Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Genealogy
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 06-14-2013, 04:10 PM
 
Location: San Marcos, TX
2,570 posts, read 7,712,721 times
Reputation: 4059

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by RDM66 View Post
<snip>

As for my direct line of the family, my g-g-g-g grandfather made the mistake of heading west, where he became nothing but a poor dirt farmer in Ohio. If only he would have stayed on the East Coast with the rest of the family. :-)
Oh yeah, I have quite a few of those who just should have stayed put!

I am investigating my own Andrew Jackson connection. My Grandfather was Herman Dollinson Jackson, which is awfully close to Rachel Donelson (Andrew Jackson's wife) and he is supposedly descended from the adopted son of Andrew Jackson and Rachel, who was Rachel's nephew..? I think? Anyway all of this is just what I have found on Ancestry and have no way verified.

If it is all true, I wish I could have figured it out before my Grandma died. Herman was her father and she would have gotten a kick out of all this since all she knew about him was negative and she didn't know anything about his family.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nightbird47 View Post
If your ancestors crossed the seas early on, they were of one of two groups. They were younger sons of titled houses who were landless and hoped to stake out their piece of dirt since there were none to have at home. Younger sons lost value once the heir had a son. Or they were servants, personal or indentured. The early attempts at settlments were attempts to find wealth. One of the reasons Jamestown was a near complete failure was that gentlemen did not do manual labor and the natives were not incline to either, leaving insufficent bodies to do the hard work. Had they brought a bunch of farmers who knew how to grow a crop they would have done much better.

A LOT of Americans can trace ancestry back to those who arrived under indenture, voluntary or otherwise as well. The people who later moved on from the coast were the people who became farmers and settled living off the land but early on this wasn't the main reason. Even the Pilgrims were largely urban types who didn't come equipped with the skills they immediately needed. Hoping to find the riches the Spanish had found, most first settlements were actually commercial in nature.
I have one ancestor that is believed to have crossed as an indentured servant (from Ireland), in his mid 20's, in 1664 , but later married into well known Massachusetts early family (Chase) even though his own origins were not anything fancy. He was a planter. Would this have been normal/common? Would he have been deemed an acceptable husband based on his own merit back then over and above where he'd come from?

Last edited by Sally_Sparrow; 06-14-2013 at 04:25 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 06-14-2013, 04:15 PM
 
9,981 posts, read 8,539,141 times
Reputation: 5664
I'm a direct paternal descendant of one of the first settlers of New France,
at Trois Rivieres, there's quite a few articles about him online.. but
I'd rather not say his name only because if I said so, I'd be saying my own.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-14-2013, 10:27 PM
 
109 posts, read 90,630 times
Reputation: 126
My husband's fifth great uncle was Patrick Henry
and he is also related to Joan Crawford.

My side of the family, related (cousin) to John Wilkes Booth
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-15-2013, 07:43 AM
 
Location: Chicago area
1,122 posts, read 3,492,121 times
Reputation: 2200
Yeah, I'm related to this guy: BBC - Primary History - Famous People - George Stephenson . I guess he's famous. At least BBC says he is/was.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-16-2013, 01:08 AM
 
2,687 posts, read 7,384,415 times
Reputation: 4212
Wink yeah...

My 'Grand Uncle' was Otis 'Doc' Crandall...baseball player early 1900's as well as my Grandfather, Karl Crandall... it's embarrassing that I can't even throw a straight line...
Koale
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-16-2013, 01:38 PM
bjh
 
59,746 posts, read 30,187,814 times
Reputation: 135564
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sally_Sparrow View Post
...


I have one ancestor that is believed to have crossed as an indentured servant (from Ireland), in his mid 20's, in 1664 , but later married into well known Massachusetts early family (Chase) even though his own origins were not anything fancy. He was a planter. Would this have been normal/common? Would he have been deemed an acceptable husband based on his own merit back then over and above where he'd come from?
Planter was their term for a farmer, a frequently found and very necessary occupation when you're moving a population into a wilderness. Being a farmer was a respectable occupation. Some became quite prosperous. Anyone who came over indentured and worked his way up to owning his own land was fulfilling the dream of land ownership that would have been all but impossible for people of humble stock in Ireland. He must have been hardworking, careful and intelligent. Let me put it another way: He done good!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-16-2013, 10:50 PM
 
Location: Wrightwood, California
2,098 posts, read 3,441,979 times
Reputation: 884
Not super famous, but certainly interesting. On my mother's side, her great-great-great grandfather (maybe too many greats there) was James R. VanZandt, one of the founders of the Baldknobbers- a pro-Union vigilante group in Missouri.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-18-2013, 01:09 AM
 
936 posts, read 810,358 times
Reputation: 2525
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acuda View Post
Not super famous, but certainly interesting. On my mother's side, her great-great-great grandfather (maybe too many greats there) was James R. VanZandt, one of the founders of the Baldknobbers- a pro-Union vigilante group in Missouri.

One of my current third cousins (living) sings with the Baldknobbers, a musical group named after the famous vigilante group from the Ozarks. They are the oldest musical act in Branson. They have been performing their show every night for 54 years. Their theater is so old that they are sometimes referred to as the "Grand Ole Opry of Branson" because many famous country stars used to sing there before Branson boomed. (Examples: Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, and Glenn Campbell.)

http://www.baldknobbers.com/
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-19-2013, 01:27 PM
 
Location: Cushing OK
14,539 posts, read 21,166,913 times
Reputation: 16936
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sally_Sparrow View Post
Oh yeah, I have quite a few of those who just should have stayed put!

I am investigating my own Andrew Jackson connection. My Grandfather was Herman Dollinson Jackson, which is awfully close to Rachel Donelson (Andrew Jackson's wife) and he is supposedly descended from the adopted son of Andrew Jackson and Rachel, who was Rachel's nephew..? I think? Anyway all of this is just what I have found on Ancestry and have no way verified.

If it is all true, I wish I could have figured it out before my Grandma died. Herman was her father and she would have gotten a kick out of all this since all she knew about him was negative and she didn't know anything about his family.



I have one ancestor that is believed to have crossed as an indentured servant (from Ireland), in his mid 20's, in 1664 , but later married into well known Massachusetts early family (Chase) even though his own origins were not anything fancy. He was a planter. Would this have been normal/common? Would he have been deemed an acceptable husband based on his own merit back then over and above where he'd come from?
In 1664 certainly. Very very few had the money to come any other way and as a result by 1776 three quarters of the native born residents could trace their arrival to an indentured servant. My g gx5 father arrived as a convict and left for Kentucky as soon as he could, but left land to all his sons as he was able to make settlement claims. Many left the place they arrived because the good land was already gone. The most common path from Maryland or Virginia was to Kentucky and west, many families arriving in the midwest in a few generations.

By the time of the revolution, those who came as 'servants' were not so readily accepted as a few generations on, families were successful and class distinctions had begun and many simply never said why that ancestor came. Convicts were generally not accepted in the coastal areas even in 1719 when mass shipments began and they usually went west where it wasn't a social stigma.

Planters were simply someone who owned the land they farmed, so it did not mean wealth, but was indeed a solidly respectable profession.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-19-2013, 04:04 PM
 
782 posts, read 1,100,417 times
Reputation: 1017
My third cousin is Frank Serpico (of the Al Pacino movie and previous book by the name Serpico), a very famous police officer who helped clean up the NYPD (to an extent). I have some very distant relations on my mom's side who were some kind of royalty/highly placed family in Russia long ago. My grandfather's grandmother's grandfather or something ... it is a family story passed down and one of the things I hope to track down in trying to do my family tree and learn more about my family history.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Genealogy

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top