Ancestry - Family History

[ktbi]

Bill - To me, ancestry.com is very much worth it. It's a little expensive and it's crazy to make those payments unless you are actively using the site though. I would not be anywhere near where I am now without being able to use ancestry.com to kick start my research. I paid for a year, pretty much wasted it, and then renewed for a second year to make up for lost time. I doubt I will stay for a third year, unless that third year is somewhere down the line and I find I need it again to start filling in the blanks.

You can find all the census documents, birth/death/marriage records, passenger lists, newspaper articles, etc. independently, but ancestry.com simplifies the search and puts them all in one space. Plus you get access to other family trees and non-published family documents that you can import into your own tree. You will find many, many mistakes in family trees, so try to validate everything with at least two sources.

Laur/Melinda, thank you for the history and references. I bookmark all that and read it when I have time, so I really appreciate it.

I found out that my 12th Great-Grandfather, Thomas Ireland (1503-1545) married Margaret Bold, who was Anne Boleyn's sister. That makes him King Henry VIII's brother-in-law. Unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but interesting anyhow.....Ron

 

[RedGinger]

That's interesting, Melinda! I am reading about the Revolutionary War in a book series, called Outlander. The Scots were so abused by England, and when the particular ones in this fictional book, settle in North Carolina, some of them want independence from England and fight. Others, are so fed up and dreading more war, that they don't fight, or they fight for England.

Then, there were the Protestants (mostly Presbyterians it seems), and Catholics. The Presbyterians were very mistrustful of the Catholics.

You should really check out this series, Melinda. I think you'd really enjoy it. My friend who got me into it, lives in the South and she and her husband both have ancestors that came from Scotland/Ireland. She is the one that told me the origins of the accent. I think it's fascinating. What was the word for "cows" you were talking about?

 

[RedGinger]

No problem, Ron. Thanks for your info as well. In some cases, with very little info, it's hard to find out about relatives. On my father's side, I have hardly any info. I'm not even positive of his mother's maiden name. When I hit the lotto, I will hire a P.I or someone to find out some things for me. I don't want contact with him. I always wondered if I hat any siblings, but I don't think I do.

 

[RedGinger]

ORIGINAL: bostaurus

ORIGINAL: RedGinger

Hey Ron, here is a small section of a Wikipedia article in reference to the Southern accent:
"Southern dialects originated in large part from immigrants from the British Isles who moved to the South in the 17th and 18th centuries. Settlement also included large numbers of Protestants from Ulster, Ireland, and from Scotland."

There are some really good books out about the Scots-Irish (those protestant Scots from Northern Ireland, Irish and Welsh(the authors term them "celtic" tribal people) that settled the south. Seems the English, Germans, etc. that settled on the Eastern coasts encouraged the immigration of these folk, who they considered rather barbaric, so they would settle in the wilder western regions. They let them handle the beasts and Indians. They tended to be wandering folk so they would settle in the wild areas for a few years and then move on farther west.

I wonder if that is where some of the American "Irish Travelers" originated? Of course, they have them in Britain as well, so who knows?

 

[BillinMo]

Thanks for the info, Ron. Sounds like it might be worth trying for a short time.

I also happen to live just six miles from an impressive genealogical library here: http://www.mymcpl.org/genealogy

So... I have to ask because I suspect I can't be the only one. Anyone out there doing genealogical research related to bottles and glass? I've done some digging into Samuel Oakman, who was behind several glass companies in the Boston area from around 1870-mid 1890s. I've found a lot of interesting biographical information about him but still have a lot of loose ends.

 

[ironmountain]

I started researching my dad's side and found the farm that dates to the 1400's and is still in operation as a horse farm (or whatever it would be called) in Finland.
I even found names of my grandfather,great grandfather etc on some passenger lists for boats bringing ppl to America. tracked them through the St Lawrence Seaway to the U.P. of michigan where they eventually settled.

 

[bostaurus]

ORIGINAL: RedGinger

That's interesting, Melinda!  I am reading about the Revolutionary War in a book series, called Outlander.  The Scots were so abused by England, and when the particular ones in this fictional book, settle in North Carolina, some of them want independence from England and fight.  Others, are so fed up and dreading more war, that they don't fight, or they fight for England. 

Then, there were the Protestants (mostly Presbyterians it seems), and Catholics.  The Presbyterians were very mistrustful of the Catholics. 

You should really check out this series, Melinda.  I think you'd really enjoy it.  My friend who got me into it, lives in the South and she and her husband both have ancestors that came from Scotland/Ireland.  She is the one that told me the origins of the accent.  I think it's fascinating.  What was the word for "cows" you were talking about?

She used to holler what sounded like "sue-cow" or sometimes she would just yell "sook"
In "The Story Of English" by Robert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil it says that the Scots-Irish used "sook', "sookie" or "sook cow" to call in the cow herd. I thought I remembered it as Gaelic but it was not. It originally came from the Old English word sucan meaning "to suck". It would make sense that it was Old English as her family were Lowland Scots that came over just before the Revolutionary War. They were from Aryshire near Kilmarnock and the Loudon estate. As far was we can tell they were not part of the Loudon family though that was the last name and they did come from that town. Most probably a line born from a tryst of the Lord and a servant girl. The gentry tended to have more kids in town than in their homes!
Most Scots-Irish were also originally Lowland Scots before they moved, or were sent, to the Irish Plantations. They were Church of Scotland (presbyterian)...and I think of of the Covenanters were sent over too.
That is a very good book on English. it is the companion to a PBS show that was done years ago. Another good one is "The Stories of English" by David Crystal. It is more scholarly and a drier read but if you are really interested in origins of English and accents it is great.
A good book about the Scots-Irish in America is "Born Fighting: How The Scots-Irish shaped America" by James Webb.

 

[bostaurus]

James Webb used "Born Fighting" for the title because the English used to say that the Scots-Irish were quarrelsome and were 'born fighting'.