Family Trees.

[surfergirl]

I find it interesting to back and see where different families come from.

For me My Grandfather traced his family when he was retired back to the First Fleet. His Many Great grandfathers goes back to 1788. on the Sirus. He was an able seaman His name was Owen Cavanough , who married a convict. His Family also escaped France when trouble meant their life. So mum's side IS English & French . & Dad's Side is Scottish, German, Irish & English. How about anybody else has anyone else traced there family Trees? how far back can you go.?

[retroHelen]

Working 'in service'/as a servant was a great way to see life if you hadn't much money, especially if your employer was a fair person. This seems to have been my mother's family in Lancaster/Borwick/Warton, Lancashire. Coachmen, gardeners cooks and maids to the 'Worthies of Lancaster' such as Mayor Sir Thomas Storey (19th Century Mill, mine and railway owner on whose land Lancaster University is built).

Kind employer Sir T Storey

Gt grandmother as young cook (centre) with Storey's kitchen maids.Sir T allowed my Gran, Uncle and Aunty to play with his children in the nursery as he liked our family so much, he couldn't let Gt Grandma or Gt Grandad, his coachman/gardener go when she had children. So many Americans come to the Warton church to investigate it's records - 1st President,George Washington's family lived there and his father and brothers often returned from USA for school/business in the area and stay with clergy relatives who helped build the parish church, that the Parish decided to put all the records from the 1500's onwards online with the local government website, so tracing my own family records has not cost the usual expensive subscriptions you pay National Archives to access them. My family members not in service, owned and worked at Gill Farm, which is a lovely old 17th Century building, tenants to Sizergh or Hornby & Lancaster Castle. Mother's family were a jolly lot who enjoyed organising parties, charabanc (early coach)- trips and sports days for their neighbourhoods. Look forward to meeting them in the resurrection.

blue satin & velvet stripe with tassels -dress given by employers to Gt Gt Grandmother for a wedding gift, now at Lancaster City Museum c.1860's passed down eldest daughters to my mother.Girl modelling it was my aunty's secretary - only one with tiny enough waist for it! Dad's family was researched by a wealthier relative who could afford the archive subscriptions. His family were among the founders of the early labour movements and Unions in the Sheffield then from 1873 Cumberland (steelworks and shipyards) area.Originally Welsh - Howells were Methodist and temporance (against alcohol drinking ruining working men's lives) laypreachers and charity workers for the poor in the towns they settled in.

[larry]

My ex wife did our tree once. she traced her line back to before c.e. she was related to the fourth clopatra,there were 7.when she was doing my side she saw a name that looked familar,come to find out my great,great grandmother was her fourth great aunt.

[surfergirl]

My ex wife did our tree once. she traced her line back to before c.e. she was related to the fourth clopatra,there were 7.when she was doing my side she saw a name that looked familar,come to find out my great,great grandmother was her fourth great aunt.

Larry Amazing history you have. Is mine blowing when you see on a log of names who is connected to who.

[LizzyJo]

My mother took a genealogy class at the community college. Each week they were given a simple research assignment (this was way before the internet) and the class together gradually worked their individual ways back to the mid 1800s. Then one of the class linked onto a royal line and was able to trace back to Charlemagne. That ruined the fun for everyone else.

[ava]

I have traced my fathers paternal side back to the 1600's, to the time they came to the United States. My dad's paternal family came from England and settled in Virginia. They fought in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War (for the south). This part of his family tree was pretty easy as his paternal side have always kept very good records. The house that my gg Grandfather lived in after the Civil War is still standing in Virginia, it's on the historical register. I have pics of it, and had contact with a previous owner, I hope to one day visit it. I have lots of info on this side of the family tree, military records, old letters, bible entry's, etc. My GG Grandfather was one of the last remaining Confederate Soldiers when he died in 1933. There were only a few left at this time. He joined the war when he was 18, joined Lee's Army of Virginia, he was also at Appottomax Courthouse when Lee surrendered to Grant. Before he died, he was interviewed by a newspaper for his life story (as I said he was one of the last men to be alive who fought for the South) So I have a copy of that, and it was real interesting. He was an accomplished violin player, and I have a beautiful picture of him taken few years before he died holding his violin. It is a portrait, and it's gorgeous. I received a copy from another distant relative in Virginia I met on the internet when I was tracing my family. My GG Grandfather had his brothers, cousins, uncles all fight for the South during the Civil War. A couple died at Gettysburg. Also, my GGGG Grandfather was with General Washington during the famous crossing of the Delaware in the Revolutionary War.

Part of my dad's paternal side of the family also has been traced to the 1800's. This side came from Germany and they too settled in Virginia. So I have alot of info on them as well.

My mother's family have been more difficult to trace. Her maternal Grandfather came here from Greece by himself, married his wife (my mom's grandmother) and had two daughters. I know very little about his family in Greece, and obtaining records from Greece is not easy. What I do know is that he was a criminal in Greece, he hopped a ship to the US to escape prison and settled in Chicago and used his stolen money to open Greek Restaurants in Chicago. Other than that, I know nothing about his family.

My mom's paternal side came from Ireland, during the potato famine. They too settled in Chicago, and again, I know very little about them.

My mom's grandmother (paternal side) I have some information from that side, mainly back to the late 1800's. I met a distant relative one the internet who really filled in a lot of holes for me and also sent me pictures of family. My mom's GG Grandfather (on her father's mother's side) fought in the Civil War, but he fought for the North. I retrieved his military records from the State of Illinois.

[On the huh]

I've just started to research my tree.   But I've already found a cool find.  On the grave stone of my Great-Great Grandfather is quoted Isaiah 26:4.  One of the four places with the name Jehovah in the KJ.  On my Great-Great Grandmother's grave is quoted Matt 24:44 KJ.  He also fathered 13 children with 2 wives.  And his 2nd wife was 38 years younger than he was!

[Qapla]

A relative of my wife did their family on her Dad's side and found that they came from Scotland.

 

My family - well, I know my last name is English and there is also English on my Mother's side. My Grandfather on my Dad's side was from Colorado but the family name came into the US through the Carolinas. My Grandfather used to own a great deal of land in Southern Colorado but one of my Uncles lost it for the family. That said, there is a Canyon out there named for my Grandfather

[Old]

My adopted mother had all kinds of notables in her family line, but I have no claim to them. My daughter did an extended search on Ancestor.com an only found two entries that stood out, first both my wife’s family and my family can be traced back through Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower. Nothing really unique there, Stephen Hopkins had many children. The other thing of interest that my daughter discovered was how far back she was able to pursue our family line, all the way to Constantinople in the 11^th century. She can’t remember the name, but it was Latin. Leslie is trying to find the paper work she stored away before going to ChristianCouplesSchool. In the mean time I might change my name to Latin.

How does LUDOUICUS FULGENTIUS JUSTICE sound?

Really Old?  

[Tortuga]

Anyone here related to General George Custer?

[steadfast]

9 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

Anyone here related to General George Custer?

All right, naked turtle, I'll bite. Why?

[Tortuga]

1 minute ago, steadfast said:

All right, naked turtle, I'll bite. Why?

Just wondering if I had any relatives here...

[steadfast]

7 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

Just wondering if I had any relatives here...

And there it is.

 

Boom goes the dynamite. Ha!

 

Hey, 4 year-old thread resurrected. Jonathan is in the doghouse now. 

Edited July 3, 2016 by steadfast

[timpin]

1 hour ago, steadfast said:

All right, naked turtle, I'll bite. Why?

thats kinda like what one of my oldest relatives said after being offered a piece of fruit he should not have eaten

[tekmantwo]

6 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Anyone here related to General George Custer?

Oh yeah,  I  am. ..

 

I like to joke with people and tell them I am part Indian. . We are related to Gen Custer and they shot so many arrows into him it just seems like I should be some part Indian. ..

(Gramma on pops side maiden name was Custer, think Gen Custer was her uncle)

I think we are related to Betsy Ross too...not sure how, but moms side I think. .

[On the huh]

7 hours ago, steadfast said:

Hey, 4 year-old thread resurrected. Jonathan is in the doghouse now. 

 

Resurrections are good thing aren't they  .  And I'm just planning ahead for the real resurrection.  Then I can add a third date to the tree - Date of Birth, Death, Resurrection.

[steadfast]

9 hours ago, Jonathan77 said:

Resurrections are good thing aren't they  .  And I'm just planning ahead for the real resurrection.  Then I can add a third date to the tree - Date of Birth, Death, Resurrection.

In reality, I believe thread resurrections can be a problem mostly when there are many pages of posts and then we end up having to reread all of them to get the context of the discussion. I think you're in the clear. 

[kejedo]

NO info on my biological Dad, whom I met when I was twenty and learned a little about him. I traced lots of info on my birth certificate dad and shared it with my fractional siblings. 

A bit about my maternal side. My great grandmother and her husband were first or second cousins who traveled from Messina/ Medina Sicily. She was a Guarneri and he a Velardo (Francesca and Francesco) The Guarneris were a long line of  stringed musical instrument makers who had worked with the Stradivari family all the way back to Josef Stradivari in the 1600s. In fact the Guarnerius violin was nearly as popular as the Stradivarious.  Search for Guarnerius Violins for some pics and info.

http://www.maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/291082-difference-between-stradivarius-and-guarnerius-violin-models/

 

There is an episode on the travel channel ,MYsteries at the MUseum about a Guarnerius and a Stradivarius violin. It is amusing and informative.

 

My great grandfather was also a mason. When he got to this North American continent, he was able to secure two jobs, one with a piano manufacturer (in Boston) and the second job as a mason. It was somewhat  unusual for immigrants to find work in even one familiar field.

 

All of my Great Uncles in this line were excellent carpenters. Their motto: We buy dumps and sell mansions.  MY oldest son, 35, has his own construction company and has studied enough architecture to to do custom homes, soup to nuts.

 

 

 

 

[Tcvancoops]

I'm adopted.  I don't really have any interest in knowing my birth parents, but I am curious if I have any brothers or sisters.  Too bad the adoption agency I came from closed down soon after I came.  Tis a shame

[kejedo]

Similarly, I have adoption issues, as my mother's husband is named on my birth certificate, but is not my bio dad - a common form of informal adoption. The Daddy Dilemma, also disquieting and painful.  

[RaymondG]

We have a bit of information in our family...

 

My sisters and one brother have done research, I think they got back to the 1700s. There are a number of Scottish names in our background, we know my maternal grandmother's mother came from England. And there's a scratching of Aboriginal blood in dad's lineage.

 

But the line, "Pity the poor historian!" was never better applied than it is to genealogy. Pauline has already explained the flaw in her line, then we know that many men have returned from wars and found babies in the home which they couldn't have fathered, but they accepted because there was little better to do. And then there's circumstances like those of my first wife, whose grandmother married a man with a French name, gave him the flick and had a family to a man who was very German. But all children were registered with the French name.

[kejedo]

My oldest son says his Dad (my husb) is one eighth American Indian, Got so angry one day he swallowed his own Jeep Cherokee.  He has quite a raging temper.

[kejedo]

But a real story on my children's paternal line: My husbands great great great great great grandfather is thought to be the first black slave on Prince Edward Island. He and many of my son's ancestors are buried in Whight's Point, Charlottetown. I actually got interested in this line b/c my husband's grandmother was one of Jehovah's Witnesses. She died before I married into the family, but I always thought, "If nobody else is there for her in the resurrection, I want to be there."

 

MY children's 6th great grandfather was called Dengbo Sickles (on this continent).  Dengbo was probably his real first and suggests a Mandinka tribe where that sound combination is prevalent. I have done research and am pretty certain he came from the area that is now the republic of Benin. HIs story is unusual in that he was born free, captured into slavery, signed a manumission, was released, and died free. It is unusual for that to happen in a single lifetime.

 

Dengbo was fascinated by water and that is likely the reason he was captured when his family was running inland as the ships appeared. He was hiding in a hollow log to spy on the  boats and was dragged out by a long knife attached to a stick. He had severe scarring on his back for the rest of his life. 

 

Upon coming to the new continent, Dengbo was interested in the Bible and learned how to read. He sailed with his master around the  Canadian Maritimes  and  the northeastern US coastline. Since he could read and write, his name appears on log books and receipts.  He made himself easy to trace.  Although most slaves took the surname of their slaveowners, there is no one named Sickles in the households of his slaveowners.  I picked my husband's aunt LIzzie's brain for family lore. Aunt Lizzie lived to age 99 and a half. She thought that he got the name on the boat from Africa. There are no listings of anyone named Sickles on any slave ship. It is my conjecture that he was referred to as the sickle boy due to his method of capture, and picked that as his own last name.

 

Dengbo's master, Jonathan and his wife Elizabeth were going bankrupt and Dengbo signed an agreement that he would work them out of debt in seven years if he would be set free.  Each year he received a stipend, like two chickens, a pig, and so on. IN addition, his master put money aside for Dengbo, because blacks were not allowed to have cash.  At the end of seven years, Dengbo would get "a suit of cloathes."  Dengbo wanted to marry a woman who was a slave in Governor Fanning's home, Nova Scotia. She had been born into slavery. (Gov Fanning re- located from an uprising in New York, a story for another time.) Dengbo wanted to be a "free colored" so his children's births could be recorded. He did not want to be ruptured from any children, as he had been torn from his family of origin.

 

Well, Granpa Dengbo worked so hard, he was released early from his indenturement, was given the money put away for him, and even the "suit of cloathes," He bought his wife out of slavery and the suit of "cloathes" became his wedding suit.  After release, he is listed in the Canadian census as a farmer.   There were few black people in the area and most of his children had mixed marriages. One of my children's relatives died as a baby, and is listed as being born white and died black (Birth report filled out by midwife who delivered a baby to a white woman, and death certificate made out at the mortuary, the child having been carried in by the black father. )

 

Dengbo became quite respected in the community for the rest of his life. Somewhere I have a quote from the local newspaper after his death.  The newspaper article contained fond remembrances of him as a patriarch.  One man even recalled the long scar on his back, but they seem to forget how it was acquired.  "He emigrated here years ago." stated the news article.

 

I'm writing this off the top of my head, but could dig up my research for more direct quotes. There is a picture or two of my children's ancestor(s) in the book. "Black Islanders.  I have not seen a picture of Dengbo, himself, but understand he was rather short in stature, quite dark in complexion and wiry haired, which was typical of Western Africans of his day. (MY children are all tall, but they get the their height from another genetic line.)  There may be a picture of Dengbo somewhere in a PEI historical society.

 

I have some quotes from Dengbo's will.  Among other statements, It said something like: (I'm paraphrasing) "Wherever you find yourself, let those people be your people and seek God, wherever you may be."

 

 

[tekmantwo]

3 hours ago, kejedo said:

 

I have some quotes from Dengbo's will.  Among other statements, It said something like: (I'm paraphrasing) "Wherever you find yourself, let those people be your people and seek God, wherever you may be."

 

Thank you Sister (good memory)Pauline,  Dengbo Sickles sounds like quite an interesting gentleman,  it will be real neat when he sees how the Earth turns out, after he comes back... 

[kejedo]

My memory is not so good. It is William and Elizabeth who were his slave owners. Those names carry through the generations right down to "Cousin Bill" (who is an elder in a California Congregation) and Auntie Lizzie. There is no Elizabeth in my generation. Don't look at me,  I had all boys. It is also Wightmans Point Cemetery.  As I understand (from researching it after I wrote off the top of my head) there was a reunion for the Sickles Family members and a few other families there in 1991. 

 

Dengbo was born around 1761 and I believe captured by age 12. I looked up some Mandinka, and his sayings were probably imparted by his mother.  I do not think he had made the  survivalist  right of passage that some African tribal males made at about age thirteen, when paternal advice is added to their upbringing . Dengbo was in the Boston area near the shores of Massachusetts and Rhode Island before being brought to PEI with his slave owner around 1785.  Looking briefly at some paperwork, his master granted him freedom at least a year earlier than his manumission stated. He and his wife, Mary (Polly) had eight children.

 

I'm inclined to believe that Dengbo was a twin and his parents may have spotted the other brother when they were scurrying inland. There are twins throughout my husbs' family line. As for the notion that genetics skip a generation, husb has cousins that are twins. It seemed apparent that this generation would be the skipped one. But then cousin Paul's first marriage didn't work out and he had twins with his second wife.  

 

The love of water and boating seems to be inherent (not thorugh me). My boys and I were looking through the lines which can be tricky with reoccurring names. We came across one story of a male ancestor who died, (inebriated) at age 21 while in the water as part of a logrolling contest. Eureka, we found our line!