My geneology experience

[mickeysaver]

I have always been fascinated by the stories, what few there are, that my father has told me about his family. Most of the tales were from his mother's side of the family, which I never understood, but there are quite a few colorful characters, so I guess it makes sense when you consider that his father's side of the family was rather boring. My Dad is an only child and so am I, so starting with his family is a bit easier, especially since that side of the family is still on speaking terms.

I have done many searches over time looking for my great grandmother Melinda. I was never successful. Then my Dad told me about her nickname, so I searched it with her last name and BINGO! Oddly enough, her name was actually listed as Sarah Malinda, which I had never even heard that she had Sarah as a first name. There she was along with a ton of information from others about the family. And given what I found later on, she was listed in records with many name variations, Melinda, Sarah Malinda, Linda, and others.

I decided to write to one person that was clearly my second cousin, my Dad's mom's sister's daughter, Martha Anne. I had heard my Dad talk about her, but I didn't remember meeting her, but according to her, I did and she sent me a photo of me at her house in 1969 to prove it.

Martha Anne has been a huge source of information. I can't even imagine how long it has taken her to come up with all of the information that she has put together about her mom's family. I will start by sharing with the positives that I have found so far.

I am grateful to have a photo in my possession now of my great great great grandfather. I didn't even think that would be a possiblity, but I am thrilled to have it. I am glad to have a photo of my grandmother, who I only met once and at the time she scared me, but evil acting mentally ill people usually scare 5 year olds, so go figure. It was nice to see her in her youth and looking happy, it's a much better mental image to carry around. I am very happy to find that the family can be traced back to the UK with relatives from London and places in Ireland. I am even kind of amused that one of my relatives founded the Methodist Church of America. I am happy to see that my Dad was not telling me a story when he said that his grandfather had a huge nose and big ears....Dumbo and Dopey would be envious of those ears. Most of all, I am happy to see where my father gets his beautifully expressive blue gray eyes from, they come from his mother's father. It took me awhile to see past his big nose and ears, but one of my coworkers said to me that I have his eyes. I kind of blew it off and then I looked closer and it almost moved me to tears to see that those were my father's eyes and to an extent mine too, so that was very cool.

A few things actually have been kind of a bummer to learn about.

I thought up until about a week ago that I had a great grandmother that was a native American from the Cherokee nation. My father told me that she was, however, it has been proven to be false. It's very odd to have something that you believed to be a truth about your existance to be proven false. I can't quite explain it, but it's kind of unsettling after 42 years to learn this.

I had always been told that no one in my family had ever fought in the Civil War or had owned any slaves. However, this too has been proven false and I am very upset in learning it. I feel like crap now in learning this information. I have always prided myself for being from a family that had no part in that stuff and now, that's shot.

Another oddly disturbing finding is in regards to my father's middle name. It's not a common name and initially, it was kind of cool to find that an uncle of his had it as his first name, but as I read on, I found that the origin of the name was actually from a slave owned by one of the plantation owning relatives. Granted, I won't ever have kids and I would have never given that name to any child of mine, but it's his name and for many years of my Dad's life that was the name that everyone knew him by. I can't bring myself to even tell Dad that this is even the case. I am sure that he has no idea.

So, that's my geneology experience thus far. I haven't finished reading through all of the details of the family history, but so far, I am finding it to be quite the mixed bag of cool stuff vs disturbing and odd stuff.

Have any of you folks ever looked into your genology? Did you find it to have similarly odd results?

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

Wow. Interesting findings!

Try not to worry or feel bad about the parts you aren't happy to learn. Not a thing to be ashamed of, eh? It's not you at all.

I'm not into geneaology but my mother's other daughter is. I have several reasons for my apparent disinterest, but I know that many people enjoy knowing their personal family history.

Hopefully, you will learn more and be more pleased with what you learn!

 

[jjjmranch]

I've asked my father about his family history and the only thing he knows is that his father and brothers escaped Poland so they didn't have to serve in the Russian Army. They "borrowed" someone else's papers and entered the U.S. through Canada. No Ellis Island records for me to look through. This was in the 1880's. So my Dad's last name really should be something else. His Dad died in 1952 so the details died with him.

 

[f86sabjf]

hmmm let me see . Great Grandmam was full blooded Cherokee on moms side who married an Irishman.

Dads side was German. I can trace this back to great grandfather who was a high sheriff in Tennessee. This knucklehead shot a black man for preaching and stirring up the slaves . oh well its my lineage not proud of it but i'm changing it everyday I live on this earth into a more positive one.