The TV series “Who Do You Think You Are” has a lot of people interested now in genealogy research. I confess I’ve been a gen-geek for many years. I started when I was in my 20’s, back in the 1980’s, back when you still had to travel and schlep through dusty tomes in old courthouse record halls and burn out your eyeballs staring at endless streams of microfilm.
I didn’t get very far into the research, then my children were born, and I’ve always held a full-time job, so my ancestry research took a backseat to my very own live descendants and general “busyness” of living life for a while.
The advent of the internet helped re-engage my interest in my ancestors, then with the launch of Ancestry.com, and access to that incredible database of information at my very fingertips, I was off again. What I’ve found has been exciting, sometimes funny, sometimes incredibly sad, but always interesting:
A fiery Puritan minister with coal-black hair and fierce dark eyes, who spent time in prison in England because he refused to stop preaching his beliefs. He finally died in his thirties in 1668 because he was so “worn down”, it is said. He is buried in the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene in Taunton, Somerset, England. He was very influential in the movement, published several works before he died, and was looked upon with great respect in the Nonconformist community. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Alleine)
An ancient family seat called Denne Hill in Kent, Canterbury, England, that dates from the time of William the Conqueror. It passed out of my direct line many, many, years ago – my ancestor was a third son, not the oldest - but the estate is actually still in existence, open to the public, and now operates as a dairy and cattle farm and corporate retreat. If I ever make it to England, I’m planning to visit.
A clergyman/soldier who stayed to help defend the city in the Siege of Derry, Ireland, when the mayor and other officials escaped in the dark of night, and was considered a hero by the English but hated by Irish nationalists to the point that a statue of him was blown up by the IRA in the 1970’s. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Walker_(soldier)
A storekeeper in Virginia who came to the colonies in the 1600’s, not as an indentured servant, but with a group of fourteen or so other young men in their teens listed as “orphans” who all emigrated from England as wards of a wealthy widow in her late 30’s (and who apparently liked to be surrounded by young men). She had purchased land and stated that she needed their help to establish her farm. Needless to say, she and her entourage of young men were the talk of the community.
Brothers, members of an ancient Scottish clan who, during the Jacobite wars in Scotland in the late 1600’s - along with about 100 others - were held prisoner in the dungeon of Dunnotar Castle for nearly a year when they refused to refute their religious beliefs. Their release was eventually negotiated by a wealthy sympathizer who immediately booked passage for them on a ship to America before their captors could change their minds.
A man-of-all-trades, Swiss by birth, who worked as everything from a blacksmith to a swineherd for twenty years journeying through the Rhine River valley in Germany, until he reached Amsterdam and purchased passage on a ship to America for his family and his son-in-law’s family with the money that he had saved. He became a successful farmer and businessman in 1700’s North Carolina with a farm, orchards, and tannery.
A patriot woman whose cabin was near King’s Mountain, North Carolina and who helped tend some of the wounded from that Revolutionary War battle, was held hostage in her own home by Tories who were looking for her husband and sons, and rescued by one of her sons who spirited her over the mountain to safety. The Tories were hung.
A Scotsman who married a half-Cherokee woman in Tennessee - they were reasonably well-off for their time but that didn’t matter when the Cherokee were all forced to move to Oklahoma. He accompanied her, they lived to ripe old ages, and they are buried in a Baptist Mission cemetery in Adair, Oklahoma, near tribal lands. Their grandson, my third great-grandfather, fought in the Civil War and died near Piedmont, Alabama in 1904, and is buried in a cemetery there.
A tough frontier woman who left her moderately well-to-do family in North Carolina and moved with her husband to the (then) frontier of north Georgia, lost one son as a teenager, her other son died in Mississippi in the Civil War, lost a daughter and daughter-in-law in childbirth, then lost her husband, and as a widow raised her orphaned grandchildren while keeping their farm running. The only child who outlived her was my direct ancestor, her youngest daughter - my third great-grandmother. They are all buried in a family cemetery in Ranger, Georgia.
A mountain man from Union County in the Appalachian Mountains of North Georgia, one of my great-great-grandfathers, who spent time in prison in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s. I’ve managed to learn of three different stories as to the reason: one was, of course, moonshining (his story was that he was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time: it wasn’t his moonshine still, he came upon a fire and was just trying to get warm when the sheriff suddenly arrived). Another version is that he could possibly have been practicing medicine without a license (he was a folk healer who often travelled deep into the mountains at times on “doctor calls”). The last version, which was my great-great-grandmother’s story, was that she had him arrested for bigamy charges. Apparently he spent a great deal of time in the mountains with one of the women he was treating for an “illness”, enough time that she could have been considered his common- law wife. It could have been a combination of all those things. At any rate, it caused a rift in the family that never really healed - he and my great-great-grandmother never divorced but didn’t live together the last thirty or so years of their marriage, and their six children were split down the middle as to whose side they took.
These are but a few of the fascinating stories I’ve uncovered while doing this research. It has made my ancestors more human and more real to me, learning some of their stories – the heroes and even the scoundrels. I’ve also met new friends and distant cousins - one from whom I borrowed the term “spookin’ the graveyards” (thank you, Mr. Gray), a sort of offshoot hobby of genealogy. Once you learn about these people, and learn their burial places may not be too far away, it’s only natural to want to visit and look for the graves. Looking through old cemeteries may seem morbid to some, but I’ve always enjoyed it, and it’s even more interesting when I know my ancestors are buried there. Locating a cemetery or the grave of an ancestor is a little like searching for treasure.
My roots lie very deep in the Southern United States. In my research I haven’t found any recent immigrants whatsoever; most of my ancestors came to America during the 17th and 18th centuries, most of them arriving in Massachusetts, Delaware, and Virginia, migrating ever southward as more land opened up, and eventually settling in north Georgia and Alabama.
Some of the websites that have been very helpful to me in my research:
Ancestry.com (of course) - different levels of membership fee for that one, but the roughly $17 per month is well worth it, if you’re a genealogy buff. You can find out a lot on the two-week free membership, but if you want to construct and maintain your trees, it’s best to join as a member. You’re also given the option of publishing your research at fairly reasonable costs.
Findagrave.com - I stumbled upon this from another link and find it invaluable now, and it's free. There is a lot of information; some people have even posted photos and stories.
Hopper Family Cemetery in Ranger, Georgia. Elizabeth Angel Hopper (my fourth great-grandmother) settled with her family in Northwest Gordon County in the early 1840's. She raised her orphaned grandchildren and kept the family farm running after losing her husband and all but one child.
Local county genealogical societies can also be a wonderful source. Bartow County, Georgia, where I live, has a great genealogical website - they’ve done extensive research and catalogued just about all the cemeteries in the county, even the private family ones. That’s how I found an old family cemetery from my paternal grandmother’s side of the family, and learned they were some of the early settlers in the county. Sometimes just “googling” a name can yield results. That’s how I found the King’s Mountain story and my ancestors’ roles in that. And of course, social networking makes contact with distant relatives or others who might hold another piece of the puzzle possible, and that is invaluable. I created a Facebook page for my mother's side of the family, and I’ve made many new friends and learned not only tips on researching from them, but many interesting stories as well. I’ve also corresponded with several people through the message center on Ancestry.com.
It has been a spellbinding journey, this research. And I’m not even finished yet. If you choose to go internet and graveyard crawling for your family roots, and need my help or advice in any way, please let me know.
Elizabeth Angel Hopper, 1803-1879 (my maternal grandmother bore a striking resemblance to her), my fourth-great-grandmother. Settled in Ranger, in northwest Gordon County, with her family in the early 1840’s.
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