How Far Back..., ...have you traced your family?

In your research into St Marys City I will bet you the name Gardiner came up often ...

They were on the original crossing, they were escaping persicusion of the Catholics in England... My great uncle Harold Gardiner,SJS even wrote a novel about this event. I belive the tilte is " Edmund Champion ".

I have been trying to trace the family but find impasses along the way. Both my Grandmothers have a German line and once you get to Germany there records are amazing even with all the wars. I was able to trace them back to the 1500's
now my scotish and Irish Grandfathers I get just back to the old country and am at a loss to continue. We will keep trying and hope to get more information.

I find just knowing where my ancester where in the time line of history is very interesting, matching up events near there area you get to know a feeling of who they were. knowing who they were helps to know who you are, I think.

I have found a great deal of my family History on a website www.myheritage.com accounts are free and you can, that had some oi get help from others working the same lines. I got contacted by a distant cousin with information I had been looking for and information I had not even known to be looking for.

In your research into St Marys City I will bet you the name Gardiner came up often ...

They were on the original crossing, they were escaping persicusion of the Catholics in England... My great uncle Harold Gardiner,SJS even wrote a novel about this event. I belive the tilte is " Edmund Champion ".

The name has popped up more than once, yep.

Turns out the Jesuits who founded the church in Maryland also branched out into the Philadelphia area (which was considered Maryland by some for quite some time), and helped to found the Goshenhoppen settlement, which...if you can't already tell by the name...was mainly populated by German Catholics.

Turns out my great (just fill in some greats in there) grandfather came from a long line of carpenters, and he built the first Catholic church in the settlement, and the state.

Then his grandson was the sixth Catholic family to cross the mountains into Western Pennsylvania, and he built the first two churches out here, the first two incarnations of St. Vincent Archabbey.

*His* grandson donated the land nearby which turned into the first convent in the state. Possibly the country, but I can't remember offhand. That's St. Xavier, which is now under the Sisters of Mercy based out of Pittsburgh.

I still have to slog through the records for both St. Vincent and Goshenhoppen and untangle all of those families. So much for my father's battle cry of "we ain't related to no $(*$#(*& Catholics", eh? Heh. It's been a busy month.

Interestingly many now honour the Jacobites, but the Jacobites were primarily Catholics that backed the Stewart line for King of Scotland. Which is a plus for them, they nearly freed Scotland from the invading English! But alas the French never came through with the promised aid. It is sad that the French have a long history of not honouring their commitments to their allies.

My mothers geneology goes back to the early 1700's in Ireland, Co Wicklow. We know little about my maternal Grandfather as he was an orphan. My fathers paternal geneology goes back to Inverness Scotland, early 1600's. My paternal Grandmothers family is from Co's Kerry and Cork. We have little of that lineage yet. On my better days, I work on that. I only wish I had an interest when my Grandparents were alive.

Slàinte,    

Patch

My step-father's family goes back to the 7th century. My biological father's family to at least the 10th century. Possible further.

Hi Im amazingly fortunate, on my Dunbar side I can say the names of my grandfathers for 29 generations (about 1000 years). there are a few reasons for this

1 is a distant relative is a geneologist. she maintains an amazing websight I can access .

2 even without her we have a handwritten pedigree that came out with the family in 1837 and is exactly as accurate as the geneologist so it seems our past has been very important to our family.

3 the scots are such good record keepers and fierce defenders "of a bit of granite" , I can read every single legal skirmish the family has ever been in !! )

4 the family were noble so records were kept in the great records and royal seals,my great granfather was the youngest son of 5 generations of the youngest sons so that means no inheritance and off to the new world to find his way.

My most famous ancestor is Thomos Randolph who lead the northern vangard in the Battle of bannockburn,, apparently he married Isobel Bruce, Robert de Bruce's daughter .Their daughter was Black Agness who defended Dunbar Castle from the English for 5 months and won the seige.

Also Robert 11 Stewart is a direct ancestor, his daughter Marjory married a Dunbar (Robert had 21 legitimate children so many scottish family's share descent to Robert 11) .

The Dunbar's are still represented in burkes peerage by a" Gospatrick Dunbar in Scotland" and an American has clamed Cheif of clan status for a different branch of the family 'The Mochrum Line"

So I'am very proud of all this and only really discovered it all in 2005 when full acsess to the websight was achieved .Since then I've been to Scotland and visited many of the castles and churches and graveyards accociated with my family line.
I got to see how the oldest of the oldest sons inhereted. My family isn't rich but the values of education and family pride do run very strong in our family .My Dunbar's were hereditery sherrifs and chancellors of universities and i must say we still seek civic leadership roles. I myself feel like a princess, I just have a smaller castle that's all.

The other side is wild west bog Irish from Connemarra Ireland that cannot be traced past 1850. I'm equally proud of this side of the faily and love CONNEMARRA so there you go

I've tracing for a little while now and know that my great grandfather Edward King immigrated from England in 1855 when he was 10 or 11 not sure what his parents names are, been having problems finding that. He settled down In Jamestown Indiana,married Sarah (last name n/a). They had one son named James Arthur,born 1882
My grandmother's side, John Kankamp, her father was born in Indaina in June of 1849 and his parents came from Germany. His wife Mandy was born in July of 1833 in Indiana.I can't find a last name for her.I know her parents came from England and Indiana.They had 4 sons and a daughter my grandmother Pearl.
In 1910 James and Pearl were living in Jamestown Indiana. They had 3 sons and 2 daughters one of which was my father Raymond Arthur King. In 1930 they moved to Bronson Michigan. He married my mother Pauline Davis in April 1950 and had my brother James Arthur and I,Mitzie Rae. I know about my mother's side of her family,they were better at keeping records.
A man that I work with his sister is going to see if she can help me with all my unanswered questions,she likes to do that so have at Judy and a BIG THANKS TO HER.

I would love to hear from anyone who might know about Stewarts living in the Kilmaurs Parish/Riccarton area around 1780-1840. My 3x great grandfather was John Stewart (b. 1816, Riccarton), married to Margaret Steele. He was a weaver and according to the Scottish census, she was a bonnet maker. I have some information on their family (if anyone else is interested) and our roots trace down through their daughter Mary.

I think his father was also John Stewart, mother possibly Janet Tennant (spelling is questionable)...but I am finding little information on them so far. They both would have been born maybe around 1785-1790.

The other side of my family traces back to Cornwall, England.

I have recently taken my Mackay line to about 1060 AD. That is about as far as "reliable" info goes. If I use "tradition", I can go to Ireland, before the Scots started Dal Riada. But everything before 1060 is, to my mind, highly questionable if not outright legend.

Connemara is absolutely breathtaking, that was one of, if not our favorite place on our limited and short time visit to Ireland. Let me tell you about this baby sheep and momma I happened to know there.............

I decided to take a family DNA test, marker 37, to determine family lines.I am also making a concerted effort to get past 1690 in Ireland, though I know how difficult this can be.
Our family record book goes back to this date, 1690, documented and fully researched.
Hopefully the DNA test will also help clarify my clan lines.

I thought I was doing well getting one or two bloodlines back to the late 1500's but it pales in comparison to some of the posts I have read here.

Anyone know if you can access geneology or census records online from Denmark and Ireland prior to the 1800's?

Of all of the things that I have ever read over the years concerning records prior to the (late) 1800s is that unless you luck out and sources are made public by online means or otherwise, you need at minimum to know in what locale and parish/church your relations resided. And *then* it's even a shot in the dark because of loss of records over time. Not to say that it's impossible...just exceedingly difficult.

I've traced one line back to 1799! I thought that was an achievement, since most of the branches don't go back further than the 20th century.