Mum, Dad, Or Both

CelticRose,
My experience in doing internet genealogical research has been that it is usually most productive to start as far back as possible, and work forward. If rootsweb.com, ancestry.com, etc. are not productive, I can sometimes find the person I am looking for by doing Google searches. I generally phrase the search as something like:
"[last name] [first name]" [date of birth] [place of birth]
adding and varying whatever information I do have. Each of the main genealogical sites has different strengths, and different data. None of them have all the data available on the web.
Good luck with your search!

For all of being a member of the Fitzpatrick Family, a proper Irish clan, the difficult thing about geneology is that, people being people, we can have a fair chance that our parents are who we think they are. Our grandparents give us a much less clear chance of being right. 5 generations back? Forget it. Between raiding Vikings and the Irish propensity for strong drink and all that comes with that, only village priest for each generation can know the truth. Maybe we should just enjoy being who WE are.

Maisky
Chicago

Hi Mailagnus! Thank you for that information. If I go back as far as I can, that is where we are stuck and would make sense to start there as I have information from 1800 and forward. Maybe I can find something that my cousins have not been able to find! Thank you for you help! Very appreciated!

Maisky! I have heard the same thing about a lot of things in ancesteral history do get twisted and turned because of certain circumstances such as those you speak. But it is still fun to know as much as you can, if you can! I have always had an interest in culture and anthropology and so it has all been a major interest to me. However, I let my cousins do all the hard work and now I want to join in the task and see what else I can find out!

CelticRose,
I have a subscription to genealogy.com, which quite often has information not available on the free sites, so if you want to send me your 1800's ancestor's name (with possible variations), and birth/death dates/places, I could see whether there's anything there to help you go further back.

This is the first I've ever heard of this 'tell only your father's side' business. I've always celebrated my mother's Scottish and father's English heritage.

My gene pool is trans-European. On my dad's side, the genes come from Scotland, Ireland and Germany. On my mom's side, Slovakia and Poland.

Celtic Rose
You mentioned that you have an ancestor that you suspect may have been recorded by a nickname...

Are you aware that in areas of Scotland (up to the present day) - people in a village may have exactly the same names as someone else in the village... in Scotland this has resulted in people being given 'by' names - ie names they go by...! Murray the Milk, Murray the Neb (if, for instance, he had a large nose!). The same tradition happens in Wales, too....

I wonder if this is what may have happened in your family?

Mailagnus, you are very sweet to offer. From what I can tell from all these records in my hand is that there was Powell Sutton who married a S. Rhoda Taylor in 1800. He is the one we're stuck on. We don't know if Powell was his nickname or what? We don't know what year he was born. We think he was born somewhere in Asheville, North Carolina.

If this is any help, before him was an Ervin Andrew Sutton, born April 30, 1858 in Forsyth Country, GA and died November 27, 1933 in Pickens County, GA. He was married to a Carolyn McArthur Tatum on January 17, 1875

Hope this doesn't become a burden. Thank you.

Catriona! No, I was not aware of that. I know one thing my ancestors were good at were giving each other nicknames! Sheesh! That's what has made it so difficult! Thanks a bunch! All this helps

CelticRose,
The only thing I could find on genealogy.com for Powell were a few gedcoms with his descenants, nothing for ancestors. I also did a search on the other three names, but couldn't find anything.
I've run into the same sort of dead-end with some of my own lineages. I have one ancestor, Norman Morgan, who just sort of appears out of nowhere in Scott County, VA. The only thing I've found that could be linked to him is a court record in NC indicating he failed to appear for trial. I suspect that Norman skipped over the line from NC to VA, and covered up his past well enough that even the descendants who still live in Scott County can't track him down.
Sorry I couldn't be of any real help.

Oh Mailagnus! You were a real gem to do this for me and a great help. Thank you for doing this and hope it was not a lot of trouble. No telling what happened to ole Powell's ancestors, eh? Maybe they were outlaws!

Oh Mailagnus! Thank you for taking the time. You were a great help. I hope it wasn't a lot of trouble for you to do this. No telling what happened to ole Powell's ancestors. Maybe they were outlaws, eh?

No trouble. I enjoy doing this sort of research. A couple of nights ago, I got lucky and found a Carpenter ancestor for my wife who immigrated to England with William the Congueror. It turns out that the "Carpenter" name was given to him by his fellow invaders due to his prowess in swinging a Danish battleaxe during the Battle of Hastings. As my wife has always that her family is much more gentle than mine, this was a bit of a shcok for her.
I've found plenty of my own ancestors who could be considered outlaws--except in Scotland, they considered themselves "raiders." As I understand it, so long as the raiding was done openly, it wasn't stealling. Unfortunately, at least one, by the name of Francis Hopkins, continued the tradition as a Tory in Rev War SW VA, and was hung without benefit of a rope in the crook of a tree over a river, for alleged cattle-thieving and counterfeiting. See, for example,
http://home.insightbb.com/~1twig/francis_hopkins.htm
The family view is that he was merely a loyal subject trying to assist his king.
Sometimes when you are successful in researching your ancestors, the results aren't real pleasing. :>}

Mailagnus! It seems that when you do this searching of ancestors it really opens up a can of worms, does it not? I mean so much work to do! I have one great.....grandfather who was a Baptist preacher and during his sermon one day, there was a drunk man outside. Apparently this upset my ole grandpa enough to stop in the middle of his sermon and go outside and whip the drunk! Real Christian of him, eh?

My cousins are the ones doing all this research and they live in one state and I in another. They are also very busy with their jobs and so I never hear from them anymore. That's why I am frustrated and want to continue the journey on my own, but it all seems so overwhelming. I think it is really neat that you are doing this and getting so much information from it all. I just hope I can do the same. many thanks again.

your info was very interesting, btw.

CelticRose, Asheville, NC is in Buncombe Co. Try this link...

www.rootsweb.com/~ncbuncom/

You maybe able to find something about your ancestors. Happy hunting!

maggiemahone1

Hi Maggie! Wow! Thank you so much! You know I lived in Asheville, NC for two years. Had I known that my cousins had traced our family there and got stuck, I could have done a lot of research there. Now I have this site to work from. I was just in there checking it out. In the meantime, I tried emailing my cousin who I had not heard from in a couple of years to see if she has gotten anywhere and what sites she is working from. Many thanks again. I have another place to look because of you.