Anyone into genealogy
- Thread starter mxz800
- Start date
Not super into per-say. But I have an aunt who built out our whole family tree on that ancestry site. I ended up doing their DNA thing awhile back and confirmed some cool stuff. Like being related to the author of the Star Spangled Banner.
The difference between a genealogist and a gynecologist:
One looks up the family tree
The other looks up the family bush
One looks up the family tree
The other looks up the family bush
My Sister and I found out from DNA testing that we have a half brother. He grew up about 30 miles from us.
Similar happened with my dad: He was adopted as a new born. He spent many years tracking down both of his natural parents. Found his natural mom in the late 80's. She never told her husband at the time. She talked to him briefly on the phone, but threatened to commit suicide if he told her husband.
Further research, found he had two half sisters. He did contact the half sisters and kept in touch with them until his death a year ago. In 1990 we traveled to New Jersey to meet his half sisters and family. My most memorable part of that was going to New York. Also memorable is when I went home a few days before my parents and convinced the flight attendant to give me a beer (I was 18 at the time). Probably the best beer I've ever had haha.
Due to NY laws, he couldn't find out who his father was. That law was changed a few years ago and he was able to confirm who his father was. Due to agenices/research he had it narrowed down to 3 people and one was correct. Found out he had another half sister on his dad's side. He contacted her, she was able to fly out and visit with him.
So I've never been into it much, but it always bothered my dad. His sister was also adopted and didn't want to know anything about her natural parents. So just depends on the situation and personality. It did bother my dad that he didn't get to talk to his mother much. Possibly because he didn't have the best relationship with his adopted parents, and his adopted mom died in the early 80's. Adopted dad was quite open that he never wanted children and that bothered him as well. He was about an 8 hour drive. Probably visited with him around 5 times in my life.
I started researching mine right after my Mom passed away in 2005 and I was blown away by what I found. I had no idea my grandmother was a missionary in Arizona and New Mexico starting in 1918 and I had no idea that my great grandfather was a well known local figure in Northern New Mexico and is even in books, and that my 8TH great grandfather was part of one of the original founding families of Fort Santa Fe and several generations after him were important and decorated military figures. My 7Th great grandfather actually rode into Navajo/Apache territory during the re-conquest and rescued one of my great aunts who had been held captive during the revolt of 1680.
My 8TH great grandfather came to the New Mexico Territory in 1603, he was 8 years old and already enlisted in the Spanish army helping to keep the wooden wagons moving by pushing through mud and keeping the wheel hubs greased with animal fat. He also was literate and was tasked with keeping inventory. By 1608 there were less than 50 Spanish families living in Nuevo México and he was part of one of those families which are now referred to as the founding families.
New Mexico became a US Territory in 1850 and the 47th state in 1912 at which time my ancestors all automatically became US citizens.
I traced my roots back to 1579 on my Mother's side. I met dozens of people related to me. I now spend every Memorial Day weekend in a remote part of NM where everyone is related to me. Getting ready right now and will be exploring ruins of my ancestor's villages in the TJ which are now all abandoned but remain protected to some extent due to their remote locations and the fact that they are now on private ranch lands.
I did a lot of research on my own but I also had the benefit of help from 3 professional researchers and church records which contained a wealth of information.
My 8TH great grandfather came to the New Mexico Territory in 1603, he was 8 years old and already enlisted in the Spanish army helping to keep the wooden wagons moving by pushing through mud and keeping the wheel hubs greased with animal fat. He also was literate and was tasked with keeping inventory. By 1608 there were less than 50 Spanish families living in Nuevo México and he was part of one of those families which are now referred to as the founding families.
New Mexico became a US Territory in 1850 and the 47th state in 1912 at which time my ancestors all automatically became US citizens.
I traced my roots back to 1579 on my Mother's side. I met dozens of people related to me. I now spend every Memorial Day weekend in a remote part of NM where everyone is related to me. Getting ready right now and will be exploring ruins of my ancestor's villages in the TJ which are now all abandoned but remain protected to some extent due to their remote locations and the fact that they are now on private ranch lands.
I did a lot of research on my own but I also had the benefit of help from 3 professional researchers and church records which contained a wealth of information.
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I think my Dad had an idea that he had a child before my sister and I were born as he would sometimes joke by saying "well you never know, someday someone might knock on the door and say hi Dad". We didn't find out about our brother until about 3 years after my Dad passed away. Funny thing is that two of my Dads friends had the exact same thing happen to them by finding out towards the end of their lives that they had other children. This DNA testing and matching is going to upset the apple cart in some peoples lives as some are going to find out that they had children that they did not know about, or the kids they thought were theirs are not biologically theirs.
My Sister has done a lot of research of our family genealogy, and has made some pretty interesting discoveries such as it going back into the 1700's in France and Germany. We both have 9% Native American Ancestry from Cherokee and Comanche tribes.
I read that's the main effect that 23 and me had: Lots of people finding out that their parents aren't actually their parents, or that they have half siblings they didn't know about.
Since I've been with my wife for almost 20 years, at least they wouldn't want child support at this point haha.
Well not necessarily. I know a guy that was taken to court over 20 years after he fathered a child, and the mother disappeared with the baby and could not be found. 20 years later he gets served to appear in court for back child support. He ended up having to pay her 18 years of back support even though he tried to find the mother when she disappeared. The court said he should have been saving the child support all these years. This was probably close to 30 years ago when this went down and in California which explains a lot.
The good thing about the Internet is that is has brought a lot of genealogy info out very quickly, and more appears every day. If you search for something family related and it's not there, wait a few years. This is what happened when I was looking for mission schools where my grandmother taught, I just kept Googling her name till I finally got a hit in 2005 and went from there. Once you have a starting point it just literally explodes in every direction from there, and the more you find the more it multiplies.
In 1996 this book was printed which is the long lost journal of Roque Madrid, my 7TH great grandfather.
In 1996 this book was printed which is the long lost journal of Roque Madrid, my 7TH great grandfather.
My dad's first cousin Johnny (since passed away) came to see my dad years ago to ask him if he knew why he couldn't find his birth certificate? My dad was much older than Johnny was, he said he needed it for security clearance for a job.
My Dad told me he is looking in the wrong state, my Aunt was sent away to have Johnny. I asked him why didn't you tell Johnny he said he has plenty of uncle's and aunt's I'm not getting into that hornets nest.
I never knew how Merrill Bagley (my Mother's grandfather ) died until my son found the newspaper article online. The only thing my mom told me was she never met any of her grandparents because they had passed away before she was born.
My Dad told me he is looking in the wrong state, my Aunt was sent away to have Johnny. I asked him why didn't you tell Johnny he said he has plenty of uncle's and aunt's I'm not getting into that hornets nest.
I never knew how Merrill Bagley (my Mother's grandfather ) died until my son found the newspaper article online. The only thing my mom told me was she never met any of her grandparents because they had passed away before she was born.
I found this pretty strange, a guy came into our store and asked if Roger Chick (my Dad) was around. I said yeah you want me to get him? He said yes tell him Roger Chick wants to see him.
The other Roger tells my Dad that he has two sons one has my name and the other son was going to be named the same as my brother. He said his dad had told him that the first Chick to come over from England was John Chick. So he decided to name his oldest John.
He said after doing all the research I found out the first Chick was Thomas not John, and there isn't one John in the whole Chick family tree.
My son and I went to where Thomas Chick and his family were buried in Maine.
I also found out there are five other Chick's in Maine with the same first name as me.
The other Roger tells my Dad that he has two sons one has my name and the other son was going to be named the same as my brother. He said his dad had told him that the first Chick to come over from England was John Chick. So he decided to name his oldest John.
He said after doing all the research I found out the first Chick was Thomas not John, and there isn't one John in the whole Chick family tree.
My son and I went to where Thomas Chick and his family were buried in Maine.
I also found out there are five other Chick's in Maine with the same first name as me.
That's pretty neat that he was a blacksmith. My great uncle, brother to my 2nd great grandfather, was a blacksmith in Las Vegas, NM. There had to be a lot of blacksmiths back then, they were responsible for a lot of stuff besides shoeing animals. They made buggies and carriages, hinges and latches, locks, cookware, all kinds of stuff.
My great great grandfather in his blacksmith shop, which was handed down to his son Merrill.
Great photo. That anvil looks to be in the 250-300 lb range. I used to use all kinds of different "special" hammers till an old blacksmith showed me his favorite, a ball pein. So I started using one and it's my favorite to this day.
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