52 Ancestors Week 31: Brother

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 31: Brother
In one of my presentations, I talk about how we have to understand how a word is being used and I use "brother" as an example. Is it being used to indicate the male child of your parents? Or just one of your parents? Or of a step-parent? Or how about a brother in the church? How about in a fraternal organization, union, or military unit? Have fun with this week's theme—there are a lot of ways you can interpret it!

Look at the size of those ears. It's a good thing I grew into those!! Those glasses surely didn't help at all, either! At least those shoes were cutting edge "Stride Ride" fashion! Yes, I'm on the right and that's my brother on the left. Let's play a game for the coveted "All Roads Lead to Haverhill" No-Prize, shall we? Can you guess what year this picture was taken? Obviously it was taken at Christmas time. But, what year? I'll give you a hint. The answer lies with the Transformer my brother and I are sitting with. If you can guess the name of the Transformer, too, then umm....you definitely win! And quite possibly get some nerd cred in there. =)

Brothers in my family seem to come in twos. It's the strangest thing. There's usually two brothers in each family and a whole bunch of sisters. Sometimes there's more than that. It's a little complicated. Let's work backwards through time on my mother's side because my father does not have any brothers.

My mother is the oldest of six children and she has two younger brothers. I maintain that dealing with them better equipped her for dealing with my brother, Jim and I all those years later. Look at that pic above again. See those grins? The grins hide the truth! We were energetic and much like Jim's own kids are now. My mother calls it "karma". So do I, actually!

Back to my uncles. They are good guys. But, they often gave my mom a run for her money when she was told to watch over them. I think she held her own. Just remember that it's often the job of a younger brother to be as annoying as possible.

Alfred Francis Hamel Jr

My grandfather, Robert, had one brother named Alfred who also served in World War II. They didn't serve
together in the war. But, he did live an interesting life. He was born in 1919 in Newburyport, Massachusetts and his time in the Marines gave him the honor of being buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia. That is very cool. He sadly passed away a few years before I was born. So, I never had a chance to meet him. It's a shame because I'm sure he'd have had as many great stories as my grandfather did. It's just as well. He and his family lived in the Boston area for many years and we'd see the family every once in a while.

Austin Felker Jr

My grandmother, Natalie, had two brothers herself and was the second youngest of six children. Their names were Austin and Norman. Austin was an interesting guy who had many relationships in his lifetime. He married Isabelle Noon and Mary Shannon . He also tended to move around quite a bit before settling in Florida.

Austin was born in 1917 and Norman was born 1922. I can't really say much about Norman because I don't remember him. Or my other great-uncles. It's a shame because they had interesting pasts and I'm sure they'd have had interesting stories to tell like my great-aunts did. More on them next week! Got some good ones there!

It's interesting to note that at least one of my grandparents' brothers were named after their fathers. It makes sense because naming a child after the father was a common thing back when those two were born.

Other branches of the tree have had two brothers and a bunch of sisters, too. It's just interesting because that's how it played out today with my brother and his two sons.  Having two brothers around can often lead to chaos. Usually a sibling helps to keep the toy boys in line. If not then it falls on the parent to keep 'em in check. If not, then the boys will tend to run wild as they are want to do. I won't get into the details about the stuff my brother and I did right now. Let's just say it was a good thing our mother kept us in line.

See you next time when we discuss sisters. I have some great stories about my great-aunts to share! Stay tuned!

52 Ancestors Week 30: Easy

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 30 : Not all ancestors are tough to research. This week, who has been easier to research than others?

I think I had way too much fun making that fake title screen for the "Genealogy" game. In my mind, it would be on all systems: PC, Switch, PS4 and XBox. Genealogy is all inclusive. So, naturally it should be on all current platforms and cross promoted at E3 AND RootsTech. It'll be rated "E" for everyone.

Last week, I discussed how challenging it was to research my Italian roots. The language barrier can be a little difficult. It happens. When it comes to people being easy to research, I would have to pick a bunch of people from my mother's side of the tree. That isn't to say that my father's side has been hard to research. It's just that when you get to a certain point, you need to have an understanding of the Italian language and know where to go to get information. It can be easy, sure. But, my mother's side has been easier. 

Let's explore why.

1. My grandmothers

Natalie Felker-Hamel was good at many things. The first being creating incredibly life-like dolls that would scare anyone who saw them because they would stare into your very soul. They were creepy. I love my grandmother. But, those were creepy. I've told her this many times.
The second thing she was really good at was keeping a detailed family history about her side of the family and my grandfather's. Family history was very important to her. I would listen to her talk about her parents, Austin and Henrietta and her grandparents. 

Grandma Ollie

That wasn't all. She even created a genealogy book where she outlined the various information she gathered. It was a basic enough backbone to get me started on my own research. She put in peoples' names, births, marriages and deaths.

 There were some errors to be sure. But, at least it was a start and in the end it was very helpful in getting me started on the journey. 

Olympa Carrabs-Ferraiolo was pretty much the same way. Minus the creepy dolls (I am so glad they were divided among my female cousins!!) Grandma Ollie never really had a genealogy book, though. She and her sisters were very much into telling stories.
Oral history is pretty much a thing in Italian households. There's no escaping it. While she didn't have a family tree of her own, her sister, Josie, did. She passed it down and I was able to see it when I started researching that side of the tree.

I was able to go further years later when cousins really dug into the Carrabs tree. I'll always be grateful for them and the small snippets of info both of my grandmothers gave me years ago.

2. States with really, really good records

Massachusetts is one of many states with incredibly good records dating back centuries. With the information my maternal grandmother gave me, I was able to fill in the tree and learn a thing or two about history in the process. She wasn't kidding when she told me that the family had deep American roots. It's not like I accused her of stretching the truth or anything. I would never do that! In fact, I still remain amazed about it to this day!

The Quebecois side of the family settled in Massachusetts, too in the early 20th century. So, naturally they were in the records in the Commonwealth going back to a certain point. From there, the information would show up in records in Quebec and though they are in French, they are still plentiful.

There you have it. My mother's side of the tree is really easy to research because everything was well kept by record keepers in Quebec and in Massachusetts. They're very thorough. That isn't ti say I don't have brick walls on her side. I do. Unfortunately, some of those records may be lost to time. Then again, they might not be. Snippets of information are out there and it's up to me and really anyone studying family history to find them.

I can't really pick any one ancestor who was especially easy to research for this reason. Everything is out there on both sides of the family. One side has a language barrier which I am doing okay in breaking down. The other side just has really, really good records. I do have brick walls. Who doesn't? It's just a lot less trickier than most and I am really grateful for any information I received or help I've been given. You have no idea.

The trick with research, though, is sometimes you have to make sure that they are accurate. They may be from a state with really good records, but, they can still have some problems. It's up to you as a researcher to filter it out and make sense of what you find. 

It's also important to keep in mind that not everyone will have the same luck you have. I've had a lot of good luck in many cases. Some have not. That's an important thing to thing of. What's easy for you may not be easy for others. It's a good idea, I think, to help everyone and be inclusive when someone seeks help with their genealogy.

See you next time! I'm off to see what kind of graphics the "Genealogy" game will have. I'm thinking astonishingly life-like levels, reading bonus levels and you have to unlock things like plane tickets to your ancestral homeland. I've spent so much time thinking about this....

52Ancestors Week 29: Challenging

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 29: Challenging. What would genealogy be without a few challenges. (And yes, this is similar to a theme we had at the beginning of the year. I'm willing to bet you have more than one challenging ancestor -- I know I do!) Who has been a challenge to find? What location is challenging to research?

Picture of Gesualdo by M. Gagliardi

"Challenges" is the name of the game this week and I've got a few of them. Way back in Week 2, I discussed the challenges my 2x great-grandfather, Antoine Legault, faced in Haverhill in the late 1890s and early 1900s. I also talked about how hard it has been to locate my 2x great-grandmother, Domenica Gullo's, family. That brick wall is very persistent. I'll solve it. I know I will All I really need is info on her parents and just go from there. I digress. Just know that the "Kool-Aid" Man is on stand-by. That's all you need to know!

I'm glad Amy wants us to go one step beyond the challenges because I've had my fair share. Who hasn't had a challenging ancestor? My friend, Amberly Beck, has even dedicated months of blog entries about one of hers. Check it out here: https://thegenealogygirl.blog/ Trust me when I say that the story will captivate you and frankly should be made into a movie. Check it out!

I've had my fair share of challenges, too. Some of them usually involve the language barrier. My knowledge of Italian isn't that great. I can speak it. I know a few words. However, I sometimes have issues reading a document or two. Sometimes it would be the quality of the written words on the scans that throw me off. I like to think I've gotten better at it as time goes on.

For example, in the beginning I had issues reading documents on Antenati. Antenati is the repository for many Italian birth, marriage and death documents. The towns of Gesualdo, Grottaminarda, Frigento and other towns are very well documented. So much so that it has been very easy to build a tree on my paternal grandmother's side that goes back to the 1700s.

My distant cousins on that side helped me figure out how to best translate and read the documents for myself. They told me what to look for. "Atto di Matrimonio" was for marriage banns. "Atto di Nascita" and "morte" for births and deaths. Very simple stuff now that I look back at it. And now every once in a while my distant cousins would upload scans they found and I'd be able to read them with no problem.

San Pietro a Maida 

As always, though, there's a bit of a catch. It has nothing to do with the Campania side of the tree. Documents for my father's paternal side are a little tricky and challenging. It's not so much because of the language. It's more the availability of the records themselves. Records for San Pietro a Maida are not on Antenati at the time of this blog's posting. However, town records are on Familysearch.org  And even then they are just births from 1800 or so to 1861. I would also have to be at a family center to view them.

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't discouraging. I do not have access to a family center or an affiliate library. It's fine, though. I've had friends and distant relatives help me out and some have even sent me various scans. That, of course, was unbelievably cool of them and I will forever be grateful for that. One of these days, though, I'll have to go there and see for myself what else I can find. They've given me as much as they could. However, there could still be more.

Aside from Domenica Gullo, I've been trying to research the Tedesco side of my tree. I've gone as far back as Tommaso Tedesco, who was born around 1821. I have yet to find anything more about him and his family because although the documents are available, sometimes clerks make errors which throw people off of the track. For example, on his son Tommaso's birth banns in 1850 it showed his father's age to be considerably older (Like in his fifties). When his sister, Maria was born in 1854, the parents' age settled down a bit. Same with their sister, Angela.

The moral of that story is that you have to be really careful when dealing with documents. Are they logical? You can see the documents for yourself on WikiTree and check things out.

There is a silver lining to this of course. Despite a language barrier and scans there is a plan C. That plan is to contact the commune office of your ancestral town and find out what the story is. I've done that many times and I have had a great amount of success thanks to e-mails written in Google Translate. The thing is, though, you can only get info back if you are incredibly specific about: Who, What, Where, Why, When etc. I've also talked to a few cousins in Italy who have been more than helpful in my research. That is also a plus and something an Italian researcher should look into. Nine times out of ten, you could still have family as close as a second cousin still living in Italy. You never know and you should definitely check it out.

Researching Italian roots is challenging especially if you don't know the language very well. I've been fortunate to have had people helping me out along the way. They still do. That's why it's a good idea to get some help and thankfully there are plenty of places you can go online for help.

Below are some helpful links:

The Italian Genealogy Facebook Group
ItalianGenealogy.com
FamilyTreeAdvice
Origins Italy

Images of Google Earth are property of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 28: Reunion

From Amy Johnson Crow: Summer time is often time for family reunions. Does your family hold reunions? If not, perhaps you could write about a family reunion you would like to have or an ancestor who you would like to be reunited with. Maybe share the story of an ancestor who was separated from his or her family and whether or not they were reunited.

Who doesn't love baked stuffed squid?

"Does our family hold reunions?", she asks. Yeah. Yeah, we do. Sort of. They were never really reunions, though. They were more like parties than anything else to be honest. For example, every Christmas Eve my family would host a party where we had calamari (squid) served in a variety of ways from fried to in sauce. We also would have haddock and gnocchi for the non squid lovers. They were in a word FANTASTIC! 

Christmas was the time of year where we would get almost everyone together. My parents would bring my grandmother over and she'd spend the week at our house. Sure she lived one town over. But, we loved having her and her sisters over. And that was just the beginning of the guest list. Trust me. We'd have my aunts, uncles and several first cousins over, too. My dad would also invite his cousins and it would be one big, loud party. Christmas is a time for family, true. But, it was also a time to learn something new and exciting!

The parties were usually where I got most of my family history. Everyone would talk and I would ask questions. Most of the time they brought pictures along so I could tell who was who. Usually the oldest generation did that because they knew I'd be asking all sorts of questions. What can I say? I was inquisitive. Most of the time, though, my brother and I would end up playing the then latest video game consoles with our cousins. During various breaks from the action I would go downstairs and see if I could learn something new.....or sneak a peak at the presents under the tree.

Apart from Christmas, we saw each other at various points throughout the year. For a long time everyone was close by. People moved away. Some people, unfortunately, passed away. We still have that Christmas party every year and they are still a lot of fun. We take pictures, laugh and have a great time. The party still goes on.

We also managed to turn our Mother's Day dinners into a "Cousin's Day" celebration since my grandmother and her sisters passed away. Usually on Mother's Day My dad and his cousins would take my grandmother and her sisters out. It was a very good meal and a great time to get some on-site genealogy let me tell you.  And now we just have the family parties at one of the cousin's houses.

I still get various family history bits from those, though, as the cousins remember the stories growing up and we'd look at various pictures. In fact, the last time we got together we discussed the possibility of there being another Carrabis sibling that Giuseppe and Clementina mentioned in passing.

To make a long story short, I did find out about another Carrabis sister born Gesualdo who was named Olimpia. She unfortunately died young and just before the family came to America. See what kind of genealogical tips you can find at these parties? Cool, huh? Thanks, of course, go out to my cousin Mary aka GesualdoGenie on Ancestry for finding the banns. 

In terms of a proper reunion we had my grandfather, Robert's 90th birthday party in 2013. EVERYONE was there. It was a huge party and I managed to record some of it on camera. I posted quick videos on Facebook, too. In hindsight, I probably should have made a video about it. But, that was better served at my cousin's wedding in 2016. 

At the party I didn't learn much in the way of family history as we were just celebrating my grandfather's birthday. And hey it was in June! So, it counts as part of this theme this week! Amazing how that worked, right? We still had a good time. And I did learn a few things about the family. I had an Ancestry account then. So whenever something came up, I would add a few odds and ends to the tree.

This party, though, was interesting because it was a surprise party for my grandfather. We brought him to my aunt's house under the pretense of a picnic. To maintain the illusion that it was casual, I had to dress casually in a Celtics t-shirt. So, I kind of stick out like a sore thumb in pics where I sit next to my cousins and everything. I think everyone understood. At least I hope so!!

The parties were always a good time to learn about the family. You never knew when you'd see the people attending again. Time moves pretty fast and every year the parties tend to get smaller because everyone either passed away or have families of their own. In that case, you just tend to deal and move on.  I miss the times when everyone would be at my parents' house every Christmas eve. If I could have a reunion, I'd talk to my grandparents more about the tree. Just to tell them that I've been working on it and that I still remembered the stories they passed down to me.

52 Ancestors Week 27: Independent

From Amy Johnson Crow:

Week 27:

We are now in the second half of the year! Can you believe it?! In the U.S., we'll be celebrating Independence Day on Thursday, so it seems appropriate to have the theme of "Independent." You could feature a Revolutionary War veteran, an ancestor who had an independent streak, or an ancestor of independent means. Be creative!

The second half of #52Ancestors begins this week with a look at the 4th of July. This is a time to go to barbecues and pop in that timeless '90s classic called "Independence Day" into your dvd/blu-ray player. Or watch it on various channels this week. It is everywhere! Who doesn't love that movie? It's pretty quotable. But, I don't think I have the time to go into just how quotable that movie is and how much I'm not really a fan of its sequel.

Today, we're going to go back further than the 1996 Will Smith movie. We're even going further back than that musical starring William Daniels as John Adams! Remember that one? I saw it in history class many, many years ago. It was so weird seeing the voice of K.I.T.T. be the voice of reason in that musical. I digress! We're going back to the actual American Revolution from 1765-1783!

When it comes to the American Revolution, I have eleven soldiers in my tree. I'll be discussing the first one I discovered. His name was Amos Sargent and he was my 6th great-grandfather.

Amos was born on November 23rd, 1758 in Malden, Massachusetts when Massachusetts was known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His parents were Silas Sargent and Mary Winslow. He was one of nine children.  He married Alice Bucknam on November 18th, 1782 and had seven children with her including my 5th great-grandmother, Sarah. He passed away on August 12th, 1836 in Malden well after the nation was born.

I know his WikiTree profile looks a little sparse.I haven't had the time to fill it all in. I'll get there some day! Somehow. I promise! =)

He was the first of the soldiers of the Revolution I found back in 2006 thanks to some research on Ancestry.com. I found him along with a guy named Joseph Fisher. He was the one my grandmother, Natalie, told me about. His family was also from Malden and it's interesting to note that Sarah married Joseph's son, Lewis. But, we're not here to talk about Joseph even if he is kind of cool and all. No. Let's talk about Amos because a lot went on in his seventy-eight year lifespan. I really wish my grandmother told me about this guy! Joseph is cool. Don't get me wrong. But, there's something really, really amazing about Amos.

As seen on Ancestry.com

Amos was probably one of the highest ranking soldiers of the American Revolution I've found in my tree because he was a seaman on the privateer Brigatine named "Hazard". Being the imaginative guy I am I've pictured privateer action on the high seas. Privateers, of course, were different from pirates. They typically engaged in maritime warfare under a commission and during the war many colonies would send their best men to become privateers. You've probably seen this image to your left on many Ancestry.com hints, by the way. I am so sorry!

Present day Malden, Massachusetts borders the city of Lynn and there is a small tributary there connecting the town to the ocean. Because of this, it stands to reason that many men from Malden and the surrounding coastal counties like Essex and Middlesex were called in to protect the nearby ports of Boston, Portsmouth and other New England cities at all costs.

The men were commissioned by the governments of the colonies and serve as a pre-US Coast Guard for lack of a better word. They'd defend the shores from invaders and according to my research many of the soldiers in my tree were involved in the Navy in one way or another. Some served a few days. Some, like Amos, served for a LOT longer than a couple days. They were all from New England (except Charles Mathieu) and were pretty much my New England Patriots.

Amos captivates my imagination because I've grown up around boats. My parents have a boat on the Merrimack river and every summer around the 4th of July we'd see a tall ship dock across the river in Newburyport. These ships, naturally, were replicas of the ones that served during the war. One year we actually went aboard a replica privateer vessel and it was amazing. If only the ship was named Enterprise. Ah well.

Amos's life is very fascinating because I picture acts of daring do on the ocean. Picture all the action he's seen. Sure it's romanticized a bit. But, it's still cool to think of. At the end of the day, he was a naval hero who played his part in safeguarding the colony of Massachusetts.

Apparently his family was well established as there is a genealogy book about the Sargents. It's called Sargent genealogy : Hugh Sargent, of Courteenhall, Northamptonshire and his descendants in England

That book, like many other genealogy books, has been very helpful in helping me find various information about the Sargents. However, you always need to be careful when dealing with those books. Like I've said before. They can be full of errors. I lucked out as I've found that the information in a few books clearly match the records I've found elsewhere. Records for Massachusetts are REALLY good and really easy to come by. If you have ancestors in Massachusetts, you will find a LOT of information.

You just need to make sure that the information in the genealogy book matches up with the info you find.

As for Amos Sargent? Well, he'll continue to spark my imagination. That's for sure. His legacy endured to the present as he is on the Daughters of the American Revolution database. His descendants thrive to this day and I'll more than likely keep thinking about awesome adventures on the high seas. His role in the American Revolution may have been small in comparison to the likes of George Washington. But, like the Doctor once said....

"Not important? I've never met anyone who wasn't important."

See you next time!

Addendum: Fold3 had a free weekend and I've just downloaded the pension for Amos Sargent. This is going to take some time to analyze. Talk about coincidences!

52 Ancestors Week 26: Legend

From Amy Johnson Crow:

The theme for Week 26 is "Legend." Do you have a legend in your family history that you've even proven or disproven? How about a legendary ancestor (or one who should be)? Maybe someone involved in a local legend or folklore? This should be a fun prompt!

I had fun making that image up there. =) It's not a quote from the actual "Legend of Zelda" series or anything. I actually combined a few of the games' plots into one concise entry and there have been a lot of "Legend of Zelda" games since 1987. It's probably one of my favorite game series from Nintendo.  It's also one of the few classic NES games I was actually GOOD at! Those games are hard! There's a reason why they were called "Nintendo Hard" back in the '80s. Enough about that. Let's talk about legends or "Family Lore".

My family has no shortage of family lore. Who doesn't have a legend or two? I managed to disprove a few of them. I'm not entirely sure about at least one. For that one, I think a considerable amount of travel is necessary.

No relation to Isabella.

One of the first legends I heard growing up was my grandma Ollie telling me that we were related to Queen Isabella of Spain. That one was a little bit of a stretch considering she was of Italian descent and Isabella, naturally, was from Spain. It would have theoretically been possible considering Italy, Spain and Greece are the titans of the Mediterranean. People from all three countries married each other for centuries. It's possible! But, I had my doubts.

When my cousin on the Carrabs side did work on our tree, I noticed a few odds and ends that made a connection to Queen Isabella less and less likely. She managed to trace that branch back to 1700s Gesualdo. Gesualdo, for those of your wondering, is a town located just east of Naples. Still quite far away from the hills of Spain.

When I finally was able to do research into Isabella's family tree, I noticed a few things. A few of her children survived to adulthood. One ended up marrying Henry VIII. I umm....think we all know how that marriage ended. I traced the other surviving childrens' lines downward through time and it still didn't seem likely.

Granted there are still several hundred years between 1700s Gesualdo and the lines from Queen Isabella. It may be true. But, in the end it's extremely unlikely. It could be worth checking out. But, it could end up being a wild goose chase.

I do have another Italian legend from that side of the family and it could actually be true and merit some research. In 2004, we visited my great-aunt Nicole for a week and she told me that there was a Count Ferraiolo in the family. Me being me, my mind immediately went to some weird places. Apparently his name was Count Marco Ferraiolo (Same name as my grandfather and my 2x great-grandfather.)

Naturally, I was curious. Was there a Count Ferraiolo? I'd love to find out. I recently found a Count Gesualdo in Gesualdo. He...umm....had a very different life. Check the Wikipedia article for details. I will give him this. He did have a cool castle in the middle of town.

Back to this Count Marco Ferraiolo. For this I would have to trace the family back very far and I've only gone as far back as Marcantonio Ferraiolo. I have no clue if he links up to this count my great-aunt told me about. I will, however, have to dig deep. And to do that I would have to travel all the way to San Pietro a Maida to discover the truth. Would it be cool to have a link to royalty? Like I said last week: It's cool and all. But, don't let it define you because there are millions of people alive today who could make that same claim.

On my mom's side of the family, I have a legend which is pretty much true. I grew up hearing that we had several soldiers of the American Revolution in the family and that I descended from Charles Hamel , who was one of the first two hundred settlers of Quebec. That's nice and is very interesting.

Another legend on that side of the family is that of a Felker who played in the White House band after the Civil War. I haven't found anything that could substantiate or disprove that claim. My 3x great-grandfather, Jeremiah, was certainly stationed in D.C..  However, he didn't seem to be musically inclined. I say this because I found another Union soldier in the tree who was. His name was John Sargent Fisher.

John was my 4th great-grandfather and he was a musician in the Civil War and was in the company band from Massachusetts. Could he have been the ancestor my other grandmother told everyone about? He certainly COULD have played in the White House band. He was obviously in one band. However, he traded the instrument for a gun later on.

What's weird is how the story of John Sargent Fisher got transposed onto Jeremiah. I guess with time things got a little twisted. It tends to happen. Older generations don't remember like they used to and facts get swapped around from time to time. That's why it's a good idea to verify legends when you can. The further back in time you go, the murkier certain legends become and it's up to us as genealogists to uncover the truth for future generations. That way there would be less mistakes.

Family legends are great, though. They often spark the imagination and get people interested in genealogy. It worked for me. Sometimes they are tall tales. Sometimes they are true. You just have to dig around for the truth.

Now if you'll excuse me....The land of Hyrule needs saving. Again. =)

52 Ancestors Week 25: Earliest

From Amy Johnson Crow:

Week 25
The theme for Week 25 is "Earliest." Some ways that you might interpret this would be the earliest ancestor you've identified or the earliest document you've found. Maybe the earliest ancestor in a specific location.

Last week, I brought down the house with my letter to my grandfather. That was not my intention in the slightest. I made my family, friends on Wikitree, genealogy people on Twitter and perfect strangers on the street cry. One lady even said that maybe my grandfather was writing through me. It's possible. You never know. I had a hard time writing it to be honest and I've written sad parts of my stories before. Perhaps it's because last week hit a little too close to home. In any case, I'm glad people enjoyed it. Now for something completely different!

Week 25 has to do with the earliest. I think we can have some fun with this. When I began researching in 2006, my tree on Ancestry automatically added a branch going back to 1000 AD. It was to this guy named Grimbaldus du Bacon. For years I thought that was strange and a bit dubious. I hadn't had a chance to verify it until 2017. And wouldn't you know it? It was an unsubstantiated claim. I wasn't upset at losing the branch. It took a good fifteen minutes to clear that mess up.

Since then, I've always been a little shy about dealing with anything pre-1600. Could you blame me?

What happened was I asked on Geni about whether or not we could find information about my ancestor James Frothingham's wife, Phebe. I had a Phebe Southwick on my tree and originally she was the link to Grimbaldus du Bacon who lived 1000 years ago. Turns out that there were two Phebe Southwicks. One who WAS married to James and the other who wasn't and was connected to Grimbaldus. My friend, Erica tried explaining to me how this was relatively impossible because of various records she found. She said sorry and I said it was no big deal. I took a chainsaw to the tree and chopped it off.

Months later, I came across a potential gateway ancestor. For those who don't know, a gateway ancestor is a genealogical term which means that when you're researching a family tree you discover that one of your ancestors is descended from royalty, the aristocracy, or landed gentry. Usually in the United Kingdom. Though, it could easily apply to places like France, Germany and even Italy.

I was surfing Wikitree and found that Anne Derehaugh was considered to be a gateway ancestor. I checked my connection to her using the connection finder and saw that she was my 13th great-grandmother through my maternal grandmother's paternal side. This made a little bit of sense because Austin Felker's line does go to the UK eventually. Eventually, I learned that there was much more to it than that.

I saw that her line went back to a whopping six Magna Carta surety barons. Surety barons were people who signed the Magna Carta in 1215 AD and granted certain rights to people as agreed to by King John of England. It was one of the world's first Constitutions.

Anne was featured in Anderson's Great Puritan Migration Begins book as she arrived in Massachusetts Bay during that time period (1620-1640). That was only the beginning.  I had to learn more about her and if she really WAS descended from six surety barons.

I wasn't going to care either way. It's cool to have a connection like that. But, think about it this way. A gateway ancestor lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago. A lot of people are probably descended from the same person. You can say you have royal blood of you want. But, the fact is that you're still one of millions alive today who could have a connection to this person. Is it cool? Yes. But, it's not the be all end all of existence.

I once again called on my friend, Erica to help me find out if Anne Derehaugh was indeed a gateway ancestor. I didn't want to get bit again. She knew this. I also asked for help in Wikitree's g2g forum. Was I paranoid? Eh, maybe a little. I prefer to think of it as "cautious optimism".

Erica helped me confirmed that she was indeed really a confirmed descendant of six surety barons because of these documents:

She was noted in this book:  http://amzn.com/1461045207 The book is called "Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families - New Greatly Expanded 2011 Edition, Vols. 1, 2, 3 & 4" and is a modest 171 US dollars on Amazon. I ummm....don't think Amazon Prime can shave off the price here.

But, that's okay. She's noted in several other sources as being a descendant. Some of these include:

Battle, Robert. English Ancestry of Anne (Derehaugh) Stratton of Salem, Massachusetts. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 155 (2001): 367-390 and 156 (2002): 39-61.

Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to England: Birth date abt. 1606, Shotley, Suffolk; Living 19 Jul 1641 at Salem [Lechford 427], but "absent" on 8 Jul 1643 [STR 1:119], and probably dead by about 1645 when Edward Gibbons sold his house in Salem [ELR 1:89]

Her mother, Mary Wright, has even more sources which confirm her daughter's stance as a surety baron. Countless other sources appeared and confirmed this. It was definitely good news! I wasn't sure at first. You can never be too sure. Even with sources. Sometimes they can be faulty. It turns out that it wasn't the case this time.

In the end, I have connection to these surety barons:

Robert de Roos 27th great-grandfather.
William d'Aubigny 28th great-grandfather.
Gilbert de Clare 26th great-grandfather.
Richard de Clare 27th great-grandfather.
John de Lacy 26th great-grandfather.
Saher de Quincy 28th great-grandfather.

That's pretty decent. But, you have to be careful when looking up things pre-1600. You have to verify, verify and verify. It's like playing telephone over the course of centuries. Sometimes the messages get messed up and you'll never know which way is up. I think I got lucky here. Anne Derehaugh was indeed a descendant of a surety baron and I think I have more so-called "gateway ancestors". They just need to be proven.

For now, I guess, the earliest ancestors with records I found are these guys up there who lived in the 1100s, hundreds of years before I was even born. That's astonishing to think about. But, when you deal with genealogy going back that far, again you need to be very careful and know your stuff. Is it truth or fiction? There's only one way to find out. Do research and hope for the best. Maybe enlist the help of someone better qualified to answer any questions you might have. It couldn't hurt.

See you next time! And I promise maybe I won't be so hesitant about pre-1600 genealogy!

Edit on September 16th, 2023: It turned out that I am not connected to these surety barons. Sigh...Ah well.