mosome -ie. males only) and mitochondria DNA which is passed by the mother to both her male and female offspring but only the females will pass it on again to the next generation.
Mitochondrial DNA is useful for following the maternal side and Y-DNA is useful for tracing the paternal line (and presumably the actual surname, if the name didn't get changed along the way).
I chose FTDNA based on the recommendation of the KERR/CARR surname group manager. (Kerr is my maiden name). My brother contributed the DNA and we initially chose the 37 marker test. We were very fortunate to find an exact match to someone with the exact same name, including middle name as my brother (serendipity strikes again). We compared research notes with the individual and obtained more leads. It is quite likely our two families connect in as little as two generations back. It was a great find.
We also matched 12 markers with many different people. 12 markers is interesting but nearly as useful as 37 or 67.
We went fishing for more matches and upgraded to the 67 marker test. We matched again with the same individual mentioned in the 37 marker test and also several other families.
The testing also gave us the haplogroup which shows the migrations of this lineage over the ages.
I'm about to get my mitochondrial DNA tested and will go with FTDNA based on our positive experience with them.
That said I would check to see which of the companies has a project that interests you. I recently attended a talk by a noted forensic genealogist and it was mentioned there are over 8000 DNA studies ongoing. These include surname, geographic, historic, and ethnic studies. The speaker said there are three big DNA companies (DNAheritage, FTDNA and Ancestry) and wasn't recommending one over the other. All were good - just check the project that closely matches your genealogy research goals.
If you do submit DNA for a test, I suggest going with the most number of markers the budget will allow. Also when you get your results, I suggest sharing them on ysearch.org, ybase.org or smgf.org so you can compare with other researchers, no matter where the testing was done.
Good luck. Hope you learn lots.
Cheers,
Joan Miller
Luxegen Genealogy…
.
GenealogyWise: message boards for surnames, places/locations, events/announcements, pictures - http://www.genealogywise.com/
RootsWeb: message boards for surnames, places/locations, events/announcements, mailing lists for same subjects, genealogies (Family Trees), databases, “how to”/helping aids - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
GenForum: message boards for surnames, places/locations, events/announcements, genealogies (Family Trees), “how to”/helping aids - http://genforum.genealogy.com/
Cyndi's List: a comprehensive, categorized & cross-referenced list of links that point you to genealogical research sites online both free and payment required. - http://www.cyndislist.com/
Linkpendium: a genealogical directory - http://www.linkpendium.com/
The USGenWeb Project! A group of volunteers working together to provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. Lists, databases and links - http://usgenweb.org/
WorldGenWeb Project: a non-profit, volunteer based organization dedicated to providing genealogical and historical records and resources for world-wide access! http://www.worldgenweb.org/
FamilySearch (LDS): various databases and genealogies (Family Trees), worldwide in scope. Can also order in films through your local FHC (there is a fee). - https://www.familysearch.org/
Mocavo: a genealogy search engine - http://www.mocavo.com/
Heritage Quest, may be available through your library, contains some census records, PERSI, books, check your local library or FHC for possible access.
Book downloads -
http://archive.org/index.php
http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp
French (but does have some French-Canadian)
http://gallica.bnf.fr/?lang=EN
…
Several years ago I sent out an S.O.S. on a message board to find information on an ancestor. A man who's first name was spelled Frances. A member of the board who happened to be an English teacher…
tion in New England. Samuel Hubbard, an emigre from England to New England (initially Salem, MA), married Tacy/Tasy Cooper (also an England emigre) in 1636 in MA. Histories say that they were both amongst the group that walked to modern-day CT to found it in 1635. They moved on to RI and eventually co-founded the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Newport, RI in 1671, the first branch in the Colonies, which appears to be the main reason so much more has been written about them than most of my other early settlers. (Some of it, in particular the assertion that Samuel's grandfather was burned at the stake in England, appears to be inaccurate, though.) Their daughter Ruth Hubbard, who was born in what became Springfield, MA (originally Agawam) and was the first white child born there, married Robert Burdick in RI in autumn 1655 when she was just 15. They had a very large family (as I'm sure you know was common then) and my direct ancestor is their son Hubbard Burdick, who was born in 1676 in Westerly, Washington Co., RI, and married Hannah Maxson in Westerly in 1714. My direct line (their grandson James) moved up to Canada after the War. There are a bunch of historical quotations about James up at a page of the Burdick surname newsetter: http://www.burdickfamily.org/newsletters/news0804.html
The Hubbards and the Burdicks were both big clans. It appears Burdick was an unusual surname in early New England, but I'm not sure how common Hubbard was.
Anyway, as to your other possible match:
My Williams is Keziah/Cazia Williams, who was born in 1686 in CT and married John Loveland in what's now Glastonbury (then part of Wethersfield), Hartford Co., CT in 1708. Public genealogies list her parents as Thomas Williams and Hannah Hogg, but I haven't done as much research on her as on most of the people in my tree yet, so I'm not sure if this is correct info.…
left to ask? What strategies, resources, etc. do you use? Share a nightmare, or a success story!
Most important to remember are the occupations...the Germans, Russians. From 1795 to 1918, Lithuania didn't exist. Whatever town you're looking for probably had a name in: Russian, German, Lithuanian and Polish. You must keep an open mind and do the research to find your village....remember, if you even HAVE a village name, you are well ahead of most of us and subject to our envy! Looking at the old maps with the border changes, name changes, etc., might be helpful. Take a few minutes to get the gist of the Partitions from the 1700s-1900s.
One site to try is Falling Rain.
Better than that, I think, is the Excel database in the Files section of the Yahoo group for Lithuanian Genealogy: You'll have to get a yahoo ID and join, but honestly, if you haven't...what's wrong with you? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LithuanianGenealogy/files/SGKP-Lithuania is a site dedicated to translating entries from the Polish XIXc gazetteer describing localities in modern-day Lithuania.
Working Backwards
Let's assume you know what name you're looking for. The next obstacle is the timeframe during which your ancestor immigrated. The later they came, the better your chances. Here are just a few things that I do:
1. Go to the Lithuanian Internet Phone directory Zebra (see link on main page). Type in the first few letters of the name to see how many hits you get. Is it a common name? relatively rare?
2. I group the results from #1 by location. Are there 'hotspots' in certain regions of Lithuania for the name?
3. I search the heck out of Ancestry.com and just plain ole Google searches. Think outside the box. There might not be info for your direct ancestor, but his or her cousin who came over later might have a passport application, naturalization papers, etc. that might give clues to the old home village. Later immigration records to the USA often give home villages instead of just "Russia" or "Kowno (Kaunas)" or the ever popular "Suwalki" (which could be most of southern Lithuania and parts of Poland). The locations will be horrifically mis-spelled. I use an Excel database that I downloaded from the LithGen yahoo group which has a ton of spellings for a zillion towns and villages in Lithuania. Remember that at various times, a village might have had a Lithuanian spelling, a German spelling, a Polish spelling or a Russian spelling...or all of the above. And they might not look anything alike to each other.
4. Using the results from the Zebra internet phone directory, I write letters...in English, explaining who I am and the family I'm looking for. Give basic info, name, birth, when they immigrated, who they married...but don't overdo it. ALWAYS include your email address. Your letter might get passed off to a younger relative who understands some English and who has email access. I ask them how much they know about their family history. And do they remember a so-and-so going to America, England, etc. I know many people have found this incredibly successful.
5. If you're willing to accept the headaches of social networking sites, #4 can also be attempted on Facebook, Frype, Orkut and a smattering of other sites. You may be using Google Translator constantly to figure out what the websites say if you don't speak the languages, but it may be worth it.…
y done this, but the first thing that I would do would be to obtain the tax lists for Loudoun County, VA, for the time around 1805 (your Norval Hiskett's birthdate). At that time, all males 16 years of age and older had to pay tax, and therefore should appear on the tax lists. You can ILL the microfilmed tax lists through the Library of Virginia (I've done this a lot, since I live in Iowa). Once you've gone through the tax lists, you'll be able to see how many men with the surnames Heskitt, Hiskett, etc. were living in that are at that time, and what their names were. Then, follow the tax lists through time. If you're lucky, your Norval will still be living in Loudoun when he gets old enough to be listed on his own. Even if you don't find him in Loudoun, you may still be able to tell if and when the family as a whole migrated from the area. You may also find that you need to check surrounding counties, in case the family just moved over the county line. (I see a lot of Heskett's in Jefferson County, Virginia on the census). I hope this helps.…
ldren had migrated to the Capron, Southampton Co. VA area so I am sure that is why he moved there. I remember meeting Uncle Nat Weaver as a child. He ran a small store in the Newsoms, VA area. Don't know if he was the owner or not. In addition to my ggrandmother, Missouri Bell, I got to see her sisters, Mariah and Pauline, when they came over to visit their sister, Missouri Bell, who was very sick.
Since Horatio Weaver was part Native American, I am trying to verify that his ancestry was Meherrin. Their people left the Southampton Co. VA area to move into the swamp area of North Carolina to get away from the US Government who was constantly interfering with them. After they moved to NC, that state passed laws to severely control their Native population. They Meherrins finally decided to end living as a group, intermarry with Blacks and Whites, and buy small farm land. Weaver is one of the Meherrin surnames. Horatio belonged to the Bright Star Baptist Church Branchville or Boykins. He may be buried there. I have written the church to inquire but they never responded. Hopefully, I may at some point be able to visit the church cemetery .…
-Scots. They would have come in from Ireland becase they'd long lived in Ulster, which borders Scotland, but is actually in Ireland. They'd been settled there during the Reformation to protect the Protestant Scots from any possible invasion by the Catholic Irish.
However, not unless you've traced, and verified through each generation, your descendency from the Augusta County McClanahans, can you be certain that you're related to these people. There were McClanhans all over Virginia, and in many of the other colonies as well. And no, they weren't all related to one another - far from it! You won't know which of the many McClanahan groups you're related to until you've discovered that by doing the necessary research.
As for the changes in the spelling of your surname, that resulted from the fact all spelling was phonetic then. There are no names, including Smith, that weren't spelled in many different ways.
As for the Thomas Land who reportedly married Elenor McCClanahan in Augusta County, nobody reporting that cites any sources. and Doug Land and I have yet to find any verification. Until we do, it's just something somebody said, and lots of people have passed it on without knowing who first said it, or why.
Wihing you look in your research.
Always,
Lynn…
ars as time permits. My biggest motivation is to find any information I can on my Mother's father. I have a post in the most wanted group. GeneJ has been so very helpful, along with several other kind members! I feel like I am 'half inching' along, at least now I know what direction to look! Giving my Mom the answers to the 'things' she has wondered about all her life would be the best gift I could give her.
My other top priority is my Dad's father. I think I have found the correct man through SS. If I am correct he was the youngest of five children. My Dad knows next to nothing about his father. He sure didn't know he had siblings! I am trying to confirm I have the correct man and then start searching for cousins! :-)
The Surnames I am researching are: Cooper, Scanlon, Bayles, Thomas, Hewitt, Simpson, Payne and Wilty
Main Locations so far are: Columbus, Ohio Seymour, Iowa Omaha, Nebraska Western Missouri and St. Louis MO…
but I thought I'd add it here, too.
Robert John SANDERS, b. Oct. 10, 1847, Ballard County, Kentucky; d. Dec. 20, 1912, Oklahoma
Lula (Lucy) M BLACKWELL, b. about 1855, Virginia (maybe West Virginia); d. ???
I've located them in the 1880 census in Clay, Lafayette, Missouri.
Lula has been the most elusive of the 2. She died before 1900, as Robert is listed as widowed. But I haven't been able to find her, as Lula, anywhere before 1880.
I did find in the 1860 census, a Lucy Blackwell in District 2, Mason, Virginia. I haven't been able to verify if it's her.
Another connection I found was through Robert and Lula's daughter Sallie. She was listed in the 1900 census in Hooper, Costilla, Colorado with Robert. There was a Bellie BLACKWELL (Bellie HACKETT) living with them. She is listed as Robert's sister-in-law. So Lula had a brother. (I'm assuming HACKETT) is her maiden name. Again, an assumption, not verified fact.)
Lewis Sanders, listed on the same page of the 1880 census is Robert's father.
On the 1900 census, Lewis T., who is living with Robert and children, is listed as Robert's nephew.
Surnames: SANDERS, BLACKWELL, HACKETT…