Reading Others Work

Since getting all the Genealogy from my Grandmother, I have been putting it away, hoping to get to scanning all documents, mementos and keepsakes. I came across the Ellis Family Genealogy compiled and researched by John Plunkett of Florida. He did such a wonderful job in getting this book put together. It is my great hope to be able to do this for my family lines. Being a good researcher is key, but also being able to write and tell a story is another crucial part. For me, I struggle with writing, I am the artist sure, but mine is photography, scrapbooking, but never much for the writing, I have a lot to say, and a lot to tell as far as my families history, BUT, the words rarely come the way I want them to. But in that, the more I work at it, the easier it will come right?

Humbled by my Ancestors

Everyone has a past you just have to dig for it.. I have been using my gift membership to Ancestry.com nightly and getting so many records its just unreal.  Someday I hope to chart all of this on a great big chart, but for now, I am very happy with my going green/ paperless family tree.

Last night I decided to work on my Great Grandma Hastings family, and got about to 1340 A.D., and much to my surprise, I am a niece of King Henry VI.  Everyone has someone in their family that is famous, just sometimes its not the famous type you would like to have. 


I also looked for my boyfriend who has been told since he was a teenager that he is related to Outlaw Jesse James, he too wasn't quite sure how to take that, or to be real happy about it.  But I found it, they are distant cousins, just not so distantly, only by about 125 years. 


As I was digging for my own ancestry, a lot of the deaths were at Tower of  London, that gave me a very unsettled feeling.  Mostly sadness, I am sure it was due to the King, he seemed to be a very difficult man.  My own GGGGGGrandmother was beheaded by his order, and for that, just makes me sad, I am still working on trying to find out why she was beheaded, she was only 54 years old. 

In that time era, it seemed common place to find you guilty and then behead you.  Which I find ironic, since today's society its, you are found guilty, but then can spend the rest of your life in jail at the expense of others.  Maybe the King did have a point, maybe if you were truly guilty of what he said, off with your head, and be done with you.  But a lot of the crimes people committed were stealing food because they were poor, or not affording the taxes, and lastly, religious views, some wanted to remain Catholic, and others didn't, Hence the introduction of Protestants...

As I dig more into the how's and why's of my ancient family, I will post my findings.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask,

Tracy

Irregular Marriage

If you find this term in your Genealogy it means this...

In Isolated frontier areas couples were not always able to travel to a church or preacher or legal recorder when they wanted to marry so they would publicly state their intentions and set up housekeeping together and then when the first itinerant minister came through, he would marry them.

This term was accepted by church elders, in Scotland and here in the U.S.A. in the earlier days. The couple was not thought of as promiscuous, it was just something that they did. The children under law were never thought as illegitimate, and thus, the church didn't either.

So in some states now, they call it common law marriage, or even the new modern term, Domestic Partner...

Find A Grave

seeing as how i dont get a chance to volunteer or help out with charities that really inspire me, I have been thinking of something to do to give back. I just happened to be working on a little research for my genealogy, and came across this little website, its nothing fancy, but it has 34million grave site photos. http://www.findagrave.com I am soon going to be walking the local cemeteries and taking photos.. Great exercise, great nature walks, and plenty of photos in the hopes of helping out my fellow genealogists. Usually when you have a person to research, you find their last known whereabouts, i.e. their grave. A photo is worth a thousand words, and in this case, a date of birth or a year, etc. If you are like me, and have just a few spare hours, or several to spare and want to get out and about, take your camera to the nearest cemetery and take photos, then upload them to the site. Also, if you need a photo, you can download it, and have it as your own, there are even celebrities listed there.