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I've developed a good working sense of history for the times and places I research. When someone speaks about the same historical contexts I know from experience whether their comments are grounded in reality or whether they are talking out their
In real life I only knew one case where 2 sisters married 2 brothers. That was much more common in the past. Or all the sisters of the wife that married a cousin of the husband or the cousin of the husband married the second cousin of the wife. When you grandmothers maiden name is the same as the 2nd great grandmother of their spouse. I guess in small European villages the pool of spouse material was small.
Adopted children wanting to find birth relatives. I am always willing to help them since it is tougher when they have no family to ask and never heard the stories growing up. I mean strictly for genealogy. I would never be involved in any type of ambush situation where someone wants to stay hidden.
My maternal 2nd great grandmother and her brother married a brother and sister pair. Their whole brother married someone within the same family, I think it was a relative by marriage.
This happened in MS in the late 1800s. The 1890s to be exact.
In doing genealogical research regarding my father's side of the family- I could think of a couple of things I found interesting (at least for me). My father is from Taiwan, but traces his paternal ancestry to Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, China- 9 generations back. I am US based and US-born, Taiwanese-American.
First, I found out through my research that my first ancestor to cross from Fujian Province, China to Taiwan came during the middle part of the Qing Dynasty. And he was a a Provincial Imperial Military Scholar Official. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperi...y_examinations
Second, I found the village where he came from. It is not some tourist hot spot. But, found it interesting- it was a walled village built during the late 1500's the ward off Japanese pirates who often raided it. It was a market village. To this date, a village wall still stands with banyan trees covering it. One day I plan to visit this village. See (these links have photos but the articles are all in Chinese- if you are curious, you can cut and paste the articles to Google Translate: https://www.suibi8.com/essay/341810.html ???123_???? ?????????? ????????-???,??,??,??,??-????? http://www.360doc.com/content/16/071...76852476.shtml
I just find it interesting looking. But, it is more personal for me.
Apparently (not yet confirmed but about 95% certain) that we have a niece and nephew by the same deceased brother (different mothers) that no one knew about.
And considering family situations I'm not telling anyone except my sister - and she's not either. Once the half/full nephews do their dna testing it will come to light.
I think my favorite thing is that no matter where in New England I go, they were there first! They sure did get around. No matter where I move, as long as it's in New England, there's genealogy to do. I moved to this town five years ago and, sure enough, there they were again, living just down the road back in 1640.
Previous town, they had been there too--a brave Colonial woman who fought for her land after her husband died.
The area I come from is littered with them and the area I'll probably be moving to has them as well. No matter where you go, there you are, lol.
Apparently (not yet confirmed but about 95% certain) that we have a niece and nephew by the same deceased brother (different mothers) that no one knew about.
And considering family situations I'm not telling anyone except my sister - and she's not either. Once the half/full nephews do their dna testing it will come to light.
I actually like hearing those stories.
Easy to say because it hasn't happened to anyone I know personally.
I've developed a good working sense of history for the times and places I research. When someone speaks about the same historical contexts I know from experience whether their comments are grounded in reality or whether they are talking out their
This is one of the things that I love about genealogy, too. I've always been a history buff, and it always amazes me how my ancestors and relatives were carried along by the currents of history.
For example, I already knew about the notorious prison camp Andersonville during the Civil War. But the story of Andersonville now means much more to me now that I discovered a distant cousin who died there. Andersonville is not a dry history lesson. It's a part of my life.
I've enjoyed seeing how my ancestors and other relatives have participated in so many movements, trends, and events in U.S. (and even global) history: the Winthrop expedition, the founding of communities, the Civil War, the rise and decline of farming, geodemographic trends, etc. These things are interesting to me anyhow, but seeing them protagonized by people who helped make me happen has been particularly moving.
It's true that it's been fun to find "famous" and otherwise illustrious people in my family tree, but it gets old pretty quickly. The less celebrated people--the soldiers, the rebellious sons, the single mothers--have been most intriguing to me because they really help to tell this country's story.
I've also enjoyed seeing a variety of different names in my tree. There are quite a few Old Testament style names (such as Ezekiel and Jebediah) among my northeastern relatives and ancestors, but I've particularly enjoyed the names I've encountered among my southern ancestors and relatives: Artemis, Voncille, Wingate, etc. When finding these people and reading about them, the narratives of authors like Faulkner and Welty come to mind.
Another favorite thing has been seeing a truer role of the women in my tree. Unfortunately, the women are not as well documented as the men, and I can only begin to imagine what their lives must have been really like. Many of them married incredibly young and had lots and lots of children. I wish I knew more about them, but when I do manage to get a hold of some information, it's great to see.
Same thing with the slaves and servants in my family background. There is even less information about them, and it's horrible that they were subjected to slavery and post-slavery structures of inequality, but I love it when I can find specific information about them.
Finally, I've enjoyed the "curve balls"--the surprises in an otherwise mostly predictable order. My mother's side of the family is all Southern, except for one strand of Yankees going back from a great-great-grandfather. I don't think my family knew or suspected that there were Yankees in the picture. There are a few other little surprises like that in the tree.
My living family is very small on my fathers side, not many of us left. Through doing research, I have found a whole branch of the family that have been looking for ME for several years. So now, I have several new cousins and we all DNA matched, so we can't wait for a reunion!
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