I just started playing with what will soon be my next addiction: Ancestry.com.
I’ve put it off for years, with the shoebox of geneaology that my mother amassed before the computer age. I feel guilty about it, too. My mom’s dream was to trace her family back as far as she could (she got hung up in Scotland. I think she was back into the 1500’s, maybe earlier). I inherited all her notes because I was deemed the one child most likely to follow up on the research.
My mom died in 1996 and the shoebox has languished under my bed for almost as long. I did buy some acid-free folders to put the info in, but I never transferred anything. I have several old letters my mom collected, land deeds, news clips, a scrap book and her stenographer’s pad with notes (all dated with date & military time each time she made a discovery).
No one has attempted to do the work on my dad’s family, to my knowledge. I know the basics: the English side and the Irish side, and that we are related to some guy who surveyed most of Wyoming. I also know that we go back to the American Revolution and the Mayflower on his side. I remember writing about that in a paper I did in the 6th or 7th grade on my family name and where it originated.
We go back to the American revolution on my mom’s side, too. And I’m somehow related to the anarchist, John Brown, of Harper’s Ferry fame. Not directly.
I know that on my mom’s side we helped run the Underground Railroad.
My dad’s side was not quite so generous & I have the postcards to prove it. (Some of them are really racist!)
My husband has been into the whole geneaology thing all along, slowly and deliberately putting together the Presley family history. Because of his research, we have a membership on Ancestry.com. Have had, for several years.
About a week ago, I finally went in and started a family tree on my dad’s side. (You’d think I would dig out the shoebox and go to town on my mom’s research!) But, no – I decided to start with the unresearched side.
Last night I sat and clicked on “hints” for two hours, delving into my father’s mother’s side of the family. I’m back to 1600’s and they are still in America. Well, except for the ones who emigrated to Canada & I can’t follow those hints because we need an upgrade to our membership to go International. I’ll hold off on the upgrade for when I enter my mom’s research because I know she traced it back to Scotland.
I haven’t found any racy relatives (yet), but I did come across an amusing misspelling of my great-great grandmother Irene’s name: Green. GREEN? Was the census taker deef? How did “Irene” become “Green”?? Too funny. I’ve had to correct countless records on the spelling of Kimmey: they keep spelling it Kinney. Interestingly, there are TEN public accounts that are somehow related to me through the Kimmeys. Hmmm…
Wilcox hasn’t pulled one single hint. Not one. It’s a far more common name than Cusick or Kimmey, but I suspect because my great-grandfather was an only child who sired an only child, that I am the one who gets to do that research. But now I am addicted. It’s like finding pieces of a puzzle.
A very Anglo-Saxon puzzle at the moment, although someone in one of the related public profiles has a Chinese surname.
Stay tuned. I’m sure I’ll find some skeletons.
Still Life With Apples – Photo # 253/365
Jaci Dawn 
Jaci,
We need to talk about family name spellings.
I think we should, Mary. I did just get a huge lead from my dad: he’s sending me a box of researched items. I never knew he had that stuff!! And he told me to get in touch with my Uncle Mike (his half-brother) who apparently has tons of stuff. Hmmmm Knowing my Uncle Mike, I bet he does.