Right now no progress for me either. I think I am going to take a break from the one line of family and start on another. Maybe that will make me feel better.
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| Celtic Radio Community > Family History & Clans > So What's New With Your Search |
| Posted by: CelticRose 18-Jan-2004, 11:46 PM |
| Well, just wondering how everyone is doing with their search of their ancestors. I am at a roadblock, but I am anxiously awaiting my book to be delivered to me by my historian cousin who can hopefully give me more information. The thing I find about some of these paid sites is that you get just where you think you are going to find out something and then you come across the place that says you have to pay for more information! Do you all find that? I am finding that this can be a rather expensive hobby! |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 19-Jan-2004, 06:02 PM |
| That's why I avoid those sites. Most of what the are offering is out there for free........SOMEWHERE, you just need to find it. I haven't been doing much with the genealogy this past week. Had a touch of what was going around and straining my brain was to much. I spent most of my time jumping around on the forum and listening to the music. Besides, the weather hasn't been very good here in New Jersey, at all this week. So, I didn't even feel like going out much. In other words, NO PROGRESS!!! |
| Posted by: CelticRose 19-Jan-2004, 06:32 PM |
| Yeah! I was hoping to get so much more from the paid site and then all I kept doing was hitting more brick walls by them telling me if you want more info, then subscribe to this site and so on...... In fact, I am thinking about canceling my subscription to the paid site. Right now no progress for me either. I think I am going to take a break from the one line of family and start on another. Maybe that will make me feel better. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 19-Jan-2004, 06:34 PM |
| Forgot to say I hope you get to feeling better, Mike! |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 19-Jan-2004, 06:45 PM |
| That's why I like hangin' here. Lots of nice people to talk to. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 19-Jan-2004, 07:01 PM |
Me too! I am a member of several forums, but this one is my favorite. I really love it here and learn so much from everybody too. I am slowly doing away with some of the other forums I've been on anyway. Too much strife, condescending remarks and talking down to people is not my way of enjoyment.  This is one of the few boards out there that isn't like that.  |
| Posted by: CelticRose 20-Jan-2004, 05:16 PM |
Well I am pretty excited cause today I received the book on the Whitaker family from my historian cousin! He even autographed it! Anyway, the book is pretty thick and so much info in there on my family that it is going to take me quite awhile to work through it!  At least I have that much accomplished! |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 20-Jan-2004, 08:33 PM |
Sounds like you need to take a weekend road trip someplace quiet, so you can read. Bring a notebook and some sipping wine with you.  |
| Posted by: CelticRose 20-Jan-2004, 11:37 PM |
| Well remember the name of my great-grandmother I had been trying to hunt down with no luck? He says in the book that her name was Ellerson instead of Allison! So that could be my problem! I hope! I have been reading this book this evening and the research this guy did is incredible! He went to all our relatives and interviewed them, got documents of eveything he could, even photos of my ancestors are in there! But it is still going to take me awhile. I learned more about my Irish great-grandmother and the story of her. That was really interesting! I am so excited! |
| Posted by: ballantyne 24-Jan-2004, 09:02 PM |
| My greatest successes have been FREE from the Rootsweb Surname, County, and Country lists. If it wasn't for the kindness of total strangers with access to census indexes, etc. I would be nowhere! I wish everyone success in their genealogy projects!  |
| Posted by: CelticRose 24-Jan-2004, 09:10 PM |
Thanks ballantyne! My most research has come from Rootsweb too! I was able to contact some cousins from there and that was how I found out I had a cousin in our family who was a historian and wrote a book about us!  |
| Posted by: CelticRose 29-Jan-2004, 02:07 PM |
| Hello everyone! I just wanted to share in my recent search. I read the whole book of my historian cousin's book on our Whitaker family. It was extremely interesting and my cousin did years of research. There were signatures, letters, photos and diaries of my gx-grandfathers in there from 7 generations! They were all from English descent, several of them born in England and several of them having moved their families to Ireland. I have one gx-grandmother who was born and raised in Ireland and immigrated with her family to America. Another gx-grandmother (who I was told was Scottish) I discovered was really of English descent with her grand-parents having been born and raised in England. Basically my ancestors were Quakers who relocated to Ireland for many years and then their children relocated to America. Once here, they changed their faith to Baptists. Now I have one gx-grandmother who was a Walker I am working on as my current project. Well that is my news. |
| Posted by: ballantyne 01-Feb-2004, 08:00 PM |
| CelticRose, you are quite fortunate to have a family historian that was able to write a book spanning so many generations! I haven't found any family books for my Ballantyne family, but I am lucky to have photos of my great-great grandparents and some documents, all of which I treasure. Have a nice evening! |
| Posted by: CelticRose 01-Feb-2004, 08:20 PM |
Thank you Ballantyne! I was lucky indeed. Now I am working on the other lines and getting road blocks!  |
| Posted by: Sea Dog 01-Feb-2004, 11:42 PM |
| Did you know that Congresswoman Bono was a Whitaker? From her website "Congresswoman Bono was born in 1961 in Cleveland, Ohio. Two years later her family moved to South Pasadena, California, where she enjoyed a warm family upbringing. Bono's father, Clay Whitaker, is a retired physician and surgeon. Her mother, Karen, is a retired chemist." I went to Jr. High, High School and USC with her older brother Steve. He definitely liked pipes and drove Land Rovers, the big old ones. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 02-Feb-2004, 12:17 AM |
Hey ! Seadog! How are you? good to see you here! wow! cool Seadog! I looked up that name in my Whitaker book and I am no family lineage with them..........boo hoo! Glad to know though. I have a lot of Whitaker relatives in Utah, North Carolina and Georgia though!  What's your family search revealed? |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 07-Feb-2004, 03:12 PM |
| I did find out the name of the husband of one of my relatives yesterday. I was looking on different web pages and came across an article about some guy in Shrule, Ireland who had passed away. I was bored from not having any success, so I thought I would read it. Half way through the article, they mention my relative as his wife. We never knew who she was married to. Just shows, that it pays to read everything you come across. I had to laugh about that one. It was a total whim to read that article. Gave no indication that I would find anything important in it.  |
| Posted by: CelticRose 07-Feb-2004, 03:33 PM |
| Oh Mike! Thanks so much for sharing. That gives me and probably many others such encouragement to look at everything! |
| Posted by: Sea Dog 08-Feb-2004, 08:56 PM |
| My wife has had some pretty good luck on making contacts on her side of the family. On my side, My Dad started some research, we are a long small twig on the family tree on that side. I have one brother. My Dad was an only child. He had 5 aunts and uncles, he had two cousins. Neither had children. His Dad doesn't show in the Social Security Death Index in the times I have checked it. We know that the surname was Gillett until about 1840 or so when due to a business decision, the sign was painted Gillette or the something was done spelled Gillette and it was cheaper to keep the new spelling (Sounds Scots to me). He traced back to Ross & Cromartie His Father was one of the youngest siblings and he was about 45 or a little older when my Dad Was born, His GrandFather was about that age when his Father was born and his GreatGrandfather who lived to 104 was at least that age when his Granddad was born. so some pretty long sticks on the branch. My Mother's Aunt completed her DAR research so we have a good start there, 13 generations in New England. Looks like they moved a little faster on that side. One of her Grandfathers came from County Cork. We also have some Iroquois on her side, she remembers meeting some Iroquois cousins surnamed hauk when she was little in Connecticut. I have a cousin on my Mothers side who was married to a Mormon for a while. So they may have plugged the DAR stuff in to their system (if we're lucky). So while we aren't starting at ground zero , we're not too far away. |
| Posted by: Catriona 09-Feb-2004, 03:00 AM |
| Hello SeaDog I did a quick Google search on the names Gilette and Gillett... both would appear to be of English origins - based in the West Country. That is not to say that your ancestor did not originate from Scotland, just that the name appears to be originally English.....  there are lots of names which are common in Scotland today which are not Scots in origin. Lots of Norman names like Fraser (don't get much more Scots than that)  were originally French! Gillette sounds like a franco-British name - but I am not sure about Gillett.This genforum site might be of interest to you. http://genforum.genealogy.com/gillett/?priority=0000900 |
| Posted by: Sea Dog 09-Feb-2004, 09:11 PM |
| I've met English, French and Mexican Gillettes. Scots and English Gilletts. The Mexican said his Father was half French and Mexican and his Mother was all Mexican. We had an interesting chat at Italian Jewish Deli sandwich shop in North Hollywood. SoCal is definitely a melting pot. Based on my limited conversations with other Gillettes. The trailing E tends to be French and alledgedly Norman English. Gillett tends to be Northern English. We do have Gillett letters and a few other papers from Scotland before they emigrated to Ontario in the 1840's or so. (Mother has them now so I can't be real specific on dates and cities without them in hand.) They theoretically are a diminutive based on Gill or Gil, and my Dads mother was a Gilchrist again the Gil related Surname. The last time I talked with an on line Gillette (alledgedly not trying to get me to buy into anything) also knowing that they weren't going to be too directly related. They seemed a little stuffy about things, and were pushing the French side. They were pumping me for any information "so I could be included in the books they were publishing", I mentioned that I had found a Frederick Gillette who had been arrested by the famous Wells Fargo Detective Oliver Hume for robbing the Darwin-Independence Stage in Eastern CA and had done time in Folsom. They never contacted me again. We're going to be getting a program and start getting it down and collected in one place to start. The wife has been getting a lot of contacts and help on her side of the family. She's filled some holes for some folks and found several once or twice removed cousins that are also doing family trees so we've got some "coaches" available. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 16-Feb-2004, 01:12 AM |
| Well I must admit my frustration! For the past two weeks I have been working fervently on a certain great-grandmother and every time I just about get where I think I am going to get somewhere it directs me to Ancestry.com and places where I have to pay for additional information! Rats! I already pay for genealogy.com and I get nothing from them and when I just about do, they do the same thing, refer me to sites that require that I pay out more money! I am really upset about this. do you all encounter this? Or am I just being too impatient. I have checked out every site on our favorite web sites and I get the same blasted thing! Somebody told me that if I wanted information on my family that I was going to have to be willing to pay for it and a lot........bull! I am too cheap and stubborn for that! Interested in your experiences. |
| Posted by: 3Ravens 16-Feb-2004, 01:27 AM |
| Hang in there, CR! It's gotta get better! I found a very distant cousin last week on rootsweb. We had the same great, great, great, grandfather. Maybe some paid sites are better than others? |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 16-Feb-2004, 09:35 AM |
| Rosemary, I said this from the beginning. Genealogy can be very frustrating at times. All you can do is get your information out there on every site that will accept it and sit back and wait for someone to recognize it. Your doing the same thing, checking everyone elses postings and seeing if they match up. There's new postings on pretty much every web page every day. You just need to get in the habit of going in and check them out. You pick up a piece here and there and it slowly adds up and makes sense. I have found that the "pay for" sites just aren't worth it. Everything they have is listed SOMEWHERE on the internet, you just need to find it. Most of the time, someone else has bought the CD and was not happy because of the lack of information on it and posted all the information somewhere. They didn't want to see others paying for something that wasn't much help in the first place. When you get frustrated, pour yourself a glass of wine and go lay on the hammock in the backyard and check out the stars. You have the best and most relaxing view for that.  |
| Posted by: CelticRose 16-Feb-2004, 10:18 AM |
| Thank you Mike! I just needed to vent. Thank you for listening to me. I will do what you suggest! Thank you , thank you! You are a gem! |
| Posted by: teton933 16-Mar-2004, 08:49 PM |
HI ROSE! AS WINSTON SAID: "NEVER GIVE UP!" OOPS, QUOTING AN ENGLISHMAN. WELL HE WAS SCOTS IN HIS HEART!! YOUR NEXT RELATIVE IS ONLY A "GOOGLE" AWAY! I FOUND A 92 YR OLD COUSIN WHOM I HAD NO IDEA EVEN EXISTED. KEEP ON!!! TETONMAN  |
| Posted by: CelticRose 17-Mar-2004, 02:21 PM |
I keep trying Tetonman! The problem I am running into is that while the men were always recorded, the women were not and/or their parents.  |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 05-Apr-2004, 07:38 PM |
| Stumbled across another relative yesterday on the Shrule.com page. She is from Minnesota. She had signed the guestbook and she happened to mention that she was the g grand daughter of Patrick Egan (my avatar). I e-mailed her but haven't heard from her yet. I'm hoping she can fill in some holes. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 10-Apr-2004, 06:11 PM | ||
Oh wow! Mike! How so very exciting! I wish you very much success with that. Goes to show that persistence pays off, eh? |
| Posted by: dfilpus 05-Jun-2004, 04:55 PM |
| In the genealogy.com forums, I found two distant cousins on different branches of my great-grandfather's tree who were looking for info on my great-grandfather's family. We traded info and expanded that side of the tree three-fold. Each cousin sent me info they got from different pay sites. Posting on the forums may pay off. |
| Posted by: Lyra Luminara 27-Jun-2004, 10:15 PM |
| A while ago I found out that not only am I english, but irish and scottish as well. Not very interesting, I know, but I was excited. Because I had thought that this one surname and the people connected were german...but now I'm pretty sure it's scottish. craziness. |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 01-Aug-2004, 08:29 PM |
| This weekend was rather productive. I have located some of the family of the daughter of my great-grandfather (my avatar). We knew nothing of his daughter except what her name was. I have added 19 more names to the family tree, bringing the total to 728 and once I get together with some of this side of the family, I will add many more names. This find, has filled in a very big void in our family tree. Hopefully, they will have some answers for me pertaining to some of the other relatives that I know existed but have nothing on. Once again, it pays to keep plugging away at all the information that is out there. Something may just pop up. |
| Posted by: dfilpus 02-Aug-2004, 11:08 AM |
| Was doing my standard searches and came upon my grandmother's obituary. Actually, it was my grandfather's second wife, who had vanished out of the family when my grandfather died. This means that the last of the grandparents that I had known have now died. She had a family of her own from before she had married Grandpa, including a couple of kids, a handful of grandchildren and a slew of great-grandchildren. However, the obituary said nothing about a former marriage or the kid's father. There are secrets there. Another search came up with a genealogical record indicating that that Grandpa's father had been married in Finland for a couple of years. His Finnish wife died and he left for America. He married again and the American Filpus family started. The record in a very extensive family tree involving hundreds of individuals in both Finland and America. To this family, G-Grandpa was just an uncle married into the family for a short time and disappeared. I was able to convey to them what happened to this uncle. Now, I have the option of adding the hundreds of individuals to my family trees, or just the wife, with a pointer to the other records. This has been a mixed set of findings. |
| Posted by: Lyra Luminara 12-Aug-2004, 01:32 PM |
| Lately I've been kicking much butt in the family history. I'm back to my great great great grandparents--translated back to the 1815-1820s. And unconvered two new surnames. My great great grandmother had 9 kids and was taking care of them all at age 50 by herself! One daughter was a governess for another house. Another was sent to london to be a housekeeper for a family and apparently the head of the house got her pregnent and it was this big scandal and she had to be sent home. Pretty interesting, I'd like to find out more about that story. I've hit another wall right now and I just need to find online access to censuses from England from before 1850, anyone know where? |
| Posted by: CelticRose 12-Aug-2004, 03:07 PM |
| Lyra! Did you happen to see some of the genealogy sites that were posted in "Best Websites for Genealogy?" Hopefully something there can help you. Here is the link: http://www.celticradio.net/php/forums/index.php?showtopic=2524 |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 11-Nov-2004, 09:06 PM |
| Just poking around on the White Pages website on Sunday and punched up a name that I had been searching for, for over 30 years. The town was very close to the last address that we had for this relative, so, figured I'd call and see what happens. Turns out, it was her and she has a wealth of info for me. When she was growing up, her grandmother (daughter to my avatar) would take her around the country and meet all the relatives. She has met most of the 11 children of Patrick (avatar) and Honora and has many stories to tell me. I thought I would have to travel to Long Island, N.Y. to talk to her but she has informed me that she is moving to New Jersey next month and she will be only an hour away. Because of the hour long conversation I had with her, I suspect she will fill in a lot of blanks and clarify some confusing info that I have. Looking forward to this meeting.  |
| Posted by: CelticRose 12-Nov-2004, 05:45 PM |
| Holy cow, Mike! How so wonderful is that? You must be thrilled to death! Keep us posted on what you find out! |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 13-Nov-2004, 06:11 PM |
| Rose, I printed out an entire copy of the family tree for her to read over (49 pages) and shipped it yesterday. I'll give her time to look it over and get moved to New Jersey and then she can fill me in on what is wrong or missing. I sent along a pile of pictures for her. She had mentioned that she remembered seeing a picture of Patrick Egan (my avatar) hanging on the wall of her grandmothers house. When I told her that I have the picture, she got all excited and wanted a copy of it. She didn't know what happened to the one her grandmother had. Probably some time in January before I get a chance to sit down face to face with her but I may need to make an occassional phone call and ask her a few questions. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 13-Nov-2004, 07:12 PM |
Wow! That is just so exciting Mike! I am so thrilled for you to have found someone in your family willing to exchange info. My family has not been so willing. Well they have been to a point. My 6th cousin wrote a book our family and I had to pay $50.00 for that, but it was worth it as I found out a lot. Now there are a lot of other questions that go unanwered in my family and I go on these genealogy sites asking for help and all they do is seek help from me!  So I am feeling a little discouraged right now. But, you are an inspiration by sharing your story! Keep it up! |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 30-Nov-2004, 07:50 PM |
| Was on Ancestry.com again searching some of the names that the family is associated with and came across a new post that had to many similar family names. Turns out, she is related in a totally different way then I had thought. My grandfathers brother, Patrick Egan, had a wife and we never knew her name. The twist to this is, the new relatives grandfather is the brother to Patrick's wife. The way I was looking at it originally, Patrick had a sister, Mary, she married a Greaney(don't know his first name) and I was figuring since it's the same small town area and a lot of the same last names are being used in her post, that we had a match through Mary. Once again, it pays to read everything. Never know where you will find the next connection. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 20-Jan-2005, 01:29 PM |
| In the past week I have had three cousins contact me through ancestry.com. They saw my post in there about our ggggf who we are all stuck on and trying to find out information on him. One of our distant cousins thinks she may have found his father as she found records of a James Sutton applying for pension from the Revolutionary war! He states his place of birth is in the same county as would be his son, our ggggf, if indeed it is him. We have several James Suttons in our family, so it could indeed be him! We have been emailing each other this past week nearly every day exchanging information. Pretty exciting! |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 20-Jan-2005, 04:49 PM |
| To follow-up on my last post, I have since added another 24 names to the family tree. That brings us up to 799. The original contact I had, gave me her sisters phone # which is not far from where I live and we talked for over 2 1/2 hours. She filled me in on much info and told me many family stories. We would have stayed on the phone longer but it was already 11 PM and we both had to work in the morning. We plan on getting together very soon, since we are less than an hour drive away. She's already said she's coming to the Jack Frost Celtic Fest in May and will be joining us in Bethlehem in September. And the search goes on.  |
| Posted by: dragonboy3611 21-Jan-2005, 12:50 PM |
| One thing that annoys me is that all of the sites for genealogy and the such, you either have a limited free membership, have to pay upfront, or have to make a username that only has very, very limited access, and it just is much better to upgrade, but with the upgrade you have to pay! Of course, I know it must cost alot to keep one of these sites open...it's just not in the Budget to register in this site that I wouldn't use all the time! Just post once, and hopefully get a response! Of course search around too.... Anyone know of a reliable and free site for genealogy/Ancestery? |
| Posted by: CelticRose 21-Jan-2005, 01:49 PM |
dragonboy, did you see on the top of the front page where it is listed "Best Websites for Research?" I use Rootsweb and ancestry.com. Sekmet could probably help us more though, since that is her expertise!  |
| Posted by: dragonboy3611 22-Jan-2005, 09:52 AM |
| Alright, I will check this out. Thanks CelticRose! |
| Posted by: Sekhmet 22-Jan-2005, 09:09 PM |
| Beyond specific sites for pretty specific things, such as a given surname, the "pay sites" are your best bet for snagging information in one spot. Unfortunately. The LDS has a decent amount of information if you already know what you're looking for. Thus far, the *best* free genealogy site is Rootsweb.com, and the email lists thereon. Just about every given surname has a list with researchers, and some of *those* lists have websites connected to them. There's also lists covering topics you didn't even think of. Native American tribes, military service, state counties, migrations, Highland clans (I moderate the main one, but there's ones for individual ones), heraldry (mod that one too), royal descendants...the list goes on and on. There used to be a lot more than that a few years ago, up to and including cooking, but they got scaled back. All lists have browseable and searchable archives, plus there's message boards that (mostly) send all messages to the corresponding email list. Try there and see what doesn't kick up. There is also a good bit of donated information on there as well. Your next best bet is the USGenWeb. All states in the union have their own website (some better than others), and many individual counties do too. |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 27-Feb-2005, 12:28 PM |
| With the addition of new born twins this past week and a few other names I came across, we now have 803 in the family tree. I should be able to add a few more names when I go to Ireland in April. I have a few meetings set up already with some people there who may shed some light on other relations. I did meet up with the newly found relatives and we had a luncheon for 3 hours and had a great time. We will be meeting again in March to share more pictures and stories and have a few more of the Egan's in attendance for them to meet. It was through this connection that I will meet someone in Ireland that may shed a great deal of light on more relatives that I don't know about yet. I may not be able to see as much of Ireland as I had hoped because of all the people that I may be meeting up with. Guess I need to schedule another road trip (or flight) to Ireland. |
| Posted by: Haldur 28-Feb-2005, 05:55 PM |
| I have started doing some research into my own family's ancestry, the Felty family, and have come up with some information reliable sources including my mother, grandfather, and from another member of the family in Eastern Kentucky, Ron Felty. He has started a BLOG online and I just copied this information from that BLOG, which also lists several of my other family members. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the ship Royal Union, Commander Clement Nicholson, sailed from Rotterdam Germany on a summer day in 1750, Henrick was a passenger. He arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 15, 1750. Two years earlier on September 15, 1748, Peter and Bastian Felty had arrived on the ship Two Brothers from Rotterdam. On October 6, 1767 another Henrick Felty arrived from Rotterdam on the ship Hamilton Charles Smith Commander. From one of these early settlers came the line of Felty's who came to Kentucky. Nicholas was born in Germany or Pennsylvania probably about 1760-1765. His son Peter was born in Pennsylvania in 1782. By 1787, Nicholas had moved down the Shenandoah to Wythe County, Virginia. That year he purchased a twenty-acre tract of land on the north side of Sally Run, a fork Reed Creek in Wythe County, Virginia. (Survey Book "D", p. 554) In 1800, the Lutheran community in Wythe County felt the need for a church. St. John's Lutheran Church was built, and Nicholas was a subscriber to the fund. The 1810 census shows that at the time Nicholas had two girls under 10, two boys and two girls between 10-16, four boys between 16-26, on female between 26-45, and two persons over 45. John, son of Nicholas, was a subscriber to the purchase of an organ for St. John's Lutheran Church in 1816. Joseph had purchased property in Greenup County, Kentucky by 1868. Charles Felty married Sarah Floyd in Greenup County, Kentucky on October 26, 1848. By 1870, Simon had settled in Carter County, Kentucky and Nicholas was living at Honeywell Furnace on July 13, 1870. All these Felty's are progeny of Nicholas Felty who came to Wythe County, Virginia by 1787. Charles Felty and Sarah Floyd had five sons and one daughter. His youngest son married Phebe Stephens December 1, 1887 in Greenup County, Kentucky. George Felty and Phebe Stephens had five sons and one daughter. Their eldest son, William Walter Felty married Anna Laura Meadows on December 10, 1910 in Greenup County, Kentucky. William Walter Felty and Anna Laura Meadows had two sons and one daughter. Their youngest son was Greenville Jackson Felty who married Ruby Thomas Harlow on December 22, 1932. Greenville Jackson Felty and Ruby Thomas Harlow had six sons and four daughters. The youngest is I, William Ronald Felty. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, one part of the tree was not included and I think this is because William Walter and Gabriel were brothers, but was my great-grandfather Gabriel "Poppy" Felty who was remembered as a great man and an excellent organ player! |
| Posted by: Lyra Luminara 17-Apr-2005, 03:40 PM |
| I have compiled about 179 years of history so far. Recently my grandmother sent me a photoalbum of a lot of the people on the tree that I have never met. Really old photos too which I love...it was so amazing to finally put faces to the names. Basically I've learned that mostly all the men in my family were farmers and all the women were governesses or housekeepers. One woman was a housekeeper for a man and then fell in love and married him. Another was sent to london at the young age to work as a governess in a rich household....many months later she was sent home--pregnant by her boss. Quite the scandal. When she was older she married a wealthy farmer named Cyril Askew. Pretty crazy stuff. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 30-Apr-2005, 01:26 AM |
| I have had more cousins to come out of the woodwork to contact me. It is really cool! Someone mentioned to me that all I needed to do was google the county records of a particular state and county and I would get some family information from there too, like birth and death records that I could work from? Is this true? I can't remember who told me this. |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 19-May-2005, 08:11 PM |
| I haven't finished adding all the names that I picked up when I visited Ireland last month but I should be close to 200 additional names from that trip. I received a letter from one of the relatives in Ballinrobe the other day, that I made a surprised visit at his shop. It contained 57 more names. I can still remember his face when I walked into his butcher shop and introduced myself. I brought along about 30 pictures of different relatives that I knew he had no idea ever existed, plus a readout of the family tree. He was amazed at how much information I had on his family but he didn't know anything about any relatives in the States. He asked me to send him as much information as I could. The funny part of meeting him. Each night I would go to the Highway Pub and have a couple of pints of Guinness and I tended to sit in the same seat each night. About a half hour later, each night, this very stunning young lady would come in and sit within 1-2 seats away. All the other locals would converse with her. When she didn't come in for two days straight, I asked why she wasn't in. The bartender told me she went back to Dublin to graduate from college. He then asked me, "how come I didn't know that". I obviously had no idea what he was talking about. He said, "you didn't know she was related to you. She's the daughter of the butcher in Ballinrobe". She has since learned who I was. Unfortunately, I never got a picture of her. You just never know who might be related to you. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 20-May-2005, 07:07 PM |
| OMG! Mike! What an incredible story! You have gotten so far in your search. And how sad you missed out meeting one of your relatives. Too bad you can't get a hold of her..can you? |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 21-May-2005, 09:47 AM |
Not a problem, Rose. I have the home phone number and can talk with them anytime. It just would have been nice to sit and talk with her, over a few cold ones.  |
| Posted by: CelticRose 23-May-2005, 06:42 PM |
| Oh good. I am glad to hear that! Hope that comes to fruition for you soon. Keep us posted! |
| Posted by: Siarls 27-May-2005, 05:26 PM |
| Thanks to Celtic Radio - I have been considering more and more doing familt research. Which is not very popular in Wales... we have no interest in our ancestry, perhaps because we feel that we ARE our ancestry. Anyway, I felt I wanted to know and I know my mother said that her Uncle George used to be the Mayor of Bath... but it's so difficult because there's no online register of mayors. I'd also love to know more about my Gaelic ancestors, but the name Wilson is so common, it's difficult to know what's relevant to my searches!!! |
| Posted by: CelticRose 28-May-2005, 07:29 PM |
| Hi Sials! I just wanted to say that you are not alone in wanting to research your ancesters being from Wales. I have several Welsh friends who are doing their family search as well. If you need some help with some Welsh ancestry links, I would be happy to get them for you. Let me know! Good luck in your search. |
| Posted by: Siarls 03-Jun-2005, 09:50 AM |
| Oooh, are there any sites you particularly recommend, Celtic Rose? |
| Posted by: CelticRose 03-Jun-2005, 09:11 PM |
| Siarls! Here are some that a friend of mine from Wales suggested. Hope this helps. http://www.1837online.com http://www.census-online.com http://www.stepping-stones.co.uk http://www.cwgc.co.uk http://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov http://www.rootschat.co.uk/forum/index.php http://www.genealogyblog.com/ http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/ |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 23-Jul-2005, 09:24 PM |
| Well, we hit 984 on the family tree. The second set of twins in the last three months have been added. That's the third set of twins in one year. Hope this isn't getting into a pattern. |
| Posted by: Sekhmet 28-Jul-2005, 02:58 PM |
| My new thing is now DNA research in connection with genealogy. Specifically, myself and several relations are trying to figure out if the several branches of our surname in the US (Todd, in this case) are connected at all. Really, the results have been surprising! It's been a lot of fun trying to tease out more information that records aren't providing, but blood samples are. At least it's eroding lots of brick walls! |
| Posted by: CelticRose 30-Jul-2005, 03:40 AM |
| I heard about this and it is indeed very fascinating . Keep us posted on all this, eh? |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 04-Aug-2005, 06:47 PM |
It's been an interesting week.  I called my second cousin in Ireland on Saturday and she had more names for me. We just didn't have enough time to cover everyone during my visit to Ireland. She gave me another 15 names and birthdays and other info. Then, on Monday evening, I received an e-mail from another relative, who got my e-mail address from the web master of Shrule.com. Since I have become very good friends with Martin, he knows that anyone who sounds legit and claims that they are related to me, he passes my e-mail address on. Now, this lady turns out to be the grand daughter of my mothers cousin. She gave me enough names to put our family tree over the 1000 names.     On to the next 1000!!! |
| Posted by: CelticRose 07-Aug-2005, 10:31 PM |
Goodness, Mike! That is incredible! Maybe you should consider moving to Ireland and hang out with all these new found relatives. That would be tempting to me! Good on ya!  |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 10-Aug-2005, 08:48 PM |
| The newly found relative of Monday, passed my responses on to her cousin, who was gathering information for their side of the family tree. Neither of them knew anything about us. When I e-mailed a copy of my version of the family tree, they were both blown away. Anyway, they sent me another 25 names. I have also come across another relative that lives about 25 minutes from me and they will be adding many more names also. Haven't had a chance to really talk with them yet. Rose, as much as I would love to go back to Shrule, most of the names that I have added in the last week, are here in the U.S. I have 3 cousins, in the next two months, that are heading to Shrule for the first time. They can't wait to meet the relatives that are still in the area. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 12-Aug-2005, 04:50 PM |
| Oh very exciting, Mike! I hope it all works out! |
| Posted by: A Shrule Egan 21-Aug-2005, 04:59 PM |
| I'm in a groove right now. Just got a letter from another relative with a list of more names. In the last 3 weeks, I've added 56 names and now the family tree is at 1054. The nice part about this, they found me. Just proves that you need to post your information everywhere on the genealogy pages. |
| Posted by: CelticRose 07-Jan-2006, 08:33 AM |
Well I keep working on my genealogy as well. The further I get back, the more English I become...hence my new English crown! Well I know the English were not Celts but I do have some Scots-Irish to claim some Celtic blood! I had really hoped for more Scottish ancestry, but it all is revealing English. My family on both sides were Quakers who originally emigrated to Ireland and then to the colonies and settled in Chester County, Pennslyvania or in New Jersey. They eventually left there and settled in North Carolina and GA. This is where it gets odd as I wonder why the southern states (not that that is bad, please don't misunderstand) as I am just wondering. They eventually all left the Quaker faith and became staunch Baptists when they relocated south! From what I have read, the Scots-Irish settled in the southern states and greatly disliked the English...oops! Guess my ancestors weren't too welcome, but then I hear they married the Scots-Irish eventually! First you hate one another then love! LOL So what a world we live in, eh? That's my story and I am sticking to it!  |
| Posted by: dfilpus 02-Oct-2007, 02:52 PM |
| My latest discovery is that I am related through marriage with three passengers on the Titanic. Reverend William (30) and Mrs Anna Lahtinen (26) were Finnish-Americans who had been visiting Northern Finland in order to assist Anna's cousin, Miss Lyyli Silven in immigrating to America. When the Titanic sank, Anna had first jumped into a lifeboat, but somehow decided not to leave the sinking liner, obviously because she wanted to stay with her husband. Miss Silven (18), however, got in a boat and was rescued. She later told that Anna Lahtinen had looked very nervous, while William had calmly smoked a cigar. Neither of the bodies were found. Reverend Lahtinen was one of best known Finnish preachers in his day. He, his wife and daughter Martha and cousin Lyyli had been scheduled for an earlier trip back to America. Martha came down with brain fever and died. This delayed their departure from Finland and caused them to be on the fateful cruise. Survivors describe Reverend Lahtinen as praying with others on deck, comforting whom he could. One of my great-grandfather Filpus's sisters married Anna Lahtinen's brother, which gives the connection into my family. Many Finnish immigrants died on the Titanic. The normal immigration route from Finland was from Hanko Finland to Hull England. The immigrants then caught a train to one of the Atlantic ports, usually Liverpool, but sometimes Southhampton, to cross the Atlantic third class in the great ocean liners. The Lahtinens were traveling second class. |
| Posted by: dfilpus 17-Nov-2007, 03:01 PM |
| One of great-grandfather Filpus's brother and his wife joined the Communist Party during the Great Depression. In the early 1930's, the Soviet Union recruited communists of Finnish ancestry to settle in Karelia, a former province of Finland, now part of the Russian Federation. The intent was to create a Red Finland, to create connections to influence the Finnish state. The Nils Filpus family took the offer and emigrated to Karelia in 1933. Their daughter Paula decided she wasn't going to Karelia, so she went to Trieste Italy and eventually moved back to the United States. In 1938, her parents disappeared and Paula never found out what happened to them. In 1937-1938, the Soviets decided that the immigrants were a bad influence, since they had connections outside the Soviet Union, so they arrested the immigrants and executed them. The Soviets used a forest in the Sandarmoh woods near the town of Medvezhjegorsk as a execution ground. They dug trenches and lined up prisoners and shot them into their graves. The existence of this secret massacre was hidden in the files of the KGB until after the fall of the Soviet Union. According to the KGB archive data, from August 11, 1937 to December 24, 1938 more than 9,500 people of 58 nationalities were executed by shooting and buried in the death trenches. The victims were Russians, Karelians, Finns, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Tatars, Udmurts, Jewish, Gypsies, Germans, Polish, Americans, and other nationalities. A list of Finnish-American victims is at http://www.levonius.com/Laiho_List/Karelia_Victims_List.htm The Filpus family now knows what happened to Nils and Elvira Filpus. Unfortunately, their daughter Paula died in 1987, never learning the truth. |
| Posted by: Robert Phoenix 17-Nov-2007, 04:24 PM |
| Just found out through a family friend that my great aunt was dating a very famous gangsters brother for a while. He had even given her a small pearl handled gun as a present and for protection. Wonder what became of it. Hurley has a bit of a ganster past but both her and her husband are long gone now along with the rest of the family secrets on her side. |