Jimbo's Troll Genealogy

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Found several new family groups for my wife's family tree, all of them Dutch settlers around New Amsterdam. I cant pronounce the names. The Dutch talk like Germans with hare-lips. Or Germans speaking pig-latin.

I also found one of her missing kinsmen. They appear in Bibles at birth and vanish. This one was born in 1825 and joined the US Cavalry in 1847. He was a carpenter. Anyway I found a record of army discharges and he was shot by a Mexican in 1848. End of story.

I came across a name that's new to me, URANIA. I like it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

So 11 days later I'm toiling to connect my wife's known ancestor back 200 years to a known immigrant. I spent last night examining almost 500 families with the same last name without finding the connection. What this tells me is the known ancestors name is wrong in some significant way, like this example: my great-grandmother was known by all as Jemmy Grant Johnson, but that's not her name. Her name was Cornelia James Grant Johnson. It often seems like looking for a needle in a haystack but I'm in the right haystack.

 

[YankeeGirl74]

Genealogy is a passion of mine, both personal and professional (I work in the history museum field and do a lot of research of founding families, etc). What I can't stand about Ancestry.com is how money grubbing they've gotten over the last few years. I can remember when you paid one flat fee for access to all their databases. However, the society I work for has a professional account that I can access for both my personal and work research, so I can't complain too much.

What I tell everyone about Ancestry is one basic rule: Use it as a springboard. Don't take the information you find on there as "true fact" until you can trace it back and find the original source and view it, especially in the user family tree sections. I've found countless mistakes on those by well meaning 2nd and 3rd cousins, etc, about my grandparents and immediate family. It's a great tool to use...if used correctly...FIND THE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT!!!!(Sorry, it's the researcher in me...lol).

My husband's family can be traced back to several Mayflower families, but where we live you can throw a handful of rocks and nearly all hit can be traced to the founding families. LOL.

 

[YankeeGirl74]

I was impressed with the Mayflower Plymouth Pilgrims till I realized New York City was 7 years older, Jamestown was 13 years older, and Saint Augustine was 55 years older than Plymouth.

One of my husband's Mayflower's ancestors was run out of Jamestown prior to coming to Plymouth. He was a "sinner", not a "saint".

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Genealogy is a passion of mine, both personal and professional (I work in the history museum field and do a lot of research of founding families, etc). What I can't stand about Ancestry.com is how money grubbing they've gotten over the last few years. I can remember when you paid one flat fee for access to all their databases. However, the society I work for has a professional account that I can access for both my personal and work research, so I can't complain too much.

What I tell everyone about Ancestry is one basic rule: Use it as a springboard. Don't take the information you find on there as "true fact" until you can trace it back and find the original source and view it, especially in the user family tree sections. I've found countless mistakes on those by well meaning 2nd and 3rd cousins, etc, about my grandparents and immediate family. It's a great tool to use...if used correctly...FIND THE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT!!!!(Sorry, it's the researcher in me...lol).

My husband's family can be traced back to several Mayflower families, but where we live you can throw a handful of rocks and nearly all hit can be traced to the founding families. LOL.

Sure. Ancestry is useful for the census records, death certificates, and other records, but take none of the records as gospel because there are often errors. As a researcher you already know that analysis of the records is often required. Ofttimes the errors lead to wonderful surprises. Like my relative court-marshaled out of West Point in 1835. The paper said he resigned. He didn't. West Point sent me the file.

He was home on summer vacation when his father died. West Point declined a request for leave, and he remained home to help ma and his sisters. West Point kicked him out. Then the 2nd Seminole Indian War erupted. Within weeks he had a quarrel with his colonel and was shot dead by his company commander. A court martial acquitted the company commander. The dead mans brother, my ancestor, had a gun fight with the company commander. Prince Achille Murat, Napoleon's nephew was my ancestor's 2nd as was a grandson of Thomas Jefferson. Both shooters were wounded. There are 3 eye witness accounts of the duel" One by the governors daughter, one by an army colonel, and one by my ancestor...none of them are the same in particulars.

 

[YankeeGirl74]

What interesting and wonderful histories you've discovered about your ancestors!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

What interesting and wonderful histories you've discovered about your ancestors!

Every family has their history, and some of its noble, some scandalous, and plenty is admirable.