Surprises in the family tree

by Maverick 13 Replies latest social family

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  Mulan

  Genealogy research is really fascinating. I keep hoping to find some really famous, closely related people, but all I find are very distant cousins. I can claim both Aaron Burr and Benedict Arnold as cousins, and Princess Diana. Grover Cleveland was a cousin of my grandmother. I am a direct descendant of a man named Roger Conant, founder of Salem MA. He was a Puritan, but most of my ancestors were Quakers.

  The most interesting thing I have found is that my great grandfather moved from New York State to Seattle in 1889 to go to the Yukon for the Gold Rush. I found all his information on the internet, including the day he entered the Chilikoot Trail, and found an old letter he wrote to my grandmother from the Yukon when she was 13 (1898). I have the letter.

  Another gem was when I got my other great grandparent's marriage certificate, and learned she was an Indian (Native American, that is). The certificate did say Indian, though. That was exciting. Then I went on a relentless search to find out which tribe and found a great deal of information from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She was a Brothertown Indian, a joining of 7 Indian nations. Her family were Montauk. That explained a lot to both me and all my cousins, as to why our parents look like Indians. No one ever told us about her, and we all knew her because she lived to be 93.

  My grandmother's great grandfather went to California in 1850 for that Gold Rush, and his wife and two youngest children joined him traveling from Michigan to New York, where they boarded a ship and traveled to Panama, where they "crossed the isthmus" (newspaper article), in the days before the Panama Canal. I assume they traveled by carriage.They settled in Placervulle CA where he became an Inn keeper and a California Assemblyman. Lots of little nuggets out there. Just not gold!! Neither man found his fortune in the gold fields.
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  Mulan

  Here is a passage from a book on the History of Windham, Maine" mentioning my direct ancestor, William Maxfield. <<On the 27th of August [1747], following a party of some twenty or thirty Indians entered the town, and made an attempt to capture two young men who were out of the fort, William, son of Thomas Bolton, and William Maxfield who lived with William Mayberry. They were both well armed with muskets and made a brave resistance. Bolton discharged his musket upon his assailants, but before he could reload the Indians rushed upon him and made him a prisoner. Maxfield retreated, walking backwards towards the fort, and occasionally menacing the Indians with his gun, till he was rescued by a band of armed men from the garrison, but not till he had been seriously, though not fatally wounded by a shot from the Indians. Bolton was carried captive to Canada, where he was purchased by a French naval officer and taken on board a French frigate as a servant. The french frigat was soon captured by an English vessel and taken to Boston, and Bolton became the servant of Lt. Wallace, fo the English Frigate. But his stuation becoming known to the captain of a coasting vessel belonging to Falmouth, he was released on application to the Governor, and brought home to the great joy of his parents.>>

  If he had died, I wouldn't be here. That's a sobering thought.
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  Dan-O

  Maverick, I'm curious: Why did you find this information to be a shocking and sad?

  Add me to the list of folks whose ancestors have been in the U.S. for nearly four centuries. And yes, I didn't know about that until I was an adult & began doing genealogy research ... to learn that my ancestors were among the early settlers of Long Island, NY and of New Haven, CT. There are some fascinating stories of witch trials, Revolutionary War exploits, and frontier life in what is now Cincinnati.

  If there's anything sad in that for me, it is the fact that none of the family members with whom I was allowed to associate as a youth knew any of this.
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  Xena

  I went to a family reunion yesterday and found out some interesting stuff...apparently some of the older members of the family had been keeping secret that we actually decended from a German Baron on the wrong side of the blanket....letters and whatnot came out after they died....we have pictures of the castle and letters where he acknowledged our ancester....pretty interesting stuff...they had all the letters translated into English and gave them out to us...lol in one the daugher-in-law called the mother-in-law a whore and mother of bastards.....what can I say we come from fiesty stock apparently...

  Xena of the "Bastard" Class