Family Search tells me that Abraham Lincoln is my ninth cousin, five times removed. (Of course, that depends on everyone in the food chain doing their research properly!) That's on my dad's side. On mom's, I'm a cousin to Stephen Colbert -- we share the same seventh great grandfather, I think. My former work colleague and IT guru, Kim, is also related through the "Lincoln" line on dad's side, though we're not quite sure of the specifics yet. But we're both Parmalees back then.
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| Great Grandmother Delia Davis, the link to Abe Lincoln |
I suspect I'm probably related to a lot of you, as well!
This "revelation" has motivated me to do a final proof on my book (which has been sitting in my computer for far too long without being touched). I'd like to get it printed and offered to the cousins/relatives (mom's side) this year.
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| Mom's family |
I started working on this in 2018, I think. Maybe earlier. I finally finished it -- more or less, apart from the final proof -- about two years ago. It weighs in at more than 30,000 words. But I keep adding to it as those in the family line have added spouses and then new generations to the list.
Before I do anything final, I have to wait for the baby of my cousin's son, Jeff, and his wife, Lauren to be born in April!
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| Jeff and Lauren, expecting in April! |
I suspect that none of the younger generation are much interested in this project. But then, I wasn't nearly so obsessed until I was much older. But when I started digging, I discovered it was a fascinating look back, not just to see "who my people were" but what they did and how they lived. And that's what took it from being a list of names and dates to -- well, a story. And that story took me on quite a journey, from local haunts to Canada, England, and other towns in Michigan.
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| At the kids table one Christmas. |
I've recounted here before that I discovered that the mysterious great grandfather Henry, about whom my mom and her sisters knew absolutely nothing, spent the last 13 years of his life in an asylum. So, I went to visit that place, located in Traverse City, Michigan.
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| Northern Michigan Asylum, men's dorm. |
I also discovered that some of the earliest ancestors to come to the U.S. from Switzerland in the 1700s had fled religious persecution as Mennonites. So I decided to learn more about that.
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| Mennonite Center, St. Jacob's Ontario |
Then my second great grandparents and their children emigrated from England in 1855, traveling in steerage. So, I dug deep into what it was like to travel steerage in the mid-1800s. I visited the church where they were married and where their children christened in England, as well as the site of their first home in London.
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| St. James, Piccadilly, London, designed by Christopher Wren. |
Another great grandfather was a confectioner in the booming confection business in Buffalo, New York, in the late 1800s. So, I was down another rabbit hole, learning about Buffalo's role in our candy-making history.
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| William S. Wood, confectioner. |
I remember my mother telling me many things about her family and her own youth and life, which has helped bring the generation of my parents into clearer focus. Between that, and talking with both mom's older sister and her best friend before they both died, I could tell the story of a generation that the children of my cousins actually have known. Interviews with my cousins helped tell not only their own stories but those of our parents as adults and our times together at the lake.
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| The lake kids during my mom's era |
And now, it's almost done. Again. (I've rewritten the forward and epilogue at least three times and since I started added three new babies and three new spouses to the family tree!)
So, it will be one long proofing job, then finding the printer and -- big gulp -- a bound book in my hands. I'm aiming for Christmas!
Sharing with: Love Your Creativity
79 comments:
Wow! What a fascinating labor of love.
I have some family history with the Mennonites too. They traveled from The Netherlands, through Germany, and ended up in Russia. Then during the Russian revolution came to the US.
I love that you are connected to Abraham Lincoln.
Good luck getting it done and printed.
A sister in law counts General James Longstreet among her relations. When I heard that, I told her she was related to one of the great generals in military history.
Jeanie,
That is absolutely amazing!!
when you publish your book, I am sure it will be treasured buy all your family members...
Thanks so much for stopping by!! The "storm" we were supposed to get stayed further east and all we got was a dusting...Another dud of a snow storm...I hope you are having a good week!
Hugs,
Deb
What a huge work. I hope family members and maybe local historians use it. My own family, some anyway, came from England in the 1850s, too, and settled in northern New York State. I think there was a wave of emigration then. Do you happen to know what was happening in England to cause it?
Good luck with the final stages of this ambitious project. I am a bit surprised that your cousins wouldn’t welcome an eBook version, which would be so much easier and less costly to produce! There’s a way to do it on amazon.com so they could order a printed copy if they wanted it, or just get it in kindle format. Sometimes it’s called print on demand, or just kindle publishing. Probably more cost effective than going to a commercial printer in any case.
HOwever you do it, I wish you well with the project.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Congratulations, Jeanie -- what an immense gift / legacy / labor of love you've created here! And what a rewarding adventure for you as well -- so many discoveries, so many stories, so many amazing connections (you may be the only person I know who is related to both Stephen Colbert AND Abraham Lincoln). Truly, you've made something that will be treasured for generations... I hope you can take a few moments to bask in the glow of a great accomplishment.
But now that you've discovered that family history never really stops, are you preparing for the next volume?
Oh wow! You really have investigated a lot of the family history, that's for sure! I would hope they will treasure the books.
Generally have known very little family history--not even from my own parents about theirs. Not a very close family. Even my grandfather who came over from Sweden didn't keep in touch with his family back there. I envy all your family history knowledge! :)
Wow it's so fascinating to research and discover about our forefathers...my favorite subject too...Great project 👍
Good luck with getting your book published. A distant cousin of mine contacted me some years back and added my infos and photos, so he had another branch of the family included. He sent me his finished book the year before Covid started, and sooner or later I want to meet up with him in London. Hugs, Valerie
Hello, Jeanie
All your hard work on your family history will be treasured, the book sounds wonderful. I love all the family photos, the last one at the lake is a favorite. Take care, have a great day!
Good luck with getting it finished, Jeanie, although as soon as you get it done there will be another birth, marriage or death to add to the history. You'll have to publish a yearly addendum!
You really got into it. I’ve more or less done the basics — mostly less, I guess. 😀
What an amazing family record, and what an achievement to find all the ancestors. Must be wonderful for your family to have a book on its history. Well done, Jeanie. It must have been a lot of work finding the information, as well as noting it down.
I love this! I love that you not only researched your family, but then went down the paths to learning more about the details and visiting the places. What an interesting history your family has.
I would love to visit the areas my grandparents are from, in England and Scotland. Maybe one day!
Bravo! You've written an important family history that can help others researching their ancestry.
It is amazing what you can find out with the internet these days!
It's the family stories I love. And look where these stories have taken you! Fascinating.
Cool! So far nobody in my family on either side has done much work on this, though someone did trace on thread back a few generations.
I find genealogy so fascinating. Congratulations on your sticktoitiveness! I LOVE that picture postcard of your great grandmother with her purse! Do you know how rare it is to find pictures with such?! It's a crossover collectible with purse fanatics such as myself.
I love the history of the families. When my mom first started doing it, it was not hard to be interested but she would get so excited that she would start throwing out names of folks being kids, cousins, etc of another member and I would be totally lost. I do better seeing it in print than I do keeping it straight in my head. That my dear is due I am sure to some aging but a lot to the Fibro Fog I live with. Somewhere along the line, I think I remember mom telling me that we were related to James K Polk by marriage....but I don't have that paper in my hands to say for sure. She had printed three sets of all that out to be bound in book form, giving to my older brother to do that (right before her surgery that she never came back from), but he has no clue where that is. He was also going to keep ancestry.com paid and opened. However, being a procrastinator, he let that go. I recently went on line and finally found what to do about reinstating that. He asked me to get that info for him. I gave it to him but he needed to supply a copy of the death cert and I don't know if he had given all those out to insurances, banks etc or misplaced it but he told me the other night that he FOUND it so he would get that sent off to have the account reinstated and he would pay it each yr. If not, I will. Too much work in there to have it gone. Anyway, great job. I love this stuff.
You have two important ingredients for a project like this: a family, and a family that was wont to create a record of its life together -- especially photographs! Stir in your curiosity, and a dollop of interest in history of all sorts, and a terrific result is guaranteed. Your family-of-the-future is going to profit by your efforts: not to mention others who might be only tangentially connected.
My husband says that, in the "at the kids table one Christmas" picture, in the background on the desk are (L-R) a speaker, a Hallicrafters SX-24 Sky Rider Defiant Receiver built between 1939 and 1943, a Astatic DNHZ microphone built in the 1940's-1950's, and a E.F. Johnson Viking Ranger transmitter built between 1954 and 1961. and a Morse code key, probably a Vibroplex. Someone at the time was a ham radio operator, if Grandfather Henry owned the radios.
http://hug-a-bug.com/SX-24.html
https://www.radioing.com/museum/tx4.html
I published 3 memoirs of my family in 2003, 2005, and 2008. Now, I just blog. It's interesting that your ancestors came from Switzerland and England and that you are related to Abe Lincoln and Stephen Colbert. Awesome!
Always interesting to see the family ancestry..I had a cousin who was doing ours..I wonder what ever happened to that??? We are supposedly related o Churchill..I hope you are soon published..
What a wonderful gift you are giving your family. Definitely a labor of love. Well done! Always enjoy your posts! Donna L
Like several others have said, wow! Very interesting reading. I would love to know that detail about my family history but I doubt I will ever take the time to do that.
What a wonderful project. It wounds so exciting and I bet your family will be very excited too when they get a copy. Good luck on the final stages and getting it published.
Genealogy Quest is quite a fascinating process. I've done that (partially), so I know. I was rather alone on this, and quite disappointed by living descendants. Nevertheless I believe it's worth the time and effort.
I have always wanted to go back more in my heredity. I do know my paternal great grandparents were first cousins who came from France. I need to dig in more. So fascinating to read about your family history. Janice
That sounds like it will be great book for members of your family. And wow, you have some impressive distant relatives. None of my distant relatives were here in the US that long ago, so I wouldn't expect to find anyone here that would be a distant relation back beyond my great grandparents. I don't know if I'd ever be able to go back that far. Hope your week is going well. hugs-Erika
What a wonderful labor of love! bobbie
Such a nice gift you are creating for your family! A true labor of love. So fun to find out you are descended from Lincoln and where your ancestors originated from. Your family is going to love this! x K
I found this a fascinating read. I have no living relatives, so I have no one to ask or interview. I can tell this is a book close to your heart. I am really impressed.
What a labor of love! I enjoyed both the stories and the photos. I the two years before my grandmother died we worked on a huge album together, each visit we looked at some photos of her childhood and family and she told me stories that I wrote down. The album is one of my most precious possessions.
Amalia
xo
Hey, if you need a reader before printing, I'm at your service!
You nudged me years ago into family research and it's been The Best Rabbit Hole ever. This summer, my Schuessler family marks 100 years in the United States and we'll have my gatherings of information to embellish the celebration.
You also prompted me to seek out Saint Mary's Aldermary in London for their (excellent) lunch service. Loved that place. Then, years later, researching my husband's lineage, I discovered that one of his relatives was married there in the 1600s!
XOXOXO & thanks!
Leave some blank pages at the end of your family history book for people to hand write future generations in that are not yet born and for corrections. (I even included family charts with places to be filled in.) at our ages it's important that you get all your research edited and printed or it could all get lost when/if you have a serious health issue and/or die. I wrote and had printed family history books on both sides of the family and know how hard it is to quit the research phase. You just got to tell yourself that someone after you can pick up from where you left off. Every generation has at least one person who will do that. I had 12 copies printed of my books but now you can do less hard copies and put entire books on a thumb drive as well, crossing your fingers they won't go the way of the floppy disk that hold my originals.
What an amazing act of love to put together a book like that for your family. Very interesting that you are related to Lincoln. My mom has done a lot of research on her family, but I have only done a bit on my husbands' side.
Wow, this is quite a huge project!
In our home we near to never got stories from the past, and if, mostly sad and very short ones.
Love your project and can imagine it will be a wonderful feeling, when you have the real book in your hands!
I'm so proud of you. You've invested so much time and energy into this project. I spent some years developing a tree online and then one Christmas I gave access to my siblings and nephews. One of them, remember James, he caught the bug and for a couple of years added to the tree. That was about it for me and I retired from family digging. Occasionally I get an email at ancestry.com of a match with my DNA and the person and I write each other and try to figure out where we connect.
You're amazing!
Simply fascinating! I hear that Pocahontas and Andrew Jackson are way back on my husband's family tree, but I'm doubting that these connections have been well researched ...
;-}
really interesting, my aunt is the one who is into the ancestry of our family.
It’s always fun to look through one’s family history to see who pops up. I found it very interesting to read who you were related to. I love the photos of your Great Grandmother Delia and Great-grandfather William. All the other photos too. Hubby’s hobby is delving into our past, both his and mine and the revelations have been fascinating. A sweet photo of your cousin's son Jeff and his wife Lauren. Very exciting for them and for you. We also have a new member of our family on the way. My sister-in-law’s oldest son and his wife are due any day. Lovely post Jeanie and very much enjoyed. Your family must be thrilled that you have done this.
It is fun finding out about our ancestors and who we are related to, isn't it? The HH's older sister did all sorts of fascinating genealogy. Enjoy the journey.
My aunt in Travers City has Mennonite Ancestry on both sides of her birth parents. Her ancestors came from the Alsasc Loraine region of France/Germany to S.Ontario, then Erie Co. Ny.
We just discovered our 4xgreat grandfather, who was M.I.A. from records for a good long while was in fact in the Penal Colony in Australia!
I lost my genealogy mojo after finding my aunts family, but since learning about my 4x, I feel revitalized!
This is a fabulous post. I am fortunate that my grandmother on my mom's side kept an in-depth record of the family history. It is a wonder to see all that our family did to get us to now. Yes, get going on that book.
Jeanie, you have put forth a lot of work and it is amazing the discoveries you have made. I know you will be thrilled to get it printed. This is a fabulous gift to your family!
The kids' table was always the most fun place at holiday dinner!
I love your book idea! I think I need to collaborate with my sister, the family genealogist, to write the story for the young ones and even younger ones. All those dates and names don't mean much until you bring the people alive. Thanks for a great idea!!
I hope you do have it ready by Christmas. What a gift that would be to give your relatives this year! And, for the record, I've enjoyed hearing about some of the things you've learned while exploring your family history.
I love reading about family histories. Are you in DAR? I have several family members who've worked on our history, and I've been fortunate because I have a couple of friends in my chapter who are genealogists, and they did a deep dive into a few of my Patriots. One emigrated from Switzerland in the early 1700s like yours!
Wow.
As I think you suggest, Jeanie, we're all related anyway. Awful thought in some cases. I worked out that by sometime in the 14th (or was it 15th?) century, I had more ancestors than the population of Britain at the time. I get messages via the website from people who say that some king or other centuries and centuries ago is their ancestor. Frankly, unless they're royalty they would need to make a leap with one of their relatively recent ancestors (ie when reliable records existed) to an established old family tree. I think it's called a golden link or something. Otherwise, they've been conned. Lincoln wasn't that long ago though - and was a great man!
Just read the rest of your post. What a wonderful project! You're right, I don't think people are generally that interested in their roots until they get to their 20s - or perhaps when they have children. It will be quite expensive to get a book like that published, especially if it has lots of illustrations. It might be worth considering self-publishing through Amazon (which costs nothing) and then just buying however many author copies you need, whenever you want.
This is Lisa - google won’t let me log in! This book is going to be such a treasure to your family members. The younger ones will appreciate it when they are older, I’m sure! I know my dad’s siblings have done more research as they have gotten older. We are pulled to our roots as we age, I think!!
Goodness me, what an amazing project this has been.
I wish you well with the final stages.
All the best Jan
I love looking at your finding and photos in your research. I wish I had become interested in my family background sooner. Most of my relatives are gone that I have questions for. Abraham Lincoln? Impressive.
I have no doubt your children and descendants will appreciate all this work. My dad dug back into our geneaology but it's all on Ancestry, not in an easily accessible book form. (I should transcribe it!)
How special that you are tracing your ancestry, Jeanie. I've always wanted to do that, but it's so time consuming. The girls, however, did the ancestry test, and they know what heritage they are. It's so interesting, isn't it? You have shared some wonderful old pictures with us. That's great that your mom talked with you about her family and youth. I had an aunt who remembered so many things, and she would talk with me as well. You have learned so many facts about your ancestors. Good for you, Jeanie!
~Sheri
I love family history. You have accomplished a great work for those who come after you. Congratulations.
Hello Jeanie:=)
I know so little about my family's history, and it's a shame, although I do know I have some American cousins.I'm impressed that you are related to Abraham Lincoln, and happy for you that you had all those long talks with your mother and other relatives which enabled you to have some sound ground work with which to work from. Your Great Grandmother looks very stylish, and I love the photos of the rest of your mothers and fathers ancestors.It will be a lovely Christmas gift for your family to know about their ancestry. You are amazing to have got so far and delved so deep. Good luck finishing your story and publishing your book.
All the best.
All your hard work and effort will be cherished.
I enjoyed seeing all the family photos.
Bravo and all the best, Jeanie.
Hugs and blessings.
What a fabulous project Jeanie! Your relatives are going to be very appreciative to receive this information and book~ one of my cousins did our family tree a few years ago and traced our ancestry back to Europe in the 1600s. She had a diagram made and I have it framed and hanging in my home, it's such fun to look at. My relatives came over on the Mayflower and I have one that was hung in Salem Mass accused of being a witch!
Jenna
So fascinating. I was watching the show 1883 (Yellowstone spin off) and the hardship those folk faced journeying the Oregon trail and I wondered and doubted that their great great great great great grandchild understood or could ever comprehend the sacrifices made for them to be here living the life they are living.
You are paying a great homage to your ancestors and I am sure they would have appreciated it.
I had to look at it again but I looked it up once, what is once, twice, etc removed mean? I have the hardest of times keeping up with that. Old Abe, nice..
What a wonderful project and thanks, Jeanie, for sharing your family history. Inhave done some genealogy but nothing to the extent as yours. Everyone who might be able to provide family background is no longer available. Unfortunately, a handful of cousins seem to have zero interest. I still have all my notebooks and your post has made me think about reviving my own family history project.
You can't beat Lincoln to have on the family tree:)
Hugs
Wow, Jeanie, that is a huge work to be near to completion! Your description of some details conveys how much fun it can be. I am repeatedly impressed by the hidden stories just on two pages of a genealogy book my great aunt put together fifty years ago, and I passed on all the related papers related to my husband's family that had been collected by his mother and aunt.
But just yesterday I discovered (again after five years) a shoebox containing steerage documents, passports, receipts and letters of my father's family, from the 19th century onward, in several leather sleeves and wallets. I could muse over those for hours...
WOW what fantastic work you have done Jeannie, well done, it's a great achievement. A cousin of mine did a lot of research into our shared grandparents, it is lovely reading about their lives, although I did learn a lot from my mother.
Wow, Jeanie! What an amazing project. Your book will be well appreciated by the family. My mother-in-law wrote a similar account and gifted a book to all of the children and the grandchildren. The grands have read parts of it, the more recent histories, and treasure the book, and will treasure it even moreso in the future. We, the children, have read all of it and I refer to the book for matters of discussion about family history.
I am currently writing a story, more a memoir than an historical document, of our family of five's years spent living in South America. It's easy to go down those rabbit trails you've described.
I am of Mennonite roots; both my grandfathers came to Canada from Ukraine in the early 1900s, and my grandmothers' families came in the 1870s. Maybe we're related!
Always interesting to see the ancestry of people. I have my Mother’s entire family tree. Someone ( a family relative who I have no idea who they are) did all the hard work. I am impressed with all your hard work! Wow!
I am also impressed with the details. I do not have that… but I do have the family tree. I also don’t have Lincoln in my family tree… my relatives both my Mother and Father’s side are Slovak, Czech, and perhaps Polish.
Way to be awesome… Jeanie! And someone in your family was a Ham Radio person as I saw those radios from that Christmas Kids photo.
Happy Spring my friend!
I did pass your idea onwards to my sister and she's on board with the idea of a family book, hurray! She's done so much work on our family tree that it deserves a wider audience. I'm one of the oldest cousins, so I have a lot of memories that the younger ones don't. I think we'll make a good team!
Oh, wow. How does it feel to be related to someone so famous and relevant? This makes me curious of my ancestors.
I know how much you've wanted to edit and finish your book so this is wonderful for you. Hopefully you will have these in the post soon. I have a thick report, I won't call it a book, that my cousins researched on our family on both sides. Irish and English ancestors. I know you are looking forward to seeing the new addition to your family.
Happy spring Jeanie........
Five years and soon you will have a finished project and hopefully a book in your hands. This is such a great accomplishments and I think it takes a lot of patience and energy to get to that point. It is fascinating that this journey let you to learn so many different things and I love how you follow all these leads. I think you can be really proud when this will be finished. I do think that eventually the younger generations will be interested in it, and for them it is great to know that "Aunt Jeanie" wrote this wonderful book and did the search for them.
AND a cousin to Stephen Colbert. How fun:) Have you heard him sing Meatball Ron?
yes indeed family history is fascinating - at least to the oldies, not so much to the young ones. I guess lots of us are related to lots of other folk that we don't even know about :)
How amazing that you learned so much, just starting with the people that could be remembered, and then moved on. You will have one awesome book.
I am writing up the stories told to me by my parents and grandparents over 100 years. also combining the stories that relate what my generation did, it should be an interesting read. If I ever get it in one organized form, that is.
That's awesome that you've learned about so many things along the way. Some of the younger generations might be interested in some of the history. I probably don't classify as "younger" anymore, but if someone in my family did something like that, I'd be very interested in my grandparents' generation and somewhat interested in my great-grandparents' generation. I think it's because I knew them.
My grandfather was in the Air Force and didn't talk much about it until I was in my 20s. As far as I know, I'm the only grandchild (there are only three of us and I'm the oldest) that he told much of anything about it. It was on a long car ride, so I didn't get to write things down. That's something I wish I knew more about. It's only been the last few years that I've found out how big of a deal some of what he did was. I have some coworkers who are retired from the Air Force, and I shared some pictures with them and actually learned a lot about what my grandfather had done that way.
Anyway, all of that to say that you never know who may find at least part of what you've done to be really interesting.
Good luck with your final proofing and editing!
You come from good stock,Jeanie! Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Colbert - wow! I've been fascinated with genealogy,but have had little luck, since family names were different back in the old country. I assume you submitted a DNA sample to uncover these relatives? What a treasure your book will be for generations to follow! Eventually those younger ones will be interested!
My ancestor was a gardener who lost his job for stealing.
Adam.
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