Do You Know Who Your Ancestors Are?

American Quilter | May 14, 2010 | American Quilter

[American Quilter]

Now that so many ancestry records have been digitized, it's amazingly easy to start tracing your family tree. I'd never done it, but I watched this season's TV show, "Who Do You Think You Are?", and they kept referring to ancestry.com. So on a whim a few weeks ago I logged onto that site , and I've been amazed at what I've found. My mother's father's mother's family line goes back into the late 1400s in France, via many generations of French Canadians--who knew??? One of my dad's grandfathers came to the US to escape the Potato Famine in Ireland, and the other was apparently paid by his wealthy father-in-law to leave Ireland before the authorities arrested him for his anti-English revolutionary activities.

I've started wondering if I may be related to any of my fellow FReepers. Do any of you have any ancestor stories you'd be willing to share? My family has history in Quebec, St. Paul MN, Jasper County IN, Iroquois County IL, and the Seattle area (including the Olympic peninsula), but I'd love to hear from other FReepers regardless of whether we turn out to be related.

[oh8eleven]

he found that one of my pairs of greatgrandparents died of cholera on the trip from Newfoundland to Minnesota
Many sad stories. I discovered a 21 year old cousin who died Nov 1918 from the Spanish Flu ... the day after his one year old daughter died from the same disease.

[American Quilter]

LOL--that's great! I wish my ancestors had been pressed to be a bit more forthcoming. They appear to have been nearly all farmers except for a few men on my dad's side, including his father and grandfather, who were railroad men. My dad told us a story related to that. His family was gathered for Thanksgiving one year, and his mother called from the kitchen, "What time is it?" He called back, "It's 3:15." His father pulled out his railroad watch and said, "It's 3:17." His grandfather pulled out his watch and said, "And 20 seconds."

[AFreeBird]

That sucks. Those bastards stole and destroyed so much history. I hate that so much valuable and interesting, for the world as a whole, or just familial, history has been lost forever because a relatively few nut jobs. And I’m not just talking about the Nazis.

[AuntB]

“I’ve started wondering if I may be related to any of my fellow FReepers. Do any of you have any ancestor stories you’d be willing to share?”

I’ve found people related to many of my ancestors.
A warning about this ancestor searching...it is addictive!

My family’s story:

“Jesus Wept” An American Story
http://jesusweptanamericanstory.blogspot.com/

[r9etb]

Huh... your ancestors probably knew mine.

[American Quilter]

One of my greatgrandfathers also came from Ireland after the Great Famine. I’ll see if I can find out from which county or town—maybe your wife and I are related. It’s fun to speculate.

[Grunthor]

“Huh... your ancestors probably knew mine.”

That would be interesting.

[rintense]

Yep. I’m related to the Cornell family that founded the University, including a crazy one who was part of a pseudo Salem Witch trial. Got some crazy Scots and Welsh kin too.

[DJ MacWoW]

I haven’t tried Footnote. I do use US GenWeb though. I have hit some walls. Some were easy like the Bumpas line. Edward de Bompasse came here from Leydon in 1621 on the Fortune. But I have a GG Grandfather that doesn’t show up in census and finding his wife has been a nightmare. She died young and her family were suing them. That’s how we got her name, from the lawsuit. She died during the suit and I think he hid.

[MamaTexan]

Ralph Wallen had a charter from England and arrived in 1623.

The part of my family that didn't come over on the boat were already here to greet them.

-----

I actually do have a cousin of sorts I'd met on FR, but I'm ashamed I don't remember her screen name.

[Coldwater Creek]

OK! Since you opened the door, I have a request for information if anyone knows about a Eliza Meadors, born in Ark., 1851, married and divorced William Daniel Meadors. I would like to know where she is buried. This is my husband’s great great grandmother. The family lived in Crawford County Ark.

[American Quilter]

Yes, the name misspellings can be a hoot, though it can also make people a lot harder to track! My first Irish ancestor to come to the States was Martin O’Meagher. At Ellis Island he spelled it “Maher” to the official, wanting it to look more like it sounded. The O’ was dropped entirely.

[American Quilter]

How wonderful that you know all that! I’m glad all of the ladies then had such a sense of pride in their country and took the trouble to maintain their histories.

[oh8eleven]

My Irish relatives lived on East Houston and points south ... Cannon Street, Sheriff St, East 2nd Street to name a few.
The German side lived on Avenues B and C, just north of Houston.
North of E Houston was known as Klein Deutschland (little Germany) until the early 1900s.
The LES was primarily German in the early 1800s, then the Irish, Italians, Jews and Chinese came in their respective waves.
If you get to NYC I strongly recommend the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.

[American Quilter]

Ancestry.com offers a two-week free trial, and you can get a lot of info in that time! Then you can make an informed decision about whether to invest membership fees. As a teaser, they let you see all US records during the trial period, but nothing from outside the States. The monthly rate is quite reasonable; $25 for US records, and $30 for world-wide.

[DJ MacWoW]

The funniest name in my line is Bumpas. We used to laugh at my Grandmothers grandmothers name when we were kids. Made her mad! LOL If only she had known that it started out de Bompasse.

[Little Bill]

My sons Father in law, who is a disgusting Sandlin, classifies us as three booters.

[Lovely-Day-For-A-Guinness]

Nearly all my ancestors were drunken fighting Irish having fled Ireland due to rotten potatoes. One new arrival found his arse fighting in the Civil War.

I do have a more cultured line that's descended from The Mayflower (have traced that branch back to the mid-1500's), although this branch grew from some inbreeding amongst cousins so its real culture is questionable.

The cultured gene didn't stand a chance against the drinking and fighting genes in my family tree and I now proudly carry on the great family tradition. At least the drinking part, I do.

[RnMomof7]

Ain’t that the truth

[RnMomof7]

LOL