Poland was lost in WW2.

My wife’s maternal grandparents also came from Poland and those records were destroyed during the war.
 
Nathan said:
So my g.grandfather lost his parents, how? My imagination is pretty prolific, thinking of al types of scenarios as to what happened. Well his father(Levi) was deaf, that was noted on a Census document, 1850 or 1860. I had the idea that perhaps he and g.g.gm were in their buggy, and got hit by a train because he couldn't hear it coming. View attachment 407425 Years later, my aunt( from the other side of the family) told me she had heard that they had both died of Scarlett fever. What's still puzzling, is that my g.gd and his 3 sisters did not get sick.
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this is the kind of thing that would make me crazy not knowing. Did you try to dig deeper as to the cause of his death? Inquiring minds...
 
dusty said:
A long time ago I did a hunt for someone who wanted to know more of the mystery birth of her relative. This was before the internet so I had to go to certain places, and spent time on the phone.
Turns out I couldn't solve it. Years later with the net I got to the core of it and found out that this mystery child was born to her mother through incest by the mother's father. So the child was raised by her grandparents in the same house as her mother lived. She was the half sister of her own mother and daughter to her grandfather.
Click to expand...
Good job!!!
 
My great aunt, in the early 1900s was interested in my father's side of the family, as her mother's ancestors landed in the U.S. in 1650. Well, she contacted the family of a distant relative who had been a genealogist, and lo and behold, what she discovered just thrilled her no end. My ancestors were sharp real estate investors in NY, NJ, PA, and CT. We also had a coat of arms from the Netherlands, as they were land barons.
She promptly joined the DAR, and subsequently drove all of us descendants to join same and SAR. That did not interest any but one of my cousins.

Now on my mother's side, my son joined Ancestry.com and what we found were cousins from Ireland galore, who settled primarily in Philadelphia. I connected with a daughter of one of my cousins there, and she clued me in to a good many things in the family I never knew. Some real surprises there. During my childhood, I spent a good deal of time in Philly, but it was all playing with various cousins my age at the time. After the war, I was off doing my own thing and not too interested in family events other than weddings, funerals, etc.

Eventually, after a fair amount of time I became bored with it all and don't bother anymore with that stuff. My cuz and I are always in touch and visit frequently, however.
 
I gave up. It’s all so convoluted with multiple marriages and lots of missing information. I joined ancestry .com for awhile but my brain couldn’t grasp it all

But I have a friend who is training to be va genealogy consultant and boy, does she know a lot. She is good at finding physical records and at analyzing the dna data.
 
In my family there are two "factions" of genealogy enthusiasts. They had split on the identification of two individuals 4 generations before me. The result has been two radically different stories from 3 generations back and as far back as they have imagineered from there.

I've come to suspect that genealogy is actually humbug and wishful thinking when it lacks solid records having strong confirming records alongside in parallel.
 
I did genealogy for many years. I started my pursuit when I was in my 20's. I did all my research by writing letters, visiting court houses, churches, church cemeteries, libraries, and interviewing various people.

At the time, so many people told me that genealogy was an old person’s hobby. 🤣 I found it most interesting knowing about my family history. I was lucky that I had grew up with grandparents close by and great aunts and uncles. They told me many great stories that they remembered of their youth and about their parents and grandparents, which I wrote down. I also had pictures of many ancestors, relatives, tombstones, and so much more. I had copies of birth, marriage, and death certificates and citizenship, land deeds, and other documents. I kept all invitations, newspaper clippings, and whatever else came my way.

Many years later, when home computers became available to home users, we bought one. I then bought a Family Tree Maker and recorded all my information I had written down on paper and I also added pictures and documents into the program in book style. I would add information as I found it or received it. I documented all my sources.

About 10 years ago, I gave it all to another family member who was interested in. I was done with it.
 
dusty said:
this is the kind of thing that would make me crazy not knowing. Did you try to dig deeper as to the cause of his death? Inquiring minds...
Click to expand...
I had bought a copy of the Diaries of Rev. Samuel Rothrock, who was the primary clergyman in Rowan county, during much of the 19th century. He quite literally baptized, confirmed, married and buried most everyone in the area, over a 60 year period. The Rothrock diary was a valuable and interesting account of the days in the lives of so many of those in my lineage. Rev. Rothrock did in fact perform the funeral for my g.g.gf & g.g.gm, but I did not find any entries that referred to the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
In the early 2000s I had planned to go to Rowan County and search the libraries and museums in person. Unfortunately, I cancelled that trip(life happens) and never pursued it.
 
Nathan said:
I had bought a copy of the Diaries of Rev. Samuel Rothrock, who was the primary clergyman in Rowan county, during much of the 19th century. He quite literally baptized, confirmed, married and buried most everyone in the area, over a 60 year period. The Rothrock diary was a valuable and interesting account of the days in the lives of so many of those in my lineage. Rev. Rothrock did in fact perform the funeral for my g.g.gf & g.g.gm, but I did not find any entries that referred to the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
In the early 2000s I had planned to go to Rowan County and search the libraries and museums in person. Unfortunately, I cancelled that trip(life happens) and never pursued it.
Click to expand...
You know you can call many places that may give you some info. County clerk, libraries, Historical Societies, and more. I found a woman who was related to a client but he did not know of her. She lied in everything she told me and I had the feeling she was. I found out she knew the entire history of that family and didn't want anyone to know.
 
My biggest break-through came in one of the least "low-tech" manners. I got started by spending a day at the Morman genealogy facility in Salt Lake City. The workers there were extremely helpful and helped me find a lot of stuff.

A few years later, while on a road trip, I was able to visit the little mountain town in Virginia where my grandfather was born and lived. A visit to the cemetery didn't yield much info but when I talked to the man mowing the cemetery, he suggested I go into town and talk to the town clerk, who was in charge of the cemetery.

We went to the town hall and luckily she was in. I told her the names I was looking for and she said that a few weeks before, someone else had called and asked about those names. She was sure she had that person's name and phone number somewhere. She looked and looked and finally emptied her wastebasket out onto the floor. It was apparently my lucky day, because she found a crumpled up Post-It note with the name and phone number. Another day and the basket would have been emptied.

She said she couldn't give me the name or number but that she would called him and give him my phone number. She did and I was contacted almost immediately by a man who turned out to be a third cousin and who was a "rabid" genealogist.

Luckily, he lived only about 45 minutes away and set out on the spot to meet us for lunch in the small town. We met and yapped for a couple of hours and then headed to the cemetery again, where he walked me around and pointed out everyone I was related to. He also sent me heaps of picture, documents, etc.

What had thrown me off for years was that somewhere between 1905 and 1910, my branch of the family changed their last name and split up for different points. My great-grandmother took some of the kids and headed for Indiana; my great-grandfather took the rest and headed for New York. I was looking for everyone under the "new" name, not the "original" name.

The mystery of why this happened has not yet been solved but there are theories being entertained. The most believable one is that my family ran afoul of a famous clan of very dangerous people and got the hell out of Dodge before the whole thing blew up. My grandfather's sister married into this clan and then ran away, leaving two children behind. This could have triggered some reprisals. Who knows?
 
I lived in Virginia and briefly in wv many years ago. The family may have been split through divorce, a death, an inheitence, making "shine" (booze) Back then it was considered a big problem if you overstepped territory. Twenty five years ago I learned that my family had a ancestor in NY that belonged to the Loomis Gang in centeral NYS. I visited his grave. He was a very bad man...
 
dusty said:
You know you can call many places that may give you some info. County clerk, libraries, Historical Societies, and more. I found a woman who was related to a client but he did not know of her. She lied in everything she told me and I had the feeling she was. I found out she knew the entire history of that family and didn't want anyone to know.
Click to expand...
SO has a cousin of the same irk. She went to Auburn on a full scholarship based on American Indian. Something does not smell right but she claims she does not have the research anymore.
 
My parents & I lived with my grandfather.

I can remember him asking my mother not to show any of the antiquates we had.

Grandfather told me we were related to one of the presidents.
As I grew , I would catch mother & my aunt talking about the family.

Dues to birthing compilations I was an only child.
I don't remember playing with any of the cousins from my mother side of the family.
There were 'hard' feeling with her family , as she married a none Catholic

Fast forward to my teen years when my mother's favorite brother & his wife came to visit.
It was after WW2 ,my uncle married an English lady.
 
I have dabbled in genealogy. But very time consuming. On Ancestry have found some things, but I am cheap and wont pay for more info. I do know on my father side farmers and dirt poor . My mothers side had some rich folks and all was well until they started marrying the help.o_O
 
To finish my post above.

My Mother & Aunt got along well.
Before my aunt & uncle return to Great Brittan they talked about searching the family tree.

Time passed & my mother receive letters from them.
One told of son being born to them.

Then,,, a thick letter arrived,in it was the family tree as far as they could search it.

After our sons moved on with their lives,, I took up "Shaking " the family trees.
I have found a lot about my father's family.
Trying find more about my mother in law's family.

I've been using Family Search & WIKI Tree.

Does anyone else use them?
Are you pleased with them?
 
Hubby and I began taking an interest in family history around the time of the bicentenary of the arrival of the first fleet of convicts in 1778. It began with a family reunion of Hubby's mother's family. Stories were exchanged and recorded. Further investigation at state libraries and by applying for birth or marriage certificates revealed more accurate information. Microfiche was the primary source back then.

On my mother's side we had a diary written while her great grandfather, his wife and their four children were sailing to Australia on La Hogue, a fully rigged ship. It was full of detail and had some names and addresses of family back in Devon.

While our aunts and uncles were still alive we gathered more memories to record.

We recorded everything that we had discovered and now my daughter has taken it all to a new level on Ancestry. She has discovered two people who arrived with the first fleet as convicts. One, a female, was a midwife who birthed a baby for one of the early governor's wife who was having a difficult pregnancy and birth. The Governor was very grateful and gave her a grant of land but back then it had to be in the name of her husband.

We also discovered the true circumstances of the arrival in Sydney of my father's grandfather. We knew that he had jumped ship but the story told by the family was a fiction. They said that he jumped ship in Adelaide and travelled overland to Sydney. The ship was supposed to be a whaling ship. Records in the Police Gazette of that time showed that he had deserted from a British naval vessel in Sydney and there was a monetary reward of three pounds for anyone who turned him in.

Using Ancestry and DNA my daughter has been able to reconnect me with family members who have long been out of touch.
 
My search ended when it was revealed that one of my 'Scottish' ancestors had married either a Hatfield or McCoy. The family lived & farmed in the S Ohio hills. The other side claimed kinship to Abraham Hunsaker's wife #3. Good place stop.
 
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dilettante said:
In my family there are two "factions" of genealogy enthusiasts. They had split on the identification of two individuals 4 generations before me. The result has been two radically different stories from 3 generations back and as far back as they have imagineered from there.

I've come to suspect that genealogy is actually humbug and wishful thinking when it lacks solid records having strong confirming records alongside in parallel.
Click to expand...
Documentation is everything in connecting the dots, otherwise all you have is just a nice story. Or, maybe not-so-nice...
 

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