Positive Post Fridays

The Ulster Scots were staunch Presbyterians. My ancestors continued that devotion. They were persecuted by the British in Ulster as I understand since the state religion was Anglican and they had to give money to the Anglican church and accept Anglican rites and rituals, such as marriage, as the only valid rites. So while the move to the Ulster Plantation was at first good economically, between the British persecution and the Catholic understandable anger and reaction to the seizure of their land to give to various Protestant groups from Scotland and England, life grew hard and thus America ended up with a huge Ulster Scots immigration. I have been reading a lot about that period. Fascinating.

There's an anecdote I ran across when looking into some Scotch Irish lines. As a child she climbed to a rock in Antrim & watched the boats for America setting sail. There was not a week and not a family which didn't have a passenger. 85,000 left over just a few years.

One thing to remember is that the Ulster Plantation was also settled by English & Huguenots (via England). I suspect my English origin Howton who arrived in PA in the 1760s may very well have come by Ulster. And there is no doubt on the Cunningham's, McIlwaine's, and Barnes.

It's technically Friday here!

I broke through my Stillman Clark brick wall. He's a fourth-great-grandfather and it always bothered me that I couldn't get that line farther back than him.

The odd thing is that, for the first time, I was actually really bummed to have Geni tie me into a huge tree back from him. :/ I wanted to have the fun of doing all the dirty work in tracing him back, and it's kinda spoiled now. I guess all I can do now is add lots of documentation. It's not quite as fun, but it's still something. :) And then the next person to come along and be disappointed that the basic discoveries have been made and the documents have been added can think, "Ah, but now I'll write a great overview!" And so on.

Somehow - I don't feel that bad for you Ashley, I can't imagine there aren't other brick walls.:)

Well, I can understand Ashley's feeling. She was enjoying the hunt, and some other hunter got to the prey before she did.Ashley I have an idea. Why don't you double check all their resources and maybe you might find something they missed or at least you will feel like you did something yourself. I , myself perfer to do my own hunting but I will say the help I got on valiquette was most welcolm . Like I have said befor . i acturally had the correct info but though I was incorrect. then this vey nice person, Rhonda, if i remember correctly, sent me in the the right direction. It was nice to know i was acturally right and because of her I was able to find even more. I am now unforuntaely and fortunately connected in with others, Fortunate because I have met other people . Unfortunate because some times geni drives me off the wall. So I guess it's the ying and the yang of things! Judy

Congrats Ashley!! Now just think how far back you can go before another BRICK Wall.

Judy, I check *everything* I find on Geni. :) I don't use it as my sole tree. But you're right -- I was really enjoying that hunt! I love 1800s genealogy, and that was my last New England wall in that time period. Oh well. Now it's on to sourcing it all and finding more documents and, more importantly, context.

Try working the siblings DOWN....you will be assisting newcomers and there are slews of interesting people AND connections to other associated/marital families to be found. AND, since everyone else seems so intense on working UP, the going is pretty smooth (and supporting sources are quite good...so your work can be well-documented).

Well it is Friday and I have some positive news. I learned some new tricks that most who read this already know; I found that a 4th great grandmother didn't have 2 children, she had 13 and I'm still more than a century behind in entries; and if her father proves to be the man we think he is - my 5th g-grandfather not only survived Bunker Hill but provides us with some comic relief now, 2 centuries later, as he quite effectively, it is reported, fought on with stones when he ran out of ammunition. In addition I am helping create a new project to watch for involving armed bandits of the Americas and other... shall we say; scalawags.

Danny, very interesting!

I guess I have slacked off a bit with these posts, right?

I'm in the process of ordering four FTDNA tests tonight -- Y-DNA37 for my father and my mother's nephew, and mtDNAPlus for my mother and my mother's niece. This will test four different lines of my family.

Private User Very cool! I recently got my own mtDNA test results and expanded my father's Y-DNA to 67.

Both of my parents, my paternal grandmother, and I have all already done autosomal testing through 23andMe and transferred them to FTDNA as Family Finder results. We're hoping to get more refined results through specific Y-DNA and mtDNA testing, especially since my father's father was an adoptee and we still can't really narrow down his roots. My mother's direct maternal line peters out not very far back (Jessima "Jessie" (McNeil) Knowles), and 23andMe was very vague about the geographic origins, so maybe we'll get more insight.

Not Friday, but...
For some days ago I found a grand-aunt nobody knew about,- at least not had added to the tree.

It started with some old letters from 1906 my nephew found among my old aunt Randi's papers and scanned in for me.

They were addressed to her mother (my grandmother Franciska Kristine Brox) and was surprisingly signed "your sister Aagot". I was first wondering if it was a "lodge" sister, but when she send greetings to their father I understood that it had to be a real sister. Franciska's father did marry again in 1895 after Franciska's mother died in the age of 35, and there is no registered children from that marriage. The handwriting did however not look like it was written by, at that time if they got some after their marriage, an 10-11 years old child which could he her half.sister.

After some digging I found church records showing that my grandmother really had an older sister named Aagot Berthalda Angela!

The letters, which I probably will add as documents when I get home next week tells a lot about their life for one hundred years ago, and does also show that they did not use the full name on each other. My grandmother Franciska Kristine Viktoria is just called "Siska", her sister Alexandra Lovise is called just "Sandra", and their father Nikolaús Alexander which we have various sourced of the name on, which my father told was just called Nikolai by some, surprisingly signed his own letter to his daughter "Sandra" with just Alex.

My tip for today is to look for old letters as well when doing genealogy, because they might help you a lot.
My project next week is to find out if she had any family, because Aagot talks about a "Siggen" and Anna which might be her own children, and my dream is that I am able to trace down their family and hope they have saved the letters my grandmother sent as an answer to those letters we have found.

Very good news for you Bjorn. Congratulations.

A fantastic story, Bjørn.

Great story, Bjørn.

Thanks, and of course such findings raises a lot of questions (even why my aunt saved those letters).

Even better, it can be the lesson of the week -- don't ever think you've found everything there is to find!

What a great story Bjorn. It really highlights how important correspondence can be.

We just scanned in a box of photographs that go back to the 1920s and 30s that had letters from one sister to another on the back of many of the photos. So exciting to see their handwriting and know how they interacted.

Great find, Bjørn! I agree that letters, postcards, and other personal correspondence make for some of the best finds. I have been reading my second-great-grandfather John Warren Bourn's journal recently and have been charting out all of the relationships he mentions in it, from his immediate family to his coworkers to his neighbors and so on. It really helps to paint a better picture of the world he lived in.

I am a week late, but last Friday I broke through my 2nd Great Grandmother´s SMART lineages, to about 4-5 generations back!!! Yay! And my Cox´s are getting set in the right order soon, too, through collaborations with HSmith and Monica LaMont!!!! Go Family Go!!!!
Sarah Frances (Smart) Cox

Benjamin Franklin Cox

Theresa that's great. I am so curious now which way your Cox family evolves to be ...

My happy post for the week is I was finally able to determine that my 3x great great parents did come to NYC with their children (originally just thought the children came) and that they lived just blocks away from with a clear view of the Brooklyn Bridge when it was actually being built. As a native NY'er I thought that was pretty cool!

Now the question is, where exactly did the come from?!? Ugh.

Never where you think they came from Wendi.:)

At a reunion on Sunday, I got to see some heirlooms I'd never seen before. My favorites were from my third-great-grandmother Maria Crowninshield. There was a teacup and saucer, and even better, an absolutely stunning coverlet she stitched by hand. She even spun and dyed all the thread. I actually have a (giant) spinning wheel from that side of the family, and I wonder now if that's the very wheel she used. Very special.

I have my grandmother and grandfather parker's bed. Dated around 1910. That's when she and my grandfather got married. Also have two of their rocking chairs i have a burrow dating back to the 1899's and a secretary desk and cabinet, needs work and a small round table., but I think it was my great grandmother's. I also have a record cabinet, sterio player,that were my other grandparents.

You are quite lucky. I have nothing from my mother's side, not even photos. I have a clock my paternal grandfather made, and from my paternal grandmother, I have the spinning wheel, an apple-corer from the mid-1800s, and my second-great-grandfather's journal from 1906-1907, along with photos. That's it. My paternal grandmother gave most of her heirlooms to her eldest niece, so I try to treasure the few things I do have.

Oh, and my father has his mother's father's fishing basket and fly-rod(s?). So I guess I will ultimately have those as well.

I have tons of photos. I have all my grandmother and grandfather's photo albums, my ;late Great Aunt Octavia,s photos, got them from my recently late cousin, and also my late great Aunt bessie's album, which I got from her daughter Fay, A good amount of them have been printed in a book about Breakheart rev,.here in Saugus. They, my great grandmother and great grandfather were the caretakers on there. They lived on the farm. around 1900, right after the other caretaker was murdered. Because my family has lived in the same town for years I have all the family history.A lot of records, probate , wills. plus I know a lot about when they lived in both Mass and N,H, i have newspaper articles and probate from N.H. too.I know where several house they lived in are. they are still there.plus because they at one time owned The Saugus iron Works, I also have records .So i guess I am luckier then some people. My father's side is diferent. I only know a few generations back but I know when they arr. here, and I have pictures.

I have tons of photos. I have all my grandmother and grandfather's photo albums, my ;late Great Aunt Octavia,s photos, got them from my recently late cousin, and also my late great Aunt bessie's album, which I got from her daughter Fay, A good amount of them have been printed in a book about Breakheart rev,.here in Saugus. They, my great grandmother and great grandfather were the caretakers on there. They lived on the farm. around 1900, right after the other caretaker was murdered. Because my family has lived in the same town for years I have all the family history.A lot of records, probate , wills. plus I know a lot about when they lived in both Mass and N,H, i have newspaper articles and probate from N.H. too.I know where several house they lived in are. they are still there.plus because they at one time owned The Saugus iron Works, I also have records .So i guess I am luckier then some people. My father's side is diferent. I only know a few generations back but I know when they arr. here, and I have pictures.