Genealogy

[Jefferson24]

My direct line goes back to 1464, my family was from France. They were Huguenots.

I had an ancestor who died at the massacre of St. Bartholomew. After the massacre in France they left for the Netherlands. One of them became mayor of Rodderdam. From there they came to America.

The ship they came over on was the Du Pumerlander Krish in 1662 from Holland.

I was able to find my great great great grandfather on RootsWeb. From there I could just backtrack to find ancestor after ancestor. The spelling of my last name changed twice since the time in France.

[GAC]

We had our ancestry, on my Dad's side, traced back to Argyllshire, Scotland. The name "Clark" was originally "clerk". People often drew their last names from their profession (i.e. the clerk of Argyllshire... a clergy, scribe, or recorder). It became Clarke, then Clark.

[redsmetz]

So I got an email today from someone who I have been working with on one of my family lines (Germann, originally Görrmann). She was asking what my Dad knew of his Germann cousins (his grandmother was a Germann) and wondered whether my Dad would remember the old Reds pitcher Noodles Hahn. It seems Hahn's wife would be a distant relative of mine (2nd cousin, twice removed). Hmm, have to look into that.

[AtomicDumpling]

Devil Anse Hatfield is my wife's 2nd cousin, five times removed. Most of her ancestors are buried in the same small cemetery as the famous Hatfields. I guess that explains her temper.

[Spitball]

My uncle has done lots of research. Our family apparently came on the Mayflower. We apparently eventually settled in Rhode Island although most are now in Massachusetts and Maine. I don't know of a single relative in Rhode Island.

My mother's mom was a second cousin to the Wright brothers.

[redsmetz]

Originally Posted by Spitball

My mother's mom was a second cousin to the Wright brothers.

Which makes you their second cousin twice removed (same relation I am to Noodles Hahn's wife).

[WildcatFan]

My dad (Young) has been putting together our geneology for a couple years now. We've got an English pope way back in the 13th or 14th century. He was horribly corrupt, but I already said he was a pope, so you probably deduced that.

[RichRed]

My uncle is the big genealogy nut in our family. I forget the exact connection but he discovered that we're related to Edgar Allan Poe. Maybe that's why I don't like Ravens (unless they're playing the Steelers)!

[Outrider]

One of my ancestors came across on the Mayflower, and almost all of the others on both my mom and dad's side were here by the early 1700s.

I can't find a single one that fought in the Civil War. One ancestor paid someone to go in his place, which was a common practice at the time.

[marcshoe]

I've been concerned about some things I have seen on genealogical sites. My great-great grandparents came over from Ireland proper. There are many still living in my family who remember them with their tales of persecution by the British and their Irish accents. Yet I found a reference on a genealogical site that said that he was born in Ohio and she in Virginia. I contacted the person who had posted this, who was only related to them in an extremely tenuous way about this, and her reply seemed to completely ignore my concerns and only repeat what the site said.

My research has shown that she (or rather the husband of a cousin of mine from another branch of the family who provided her with the information) mixed up my great-grandfather with another man of the same name, and then seemed to add in information about a woman who shared the name of my great-grandmother. In other words, through sloppy work some incorrect information is now floating around the web, and this information will be picked up by future generations and treated as a solid, accurate record.

[marcshoe]

Originally Posted by oneupper

Dom, you would guess wrong. I didn't know this until my kids told me, but here is how the cousin thing works:

The First/Second, etc. issue hinges on who your common ascendant is. If it's your Grandmother, you are first cousins. If it's your great-grandmother, you are second cousins (and so on).

The "degree" of removal is a generational thing. Your mother and her cousin are part of the same generation. Hence, no removal. You, on the other hand are once removed (below) from your mother's cousin and therefore once removed.

The Naked cowboy and you belong to the same generation, and share a great-grand parent. You are therefore second cousins, (no removal).

Second cousins sounds a lot cooler than first cousins twice removed.

I learned that from Dear Abby or Ann Landers one years ago and am constantly annoying people by correcting them.

[redsmetz]

I like bumping this thread up because it's so interesting.

I've been doing a lot more research on genealogy since we got an iPad. I discovered that the Ancestry.com app allows you to see a few documents each day without being a subscriber. It's been fascinating putting together more of my family lines and building some ancillary lines too. Also, I found that through the Cincinnati library, going thru their research link to genealogy, there are some services available to me as a library user that lets me look at other material. It's given me the ability to look at the 1860 census and to also research the Enquirer's archives back to the 1840's. I actually discovered my Mom's mother had a sister who died about seven years before my grandma had died. Actually, the 1900 census tells me her mother had 13 kids and in 1900, only eight were still living. I've got ten accounted for, so there are three more who died that I have nothing on.

The number of databases out there now are extraordinary between Ancestry.com; Familysearch.com; Findagrave.com that are allowing me to add to various lines.

I recently met with a retired priest from Covington who is distantly related (my Mom and he are 3rd cousins). And we're doubly related because my great-grandparents were mutual cousins to his grandmother's family. That's always interesting, but it's also helpful because we're researching two common lines. I showed him a picture of my grandma and he said she resembled his Aunt Minnie.

Springing off the original Civil War mention at the start of the thread, he told me that he understood that my great-great grandfather and his great-grandfather (who were brothers-in-law) both were part of the citizen's group that was mustered to protect Cincinnati from a Confederate invasion. It's this event that's recounted in the Black Brigade monument downtown; with the Brigade forming after the mayor called for citizens to protect the city.

[redsmetz]

By the way, if you have ancestors from Ireland, a program was begun called Ireland Reaching Out, establishing what they're calling a "reverse genealogy" program. They now have volunteers in every county who are working to reconnect folks from what they call their diaspora with families still living in Ireland. I've had a person send me links to some records to search for specific family members.

Check it out at

http://www.irelandxo.com/about

[JaxRed]

My Dad and sister are big into it. I had a relative that was in the mob in Chicago and was supposed to have been in on the wrong side of the Valentine's Day Massacre. He was not with them that day so he took off for West Virginia.

He talked a little too much.....they tracked him down and finished the job.

[WMR]

This thread has legs...