52 Ancestors in 52 weeks - week 4

This week's prompt is "invite to dinner".  Who have I found in my family tree that I would like to invite to dinner?  She didn't say if it was limited to one person so I might have a loophole!

I have a few people I am so curious about and have very little information on, so I am going to go with them.

First up!  We have my 3rd great grand father who was a carpenter and was found stabbed to death at the age of 42.  He left his 30 year old wife behind and 4 small children, including an infant.  I have called the county library where he died to find records and they have only what I already know. So I searched out the local newspapers and lo and behold, there was a fire and the records from that time period are lost.  I have tried searching through his siblings to see if there are any letters, any mentions of him and his children in wills, and all to no avail.  Yes, I would love to have dinner with him and see what really happened.

And remember the axe-murdering ancestors I mentioned earlier?  Maybe their mother would be a good one to have to dinner.

I have a great grandmother and a great grandfather from the same era, both of whom had their mothers die when they were infants and were raised by an aunt and a grandmother, respectively. Those 2 mamas who died after birthing their babes were really only babies themselves being 15 and 16 years of age when they married, gave birth and died.  Talk about someone who has no records to follow!  I would love to talk with them and hear their hopes, and dreams.  What a tragedy to die so very young and not really to have lived at all.  The only consolation I see in this is that they both fell in love and were able to leave a legacy with their babies.

It is my firm belief that every single person has a great story.  Someone just needs to ask them to tell it.  And dinner with these 4 seems like some fabulous conversation.

52 Ancestor in 52 Weeks - week 3

This week's prompt is longevity.  Like the longest-lived person on your tree or how long you have been doing genealogy, that sort of thing.

The only interesting thing I could come up with for this topic is that I have one branch I have followed and fleshed-out (disclaimer here:  all my work is to be considered a work in progress) that goes back to early 1500s England.  That's Henry VIII time, people. I had to let that sink in for a while.

This makes them my 14th great grand parents. Boggles the mind it does.  And here's the thing about ancestry; as much as this excites me to find these things it is no where NEAR as interesting as those that are 4 generations back that I can find absolutely nothing on.  That kind of mystery is really something that draws me in.  When someone appears in my tree with the marriage to someone I already have and then after 2 census records drops dead with NO HINTS as to previous life and where they came from, now that is why I do this.  To find the previously un-find-able.

But the longevity thing is nothing to be sneezed at.  I had a British friend here visiting last week and she said her DNA showed she shares DNA with 40% British while mine is 68% combining England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.  I know I have a lot of work to do to confirm everything I have on my tree.  Let's hope I live long enough to do it all!  (See what I did there?  I hope I have the longevity.)

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 2

This week's prompt is Favorite Photo.  Now I have a load of photos of ancestors but what I chose was something different.

Have a look.

This is a drawing of the original plat of the city of New Haven, CT.  My 10th great grandfather was William Tuttle, one of the founders of this city.  That he had his name on the plat as one of the founders and got a cool corner lot is rather cool, I think.  I like how the town was built around the square.  I have more information of the Tuttles than I will probably ever get to in my lifetime.  They were a prominent family in the area and not always known for good things. There seems to be a strain of insanity in their blood.  The axe-murdering kind of insanity.  Surely, after 10 dilutions to me most of that should be gone.  Let's just say they were not a boring bunch, those Tuttles.  Anyway, this area is now the commons of Yale University.

And here we have a drawing of a painting of the venerable William Tuttle.

Doesn't he look like the life of the party?  What a dour face.  He did have a herd of kids and a lot of responsibilities and was the first of his family to leave jolly old England.  So there's that.  Also, two of his kids would become axe murderers.

I would bet when you clicked to see this blog post you didn't think you were going to see this, did you?  I wasn't sure which photo I would use right up until I chose.

I hope you are enjoying doing some genealogy and ancestry research on your own tree.

Random thoughts

I have had so many different things swirling in my head that I thought I would get some of them down in black and white.  Here goes!

1. My son has a lovely girlfriend who has 2 little boys, so they are like my almost-grandchildren. I went and picked up the 5 year old and spent the weekend with him. He had finished kindergarten on Friday and had his very first graduation.  We played Legos, colored, drew pictures, read books, swam, counted fireflies, and made homemade ice cream. 

It was a pretty perfect weekend, actually.

2. This whole debate in social media about the child who climbed into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and the gorilla was shot and killed is horrific.  Everyone is vilifying the mother of the child.  From the accounts I have read BOTH parents were there, why are we blaming just one?  I don't like the blaming and judging that goes on from women on other women and their parenting.  We are all guilty of it.  My first thought was  "why did the mom allow her child out of her sight?"  I took a step back and can see all sorts of judgment and blaming in my own mind.  It's a fucking tragedy with enough responsibility to be spread around.  Let's hope all the parents who know of this will now educate their children on how to act appropriately in a zoo setting, and that the zoo officials will find more ways to keep the animals safe from this happening again.

3. While thinking about this zoo/gorilla/parenting debacle I have been going over and over in my mind how would I have acted.  What would I have done differently so that my kids would not end up in that life threatening situation?  I don't know.  I do know that I was really strict and clear about what behaviors were appropriate in public venues.  I see friends and family who parent differently than I do/did and I try not to compare.  But we all want to justify and validate our own decisions so some comparisons are going to happen.  My hard and fast rule with little ones was always if I am not touching you or holding your hand we have to be able to see each other's faces.  If you can't see my face you are too far away.  I think for me this came from living in a city on the border where we were told on the news damn near weekly about children being abducted from under your nose and taken across the border before you could blink.  So a fair amount of paranoia and fear were at play here.  I hope like hell that my kids don't feel scarred and smothered by this.  They haven't ever said so and they are both pretty great and well-adjusted adult people now.  That's the thing with parenting, you really just have to go with your gut and good intentions and hope that the love and care come through.

4. Are any of you watching Outlander on Starz?  Season 2 has been confusing me mightily so I have started reading the books.  I am now on book 2 which seems to be different than the show.  Jamie is fantastic, both in the books and the show.  Why Claire would think twice about that dry, boring Frank especially knowing his psychopath great grand relative Black Jack is beyond me.  But Claire does bug, irk and annoy me.

5. And while on the Scotland topic I am doing more and more research on Ancestry.com. And Scotland and Ireland are both difficult countries to do deep research on.  I need to get more details on names, locations and dates so that I can plan a trip to see what all I can find. I am more than a little afraid that I will get to Scotland or Ireland and never want to return. It does call to me.

6. After getting my DNA done on Ancestry I came up with a vision of a tattoo I would love to get.  I keep picturing it in my head of what the components are and how to do it.  Then I get on Pinterest and what do I find?  A whole bunch of people have come up with similar visions!  WTH???  I was so thoughtful on what I imagined as a very original idea.  Good Lord. Now I am unsure about it.  I don't want it to be what everyone else has since I may be chicken and it could very well be my one and only tattoo.

7. It's been a month since my good and dear friend Jon died.  It seems like yesterday.  The pain and grief are still so very fresh and my feelings so raw.  I need to find a positive way to honor him and deal with my sadness.  Any ideas?

That's it for now.  This is my closing thought.

I'm back and flitting from topic to topic. Do try to keep up!

Hey, it has been a while.  I was on a pretty impromptu roadtrip with my sister so that was fun.  We sang along with Adele and the Backstreet Boys, because that is how we roll.  Ha!

So, today is 100 years since the Titanic sank and in honor of that the History Channel is showing a fabulous memorial tonight with lots of never before seen due to new technology just now finding it kind of stuff.  For those of us that are obsessed with Titanic and all the horrific sadness, this is a goldmine.  Be sure to set your dvr or tivo to record this bit of history.

Also, in t.v. update news!  Are y'all watching anything right now?  Let me tell you what all is on my dvr.

The Borgias - Showtime channel, fabulous series about the infamous family that ran the Vatican and Rome.  And you have to know anytime you can have Jeremy Irons playing someone evil it is gonna be good.

The Big C - Also on Showtime.  I think this is the 3rd season of this wonderful, thoughtful series starring Laura Linney and Oliver Platt.

Nurse Jackie - Showtime, yet again.  Showtime has some great series.  If you don't get this channel, why the hell not?

Game of Thrones - HBO - o.m.g.!!!  Watch it.

Eastbound and Down - HBO, Kenny Powers with a mullet!

Top Shot - History Channel, Colby Donaldson, cool guns, nice looking men, really cool blowing up of stuff, and Colby Donaldson, enough said.

Modern Family - ABC, Best. Flipping. Show. Ever.

Survivor - CBS.  What is more fun than watching idiots trust the wrong people and disaster ensues?

Amazing Race - CBS.  See above comment about Survivor.

Real Time with Bill Maher - HBO, I can not go more than a week without seeing his New Rules at the end of the show.  Awesome.

Jeopardy! - CBS.  Love Jeopardy!  and I also love yelling "Can it, Trebek!  or Suck it, Trebek! or It's HUN-DRED you morons, NOT HUNNERD!"  They may be able to pass the Jeopardy online quiz but they still can't pronounce hundred.  Idiots.

I can't think of what else my dvr records for me.  Sparky also has his shows recording, like Aqua Teen Hungerforce, Family Guy, Metalocolypse.  When they are on we don't miss It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League.  Those are both on FX.

Oh!  Also we watch (although this will be the final season coming up) Breaking Bad on AMC.

Quick!  Changing subjects.

Someone, I don't know who, recommended the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy to me.  Whoever it was, obviously doesn't know me.  I barely made it through book one.

It is such trite crap I could NOT believe it got greenlighted, or green lit or was given the thumbs up. Holy Moly, is it bad!

Please don't be taken in by the hype or the fact that book one has already been optioned for a movie. I can not even imagine how they will make this be not a boring, repetitive piece of porno trash.

There are not enough descriptive words to tell you how much I hated all the characters.  The female lead was so fucking annoying and stupid I couldn't even believe it.  The male lead?  Warped, controlling, and so strange it defied all logic that she would be soooo attracted to him that all her common sense would go right out the window.

What I'm saying is unless you are looking for s&m bondage porn laced with the worst and most repetitive dialogue, you don't want to bother with this piece of crap.

Did you try the brown rice crusted quiche recipe yet?  Please do.  I am sure you will like it.

What else has been going on around here that I wanted to talk about?

Oh!  I know what I have been trying to remember to tell you about!

Have you seen this ad?

I was watching this and thought to myself, "Self, if they took a whole shirt and made a dickie out of the top part, this is what is left over."

IT'S A DICKIE FOR YOUR ASS!

Where do they come up with this stuff?  And why, oh why, are we gullible enough to buy it?

Trendy Top, indeed.

Have a great day and I will be here to discuss some more ancestry.com findings in the next few days!

Cork, Cork, Cork.

So, I was sitting here listening to my Irish Drinking Songs cd and thinking of what to post about.  I was also considering St. Paddy's Day coming right up and my shopping list for my traditional St. Paddy's meal. And this week I have gone ahead and plunked down the $$ for the ancestry.com software to be able to print up loads of different charts and such.  You may find it hard to believe that all these things are related, because I sure did!

I have distant ancestors from several different branches of my family tree from County Cork.  I didn't know a damn thing about County Cork so I looked online and found that it is, at least according to the County Cork's own website, the largest county in all of Ireland.

Here is Ireland:

County Cork is the highlighted county below:

Here's a close-up:

And below are some beautiful photos of County Cork:

This one is looking up at Castle Blarney

And this is up above looking down on same Castle Blarney, obviously at different times of year.

And we all know what the Blarney Castle is famous for, don't we?

The Blarney Stone!  And the kissing of the stone!

Now, who wouldn't want to go get hung over the side of the wall upside down to kiss a stone that millions of other lips have touched?

I am using the information I am finding on ancestry.com to plan a trip, possibly next summer, to Ireland and Scotland.  I don't know exactly what I hope to find, but the question of why on earth would anyone ever leave such a lovely place keeps springing to mind.

The Great Potato famine was in 1845 - 1852 and Ireland lost 25% of its population due to starvation and emigration.  Many of the ancestors I am looking up left Ireland 100 years before this.  So I researched a bit and found there was a previous famine in 1740-1741 due to some horrible weather and bad crop harvest.  If my 7th great-grandparents could stick it out through this, why would they leave approx. 10 years later?

Back to this coming St. Patrick's Day!  What will you be doing?  Will you be wearing the green?  Do you make Irish Soda Bread?  Drink green beer?

I wear loads of green and several Irish pins.  I will drink Irish Breakfast tea.  Then I will make a corned beef, cabbage, carrot and turnip dinner.  I will drink Irish beer.  Harp is my favorite.

I will either make some Soda Bread or some gingerbread.

Have a great time celebrating your Irish heritage if you have it!

Updated Ancestry Report

Way back last May I told you about what my findings on Ancestry.com, you can go here if you want to read that post.

Here I am going to give you an update on what else I have found!

1. I now have 1465 people on the extended branches of my tree.  That's a lot of branches, twigs and nuts!

2. Still, pretty much nothing but German, Scot, English or Irish farmers, blacksmiths or coopers.

3. 7 generations back in my tree is my 5th great grandmother who is first cousin to Francis Scott Key.  He is still the only person on my tree who seems to have been a creative artistic type.  Everyone else was busy trying to keep food on the table and had no time for such foolish extravagances.

4. There are going to be lots and lots of new records available this year as the 1940 federal census will become available.  So I guess I am going to pay to stay in at least one more year!

5. Sadly and regrettably, I have found a few people who had one or two slaves.  They must have been really poor farmers to only have one.  But it does something to you when you read about this in your own family.  I don't really know what to even say about it.  It's a heartbreaking reality.

6. I still think the ancestry work dovetails nicely with my obituary reading.  Which I have to get back to!  I haven't posted about obits in quite a while.

Do you do ancestry work?  Are you interested in your family tree?  Or are you more the looking forward rather than backward kind of person?

Family Tree and the nuts who inhabit

Remember way back in February when I was sick and wheezing and coughing my fool head off?  Well, since I couldn't lay down due to the coughing fits that would happen I spent a lot of time sitting up.  So I did what one would do and signed up for a year's worth of service on Ancestry.com and started inputting everything I knew about the ancestors.

Here is what I have found out:

1. I now have 841 people on the extended branches of my tree

2. If you were a German, Scot, English or Irish farmer, blacksmith or cooper I am descended from you.

3. 7 generations back in my tree is my 5th great grandmother who is first cousin to Francis Scott Key.

4. One branch of the family has my ancestor arriving in Boston, Mass. in 1630 on a ship called the Planter.  (This is just ten years after the Mayflower)  He was one of the founders of New Haven, Connecticut.  And this family had several documented cases of nutters.  Something you never want to have happen when there are witch trials going on around you.

5. An Irish many-great grandfathers arrived in South Carolina around 1750.  His son married a girl who was a fifth-generation Virginian on her mother's side.  On her father's side they were English and the records go back to 1390.

6. I had ancestors fight in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and on both sides of the Civil War.

7. It is much easier to find the really old stuff rather than the newer stuff. The government had set a law when they started taking the census that the information wouldn't be released for 72 years after the fact. This was the average life span at the time and they didn't feel they would be jeopardizing anyone still living  by waiting that length of time.  What that means is the latest census you can work from is 1930. My mother-in-law, for example, was born in 1934 so I hit a dead end when working on her side of the family.

8. It would be a whole lot easier to get the records matched up to the right person if there weren't 4 or 5 generations of men with the SAME DAMN NAME!  Why do men want to name their sons after themselves?  Change the middle name or something!

9. I have 2 ancestors of the same generation, both from Iowa, but different sides of the family whose mothers both died in childbirth and they were raised by family members.

10. I think this ties in nicely with my weekly obsession with reading the obituaries and finding a little history of the families.

11. I love the old names.  Sarah, Malinda, Mahala, Levi, Solomon, Jeremiah, Joab, Xavier, Duncan, Rachel, Hannah, Jesse (male) and Jessie (female).

12. It is a very common southern thing for women to use their maiden name as the first name for one of their sons.  And I knew this so to find it occurring in my own family tree was not surprising.  But what was surprising was to find a Mr. Thomas Wicker who married a Miss Sally Talley.  And do you know what they named one of their sons?

Talley Wicker.

Yep.  Unless there are fake records up on ancestry.com and someone thought it would be hilarious to play an eternal April Fool's Day joke on me.  There is a Talley Wicker in the branches.  Can you say that three times fast?

I think I will stop there with Talley Wicker because it's an even dozen on the list and really?  what can I say after that?