Your Geneology....

Poirot

Poirot

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Am truly loving the Hatfield/McCoys thread......and that we have posters involved in that history. So...o.k. I am a geneology buff. HaVE spent years researching my family history, and while my mom's side is fairly stable (all in one place), my dad's side is all over the place. Outside of knowing I am descended from William The Conquerer.....not many skeletons in my closet........but, hey, what say you?

I did learn that tho I knew my grandfather just up and left my grandmother with 4 kids....he only went to live in a boarding house in Chicago, before moving to Florida. .Kissimmnee.

Oh, I have more.........but what abour you?
 
Barb, you read my mind! I love this idea. On Mother's Day, my daughter-in-law mentioned that she had signed up for a two week free trial at ancestry.com. Naturally, I couldn't pass up a freebie so I started my family genealogy that day. I have spent many hours on it and am tracing not only the McCoys, but the Herald family, my mother's ancestors. I have a lot of the information in my head and I find it fascinating. (It keeps me out of the refrigerator. :)) I am in the fourth century for the McCoys but am stuck in the 1700s with the Heralds. My son gave me a bit of advice because he knows that when I get my teeth into something, I will stick with it to the point of exhaustion. His advice: "Mom, stop when you get to Adam."
 
:rotfl: Oh, Kathy, love that........
 
Oh I'm already liking this thread! I'll have to think of something to say about my family. Nobody famous, as far as I know, but everybody has something of interest in their family history, if they only know it or can learn it. I'm past bedtime and past thinking tonight.

KathyLu, I thought you were going to say about the genealogy study, it keeps you out of the pool hall, which is an expression familiar to me. Of course I didn't imagine you'd go to a pool hall. Do they even still have those? Refrigerator would be something most people could relate to today.

Barb, William the Conqueror? Wow! Hey, my dad used to talk about visiting relatives in Kissimmee, Florida when he was young. We lost touch with them in 1961.
 
Fergus Mór, the Great MacEarca 1st King of Scottish Dal Riata (430 - 501) is my 52nd great grandfather.

Old Cowgirl, unfortunately (?) the refrigerator holds more fascination for me than a pool hall. :) When I get too senile to drive, I plan to bring my GPS into the house so I can find my way to the refrigerator and the bathroom.
 
I have gone back even further since that post.

Blathacht MacLabraidh King of Ireland (340 BC - 280 BC)​
is my 76th great grandfather.​
​
.​
 
Wow, I'm impressed that people are able to trace back so far. I've spent a number of hours on ancestry.com focusing primarily on my Dad's family tree. It is a major struggle since his parents changed their names to try to avoid being found by their families! But, in the course of my search I DID find a cousin I didn't know about and she is also a genealogy enthusiast. So, between the two of us we have pieced a little more together.
 
Poirot said:
... Outside of knowing I am descended from William The Conquerer...
Click to expand...

I, too, have William the Conquerer in my family tree... we're related! Haha... I am also related to the Clantons of OK Corral fame.

I am very interested in geneology, but most of what I know has been discovered by others. I have recently put it all on ancestry.com... and even there, it's hard to manage! But it is interesting and fun to see where family names came from, where people actually came from, and what countries the families originated from. Hard work, but interesting and fun!
 
oooOOOoo this is fun. I talked about my husband's relations to the Hatfield's in the Hatfield/McCoy thread...now let's talk about ME! :) lol.

My maiden name is McKain. Pronounce the same way as former president candidate John McCain (who is really really distant related to me.) So it goes: We are from Scotland (mainly)... the Cain family. That's my roots, y'all. But we all know that a true Scottish family has drama, and we are no exception. There was a HUGE family feud. I don't even remember why...but half the family moved to Ireland and "disowned" the other half. Our fearless leader was my great great great great (I don't know how many greats) grandpa Mac Cain. The half of the family that followed him to Irelend, added Mac to their last name. ex: If I was Stephanie Cain...when I went to Scotland, I became Stephanie Mac Cain.

so Mac Cain family was formed. THEN- many of us ventured to America. However, we were fairly poor and uneducated... sad but true. And many didn't know how to correctly spell our name....so here are the spellings given to us by America's educated record keepers: McKain, McCain, McCahan, McClain, McCann, (and I think there's a few more but I can't think right now lol...I'm a McKain.) The various spellings, I imagine, stem from the rich accents my ancestors had when they first came over from Ireland/Scotland. Cain's...y'all still related to me too... like I said, I don't have a clue why my how-ever-many great grandpa didn't like you. lol. Our family still fights a lot today...we have 1 reunion every year and it's not official until someone is offended LOL... it's in our blood i guess?

I do want to share with you a wonderful story about my Great Grandpa Joseph McKain. (He's my dad's Grandpa, and we all just called him Grandpa Joe. My dad's cousin, Joe McKain, is named after him and visits us often.)
Great Grandpa Joe fought in the United State Civil War on the Confederate side. He rode right next to General Wade Hampton. In fact, Grandpa Joe did have some "slaves", however- he didn't treat them like slaves and gave them privileges, and treated them so nice that many of them took the last name McKain, and some stayed to take care of Grandma Bessie McKain, while some even fought in the war with Grandpa Joe. After the war, they were free to move off of our land- but many of them stayed. Grandpa Joe gave them parts of the property, even. Well- after the war, Grandpa Joe began his ride home from the middle of Virginia, with General Wade Hampton. Somewhere in North Carolina, a group of Union soldiers attacked them. Mind you, this was after the war. Treaty had been signed, and slaves were to be freed. My Grandpa was right there at the signing= yet they still attacked. They took the horses and left my Grandpa for dead. (I don't know what happened to General Wade Hampton after that.)...but my Grandpa got up, and walked home to Florence, SC. that's right- he walked. from the middle of North Carolina, all the way down to middle of South Carolina. The walking caused him to lose his foot- it was amputated just at the ankle.

With a prosthetic foot- he then was a fire fighter for the Florence Fire Station, and became chief, where he served for 55 years before his death. They changed the name of the station to "Joseph E. McKain Fire Department".... If you go there, and look in the keepsake cabinet, there's a picture of the day they dedicated the Station to him. There's a little, 1 year old, girl in a little pink frilly dress in the picture... Can you guess who that little girl is??????? *** ME *** The station still treats me like a princess even if I haven't visited in years.

Quick funny about Grandma Bessie...she NEVER EVER appeared in front of people without her best dress, hair, make up, and jewelry on. and I mean NEVER. Example: she was in shorts and a t-shirt working in the garden in front of their Florence home one day and my dad's cousin drove up with his girlfriend and said "Grandma, I'd like you to meet my new girlfriend."... Grandma turned around and said "Ms. Bessie is not available right now, come back in 30 minutes. Go on now, shoo!".... confused, my dad's cousin left and came back... when they knocked on the door, Grandma answered in her favorite dress, pearls, make up and her hair was done. lol. She also put a blanket around the poor girls legs (she was apparently in a mini skirt) and said "Now, honey, nobody wants to see your naked legs." lol... I wish I could have met her!
-----

on my mom's side.... My Uncle Tom was on the beach in Germany - ON D-Day in WWII...serving in the United States Army. He still has shrapnel in his back. My mom's side is German though lol... hadn't even been over here but for a few decades and our men were sent to fight against... Germany. hmmmm... lol. :)
 
I mentioned this in the Hatfield/McCoy thread. NBC has this show called: Who do you think you are.. it deals with ancestry.com and such. I loved it and it was so exciting all the research & findings on different celebrities. here is the link where you can actually watch some of these shows.
http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/
 
Have watched that series from the beginning. Too bad we all cannot have access to the places, libraries, museums etc. in Europe AND the U.S. that the program does. Ha.
 
Geez, my family sounds pretty boring in comparison.

My Dad's side comes from Eden-duff-carrick, County Antrim, at the northern tip of Ireland. Eden-duff-carrick later became known for Shanes Castle (now Shane's Castle) for the Laird Shane O'Neill. My ancestors were property of the laird, and worked as huntsmen and farmers for him. At the time they had no last name. They eventually took the name O'Shinnes. No one has ever found out why. The first of the family came over in the late 1690's and early 1700's. Many fought in the revolutionary war or supplied the troops with arms, food, and clothing. The land that my family had in Pennsylvania was given to them in lieu of payment.

During the potato famine, my great-great-great-great grandmother wrote in the family Bible that she changed the family's last name on the day her husband died because she didn't want the family associated with "tater Irish". Our current family name was chosen to pay homage to the Laird Shane O'Neill. (When visiting there each summer, my Dad took me to see his headstone with the name change next to others with the old name.)

A little side story.......my family was basically slaves of the laird. The husband of one of my friends in my Irish women's group is a direct descendant of the laird. Small world.

Not too many other things......

......Some of the moonshiners who started the Whiskey Rebellion by burning down a tax collector's house in 1794 south of Pittsburgh. It took over 10,000 troops to breakup less than 100 tax protestors. LOL, you can't separate an Irishman from his whiskey or money.

.......The first Congressional Medal of Honor given to a W Va soldier during the Civil War.

.......My great-great grandfather was arrested after his best friend killed someone while in hiding & using my ggg's name. (The friend was hiding from his pregnant girlfriend's father.) He was released after the revenuer proved that my gg-grandfather was in a different jail that night for not paying taxes on his still. (See, I told you that you couldn't separate them from their whiskey or money.)

....... When my great uncle died in the 1960's, his property (with the family cemetery, Mason-Dixon marker, and confederate / union cannons) was given to Greene County, Pa. to be used for the county cemetery.
 
My mom has been linking like crazy on Ancestry.com, and it goes way way back in the southern American colonies. Pretty boring. (I like to joke when folks ask my ethnicity/national background, 100% White Trash all the Way!! lol.)

Now my hubby is related to George Bush, John Kerry, and Queen Elizabeth II. He's descended from Charlemagne and one of King Alfred's daughters. Thus far, I have not searched back that far in our family tree. I would hate for the Spectator posters to learn that I married my 29th cousin!! Better off not knowing!! Lol
 
A couple of relatives in my family, on each side, have some ancestry research. But none of them found many links, so I'll give them ancestry.com as a resource tool. Thanks:)
 
they gave a forum there where folks ask about certain relatives, names, etc. and one time, some years ago, I found a gal in Mississippi looking for a certain name on her mother's side of the family....and yep...twas my great-great-great and we learned we were cousins. LOL. My Dad's family came over from England in 1700s, and I swear, they lived all over the U.S. ..in every state you can think of. Plus, the women they married were equally from odd places. One was a fur trader, which explained a lot (3 brothers). But from census records, my dad's branch just moved everywhere. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, South Carolina, Chicago, and then a great many down in Florida.
 
Adam (Father of all Mankind) The First Patriarch is my 145th great grandfather.

Birth 4004 BC in the Garden of Eden
Death 3074 BC in Olaha, Shinehah
 
i went to a church retreat as a teenager and met a girl and we became the best of friends, so we exchanged numbers... she called the house and while we were chatting, my dad was standing in the door way giving me a really strange look.

When I got off the phone, I asked him what was up and he asked "Why are the Hatchell's calling you?"... Confused, I said, well- Kat's my friend and she called me. lol. He said "Ask her if she knows Ray Hatchell". So I called her back and asked her...she said "yeah, he's my grandpa's brother."... so I told my dad and he said "y'all are cousins. Haven't hear from Uncle Ray in years. Tell her to let him know I said hello."... Kat and I had a giggling fest for about an hour... we were best friends one second, and cousins the next! LOL
 
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