Posted on 03/04/2010 4:17:20 PM PST by kristinn
LE, post # 567 was actually for you. Don’t know if you ever saw it or not.
Potlatch, me dear, thank you for the alert.
And thank you, Devolve, for the fascinating info.
I love both genealogy and early American history; finding one’s ancestors back in colonial and revolutionary times makes it so real, brings it alive.
Now, I wonder which of the U.S. presidents I am distantly related to.
The obsession in my mother’s family history was with claiming (what they thought was) their share of the Emmerich fortune.
We have a woman who writes a Genealogy column in my newspaper and it's quite popular.
For some reason I have never been interested in that but admire those who are. My grandparents were Polish and came over via Ellis Island, but I have not researched it.
My friend, ntnychik, is very deep into this.
Love your tagline... LOL!!!
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One of my grandfathers came through Ellis Island - It was quick and easy to find him and the ship Amerika on the Ellis Island website using just his first name and his surname -
As often occurred at Ellis Island they mispelled his surname - only one (1) shows up at the Ellis Island website - and none with that exact spelling show up in Europe.
Maybe the ship he was on passed through the Bermuda Fandango.
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Basically the Ellis Island Search website tells:
- If they passed through Ellis Island
- The date
- The ship’s name
- The departure port
- City of origin
I followed up on both sides of the family - got a blank area before 1845 and finally lost interest as the number of persons with the identical name and surname on PEI were so numerous and even with traveling to PEI the chances of running it down accurately in a short time were slim to none -
Interesting. I know 3 out of 5. The ship’s name doesn’t matter, lol.
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I used a combination of a family book of ancestors and antecedents of Noah Whipple of Old Quakertown, further later research by a distant cousin who dug up more info and posted it at http://Whipple.org - and emails my cousin sent to me, and some digging I did on the Whipple and some Mayflower websites (not the Mayflower Society website - they are a pain and just want to dress up and congratulate each other at fancy banquets - all of course, wearing a Mayflower medallion! Funny as 25% of Americans have Mayflower roots!) - somehow I have misplaced my notebooks and emails on most of this - but the several Mayflower sites list the Bush family, Roosevelts, and loads of actors, writers, poets, sculptors, ship designers/builders and ship owners and captains (on PEI, in Boston, in Mystic) -
It is easy to get info until you try to go back to Scotland, Ireland, England, Canada with common surnames - or to Germany and that area where national borders changed over the many years
The ship “Amerika” was captured by America during WWI and renamed the “America” - it served as a military transport and cargo ship in various capacities until early WWII
Polish names should be easier to find.
There is an old steamboat sunken in one of the local rivers around here. When the tide got low this winter, a man in a speedboad ran into it and got killed.
Your ‘ship Amerika’ made me think of it.
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Polish surnames should be easier than Scottish names
The Scots on PEI in the rest of Canada often select popular first and middle names - the surnames will often also vary from Mc to Mac and the spelling of the rest of the name may be Leod - Leoud, etc.
It can be baffling to attempt to trace an ancestor on the internet - even in Canada where the street address of the home and all the children’s names were listed on 1800s census records
I emailed many on PEI and got this response:
“Oh! Lot’s of people up here with that name!”
Then my grandfather - just one person with that exact surname in the USA or in Europe
My best friends last name is McAlpine.
Amazing about your grandfather’s exact surname being the only one. Almost unheard of, huh?
Going to run to the store.
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He dropped the last letter that Ellis Island put on his surname
Then after he married - most kept that surname
Eventually it was again shortened
Some names can be quite difficult to pronounce or recall or spell properly if written down when heard on the phone
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McAlpine - I have heard that surname before
It is not on the Whipple.org genweb site
But that does not mean it could not be - You have to email the genweb webmaster with known related family links and names - then it will quickly be posted there if it is correct
Some famous names connected to the Mayflower ship and colony:
Marilyn Monroe
Humphrey Bogart
Richard Nixon
Not included:
John F Kerry
Edward Kennedy
Barack Hussein Obama Junior
Nancy Pelosi
Harry Reid
[Some names can be quite difficult to pronounce or recall or spell ]
Lol, tell me about it. A second W was dropped out of the Polish name to make it easier.
Lolol, you know - the Mayflower could only hold so many people. Pity the rest!
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I believe half of the Mayflower passengers and crew died during that first voyage
The first year in the Mayflower Colony many died too -
And communism was abandoned after the first year - farms and businesses were not producing
Capitalism worked great - yet the democrats - “Progressives” - seem to think Communism would be just dandy again in a Stalin-Mao style America
[I believe half of the Mayflower passengers and crew died during that first voyage]
Well see there! That’s where the rest of our ancestors went!! Ours perished on the Mayflower.....and who knew
Couldn’t have been much in the way of businesses that first year, they would have been busy building shelter and planting crops.
Glad I didn’t live then!
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The first year they had communal property and work schedules and sharing of the harvested crops.
As in Russia - the harvest was lousy and the workers were lazy and food was insufficient.
The next year the farmland was divided up and everyone got the fruit of their own labors and was able to sell whatever they did not consume.
If anyone was lazy they would not have enough for their own sustenance and to sell at market.
Compare Obama to Zimbabwe and Plymouth Plantation after the first year to the King Ranch
[If anyone was lazy they would not have enough for their own sustenance and to sell at market.]
But back in those days people wouldn’t let others go hungry I think. They would probably feed them while issuing dire warnings to get busy.
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