Genealogy

[vaticanplum]

The Mormons are also a great resource for geneology. It has something to do with their beliefs (that we're all brothers and sisters...forgive me any Mormons if I'm butchering that), but they've spent years and years going to places all over the world, copying records and preserving them. When my mom got into geneology she went to the Mormon center in Cincinnati and was shocked at what she found -- including but not limited to extensive records from our ancestors' six-block town in Italy, which she thought she'd never be able to get. They are a terrific resource.

[UKFlounder]

Originally Posted by edabbs44

I'm a distant relative of Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Team of Rivals was one of the best, most enjoyable & informative books I've ever read. I loved it.

[UKFlounder]

Originally Posted by SandyD

This is the family. My earliest known Midgett ancestor had several sons. My line comes from his third son. My Midgetts left NC early ... by the 1820s they were in middle TN ... and by the 1840s they were in Jersey Co IL. But they all trace back to the same guy, as far as we can tell, who first appeared over hear in the 1690s.

The Mighty Midgetts of Chicamacomico

The more I thought about it, the more the name Midgett sounded familiar - there is still a Midgett Realty service on Hatteras. I don't know how I had forgotten that, but I'm sure I saw their signs around the area.

http://www.midgettrealty.com/

[Ravenlord]

Originally Posted by GAC

I had one too.

Unfortunately, he got accidently shot/killed by his own men. Stonewall Jackson is a distant cousin.

then sir, you and i are somewhat related on my mother's side of the tree.

[SandyD]

Originally Posted by vaticanplum

The Mormons are also a great resource for geneology. It has something to do with their beliefs (that we're all brothers and sisters...forgive me any Mormons if I'm butchering that), but they've spent years and years going to places all over the world, copying records and preserving them. When my mom got into geneology she went to the Mormon center in Cincinnati and was shocked at what she found -- including but not limited to extensive records from our ancestors' six-block town in Italy, which she thought she'd never be able to get. They are a terrific resource.

They have a lot, and you can order it for use in the local LDS center in your area. May not be terribly convenient, but they will have resources.

I'm make sure you've thoroughly researched the more readily available resources first, though. It takes a long time to read through a reel of microfilm, and you'll be more productive the more you know.

[SandyD]

Originally Posted by UKFlounder

The more I thought about it, the more the name Midgett sounded familiar - there is still a Midgett Realty service on Hatteras. I don't know how I had forgotten that, but I'm sure I saw their signs around the area.

http://www.midgettrealty.com/

There's actually a Midgett forum on yahoo. Lots of Midgetts around, and every one I've come across that knows connects somehow to the Hatteras Midgetts.

[creek14]

Rob Lowe is a distant cousin.

[Ravenlord]

on my father's side of the tree, i am of the direct line of the Danish Viking, Ivar the Boneless, first king of the Danelaw in England.

[Blimpie]

King Boneless?

Must have been part of the famed amoeba dynasty...

[vaticanplum]

Why are people always distantly related to famous and historically signficant figures? We've got fairly extensive geneaology records in my family and about the greatest claim to fame anywhere is that my great-grandfather got to cross the Atlantic seven times because he played the trombone. And his name was Tito, which is not particularly notable, but is rad.

Everybody I talk to always has somebody in their family tree from the history books except me. Oh well, maybe on my end we were all permitted to develop out of the spotlight and that's how I got perfect genes :

[UKFlounder]

I have no one famous in my family tree (I once saw a Ziggy cartoon I wish I had saved in which a genealogist told him "You come from a long line of famous nobodies")

I do have an ancestor named Nimrod, probably taken from the Bible.

[Yachtzee]

Originally Posted by vaticanplum

Why are people always distantly related to famous and historically signficant figures? We've got fairly extensive geneaology records in my family and about the greatest claim to fame anywhere is that my great-grandfather got to cross the Atlantic seven times because he played the trombone. And his name was Tito, which is not particularly notable, but is rad.

Everybody I talk to always has somebody in their family tree from the history books except me. Oh well, maybe on my end we were all permitted to develop out of the spotlight and that's how I got perfect genes :

That's okay. I don't believe I have any famous people in my family either. The closest I've got is that my great-grandmother was born in a town of a few thousand people that now claims to be the birthplace of Johnny Weismuller of Tarzan fame, but that's disputed. On my mom's side, I'm supposedly related to just about everyone with the last name Stacey in the state of Kentucky. But as far as fame goes, I think most people in my family were farmers or bakers. Pretty much working-class salt-of-the-earth types.

If anyone can trace themselves to the Donauschwaben, I recommend this website as a starting point:

http://www.dvhh.org/index.htm

[Ravenlord]

Originally Posted by Blimpie

King Boneless?

Must have been part of the famed amoeba dynasty...

actually it would be Jarl Ragnarsson. a Norse last name is his father's first name with either son or dattir attached to it.

as far as being "The Boneless:"
There is some disagreement as to the meaning of Ivar's epithet "Boneless." Some have suggested it was a euphemism for impotence or even a snake metaphor (he had a brother named Snake-in-the-Eye). However, the Scandinavian sources describe a condition that is sometimes understood as similar to a form of osteogenesis imperfecta. The poem Háttalykill inn forni describes Ivar as being "without any bones at all," which would seem to imply being double-jointed.

[GIK]

One of my ancestors helped execute the construction of the Old North Church in Boston.

[RFS62]

Originally Posted by GIK

One of my ancestors helped execute the construction of the Old North Church in Boston.

"execute the construction"..... is that like, oh, say... build?


You talk purty