Hm,I was born in 1961 because my dad spent 12 years working for Uncle Sam overseas and much of the time away from my mom, my dad was born in 1923, his father was born in 1891, my great grandfather was born in 1860, my gg grandfather was born in 1835 and my ggg grandfather was born in 1793 or 4 [the paperwork is sort of hazy and we are going by the baptismal date of Jan 12th, though from what I understand the time between birth and baptism wasn’t firm so there is some quibble. [the geneological crap for both sides of my family actually run much further into the past documented in a couple cases back into the 1200s, frex my maternal grandfather was still alive and kicking in 1964 and could have remarried and had more kids at any point until he died in a car accident in 65. He was in WW1 and got gassed which affected his sight in one eye from the chemical burns. He was born in 1898.]
Neglected to mention upthread that my parents are seventh cousins. (Did a thread about that years ago when I first found out.)
By “great” I mean a several times great, which shorthand way of speaking I have often heard in genealogy. For example it was (IIRC) my 11 greats grandmother who accused the witch.
I do that too. It rarely adds anything to a story to sit through a precise enumeration of how many greats the grandparent actually was. I didn’t think it was an unusual thing to do, or that anyone really cared whether I’m talking about my great-grandmother, my great-great-great grandmother or my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother (unless that detail is essential to the story).
I’m too literal. If I write it, I just write g as many times as needed. If I’m talking, I can say “a couple of greats” or something. If I see great-grandmother written, I think it’s the mother of one of your grandparents.
My mother found a land deed where an ancestor of mine bought land from William Penn.
If you have Quakers in your family, it is very easy to trace your family tree. The Quakers would excommunicate you for the slightest offence. After you showed repentance, they would take you back. Both events would be recorded. (You may have to do a lot of searching to find birth or marriage records, but the disciplinary records were kept meticulously!)
Another pattern my mother found:
A man gets married.
Every two years, just like clockwork, his wife has a child.
After half a dozen children, the wife dies. (Usually in childbirth.)
The man re-marries.
Every two years, the wife has a child, etc.
After three or four wives, the man dies.
The last wife inherits all of his property.
The children of the earlier wives move west, to start over on the frontier.
And that, kids, is How The West Was Won. “Manifest Destiny” had nothing to do with it. It was because of Wicked Stepmothers!
I was a little stunned to find the roster showing that my grandfather spent almost his entire Marine career in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for “lewd behavior.” Unfortunately, I found the roster during a family reunion, searching through Ancestry.com with several of his children and grandchildren looking over my shoulder.
I found out that my ancestors were New England sea captains. Many of them had interesting and mysterious lives, including one who just disappeared into India. However, the coolest part is that one of them had a ship run aground on a coral reef, stranding him and his men on a Pacific Island (he was only in his late 20s) and you can read his diary about how he ended up rescuing his men, made meta-references to Robinson Crusoe and spent his time reading Jane Eyre here. You can also go stay at their house in Massachusetts here.