A 52 Week Challenge? Not Me

The other day I mentioned that even though we’d been busy, we weren’t doing much that was blog worthy.  That’s probably true.  It’s not always about traveling, visiting or sightseeing.  Sometimes it’s just about doing what everyone else does and that’s getting involved with our own interests . 

  Benedict Arnold, the traitor

I’ve read several blogs recently from people who travel and along their routes, they stop to search their own roots.  I know all about searching  roots and it’s so much easier to get those records today than it was 36 years ago when I first got interested in genealogy.   I have boxes and boxes of documents and thousands of research notes. Years ago we really had to learn to research. We didn’t just copy unsourced family trees and all the errors contained in them.  We calculated, figured, researched …. and, of course, still made mistakes.

Michael McGee, Irish Immigrant and Revolutionary Soldier

We wrote letters, visited court houses, walked through many cemeteries and searched  old film and microfiche until our eyes were blurry.  Things have definitely changed.  Aren’t we thankful for that!

Now we even have a new tool to use which helps in discovering those roots.  It’s DNA. We all inherit chromosomes from our parents.  These chromosomes are passed down from one generation to another .  The secrets of our family histories can be hidden in those matches we find.  The most popular family tree website is definitely Ancestry but that’s for research tools, historical records and family trees.  The DNA testing there  lacks the tools needed to compare your chromosomes to that of someone else.   The good thing is that you can download your Ancestry DNA files and upload it to other sites offering chromosome viewing, comparing and triangulation.   I monitor DNA for myself and 12 family members on Ancestry, 23andme, FTDNA and Gedmatch.  They are all different but that’s another story at another time. 

Did John Markham’s widow marry Blackbeard the pirate?

Not all my “famous” relatives are necessarily those I’d pick to be related to but we don’t choose our families.   It’s the pirates, the traitors and the troublemakers that are the most interesting to discover.  The more notorious they are, the more fun they are to dig up. 

 

Many blogging genealogists have taken a  52 week challenge.  The goal is to blog about one ancestor each week for 52 weeks.   I think the idea of doing this keeps researchers focused on one branch of that tree without jumping from branch to branch.  It’s probably a good idea but not so sure I’d be able to stick with it  … maybe just a few here and there.

Sir Robert Bruce

Then, there’s even the relationship  with Barbara Bush, wife of George H. Bush.  She’s also related to Benedict Arnold so with fairly quick calculations, I’ve come up with a relationship to  Barbara.  She’s the   8th great grand niece of the wife of my 1st cousin 10X removed!    Now I would say that definitely is a very distant relative and I’m not going to try to figure it out.

Honest George Washington is in there someplace too but at a 3rd cousin 7 times removed, he’s another pretty distant one.

Certainly, you’re familiar with the Little Jack Horner nursery rhyme.  It is believed the poem was written about my 8th great grandfather, Thomas Horner,  who stole one of the deeds he was delivering to the king.   Now that was a fun discovery and a fun history lesson too.

Salt Lake City has the best collection of genealogy material in the world.  Some of what they have is online but not all of it.   It’s a real thrill to dig through all their records.  I’ve been lucky enough to do that a few times including last year on our way north.   Now I discover that Tammi has a business trip planned next week.  That business trip is to Salt Lake City …..  We could stop overnight on our  way to see Justin.  We could ???

'Tis life on the road.

I'd rather look for dead people than have 'em look for me.