A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day.....July 25, 2007.... Getting to Know Your Ancestors

7-25-2007 | Just Amy & MamaBear

[Kitty Mittens]

Awesome Thread, (((((Amy))))) and (((((Lori))))), and I Wish I Knew Something of my Ancestors; my Grandparents did Tell me I'm a Mixture of Choctaw Indian, Irish, German, and Dutch. My Husband is a Direct Descendant of the Famous American Indian Named Kwanah Parker.

(((((Dolly))))), I Used to Go Occasionally to Cemeteries to Read Tombstone Inscriptions, and One I Remember said Something Like, "The Finger of God Touched him, and he Slept." That Same Cemetery had an Entire Family from around a Hundred Years Ago that had Passed Away Due to a Disease. Sometimes there were Interesting Trees and Flowers at the Old Cemeteries, as Well.

[JustAmy]

Thanks, Kitty Mittens. Doing the research and finding SOMETHING is very satisfying. I’ve spent lots of time on the Internet and come up empty handed.

My son used to make apologies for me to his cousins because I always made a point to visit old cemeteries. Just to read the inscriptions.

[Stonewall Jackson]

A few months ago, my mom messed up her knee for a couple of weeks. After a few days of laying on the couch, doing nothing but reading books or watching TV, she was going crazy, so I bought her a subscription to Ancestory.com.

I think this is one of the best presents I have ever given. She is going absolutely crazy with it. She already had a pretty decent family tree laid out from some research that her aunt had done 30-40 years ago, so this gave her a solid foundation to start. She now cranks out about 15-20 E-mails a day to distant relatives, both here in the US and in Europe, asking for information on our ancestors.

So far, she has discovered fairly close ties to Henry Clay, Daniel Boone, and Andrew Jackson here in the US and a large amount of royalty in Europe, ranging from Robert the Bruce to Henry VI of France.

My dad's side of the family is harder to trace, primarily since most of the records stayed in Germany after they immigrated and the towns were subsequently destroyed during WW2 (one during fighting with the US Army and the other was burned to the ground by the Soviets), but we have managed to piece together some details over the years.

[AnalogReigns]

First white woman born in the colonies?

That honor goes to Virginia Dare born in 1587 at the Roanoke Island colony in what is now North Carolina. That was also known as the “Lost Colony” as it disappeared (probably captured and intermarrying into local Indian tribes) without a trace. Also I cannot believe that Jamestown of the Virginia colony, established in 1607, some 13 years before the Pilgrims landed, didn’t have any children born to it before 1624.

There are many accounts of grey or blue eyed Indians, some even speaking Welsh, in the East in the 1600s—by Indians who claimed to be descendent of white Europeans. It’s likely that the Roanoke survivors and others did intermingle with the Indians...and Britain had many born in North America before 1624.

[JustAmy]

Wow .... that is great that your mom has discovered the fun of family research. I have a subscription to Genealogy.Com. (It may be the same because I am also able to search Ancestory.com.) It is exciting to see ancestors names mentioned with some of the early settlers in America.

I’ve been busy and have not been spending as much time as I would like or as I did a few years ago. I get contacted by distant relatives about 6 times a year and then I get excited again.

I’m still waiting for some Bechtol family documents but am afraid I will not get them unless I contact someone other than a distant relative in Morgan County, WV.

I hope your mother continues with her research. It is a great hobby and something that her descendants will treasure.