Hunting History - Finding Family

This past week Ancestry has, quite controversially (at least in my Italian Genealogy Group) "updated" our DNA story.  I have previously done a blog entry about mine, but to compare here the old analysis: Great Britain: 69% Southern Europe: 10% Scandinavia: 7% Western England: 3% Caucasus: 1% Ireland >1% Russia >1% And the new analysis: England, Wales, Northern Europe: 77% Ireland/Scotland: 11% Sweden: 9% Germanic Europe 3% Now, at first glance this actually does seem to fit my own research better.  But there's something really important missing, and that's my Northern Italian DNA.  Before, it was in there, you just had to expand on the tabs a bit, but that 10% Southern Europe is my Northern Italian.  Now, it's gone.  Many in the group have said their previous Italian DNA matches have been replaced with French.  Now luckily I didn't have that happen, but just disappearing altogether isn't much of a consolation prize. If you're inte...

My maiden name is Heigert, (in English; Hi-gert, in German; Hee-kert) and on that side I am a third generation American.  I feel pretty strongly about immigrants, if we hadn't been allowed in I wouldn't be here, although both my Italian and German immigrant ancestors came here via Ellis Island.  I won't get into the political debate, that's not what this blog is about.  Instead, lets get into my immigrant's stories. My great grandfather, Roman Heigert was born 8th of August 1867 in Waldulm, Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany to 27 year old Benedict Heigert and 22 year old Paulina Schmelzle.  Benedict and Paulina had married the 29th of May 1865 in Waldulm, and had one child before Roman, brother Gottfried Frederick born in 1866.   Benedict & Pauina's Marriage Bann Roman's Birth Record I won't even pretend to know how someone from Alton Illinois got in touch with the Heigert's in Waldulm, but family record has it that the Springman Distri...

A census record can either be your brick-wall busting best friend or a migraine inducing annoyance.   I'll be using a clients tree as an example, as I've recently had a very bad census as well as a very good one. Debbie's (my client) third great grandfather is Felix Stacey, born in Kentucky in 1823.  In 1880 we find him in Perry co, Kentucky with his wife and children.  Now I have a marriage license and multiple other census records, so I know for a fact who his family is.  Felix married Cynthia Couch in 1850, and they had nine children: Polly Ann, John, Farmer, Peter, Granville, Nancy, Rachel, Alford, and Lucinda.  On the 1880 census, not all are living and not all live at home, but here's what the census reads: Felix Stacy (suname spelled wrong) wife: Sinthy Stacy (not even close) children: Former, Loucinda, Granville, Rachel, Nancy, and Alford. (Well they got 4 of the 6 right anyway....) If I hadn't known the names of the children from previous ...

So today I was going to talk about census reports....but instead I'm going to talk about Marilyn Monroe! Lovely, tortured soul that she was, Marilyn was my 8th cousin 2x removed.  That means that she's eight and I'm ten steps away from a common ancestor, Robert Rivers (1701-1792.)  But unlike my relationship to the Queen of England, this one isn't through marriage, it's through my own line.  And I rather like Miss Monroe, so I thought I'd share this one. Robert Rivers is my 8th great grandfather on my Weller (mom's) side.  I actually hadn't gotten that far, so it was news to me and now I have lots of new ancestors to work through on that line.  This info all came through an app called We're Related, and I'll get back to that in a minute. Robert Rivers (1701-1792) My 9th great grandfather John Rivers (1736-1774) - Robert's son, my 8th great grandfather John Rivers (1757-1820) - John's son, my 7th great grandfather Susannah Rivers (...

I have been searching for a client's grandmother FOREVER.  OK maybe that's not entirely true, but she's been a big focus of our search since we started.  Debbie (client) was told grandma's name was Valentine Poole and she came from England. That's all we knew. Now this family doesn't share secrets.  No one talks.  It's all a big ol mystery.  I love those. I knew "Valentine" was married to Debbie's grandfather, David George, and I knew he had a son, Edward David George.  We knew David had died around 1980 and was buried in Florida.  Let the search begin. I searchedandsearchedandsearched..... I found a record hit that was a maybe.  You'd be surprised how many David Bryants there are.  One married a Dorothy Valentine, and I wasn't even positive enough to save the record onto his file, but I kept it in memory, just in case. I searched ancestry many times for Valentine Poole, David Bryant, Edward David....all nothing.  I hit family...

It's been said that everyone on Earth is separated by just six degrees of separation.  Now, this is referring more to the fact that people are connected to everyone else by these degrees, in other words, in terms of who you know, each person is connected to every other person by an average of six degrees.  Say I know 100 people.  If each of my friends also know 100 people, then I'm now technically connected to 10,000 people.  Give each of them 100 friends and you've got 1,000,000 people.  Now that the internet and Facebook and networking sites have come along, that number has actually shrunk to 3.5 degrees. In genealogy though, it's a little different.  I've heard that everyone, EVERYONE on Earth is separated by fewer than 100 degrees, although of course I now cannot find that fact to validate it.  The way to determine connection or separation is to take a person (any old person will do) and find a common ancestor.  Trust me, they're there. Then...

No other county in Kentucky (a state notorious for its feuds- Hatfield-McCoy, anyone?) was as bloody as Clay County.  An extended feud called the "Cattle War"is thought to have been the reason for forming Clay co in 1806, created so legislators could have more jurisdiction over the area of the so-called "war", which was the headwaters of the three forks of the Kentucky River. Clay co in early 1800 was also famous for their salt.  General Hugh Lowry White was not the first to open a salt works there, but with his slaves, money, and entrepreneurship he certainly conquered the business.  Hugh came to what would eventually be known as Clay co in 1804 from Pennsylvania, after his already wealthy older brother James bought bought the Outlaw/Collins Salt Works.  Daniel Garrard showed up in 1806, and the two quickly made Goose Creek salt famous.  Hugh not only produced copious amounts of salt; he and wife Catherine Cain also produced a "remarkable family of over-ac...