tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post369488634755713805..comments2024-03-29T08:07:36.632-04:00Comments on Jungle Red Writers: Do You Know Who You AreJungle Red Writershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16646429819267618412noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-32276307641302015562016-01-12T10:04:54.981-05:002016-01-12T10:04:54.981-05:00What a fascinating post! I've always been inte...What a fascinating post! I've always been interested in this, now even more so since I want my daughter to know her roots. I'm actually first (or really first and 1/2 generation). I'm of Russian/Ukrainian/Belorussian descent. All of my grandparents (and some of my great-grandparents) came over soon after WWII. My dad was actually born in a displaced person's camp in Germany. My mom was born in Queens literally about 3 weeks off the boat. The one person I wish I had gotten to know more was my maternal great-grandmother. She died in a fire in Queens when I was five. She was a poet. Unfortunately, most of her poetry disappeared in the fire that killed her, but I still have one envelope that I plan to translate one of these days.Nina Mansfieldhttp://www.ninamansfield.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-56019123509607928032016-01-11T21:25:28.346-05:002016-01-11T21:25:28.346-05:00One caveat with using services like Ancestry or Fa...One caveat with using services like Ancestry or Family Search, though-- the volunteers who transcribe the old census sheets aren't always right when they make guesses. One of my great-grandparents was listed as "Anna". As it turns out, that isn't his name. But the cursive version of his real name (unusual and Welsh) kind-of sort-of looks like it, except for the part where gay marriage wasn't legal in Appalachia in the nineteenth century.Jennifer Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14115866986637597240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-19677203051568026582016-01-11T21:20:22.191-05:002016-01-11T21:20:22.191-05:00I've found a few distant cousins on Ancestry.c...I've found a few distant cousins on Ancestry.com...including one who let slip the titillating comment "I think that was after the trial for attempted murder, but before the bigamy charge". The fellow in question was a politician in a small Midwestern town.<br /><br />Anyone interested in genealogy should visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City at some point. Give yourself a LOT of time there-- their collections are astounding.Jennifer Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14115866986637597240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-32487484370076763382016-01-11T20:23:51.828-05:002016-01-11T20:23:51.828-05:00What a fun topic Debs! Thanks for getting us start...What a fun topic Debs! Thanks for getting us started. I love hearing all the stories. And now a new way to procrastinate aside from scrolling through Facebook. Edith, don't feel bad Roberta isn't making a big rush back to popularity either LOL.and so pleased to know that Joan and Deb and I are cousins!Lucy Burdette aka Roberta Isleibhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04660402177299546055noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-65216063624147993282016-01-11T20:11:09.662-05:002016-01-11T20:11:09.662-05:00Lucy, that would certainly be something special!
:...Lucy, that would certainly be something special!<br />:)Joan Emersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06810313925049108163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-16532598260505869162016-01-11T20:06:18.326-05:002016-01-11T20:06:18.326-05:00Julia, I have fond memories of my grandmother tell...Julia, I have fond memories of my grandmother telling Jean and I that particular rhyme when we were small . . . . Joan Emersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06810313925049108163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-19839064107988966232016-01-11T16:37:17.080-05:002016-01-11T16:37:17.080-05:00I dabble in it -- I am most interested in compilin...I dabble in it -- I am most interested in compiling what I know so that there will be a record for anyone interested in the future. I am the oldest of my generation on both sides, and so I began to realize how far back I personally had access -- through stories from my older relatives, certainly to the 1870's. We don't seem to have anyone notable in the lineage, but I find every day history to be very interesting.<br /><br />I recently learned that my German relatives came to NY through Castle Garden, before Ellis Island was established. I've been to the Tenement Museum in NY a few times, but only a year ago learned about the German presence in the Lower East Side. My great-grandfather was a tailor who built up a small clothing business. <br /><br />I am also something of a "mutt" -- so, there are several routes back into the history!Denise Annhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02790883493798517829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-48098759253426176402016-01-11T15:55:49.564-05:002016-01-11T15:55:49.564-05:00I know more than I want to about one side of the f...I know more than I want to about one side of the family and less than I want to about the other side!Deb Romanonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-35672325537790760282016-01-11T14:31:44.312-05:002016-01-11T14:31:44.312-05:00My mom has been doing quite a bit of ancestry digg...<br />My mom has been doing quite a bit of ancestry digging for years now. I have the most unusual family. On my dad's side the surname is pretty unique, so pretty much everyone in the US with this surname is related in some way.** When I was a kid, whenever we traveled, we'd always look up the name in the local phone book at the motel we were staying in to see if there were any "relatives" in town. We did find some, but we never contacted any even though it was a fun game.<br /><br />**There is a caveat. Over time we have found that our surname is also a Jewish surname (someone once asked me if I was a Sephardic Jew or a Moroccan Jew. No in both cases.) Also, apparently the name is also an Arabic surname. Again, we are not of this background either. No one seems to know how this could be.<br /><br />On my mom's side are Mormons and Catholics, so many many children, including many sets of twins, of which I am one. These people all came from Ireland and England. The Irish Catholics were confirmed rebels and one of them was transported to Australia for treason! He tried to kill an English judge. I like to say the anti-authority streak in the family comes from that side of the family.<br /><br />Anyway, it's great fun and endlessly fascinating to learn new things about the family. There are million stories. I wonder what future generations will say about us!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-53181450924683231452016-01-11T14:30:30.142-05:002016-01-11T14:30:30.142-05:00I have a family bible with many generations of nam...I have a family bible with many generations of names on my father's father's side as well as a batch of letters all written from the battlefield at Gettysburg. My grandmothers forbearers were quite famous interior decorators from the 1870s to the 1930s, and there are magazine ads and photo books about them. I keep trying to push the digging-into-the-family history choreoff on cousins and second-cousins, but it's getting me nowhere. So, I fell for Ancestry's new year discount. Now to find out if we really are related to a signer of the Declaration of Independence(somehow I doubt it.) I still have to get a book written, though.Barb Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16470220932617188498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-50113183870051986592016-01-11T13:24:56.292-05:002016-01-11T13:24:56.292-05:00Edith, I bet it will, and maybe has, with Downton ...Edith, I bet it will, and maybe has, with Downton Abbey's popularity. <br /><br />Karen in Ohionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-68984820433828706862016-01-11T12:55:43.526-05:002016-01-11T12:55:43.526-05:00I notice the name Edith has NOT yet come back in f...I notice the name Edith has NOT yet come back in fashion. I've met maybe four in my life other than my great aunt, and only two younger than me...Edith Maxwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01388006370860482509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-72566000307852331502016-01-11T12:29:57.393-05:002016-01-11T12:29:57.393-05:00My dad's side is very very Norwegian. However....My dad's side is very very Norwegian. However. My aunt did one of those DNA things to which I was asking "Why?!?" because we are notoriously Norwegian through and through on that side. Well, it looks like 1% Irish snuck in and my aunt said, "Well, the Vikings DID pillage ..." <br /><br />On my mom's side of the family, last year I did one of those Ancestry.com click the green leaf things and just following the male Compton line (her father, his father, his father, his father, etc.) they go back in American history to the 1600s which I find extremely cool. I would love to pursue that line in greater detail. My grandfather was the one that came out west. PK the Bookeemonsterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03478996122841311684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-79547926840352753102016-01-11T12:05:17.190-05:002016-01-11T12:05:17.190-05:00Deborah Wall, what an amazing woman Penelope Stout...Deborah Wall, what an amazing woman Penelope Stout was! Good genes to have in the family.<br /><br />Joan, do you know the nursery rhyme about a Shafto? "Bobby Shafto's gone to sea/Silver buckles on his knee/He'll come back and marry me/Bonny Bobby Shafto.<br /><br />Names: Yes, many of those old names are coming back. I'm seeing tiny Lillians, Helens, Maes and Roses. No Berthas or Bessies yet!Juliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09553268569509053159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-74212119212505819542016-01-11T11:59:30.837-05:002016-01-11T11:59:30.837-05:00The whole family history thing had never intereste...The whole family history thing had never interested me much, but my sister recently developed some enthusiasm about it, so for part of her Christmas gift this year I set out to fill in as much as I easily could of a 6-generation family tree for her. (I'm a lot more experienced at online research than she.) I got all the way back six generations on two of the four paths (maternal mom and dad, paternal mom and dad) but only about four generations back on the other two, which both ended with a note that the last ancestor I could find had been born in another country. (One France, one Ireland.) My sister plans to take that chart and do the more intensive work of carrying it on from there. <br /><br />It led to some interesting Christmas conversation, though. My siblings are 11, 12, and 15 years older than me, and they all remembered our paternal grandmother admonishing them not to delve into the family tree, because we had some unsavory characters in it, including one who was said to have been "Hanged for just plain being too mean." That piqued my curiosity! It will be interesting to see if my sister turns up any such stories.Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08292993485984273172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-23925201138088083982016-01-11T11:56:38.927-05:002016-01-11T11:56:38.927-05:00Very addictive! Maxwells I know well - a long line...Very addictive! Maxwells I know well - a long line of educators and doctors from when Bezaleel, my fifth or sixth great grandfather, came over from Scotland. My paternal grandmother (Hendersons) and her five younger siblings all went to college. Maternal side are Flahertys (yes, bullheaded Irish in San Francisco from way back) and Skinners, who did a Laura Ingalls kind of trek west across the prairie, gg-grandfather even founded a town in Nebraska. Love this stuff.Edith Maxwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01388006370860482509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-54161365985778594992016-01-11T11:08:58.723-05:002016-01-11T11:08:58.723-05:00Wow, I can see how this stuff could be addictive. ...Wow, I can see how this stuff could be addictive. I did a quick free search on Geni, and found Dardens going back as far as Stephen Darden in 1615 in Essex, England. Then the Dardens turn in up 1645 in Isle of Wight, VA! Lots of Stephens, which, interestingly, is my brother's name.<br /><br />Unfortunately, my small branch of Dardens ends with my brother as he had an only daughter.<br /><br />Darden is also the name of the family who own the Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants, but I have no idea if there's any connection.<br />Deborah Crombiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16988750789088153601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-65594331335780779092016-01-11T10:37:51.640-05:002016-01-11T10:37:51.640-05:00Love the stories from everyone's family histor...Love the stories from everyone's family history! I think that's why I love genealogy so much--beyond the names and dates is a wealth of stories--and that's what I hope to pass on to my family. All of my ancestors came to America before there was a U.S.--makes history come alive when you can tell stories of ancestors who fought in every conflict from the French and Indian Wars right up through Iraq and Afghanistan. There are letters from an ancestor on my mother's side, sent from the war with Mexico during the 1840s. A Church name listed on a monument to the Confederate dead at a Civil War prison in Chicago. Government papers where my 4x-great-grandfather tried to sort out his War of 1812 pension claim--can you believe there were two Herrell O'Bryan's?<br /><br />And the stories of the women--just as interesting, but so much harder to find--one ancestor on my dad's side--her last name was followed by a question mark on her husband's death certificate. As if all her life, she'd been known as Grandma, or Mrs. Church. But I found her in someone else's carefully researched family tree--dating all the way back to the 1400s in Sweden!<br /><br />And one final note--I came across an exciting family tree for the Church name--only to discover later that most of it was fake! Why? Why would someone deliberately create a fake family tree? You can still find elements of the fake tree in other people's online research.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-7803280081239092622016-01-11T10:35:26.473-05:002016-01-11T10:35:26.473-05:00Hank, your grandmother Fannie was probably Frances...Hank, your grandmother Fannie was probably Frances, don't you think?<br /><br />Deb, what a fantastic story! And how great that your grandmother Penelope's story was passed down.Deborah Crombiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16988750789088153601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-91681186037129132892016-01-11T10:31:57.370-05:002016-01-11T10:31:57.370-05:00Joan, that's fascinating about Daniel Boone!Joan, that's fascinating about Daniel Boone!Susan Elia MacNealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00349842866995778987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-39524284966535734412016-01-11T09:56:52.012-05:002016-01-11T09:56:52.012-05:00Hank, my grandmothers were Gertrude and Mary.
Ju...Hank, my grandmothers were Gertrude and Mary. <br /><br />Just the other day we were talking about how women used to be named Gertrude, then their names were shortened to Gert, Gertie, and Trudy. <br /><br />My grandmother was most definitely a Gert, since she was an unredemptive old battleaxe.Karen in Ohionoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-26847299986972529292016-01-11T09:48:18.078-05:002016-01-11T09:48:18.078-05:00My ancestor, Penelope Stout, was an amazing woman....My ancestor, Penelope Stout, was an amazing woman. She arrived by boat in 1640. The boat foundered and she and her husband swam ashore only to be attacked by indians. Her stomach gashed open by an axe, she hid in a tree log. Another tribe found her and sewed up her stomach and nursed her to health before taking her to New Amsterdam. She then married And had eleven children before dying at over 102. She remained friends with the Indians who saved her and even bought land from them to live in in New Jersey.Deborah Wall McGrawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09485298762058072995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-82161975854783696992016-01-11T09:44:22.095-05:002016-01-11T09:44:22.095-05:00I was thinking about this last night--my Great-gra...I was thinking about this last night--my Great-grandmothers were Gertrude and May. And grandmothers Rose and Minda. Jonathan's grandmother was Fannie. SO interesting, huh, how the fashions change?Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-46066807305307962942016-01-11T09:16:11.224-05:002016-01-11T09:16:11.224-05:00My aunt (mother's sister) has been involved in...My aunt (mother's sister) has been involved in tracing her family heritage and has occasionally enlisted my help photographing gravestones in Pittsburgh, but I admit the whole "tracing your lineage" holds very little interest for me. My mom's dad was first generation American - from Croatia. On my dad's side, the most interesting story is my great-grandmother who used to smuggle whiskey in from Canada during Prohibition by hiding it in her car door - and the head of Customs at the Peace Bridge in Buffalo used to stop for nickel shots. The ethnicity is some mish-mash of Croatian, English, German/Austrian. So Deborah, totally get that "mutt" mentality.<br /><br />Makes it tough when the kids get a school project that is "bring in a family tradition," but we manage.Liz Millironhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04919409969263609919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-30469747378510252462016-01-11T09:06:06.404-05:002016-01-11T09:06:06.404-05:00I was fortunate to have a grandfather who introduc...I was fortunate to have a grandfather who introduced me to both family history and writing at at very young age. He refused, however, to admit that we were descended from one of the founders of Rhode Island, Samuell Gorton, because Gorton was so radical in his political and religious beliefs that he not only got himself kicked out of Plimoth Plantations, but out of Providence and Portsmouth, too. My take is that eccentrics run in the family.Kathy Lynn (Gorton) Emersonhttp://www.kathylynnemerson.comnoreply@blogger.com