tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62747669062568502622024-03-16T05:12:53.209-04:00Journey into GenealogyDelving into one of my greatest hobbies and America's favorite pastimesCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-90546118056908606112018-05-27T21:20:00.001-04:002018-05-28T00:16:51.064-04:00A Moore Sister Found, Thanks to DNAWhen you embark on the journey of family history, you never know what you might find. It's one of the joys of researching in the first place. If it was easy, all the pieces to the puzzle were assembled already, or everything went as you'd expect, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.<br />
<br />
One ancestor who has taken me through all kinds of twists and turns is <b>Mary 'Dolly' Moore</b>. Technically she's my 4th great-grandmother, so it's pretty far back, but ever since I first learned she was born in Canada in 1820, I wondered about her roots. Those were the early days in Ontario, and many of the families there at that time had Colonial U.S. roots. I was curious where her roots might lead.<br />
<br />
She married at just 16 years old. In fact, she was baptized and married on the same day, Nov. 15, 1836, as she grew up Protestant and was marrying a Catholic, Arthur Hart.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Nhdyv2Zvjw/WwtVT92oq-I/AAAAAAAFRgw/AvtC0EQ71IsXp_i3MjzCue72N4R-4xxgwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-05-27%2Bat%2B9.02.50%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="179" data-original-width="1044" height="67" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Nhdyv2Zvjw/WwtVT92oq-I/AAAAAAAFRgw/AvtC0EQ71IsXp_i3MjzCue72N4R-4xxgwCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-05-27%2Bat%2B9.02.50%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <a href="https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9TPM-LZW?i=85&cc=1927566&cat=243214">baptism record</a> for Mary Moore at St. Mary's RC Cathedral in Kingston, dated Nov. 15, 1836, noted she was "born of Protestant parents."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It took me several years to find her parents. After many hours of fruitless research efforts, I'll never forget the day my cousin in Toronto, Killeen Farrell, wrote the words, "Sure looks like her parents," in an email. She was referring to a William and Susannah Moore living with Arthur and Dolly on one of the Canadian censuses. Indeed, Dolly had even named one of her sons William and one of her daughters Susannah. I pursued those names for a while before I found a notice for <i>their</i> marriage in the Kingston Chronicle in Oct. 1819, William Moore and Susannah Friel. <br />
<br />
Once I had Susannah's maiden name, the real fun began. I linked her to Loyalist families, the Friels and Lakes. The Loyalist families are well documented, and I soon found her parents' names, a War of 1812 vet Peter Friel and Mary Lake. Mary's family quickly went back a generation further, Christopher and Susannah Lake who came to the Kingston area from eastern New York State.<br />
<br />
For a while, I had what appeared to be all the right documents linking these families together. But in 2015/2016, I had the proof. DNA technology had advanced well enough, and I had enough relatives test, and we were matching the Friels and Lakes just as we should. It was a match.<br />
<br />
<b>Well, today, on May 27, 2018, the journey took a new twist. Just when I thought I had the family decently documented, today I learned of a new sibling for Mary Moore - a sister - <i>Julie Ann Moore</i>.</b><br />
<br />
Many genealogies already on the Internet and primary source documents available online have a <b>Thomas Wiley</b> and <b>Julie Ann</b> living in Storrington Township, Frontenac County, Ontario - where my Mary (Moore) Hart also lived, along with her parents. But no maiden name for Julie Ann.<br />
<br />
Enter <b>AncestryDNA</b>. My Uncle Jim had been matching descendants of a <b>Margaret Wiley</b> born 1848 in Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada for a long time. Of course, I suspected there must be a link on this side of the family because the Harts & Moores were in Kingston at the same time. But over time, and especially recently, the <b>Shared Matches</b> piled up.<br />
<br />
The <b>Shared Matches</b> began crystallizing which branch of the family this link was on. It was absolutely a link through the Moore/Hart families, no question. Ironically, Arthur Hart - Mary Moore's husband - had a sister Elizabeth Hart who married a William Wiley. Easy to suspect that's the connection and that's it. But recently, the Shared Matches on Ancestry were pointing to Mary Moore instead for the link. But how?<br />
<br />
Back to primary documents with that new hint in mind. I quickly found Julie Ann and Thomas Wiley living in Storrington Twp, and learned that they did indeed have a Margaret Wiley in 1848. A match. But still, family trees on Ancestry were not listing a maiden name for Julie Ann.<br />
<br />
Then, I saw that Julie Ann and Thomas had a son named <b>William</b> and a daughter named <b>Susannah</b>. Coincidence?<br />
<br />
If Julie Ann was a Moore, all the pieces would fit together. And born in 1825, per the Canadian census, she would fit right in between the other known children of William Moore and Susannah Friel - Mary in 1820, Ann in 1823, John in 1828, and Daniel in 1831. There is a gap there.<br />
<br />
So at that point, I had plenty of DNA evidence, geographic evidence, and this Julie Ann had a William and Susannah on top of that. <br />
<br />
Then came the clincher. I found a <a href="https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FMJK-D2K">marriage record</a> for Thomas Wiley, a son of Thomas and Julie Ann, on FamilySearch.org. And his mother's maiden name: <b>Julie Ann Moore</b>. It was a match.<br />
<br />
Julie Ann Moore had at least five children with Thomas Wiley - William, Margaret, Nancy, Thomas and Susannah. And the family tree is really growing - William had 12 children of his own, Margaret had two, Nancy had eight, Thomas had seven, and Susannah had 11.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hIYGj2qYzPM/WwtTg-xoBnI/AAAAAAAFRgk/JwIsJvfNjb0yZ3gYrQpXeRca1y2gYfIgACLcBGAs/s1600/2275cb30-a886-47cc-b815-be2f4d040cd2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="656" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hIYGj2qYzPM/WwtTg-xoBnI/AAAAAAAFRgk/JwIsJvfNjb0yZ3gYrQpXeRca1y2gYfIgACLcBGAs/s400/2275cb30-a886-47cc-b815-be2f4d040cd2.jpg" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret (Wiley) Franklin, daughter of Julie Ann (Moore) Wiley. Photo from <a href="https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/47726234/person/360091181220/media/09de5862-da7f-4d50-a47e-7f5a61793568?usePUBJs=true">Cathy Del Vecchio</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Since the 1841 Canadian census did not survive for the Kingston area, and church or civil records were not well kept for that time period, I can't think of any other way I could have confirmed Julie Ann Moore as a sister to my Mary without this DNA evidence.<br />
<br />
What does it all mean? It's more than an exciting addition for a new branch to the family tree. This represents more autosomal DNA links to pursue, as I look for any descendants of Julie Ann (Moore) Wiley to learn about the identity of Julie Ann and Mary's father <b>William Moore</b>. That remains one of my primary goals with that family, because while I have found plenty on the Friels and Lakes, I still don't know William's parents.<br />
<br />
One thing I do know - and where the DNA evidence is leading - William's family likely goes back from Canada to North Carolina or Virginia. And while that may seem a strange or unlikely path, it wasn't back then - Loyalists from those colonies helped to populate Canada after the Revolutionary War. My family is coming up with DNA links to the Moore family of New Kent Co, VA; as well as the Elmore and Melton families of New Kent Co, VA. These families migrated into North Carolina and spread out into Tennessee, Georgia and other southern states. The DNA evidence is mounting, and it's only a matter of time until I put his family tree together.<br />
<br />
Among the Shared Matches for one descendant of Julie Ann (Moore) Wiley and my family on AncestryDNA? Descendants of the Craddock family of Alabama, and they trace back to the Elmore family of New Kent Co, VA. So now things are really getting interesting.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-90719945758932096672014-04-21T23:41:00.001-04:002014-04-21T23:55:51.388-04:00MILESTONE: 50,000 IndividualsOn Monday, April 21, 2014, my genealogical research hit a new milestone.<br />
<br />
Since starting researching my family tree in October 1998 with seven people (me, my parents, my grandparents), some 15 years ago, my genealogy file has grown considerably. Now it has reached <b>50,000 individuals</b>.<br />
<br />
To be fair, not every one of the 50,000 is a blood relative of mine. Some are cousins of my cousins, and families of those who married into my family. But everyone connects in some way, which is pretty amazing in itself. I'd estimate 35,000+ people in the file are blood related.<br />
<br />
Over the years, as I've accumulated stories, notes, and photographs, the file size has grown considerably. It's grown so much that when I try to load my file, I've found that most family tree programs freeze up or take a really long time.<br />
<br />
That delay in load time led me to a 100% online-only tree which lives on Ancestry.com. <a href="http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/47726234/recent">That tree is here</a>. I trust their servers and just in case I back up now and then. (In fact, probably due for a backup tonight given the milestone.)<br />
<br />
Updating via the Web is easy, and it allows me to do research in another tab or window while updating the file on the fly. In the past 15 years, that's one of the things that's changed the most -- so many genealogical records are now online. And so many are available for free too, which is great. <a href="http://familysearch.org/">FamilySearch.org</a> is one of the great free sites out there, with tons of records available.<br />
<br />
So who was the 50,000th individual? I didn't pay close enough attention, and the file is at 50,214 now, but in recent weeks I've been researching my Alsace/Lorraine ancestors and their families. So many of the French records are online now, so I've been going through them.<br />
<br />
One family I inputted into the tree yesterday: the Dannenhoffers of Brooklyn, NY. Dannenhoffer is my gr-gr-gr-grandmother's maiden name. I figured the Dannenhoffers in Brooklyn were related, I knew about them before, and now I've made the connection.<br />
<br />
John Louis Dannenhoffer (1871-1910) and his brother Nicholas Ludwig Dannenhoffer (1872-1916), both born in Brooklyn, founded a glassworks operation, the Williamsburg Flint Glass Works. Glassmaking was a trade the Dannenhoffer family has been involved with since the old country in France, and some of the families I'm a descendant of have been in the trade for hundreds of years. John and Nicholas are pictured below, and they're my 5th cousins, 3 times removed; both children of Jean Dannenhoffer of Rahling, Moselle, France.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8p_W55l-rps/U1XkmukZfpI/AAAAAAABdzw/OApe_Lktb84/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-21+at+11.31.12+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8p_W55l-rps/U1XkmukZfpI/AAAAAAABdzw/OApe_Lktb84/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-21+at+11.31.12+PM.png" height="320" width="273" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b>John L. Dannenhoffer</b></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7sALcEM4s2M/U1Xkmlg7HqI/AAAAAAABdzs/KRqQ33LicvQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-21+at+11.31.15+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7sALcEM4s2M/U1Xkmlg7HqI/AAAAAAABdzs/KRqQ33LicvQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-21+at+11.31.15+PM.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Nicholas L. Dannenhoffer</div>
<br />Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-13685952721688002312013-02-11T23:52:00.002-05:002013-02-12T00:01:04.177-05:00My 31st Great-Grandmother, St. Adela<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
In November 2008, <a href="http://blog3.craigkanalley.com/2008/11/my-link-to-royalty.html">I confirmed that I was a descendant of royalty</a>. To be honest, just about everyone goes back to royal lineage, if you go back far enough. (It's a numbers game. We have an astronomical number of ancestors who lived, say, 1,000 years ago.) But finding confirmation is another matter. So as a genealogy enthusiast, I was delighted to make that discovery.<br />
<br />
Tonight, four years and a few months later, I was browsing the Internet to learn more about these royal lines, and I discovered that one of my ancestors was a Catholic saint.<br />
<br />
St. Adela (princess of France, countess of Flanders) was born about 1010 in France, the daughter of Robert II, King of the Franks, and Constance Arles de Toulouse.<br />
<br />
In 1027 she married her first husband Richard III, Duke of Normandy. He died shortly after and they had no children. She married again in 1028 Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, and they had my ancestor Robert I of Flanders.<br />
<br />
After her second husband died, she became a nun. She helped establish Catholic educational institutions and monasteries/abbeys, and she died in Mesen, Belgium in 1079 where she is buried.<br />
<br />
There's an interesting piece about her <a href="http://bit.ly/14OYZfE">here</a>, written by someone who visited Mesen, Belgium. <a href="http://bit.ly/VQf3gS">According to her Wikipedia page</a>, she was known most commonly as Adèle of France, Adela of Flanders, Adela the Holy or Adela of Messines. Other forms of her name are Adélaïde, Adelheid, Aelis and Alix. <a href="http://bit.ly/14OZV3G">Here's her Catholic Saint page</a>.<br />
<br />
My relationship to St. Adela can be seen in the chart below. Click to enlarge.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aD5NvcB5d_8/URnI5P-MJcI/AAAAAAAAhiQ/j1xZCvwnUIg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-02-11+at+10.45.32+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="254" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aD5NvcB5d_8/URnI5P-MJcI/AAAAAAAAhiQ/j1xZCvwnUIg/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-02-11+at+10.45.32+PM.png" width="320" /></a>Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-30009388047831828272012-08-25T19:22:00.002-04:002012-08-25T20:17:37.175-04:00Wallace Family Origin Found!Today, after many years of searching, I finally learned the origin of my Wallace family prior to Canada: <b>Parish of Feakle, County Clare, Ireland.</b><br />
<br />
It's not just any find. This one has special significance to me because my great-grandpa's name was Wallace Kanalley - his first name was named after the family. (<a href="http://craigkanalley.com/genealogy/families/kanalley1917.jpg">Here's a picture of him</a> with his mother Mary Wallace and sisters about 1917.)<br />
<br />
I also personally inherited the Wallace "family blanket," which used to be in the possession of Wallace's sister, my great-grandaunt, Marlene. It's a Scottish blanket made of wool, decorated in the Wallace clan's colors (they were Scotch-Irish).<br />
<br />
On top of all this, I'm working on a novel right now, inspired by a true story - that of Wallace Kanalley's parents, Jim Kanalley & Mary Wallace. More to come later on that.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5KnhDslrS4/UDll5VwupCI/AAAAAAAAURk/3Ye1sJfrvfU/s1600/501141_151073fjpf2c74448yt1p2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5KnhDslrS4/UDll5VwupCI/AAAAAAAAURk/3Ye1sJfrvfU/s320/501141_151073fjpf2c74448yt1p2.jpeg" width="219" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My ancestor Andrew Martin Wallace, born in 1856<br />
in Canada, whose father Daniel was born in Ireland.<br />
I just learned his grandparents John & Catherine<br />
Wallace also came to Canada, dying in the 1850s.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So learning of the Wallace's origin is really exciting. How did I make this discovery?<br />
<br />
I've been going through the early Cobourg, Ontario, Roman Catholic church records (<a href="https://familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffamilysearch.org%2Frecords%2Fwaypoint%2F13974976%3Fcc%3D1927566">digitized here</a>), literally page-by-page for clues on the Wallace family.<br />
<br />
I found this burial record today listed under Nov. 26, 1857: John Wallace interred, from the Parish of Feakle, County Clare, age 78 years.<br />
<br />
It was what I needed after finding just days earlier this burial record under July 16, 1854: Catherine Wallace, wife of John Wallace, age 72 years.<br />
<br />
They were who I was looking for after finding the death certificate of Martin Wallace years ago (he was my 4th great-grandpa Daniel Wallace's brother). It lists the parents as John Wallace and Catherine Cain.<br />
<br />
So I knew their names were John and Catherine. I did NOT know if they made the trip to Cobourg with their kids (and 1851 census for Cobourg was destroyed in a fire), but I assumed so since there was at least Daniel, Martin and their sisters Catherine and Mary who made the voyage in the early 1840s.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gzGLx1bzQuo/UDlp9OhI-9I/AAAAAAAAUR0/o_sCQ_wS2kk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-08-25+at+8.15.59+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gzGLx1bzQuo/UDlp9OhI-9I/AAAAAAAAUR0/o_sCQ_wS2kk/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-08-25+at+8.15.59+PM.png" width="229" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martin Wallace, born in Ireland, son of<br />
John Wallace and Catherine Keane, and uncle<br />
of my ancestor Andrew Martin Wallace.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Now I know for sure they did.<br />
<br />
Further research of the Cobourg records shows Wallaces witnessing "Kane" and "Keane" births, marriages, etc., so I am confident Catherine's maiden name was actually KEANE as it is spelled in Ireland.<br />
<br />
Solidifying the connection, I found a John Wallace in the 1827 Tithe Applotment Books in County Clare listed in Parish of Feakle <a href="http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/tithe_applot/feakle_tab.htm">here</a>. He's the only Wallace in the parish, but there are several Keane's.<br />
<br />
Conveniently, Feakle parish in Co. Clare is located between Co. Galway and Co. Limerick, both counties I will be visiting when I go to Ireland this fall. I can surely drive through it.<br />
<br />
Prior to this discovery, I didn't even know what part of Ireland the Wallace's were from - not a clue! Not only did this give a county but a parish. And the Tithe Books list a townland for John Wallace too, within Parish Feakle: Kilanena. There's also an Edward Keane and William Keane in the same townland.<br />
<br />
It's worth noting that since Wallace is such an uncommon name in Co. Clare, it's reasonable to assume John Wallace came to Co. Clare from elsewhere. And since I know the family was Scotch-Irish in origin, he surely had roots in Northern Ireland, where the Wallace name is prevalent, and further back in Scotland.<br />
<br />
<b>Related:</b> I just went to Cobourg, Ontario, where John Wallace and Catherine Keane died in the 1850s, last weekend. It was my first stay there. Photos <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.664391502589.2081216.64800350&type=1">here</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.664527290469.2081253.64800350&type=1">here</a>.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-19133150678279475682012-08-11T16:39:00.002-04:002012-08-11T17:25:43.790-04:00My Random Connections To Paul Ryan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q3m44HaZe0I/UCbA7IT7jSI/AAAAAAAAUQU/7UhhxnOie2E/s1600/220px-Paul_Ryan%252C_official_portrait%252C_112th_Congress.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="308" width="220" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q3m44HaZe0I/UCbA7IT7jSI/AAAAAAAAUQU/7UhhxnOie2E/s320/220px-Paul_Ryan%252C_official_portrait%252C_112th_Congress.jpeg" /></a></div><br />
This morning, Mitt Romney <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/11/mitt-romney-running-mate_n_1766813.html">announced</a> Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) as his running mate for the 2012 U.S. Presidential election.<br />
<br />
As I did four years ago when <a href="http://blog3.craigkanalley.com/2008/08/genealogy-of-sen-joe-biden.html">Joe Biden</a> and <a href="http://blog3.craigkanalley.com/2008/08/genealogy-of-gov-sarah-palin.html">Sarah Palin</a> were announced as VP nominees, I immediately began looking through Paul Ryan's family history to see if I might find any interesting links to my own family.<br />
<br />
He is Irish and German, as am I, and I have plenty of cousins in the Midwest, so I was very excited to commence this search when I learned he was the nominee.<br />
<br />
If Ryan and I are blood related, I determined it's most likely through his mother's side. His mom's maiden name is Hutter, and her ancestors are from Bavaria, Germany, where I have plenty of roots. Sure enough, I'm a descendant of a Bavarian-born woman named Cecelia HÜTHER (same family, more German spelling) - in fact, so is Nicolas Cage - <a href="http://blog3.craigkanalley.com/2009/10/how-im-related-to-nicolas-cage.html">she and her husband Heinrich Ludwig Vogelgesang are our most recent common ancestors</a>.<br />
<br />
The only problem is Ryan's Hutter roots haven't been nailed down to a particular town of origin in Bavaria, and therefore we can't trace his Hutter ancestry back beyond the 1800s, at least for now. (I will say it's likely we are connected though through the HUTTER/HUETHER family if you go back far enough. How far, not sure, but it's not the most common German name.)<br />
<br />
BUT, I found a REALLY interesting connection nonetheless.<br />
<br />
Paul Ryan was born and raised (and still lives in) Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin. Many of his Irish roots are in Rock County. Would you believe I have an Ireland-born ancestor myself who once lived in Rock County, Wisconsin?<br />
<br />
My 5th great-grandfather <a href="http://www.craigkanalley.com/genealogy/webcards/wc01_074.htm">Michael Tracy</a> can be found in Rock County, Wisconsin in 1860 per the U.S. Census. In fact, he's believed to have died in Rock County sometime after 1873 but I haven't found the death record yet.<br />
<br />
Born about 1802 in Ireland, Tracy immigrated to Canada in the late 1820s, had my 4th great-grandmother Mary Jane Tracy about 1832 in Hamilton Twp (Cobourg), Ontario. When Mary Jane's mother died in 1837, he remarried in 1841 to a <a href="http://www.craigkanalley.com/genealogy/webcards/wc01_367.htm">Catherine Fitzpatrick</a>. They went on to have 10 kids.<br />
<br />
Michael immigrated to the United States with his second wife in about 1853, settling in -- you guessed it, Rock County, Wisconsin. He had a brother John Tracy who was already there.<br />
<br />
My ancestor Michael Tracy and his brother John had children who lived in Janesville, and MANY descendants in Janesville. As far as I can tell, Paul Ryan was not one of them, but he was likely neighbors/friends/etc. with many of my own blood relatives, also of Irish descent, Tracy descendants.<br />
<br />
Another interesting tidbit: Paul Ryan is HIMSELF a descendant of the Fitzpatrick family. His great-grandfather Patrick W. Ryan was born in 1862 in Wisconsin to Irish immigrants Patrick Ryan and Margaret Fitzpatrick. She was born in 1840, and there's no indication she's related to Catherine Fitzpatrick Tracy. But you never know.<br />
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[Also, as a Buffalo Bills fan, I have to say, when Paul Ryan's great-great-grandparents got married, the newspaper marriage notice would have said RYAN-FITZPATRICK. Kind of cool.]Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-74810975936968321292012-06-09T18:42:00.002-04:002012-06-10T18:48:03.059-04:00What I Learned From A DNA Test<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LwQNJtlnJbk/T9PStJnlFsI/AAAAAAAATs0/OQx5qo8RTxg/s1600/genealogy.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="181" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LwQNJtlnJbk/T9PStJnlFsI/AAAAAAAATs0/OQx5qo8RTxg/s320/genealogy.gif" /></a><br />
I've been researching my family tree since 1998, and I've long been curious about DNA as a way to learn more about your roots. The technology has come a long way in the last decade, and it's become more affordable too. Finally, I went ahead and ordered a Y-DNA test (for my paternal line).<br />
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Last night, at 1:30 a.m., the results popped in my email inbox from the <a href="http://familytreedna.com">FamilyTreeDNA</a> lab in Houston, Texas!<br />
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When I logged in to see the results, 29 "matches" popped up - these are living people today who I share a common direct male ancestor with in about the last 1,000 years. (To be clear, the Y-DNA only passes father to son, so this traces my father's father's father, etc., and same for them.) These matches live in Ireland, England, Scotland, South Africa, the United States and presumably elsewhere (some don't list a location).<br />
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<b>2 CLOSE MATCHES!</b><br />
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Of course, for any matches to come up, I need to have living blood relatives through the male line who took DNA tests themselves. And I'm so grateful and excited that two people I'm about to address did...<br />
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I had *two* close matches, genealogically-speaking, and the rest were more distant. The surnames to those closest matches? A Kennelly and a MacNeely, variations of my own last name. They both live in Ireland!<br />
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My relationship to the MacNeely, who I learned is about 28 years old today and lives in County Mayo, Ireland, goes back to a common male ancestor with the surname Kennelly (sometimes Mac an Fhaili in Ireland), MacNally, or McAnally who lived around the 1600s.<br />
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My relationship to the Kennelly is closer. He lives in Ireland today in County Cork near the border with County Limerick (where my great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Kennelly was born -- he immigrated to Canada during the Potato Famine). We seem to both descend of a Kennelly born in the 1700s.<br />
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What makes the connection to these two men so interesting, most Irish genealogical records burned in fires in Dublin and don't exist today. Without them, it's hard to trace Irish roots any further back than the 1800s. But nonetheless I've made links with long lost cousins, prior to that time so many Irish researchers hit a brick wall.<br />
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I've written emails to both of them and hope to hear back!<br />
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<b>MORE LINKS + THE 'ADAMS' FAMILY</b><br />
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The rest of the matches are more distant, though interestingly I found both a McKee and a McGee, who I have a common male ancestor with in Ireland who lived around the 1400s. Also a McSorley, a Koster, a Walker, a Crauford and a Hannon who I go back to about the same period, perhaps more likely the 1300s.<br />
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But what I found most interesting of the distant matches -- the ADAMS connection. Three of my matches were males with the last name ADAMS. There was also one female whose maiden name was ADAMS and one Smith who says he traces back (father's father's father, etc.) to a male Adams. There was a second Smith who I suspect could also go back to an Adams.<br />
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In all, that's five Adams descendants, possibly six, in my 29 matches. And sure enough, I learned the DNA subgroup / family group of former U.S. presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams matches my own.<br />
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John Adams and John Quincy Adams trace their Adams roots back to southwestern England, right across the water from southern Ireland, where my Kennelly roots lie.<br />
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My matches showed that my genealogical relationship to the Adams family lies in a common male ancestor way back, around the 1100s or 1200s. It's my best guess that an Adams, or a member of the same family in which male relatives took Adams as a surname, migrated from southwestern England to Ireland around that time period or shortly after, and that my Kennellys descend from this family.<br />
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It's also possible, however, that the connection goes back to before surnames were used at all, as they were just sprouting up around that time.<br />
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Either way, there is no doubt that I am blood related to the Adams family if you trace back through Y-DNA (my father's father's father, etc., and theirs). Eventually, we hit a single male figure who we both come from. And that's pretty cool.<br />
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<b>ANCIENT HISTORY</b><br />
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I did some more research on my Y-DNA haplogroup, R1b1a2, and if you keep going back (through my father's father's father, etc.), my direct male ancestors were Celtics. They seem to have lived in Western Europe at the time of Jesus Christ and the Ancient Romans and Ancient Greeks likely saw them as uncivilized barbarians. They were likely tribal people in B.C. times, nomadic herders, moving around as famines and droughts hit.<br />
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Migration patterns show that my DNA group likely originated in western Asia, in the Middle East or Black Sea region (modern day Turkey), living there 20,000 and 30,000 years ago. There are relatives with similar DNA going thousands of years back in what is now Iran, India, Syria, Israel and Turkey. This family group also branched off into Africa, where the Y-DNA is alive and well in Central Africa. One branch ended up in Egypt specifically, and the Egyptian Pharaoh King Tut belongs to the same haplogroup as I.<br />
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After the Ice Age around 10,000 B.C., the larger haplogroup I come from R1b is believed to have brought agriculture to Europe from western Asia. It ended up becoming one of the most popular family groups in Europe, with some 50% of Western Europeans and Americans tracing back to them and 90% of those in Ireland.<br />
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My more specific subgroup R1b1a2a1a1b4 seems to have lived in southern Ireland, northwestern Ireland, and southwestern England in the last 1,000 years or so.<br />
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<b>WHAT'S NEXT?</b><br />
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I was so excited by these results that I upgraded my account to trace my maternal line too. I also put in a "Family Finder" request so it gives me a rough overall breakdown of my genealogical DNA (what percentage I am Western European, what percentage other origins, etc.).<br />
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My DNA is already at the lab, so now I just have to wait another month or so, and I'm sure to find more interesting things.<br />
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Until then, I hope to hear back from my Kennelly and McNeely cousins overseas, who I emailed as I said earlier. I may contact some of these more distant relatives as well.<br />
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And later on, in November, I'm going to Ireland for the first time ever. I hope to track down Mr. Kennelly, Mr. MacNeely or at least more of my roots based on the new evidence I've uncovered. The power of DNA… it's really something.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-49302153418724466112011-11-13T23:15:00.011-05:002011-11-13T23:40:09.144-05:00A Connection To Football HistoryToday, appropriately on a Sunday during the NFL season, I learned that a distant relative of mine played in the first game in NFL history.<br />
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Not only did he play in the game, George "Hobby" Kinderdine kicked the first extra point in NFL history and his team, the Dayton Triangles, defeated the Columbus Panhandles 14-0. The date was Oct. 3, 1920.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-St63SZ0b8nU/TsCY_DvykxI/AAAAAAAAF80/Ai2KlCizOPk/s1600/georgekinderdine.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="210" width="205" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-St63SZ0b8nU/TsCY_DvykxI/AAAAAAAAF80/Ai2KlCizOPk/s320/georgekinderdine.jpeg" /></a></div><br />
<b>(Scroll down for relationship chart)</b><br />
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Kinderdine played center/guard in addition to kicker for 10 seasons for Dayton from 1920-1929. According to <a href="http://www.daytonareasportshistory.com/football/FootballSignificantFiguresDaytonAreaSportsHistory.htm">Dayton Area Sports History</a>, he "earned a reputation of being the greatest center of that era" with "remarkable strength and athletic ability, supplemented with an uncanny instinct." Kinderdine played with NFL Hall of Famers and All-Americans, and at times for Jim Thorpe's Canton Bulldogs when Dayton didn't have a game scheduled.<br />
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Kinderdine passed on his love for football to his grandson Jack Kinderdine, who went on to play at Dartmouth, setting three Ivy League passing records his senior year and earning Associated Press All-American honors.<br />
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My relationship to the Kinderdine clan comes through George's mother, Ida Grundish, born 1872 in Ohio. My maternal grandmother was Lois Grundtisch. The two trace their lineage back to twin brothers, Johann Nicolaus Grundtisch and Johann Adam Grundtisch, born June 26, 1736 in Pörrbach, Bavaria, Germany, sons of Swiss-born Adam Grundisch.<br />
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(Note: In terms of the spelling differences, these aren't typos. The name was spelled Grundtisch in Germany, Grundisch in Switzerland, and both Grundish and Grundtisch in the USA.)<br />
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<b>Here's the exact relationship. LOOK:</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://craigkanalley.com/genealogy/chartsreps/george_kinderdine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="800" width="600" src="http://craigkanalley.com/genealogy/chartsreps/george_kinderdine.jpg" /></a></div><br />
I've posted charts for other prominent distant relatives of mine, including Johnny Depp and Nicholas Cage, <a href="http://craigkanalley.com/genealogy/notablekin.html">here</a>.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-63128697344572343012011-02-28T01:16:00.003-05:002011-02-28T01:27:25.416-05:00My Relationship To Prince WilliamToday I saw <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King's_Speech">"The King's Speech,"</a> just a few hours before it won the big Oscar tonight for Best Picture.<br />
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It was fantastic, and as a genealogy enthusiast, it immediately sent me to Wikipedia when I walked out of the movie theatre to figure out the relationships of the characters to Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal Family.<br />
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When I found out the film focused on Queen Elizabeth II's parents, George VI and Elizabeth I, my interest peaked. These, of course, are the great-grandparents of Prince William. And what a speech his great-grandfather gave. Such a moving sequence in the film.<br />
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It also reminded me of my own connection to royalty -- in November 2008 (a decade after starting to research my family history), I found the definitive link <a href="http://blog3.craigkanalley.com/2008/11/my-link-to-royalty.html">tracing my ancestry back to Charlemagne</a>.<br />
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Of course, the modern-day Royal Family in England descends of Charlemagne, too, and while I had never officially made the link to them, tonight I spent time filling their line into my tree, and I now have a definitive blood link.<br />
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Prince William, engaged to be married to Kate Middleton <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/royal-wedding-date-prince-william-kate-middleton-april-29-westminster-abbey_n_785963.html">in April</a>, is my 32nd cousin, once removed.<br />
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It's an *insane* relationship, when you think about it -- hugely distant. First cousins share grandparents, second cousins share great-grandparents, third cousins share great-great-grandparents, and so on. We are 32nd cousins! That means we share 31-greats-grandparents.<br />
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Our common ancestors include Charlemagne, but our most direct link is to Baldwin of Flanders V and Adelheid, Princess of France, who married in Paris in 1028. Their son Baldwin of Flanders is my ancestor, and their daughter Matilda who married some guy named William the Conqueror (William I, King of England), is Prince William's ancestor.<br />
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And there you have it!Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-47810051404459423382010-02-20T23:44:00.004-05:002010-02-20T23:49:51.719-05:00Remembering Grandpa Kanalley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_g4ylvenaNGM/S4C3DLbd7eI/AAAAAAAABBw/w641CIg2sBU/s1600-h/KenK02.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_g4ylvenaNGM/S4C3DLbd7eI/AAAAAAAABBw/w641CIg2sBU/s320/KenK02.JPG" /></a></div><br />
I never met him, but I've heard so many stories.<br />
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My grandfather Kenneth Wallace Kanalley died of a massive heartattack 30 years ago to the day on Feb. 20, 1980. He was 47 years old.<br />
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He lived his whole life in Buffalo, New York, besides being stationed overseas with the Marines during the Korean War. He loved the outdoors - fishing, hunting, scuba diving. He loved ice hockey, not a surprise considering his Canadian roots (both of his parents grew up in Ontario and all four of his grandparents were born in Canada).<br />
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Back in the day, he played hockey with Pierre Pilote before Pilote went on to an outstanding NHL career and was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame.<br />
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He was a "jokester" and a "prankster," He was a very hardworker, spending time as a maintenance man and steeple jack. He loved his family, three kids, and he loved my grandmother Rita, pictured above on their wedding day.<br />
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Today, 30 years after his death, our family remembers him, and I wanted to pay tribute to his life.<br />
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Today was a special day for my family for another reason. My sister, Melissa Kanalley, scored a career-high 34 points in Pittsburgh today to eclipse 1,000 points for her college basketball career at D'Youville College. It was her second-to-last ever game and she needed 30 points to hit the mark. What a way to do it. We know Grandpa K. was watching.<br />
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And it's a special time for my family for yet one more reason: the Winter Olympics.<br />
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Thirty years ago, my Grandpa Kanalley predicted the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team would pull off a monumental feat - a gold medal. Two days after his death, on Feb. 22, 1980, they upset the HEAVILY-favored Soviet Union in Lake Placid, New York, in one of the most memorable sporting events in American history. Grandpa was buried a day later on Feb. 23, and Team USA went on to win the gold, defeating Finland.<br />
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Well, Grandpa, I'm hoping we can do it again. We got USA-Canada tomorrow, Feb. 21, 2010. A prelim game, but a special one nonetheless. With the Sabres' own Ryan Miller in nets for the U.S., here's hoping for a gold in 2010 in Canada. Either way, it's Olympic hockey. I know you're watching.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-18732217015530488222009-10-18T01:49:00.013-04:002009-10-18T02:20:24.007-04:00How I'm related to Nicolas CageAs a fan of his work on screen, I've got to say I was delighted to discover that I'm distantly related to Nicolas Cage.<br /><br />We're ninth cousins, once removed to be precise. That means my father and him are ninth cousins -- in this case, their great-grandparent's great-grandparent's great-grandfathers were brothers. Follow? (Chart at the bottom of this post.)<br /><br />I've known for some time that his mother's maiden name was Vogelsang, and that made me always suspect a connection, as I'm a Vogelgesang descendant and that family had many descendants in America use the Vogelsang spelling.<br /><br />Vogelgesang, a surname meaning "dweller of where the bird's sing" (Vogelsang translates to "bird's song"), is not a common name to begin with and I soon learned that Cage's family goes back to Bavaria, Germany, as does mine.<br /><br />After in-depth research, I was able to trace his Vogelsang family from California to Illinois, and before that Ohio, linking directly to a branch of my family that settled there.<br /><br />Our common ancestors are <a href="http://www.craigkanalley.com/genealogy/webcards/wc01_194.htm">Heinrich Ludwig Vogelgesang (1644-1704) and Cecelia Huether (1646-1695)</a>. He descends of their son Hans Jacob born 1671 and I come from their son Johann Georg born 1675.<br /><br />As promised, here's the chart showing our exact relationship (click to enlarge):<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.craigkanalley.com/genealogy/notablekin/cage.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_g4ylvenaNGM/StqvAjCfzoI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/3al-PBFIKNM/s400/cage.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393815927670165122" /></a>Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-60407088704565741352009-08-12T22:56:00.016-04:002009-08-12T23:53:06.610-04:00Link to Chicago Mayor Kennelly?Last September, when I first moved to Chicago, <a href="http://blog3.craigkanalley.com/2008/09/chicago-connections.html">I threw together a blog post</a> of my genealogical connections to the city.<br /><br />The most interesting and ironic link from that list was that my great-grandfather Wallace Kanalley came to Chicago looking for work in 1920 at the age of 18, not far away from my coming at 23. He spent time as a watchman, but obviously didn't stay, as he was in Buffalo a few years later (where I grew up), and had my grandfather Kenneth in Buffalo in 1932.<br /><br />Since then, I've also learned that some of my Bulger relatives came from Canada to Chicago in the late 1800's (not listed in that original post).<br /><br />And tonight, an old video triggered an old memory.<br /><br />The video is literally old, though I found it in the most new media of ways. A YouTube video depicting 1948 night life in Chicago, I came across it while doing work with Twitter during my internship today at the Chicago Tribune.<br /><br />At 1:39-1:43, the video mentions Colonel McCormick, former Tribune publisher, who <a href="http://twitter.com/ColonelTribune">@ColonelTribune</a> was inspired by.<br /><br />Interestingly, the man introduced in the video right before Colonel is "the honorable Mayor Martin H. Kennelly." Mayor of Chicago from 1947 to 1955, the name immediately brought back memories.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_g4ylvenaNGM/SoODv7-7XUI/AAAAAAAAA-A/8tNeUcwzsUE/s1600-h/kennelly.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 385px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_g4ylvenaNGM/SoODv7-7XUI/AAAAAAAAA-A/8tNeUcwzsUE/s400/kennelly.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369280040334482754" /></a><br /><i>Chicago Mayor Martin H. Kennelly, 1947, <a href="http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=f7a4e4a1cbf72f03&q=mayor%20martin%20kennelly&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmayor%2Bmartin%2Bkennelly%26hl%3Den">Photo by Time</a> (OK for personal use)<br><br></i><br /><br />About five years ago or so, long before I knew I'd ever come to Chicago, a distant relative of mine said they had heard we're related to a Mayor Martin Kennelly. I knew he was from Chicago, but I didn't know when he served. How ironic I came across him in the video...<br /><br />INTERESTINGLY, the guy in the video pronounces the surname the way I pronounce mine, and even more interesting I think, I know for a fact my name used to be spelled Kennelly in Ireland. I'm very confident there's a link.<br /><br />I did a little digging. He was born in Chicago in 1887 and his father is said to have come from Ballylongford, Co. Kerry, according to genealogy forums. County Kerry neighbors County Limerick, where my ancestor Thomas Kennelly was born in about 1820. Again, I'm sure there's some kind of connection. It's even possible that Thomas had a brother who was Martin's grandfather, making the former Mayor and my great-grandfather Wallace just second cousins.<br /><br />So here's the video... watch from about 1:34-1:39.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Pi9VrrVLMn0&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Pi9VrrVLMn0&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-27159563135101637242009-02-16T23:36:00.003-05:002010-05-09T13:02:08.229-04:00Remembering a French (and German) ancestor<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.craigkanalley.com/blog3/uploaded_images/John-Klein_taken-about-1860-791031.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 229px; height: 320px;" src="http://www.craigkanalley.com/blog3/uploaded_images/John-Klein_taken-about-1860-791027.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />
Nearly 188 years ago to the date, on Feb. 13, 1821, Jean Klein was born in the small village of Schmittviller, Moselle, France, to 37-year-old Jean Klein and 33-year-old Marguerite Wuertz. The elder Klein was a shoemaker and passed the profession onto his son who shared the same name. The parents, of mostly German ancestry despite living in France, were married in Schmittviller on Oct. 18, 1816.<br />
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<b>Extended family:</b> Jean had one older sister, Jeanne, two and a half years older than him, who died tragically of illness in Schmittviller six days after his ninth birthday. He also had two younger brothers, Jacques and Charles. Charles died just a few weeks after Jeanne as a contagious illness had been passed around the Klein family. It is not known what happened to Jacques, who disappears from records and may have relocated to another village in the region.<br />
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<b>Military service:</b> Jean was conscripted into the French Army on July 24, 1842 and served with the 4th Squadron of Artillery Supply Depot. He was discharged Sept. 4, 1844 for varicose veins in his leg, which made him unsuitable for duty. Jean was not married at the time of his service, but he had a child Nicolas the year he was discharged – on Dec. 7 – with a woman named Anne-Marie Dannenhoffer from the nearby village of Kalhausen.<br />
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<b>Marriage:</b> Under pressure from their families, Jean and Anne-Mare married on Apr. 18, 1846 in Rahling, Moselle, France. The marriage record from the Roman Catholic parish noted that the couple had a child out of wedlock, but that he would keep the name Klein. Shortly after, Jean and Anne-Marie had their second child, a daughter Anne, on Nov. 17, 1846.<br />
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<b>Immigration:</b> As a shoemaker, carrying on the profession of his father, Jean was a skilled worker and thus considered a part of the wide-ranging class of bourgeoisie. As a part of the middle class of that social group, he could not vote, and he had few political rights. The mid-1840’s were a time of political and economic turmoil, and France was also suffering a food shortage at the time. Many of Jean’s social class were killed in the mid-1840’s in an attempted revolt against the French government. It appears that the political turmoil is the reason for Jean and Anne-Marie’s immigration to the United States in about 1847 or 1848. They settled in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, either just prior to, or as a direct result of, the bloody February 1848 Revolution, after which Napoleon’s nephew Louis-Napoleon gained power.<br />
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<b>Work:</b> Upon arrival, Jean set up a shoe-making shop on Elm Street and Batavia Road (now Broadway) in the city of Buffalo. However, in an effort to escape the cholera epidemic – Jean was too familiar with illnesses ruining families when one swept through his family in the winter of 1831 – he moved his family to Williamsville in 1849. There, Jean was proprietor of a prosperous boot and shoe store. He purchased much land in both the village and rural area, and Klein Road is named after him as a result of the property he owned in that area (approximately 80 acres on the north side of Klein Road according to local historians).<br />
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<b>Family:</b> Jean and Anne-Marie added to their family shortly after arriving in America with another daughter Maria, born Nov. 15, 1848 in Buffalo. After moving to Williamsville, they had nine more children, including two that died as infants. The children to survive infancy were: John (1850), Margaret (1852), Jacob (1854), George (1856), Phillip (1859), Catharina (1860), Magdalena (1864), and Amelia (1865). Nine of their 10 children to survive childbirth had children of their own, all but Amelia. Jean and Anne-Marie had 67 grandchildren and hundreds of descendants in the Western New York area. <br />
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<b>Death:</b> At age 88, during the winter of 1910, Jean walked out of his 10 Spring St. home in Williamsville, slipped on some ice and fell. He broke his hip and four days later he died on Jan. 23, 1910. Ironically, his son George also died after suffering a broken hip, although he lived to be 103 years old. The family was particularly known for good bloodlines and lived long, memorable lives.<br />
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<b>Interesting note:</b> Though I descend of Jean through my mother, he is also a blood (though distant) relative of my father. Jean’s great-grandparents were Michael Bender and Christina Lambert of Neualtheim, Germany. Michael and Christina’s daughter Anna Maria (born 1751) is an ancestor of Jean Klein and my mother, while their daughter Maria Magdalena (born 1755) is an ancestor of my father.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-75973663943474654252009-01-30T19:22:00.006-05:002009-01-30T20:19:41.595-05:00Happy Birthday to...My great-great-grandmother Mary Ann Wallace Kanalley. She was born on this day, Jan. 30, some 131 years ago (1878) in the small lakefront town of Cobourg, Ontario, just across Lake Ontario from Rochester, N.Y.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.craigkanalley.com/blog3/uploaded_images/Kanalley-Family-Portrait-c1917-786599.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 318px;" src="http://www.craigkanalley.com/blog3/uploaded_images/Kanalley-Family-Portrait-c1917-786587.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><i>Mary and her five children while her husband James was serving in World War I overseas.</i><br /><br />She was the first-born child of Andrew Wallace, a painter of Scotch-Irish descent, and Catherine Bulger, whose parents came to Canada from Ireland as young adults. Andrew and Kate would go on to have eight more children, four in Canada and four in Brainerd, Crow Wing County, Minnesota, where they died.<br /><br />Mary married James Kanalley, a poor man 10 years her elder born to Irish immigrants. James' parents Thomas and Rose came to Canada due to the Potato Famine - something none of Mary's ancestors could claim. Her folks were already well established in Canada, coming as early as the 1830's.<br /><br />Mary's parents disapproved of the engagement, and the couple fled to Cleveland, Ohio, to have the wedding. Neither of her parents attended. They later moved back to Cobourg, but the story goes that James never got along with his father-in-law Andrew. In a bit of irony, James was also a painter, so it is likely Mary met him through her father's business (and her grandfather Daniel Wallace was a painter, too).<br /><br />Mary and James Kanalley had five children in the early 1900's - Wallace, Catherine, Mary, Marlene, and Ann. Wallace, the eldest, was born Jan. 5, 1902 in Cleveland, and he is my great-grandfather.<br /><br />James served overseas in France and England during World War I for the Canadian Army. He was wounded and discharged early. Alcoholism and affects from mustard gas meant he was never the same once he returned, and he suffered an early death due to heart disease at age 55 in 1923.<br /><br />Mary was very independent and a strong woman, and she refused assistance to care for her children from the Canadian government. She worked as a nurse's aid to raise her young family - her youngest was 12 years old at the time of James' passing - and took the family to the Buffalo, N.Y. area in Nov. 1924 in hopes of a better way of life.<br /><br />She remarried to Nicholas Jacoby in 1929 in North Java, Wyoming County, New York. Mary died in 1940 in Buffalo.<br /><br />Mary's last surviving child, Marlene, died Dec. 19, 2006 in Fort Erie. However, in 2009, Mary is survived by 11 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren, and many more descendants.<br /><br />On this day, her birthday, she's remembered!Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-66852974838295017012009-01-10T02:34:00.007-05:002009-01-10T03:48:50.303-05:00Mayors I descend ofWhile nearly half my ancestors I've found to date were farmers or day laborers, a good handful were also mayors.<br /><br />Through both my father and mother's side, I trace myself back to mayors in Germany and France. Also known as a Schultheiss or Burgermeister, a mayor in Europe was historically the "chief administrative officer" of his jurisdiction and "served as the link between village government and the representatives of the ruling prince," <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=e17IQ9aFkJwC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=schultheiss+appointed">according to "Becoming German" by Philip Otterness</a>.<br /><br />In some places the mayor was elected and in others he was appointed by the central government. Mayors "needed to be literate," while "many of the villagers he represented could not read or write." Literacy was not common in rural parts of Germany until the late 1700s, according to Otterness.<br /><br />Here are the mayors I descend of, sorted chronologically by year of birth:<br /><br />-Nicolaus VON RITTENHOFFEN, born about 1370, Mayor of Saaerbruecken, Bavaria, 18th great-grandfather<br />-Hans der Junger WANNEMACHER, born 1535, Mayor of Darmstadt, Hessen, 13th great-grandfather<br />-Hans Marx KLEIN, born 1620, Mayor of Waldfischbach, Bavaria, 9th great-grandfather<br />-Jean DuPONT, born about 1623, Mayor of Homburg, Bavaria, 10th great-grandfather<br />-Michael REUTER, born about 1630, Mayor of Medelsheim, Bavaria, 8th great-grandfather<br />-Jean PLAIDEUR, born about 1640, Mayor of Bierbach, Bavaria, 10th great-grandfather<br />-Heinrich KLEIN, born 1642, Mayor of Waldfischbach, Bavaria, 8th-great-grandfather<br />-Andre SCHUVER, born about 1649, Mayor of Wiesviller, Moselle, 8th-great-grandfather<br />-Claude-Nicolas BENOIT, born about 1662, Mayor of Homburg, Bavaria, 9th great-grandfather<br />-Adam GRUNDISCH, born 1673, Mayor of Poerrbach, Bavaria, 6th great-grandfather<br />-Jean-Adam UEBELHOER, born 1743, Mayor of Bremmelbach, Alsace, 6th great-grandfather<br />-Christien UEBELHOER, born 1769, Mayor of Bremmelbach, Alsace, 5th great-grandfatherCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-16361413861926738042009-01-06T01:36:00.008-05:002009-01-06T02:31:21.077-05:00The man with eight daughters: Jean PlaideurBorn about 1640 in Eparcy, Picardie, France, my ancestor Jean Plaideur was a Lutheran living in a predominantly Catholic land. In the late 1650's, the French Huguenot decided to flee religious persecution to a place called Saarland, a war-stricken region that offered cheap land in hopes of repopulating. Best yet, this place did not discriminate against practicing Protestants.<br /><br />Plaideur found a home here in a village called Bierbach, literally "Beer River." He found a wife, taking 16-year-old Anna Eva Schwarz's hand in marriage after an agreement with her father Wendel. The Schwarz family, also Protestant, was one of just two that survived the Thirty Years' War that devastated Bierbach and Wendel was determined to find a good mate for his daughter. He was impressed by Plaideur, who had a superb work ethic. The man not only farmed, he opened up a restaurant and bar in town less than a year after his arrival.<br /><br />Plaideur brought new hope to a deserted village and he was one of the key figures in turning the Bierbach economy around. Several other families soon joined the community and Plaideur was elected mayor. He served the people well while fathering eight children with Anna Eva - all daughters.<br /><br />I descend of Jean Plaideur in multiple ways - through his eldest daughter Johanna (married Wannemacher), his daughter Anna Catharina (married Koerner), and his daughter Anna Eva (married Moser). I actually descend of Anna Eva twice - through both her son Peter and her son Jacob.<br /><br />Just one man, but one with a very interesting story, who helped repopulate and turn around a village that was devastated during the Thirty Years' War. Since I go back to him through four different lines of my ancestry, I've always found him fascinating. May he be remembered.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-48210023468701748182008-12-22T05:19:00.004-05:002017-06-19T22:36:48.962-04:00Irish records going digitalGreat news for those of Irish descent!<br />
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The Irish Family History Foundation is busy at work digitizing millions of birth, marriage, and death records, as well as census and land records. The project is in progress, though some 6.9 million births have already been indexed, as well as 3.5 million marriages and 1.2 million deaths across the island.<br />
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From Northern Ireland's Co. Antrim to the Republic of Ireland's Co. Cork, a number of counties north, south, east, and west are already on the Web. Just 10 are not, at the moment, but more records are added all the time.<br />
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The site with all of these records is <a href="http://www.brsgenealogy.com/">brsgenealogy.com</a>. A simple, free registration allows you to conduct free searches of the index. Then, the full records can be instantaneously viewed via the site for an affordable five Euros each. One way to increase your chances of a match are to enter your person's name with their father's name (if you know it of course). You can also search for a name by parish.<br />
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I'm particularly excited about these new records in that I've already had success with them. I found the baptism record of my 4th-great-grandfather Thomas Bulger and learned that he was born Mar. 10, 1825 in Ballinabarney, Parish of Killaveney, Co. Wicklow. I also found baptism records for his siblings John (1826), Mary (1828) and Michael (1832) in the same townland and Ellen (1842) in nearby Glenphilipeen. I confirmed it was them through their parents' names, James Bulger and Judith Kealy, which I had through Canadian records.<br />
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If you have Irish roots, and especially if you're searching for an uncommon name, give the site a look. With Irish records so lacking, due to the great Dublin Fire, war, and famine, this effort is literally a goldmine.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-43470952239591428602008-12-12T03:34:00.006-05:002008-12-12T03:50:57.472-05:00Where we might be relatedIf you go back far enough, you can usually find any two people with European ancestry to be related.<br /><br />I found my parents to be 6th cousins, once removed - their common ancestors marrying in Germany in 1737. To date, due to our common royal ancestry, my girlfriend Nicole and I are something like 28th cousins. But we're likely related much more closely.<br /><br />First, I take a look geographically.<br /><br />I have many ancestors from the village of Bremmelbach, France. Nicole has many ancestors from the village of Oberseebach, France. They are just FIVE MILES apart. There's a good chance we connect at some point due to this; families often intermarried in Europe and they often married into families from neighboring/nearby villages as well.<br /><br />Then, here's some common families we share and where they lived. I've ordered them from closest geographically to furthest apart.<br /><br />HOFFMANN<br />(C) Molschbach, Germany<br />(N) Dudenhofen, Germany<br />(distance) 56 km<br /><br />WAHL<br />(C) Waldfischbach, Germany<br />(N) Schifferstadt, Germany<br />(distance) 68 km<br /><br />KUHN<br />(C) Homburg, Germany<br />(N) Schifferstadt, Germany<br />(distance) 90 km<br /><br />BENDER<br />(C) Neualtheim, Germany<br />(N) Schifferstadt, Germany<br />(distance) 103 km<br /><br />MAYER/MAIER<br />(C) Waeschenbeuren, Germany<br />(N) Schifferstadt, Germany<br />(distance) 146 km<br /><br />WILHELM<br />(C) Waeschenbeuren, Germany<br />(N) Schifferstadt, Germany<br />(distance) 146 km<br /><br />SCHMITT<br />(C) Grossdeinbach, Germany<br />(N) Seebach, France<br />(distance) 158 km<br /><br />WAGNER<br />(C) Bierbach, Germany<br />(N) Wirtheim, Germany<br />(distance) 202 km<br /><br />FABER/FABRI<br />(C) Epping, France<br />(N) Sedan, France<br />(distance) 220 km<br /><br />SCHLOSSER<br />(C) Darmstadt, Germany<br />(N) Hochdorf, Germany<br />(distance) 264 km<br /><br />I think it's most likely our Hoffmann, Wahl, and Bender families are one in the same if you go back far enough. I'd say the same for Kuhn, except I have evidence my Kuhn's originated in Belgium and Nicole's were from Germany.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-55262958665351012322008-12-04T02:53:00.005-05:002008-12-12T03:30:02.053-05:00Common familiesSomething fun about researching two family trees at the same time is trying to find links between them.<br /><br />Here's a list of families that my girlfriend and I both descend of. However, I've yet to find any definite links between the two sets (meaning they're unrelated, as far as I know, for now), some are miles and miles apart, and some are common surnames.<br /><br />BENDER<br />FABER/FABRI<br />HOFFMANN<br />KUHN<br />MAIER/MAYER<br />SCHLOSSER<br />SCHMITT<br />WAGNER<br />WAHL<br />WILHELM<br /><br />(Also LANG, but her Lang family was in England and mine was in France so probably no connection.)<br /><br />I'll post another blog entry soon looking at these families a bit closer. I'll see which ones are closest geographically and where we're most likely to connect if you go back far enough. Certainly at least one of them, we probably connect.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-33067774582200879172008-11-22T23:03:00.003-05:002008-11-22T23:07:28.508-05:00Web Cards updatedToday I updated the Web Cards on my website with my latest findings, including my royal line back to Charlemagne.<br /><br />These cards include more than 2,000 people - all the ancestors I've found to date, plus their spouses (some had more than one) and children.<br /><br />Also updated the color scheme and general design of the cards. Used to have a dark blue backdrop with white text and I went to a brown pastel color scheme, not much different from the light blue and yellow/gold scheme throughout my site.<br /><br />To flip through the Cards, updated surname directory, or index, start here: <a href="http://www.craigkanalley.com/genealogy/webcards/wc_toc.htm">http://www.craigkanalley.com/genealogy/webcards/wc_toc.htm</a>Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-84462165525439774782008-11-21T22:16:00.005-05:002008-11-21T22:29:38.574-05:00Bulger/Hilburger success and pondering a bookIn the last few weeks, I've connected with two distant cousins who have helped me update the family tree to 2008 on a few extended lines.<br /><br />Have established contact with my 3rd cousin, twice removed, Terry Bulger of Nashville, Tn. Our common ancestors are Thomas Carson Bulger (born 1826 Co. Wicklow, Ireland) and Ann Fitzsimmons (born 1824 Co. Cavan, Ireland), who both died in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada in the early 1900's. I come through their daughter Catherine born 1856 Cobourg; he through their son James born 1858 Cobourg.<br /><br />Also made contact with - interestingly - another 3rd cousin, twice removed, Mark Hilburger of the Washington, D.C. area. Our common ancestors are Tobias Hilburger (born 1819 Kaimling, Germany) and Anna Messer (born 1828 Kaimling, Germany), who both died in Buffalo, New York in the early 1900's. I come through their son John born 1854 Buffalo; he comes through their son Martin born 1856 Buffalo.<br /><br />The power of the Internet is just amazing because I wouldn't have found them without it. I found Terry, while Mark actually contacted me after seeing some of my Hilburger posts on the Web.<br /><br />In other genealogy news, I'm thinking of writing a book on my Grundtisch family. I have a wealth of data on this line, back to about 1530 in Saanen, Switzerland, a small village in the Alps Mountains. I believe all Grundtisch's and Grundish's in the United States are related and I'm nearing closer to my goal of linking them all together (at least all of them in the phone book). Once I do that, it may become a book after all. Among other things, I could write about the origins of each line (the Buffalo Grundtisch's, the Findlay Grundtisch's, the Pittsburgh Grundish's, the Dayton Grundish's, etc. - all of which are related by the way). Just an idea; we'll see where that goes!Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-14562529370790110562008-11-19T06:35:00.006-05:002008-11-19T07:03:50.190-05:00What I am exactlyWhile my paternal grandfather's family was from Canada, and much of my family is from the United States, I wanted to see what my ancestors were before any of them set foot in North America.<br /><br />I looked at each of my 32 great-great-great-grandparents. Each is 3.125% of my blood. That's based on me being 50% my parents, 25% my grandparents, 12.5% my great-grandparents, etc.<br /><br />Most (nearly all) of these 32 were born in Europe. Others were either the children or grandchildren of immigrants with the exception of one: Margaret Hart. While her father Arthur Hart was born in Ireland, her mother Mary Moore was born in Canada and most of her family goes back to Colonial America.<br /><br />I broke each of the 32 into percentages as well, based on what they were, then put those results into each 3.125, and added it all up.<br /><br />Here were my results:<br /><br />39.418% German, 25% Polish, 22.2655% Irish, 7.813% French, 2.3435% Scottish, 1.629% Swiss, 0.969% unknown, 0.195% Austrian, 0.195% Belgian, 0.094% English, 0.094% Dutch<br /><br />I broke the German/French down by region: 19.887% Bavarian, 12.5% Prussian, 4.297% French Moselle, 3.906% Wuerttemberg, 3.125% French Alsace, 3.125% Hessen, 0.391% French-mainland<br /><br />Just an interesting little look into what I am. :)Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-71182366681522161302008-11-12T16:56:00.010-05:002009-05-03T01:55:08.897-04:00My link to royaltyAfter 10 long years of researching my family history...and one month...I've finally confirmed a lineage from Charlemagne to myself.<br /><br />I've long sought to find that elusive genealogy goldmine that I think all genealogists hunt for at some point or another.<br /><br />Genealogies of European royalty and nobility are well-documented, very well-documented by European archives and there are some great sites on the Web with royal pedigrees/charts galore from both professional genealogists and state/nation archives.<br /><br />The problem is finding yourself going back to one of those individuals that link to these charts. But if you do, then you've truly hit the goldmine.<br /><br />Before yesterday, the furthest back I could trace any line of my family was about 1450, when my ancestor Hengin Wanmecher of Darmstadt, Germany was born. He was a wealthy landowner according to older records, so I long suspected he could somehow go back to royalty.<br /><br />But it wasn't his line that I found the connection. It was through a large German family who specialized in basketmaking (and brought their craft to Buffalo, N.Y., where they settled) of the tiny village of Bierbach, Germany. Go figure, right?<br /><br />My ancestor Catharina Gräbel, born June 4, 1846 in Bierbach, was part of this family. She immigrated to America with her mother Eva Catharina in about 1855, after the death of her father Jacob Gräbel (1808 Mimbach-1854 Bierbach).<br /><br />Jacob's great-grandmother was Anna Catharina Moser Gräbel (1713 Wattweiler-1783 Wattweiler). Her mother was Anna Elisabeth Dessloch Moser (abt. 1694 Wattweiler-1760 Wattweiler). Now things get interesting.<br /><br />Her father Karl Friedrich Dessloch was born Nov. 8, 1674 in Ransweiler, Bavaria, Germany. What I learned yesterday, he was born of a very religious family - his father and his grandfather were both Protestant ministers, as were many of his uncles and cousins -, and his paternal grandmother Sara Sybilla Candidus Dessloch was born of lower nobility status, which could be traced back to European royalty.<br /><br />Previously, I only had back to Karl Friedrich's father Friedrich Melchior Dessloch. I knew he lived for some time in Wilgartswiesen per my own research. (I presumed he was born there, but did not know for sure, just knew he was "of Wilgartswiesen" at some point.)<br /><br />A simple Google search of "Dessloch Wilgartswiesen" linked me the genealogy research of Klaus Zimmer, who notes that Friedrich Melchior Dessloch was a Protestant minister at Duisburg, Bremen, Wilgartswiesen, and Ransweiler, at different times. He adds that he was born in Meisenheim.<br /><br />That was the piece of the puzzle I needed, coming upon several reliable Web sites and genealogies (though many in German and I had to use Google Translate) documenting the Dessloch family of Meisenheim and more importantly the Candidus family of Zweibruecken (Sara Sybilla Candidus Dessloch became the "goldmine" for me, again the one proven to European royalty/nobility genealogies).<br /><br />Sara Sybilla Candidus' father's side is interesting. Her grandfather was born in Austria as Pantaleon Weiss in 1540, the youngest of 14 children. He became a student of the Reformation at a young age and was imprisoned with a Protestant minister at age 10 for their beliefs. He escaped prison, fled to Hungary with the minister, and subsequently migrated to Germany. He adopted the surname Candidus, the Latin version of his name, and became a well-respected theologian, author, historian, and poet. He was a key leader of the Reformation movement in Zweibruecken, Germany.<br /><br />But it's her mother's side that goes back to kings, queens, and all the rest. Her mother, Anna Kessler, was the daughter of Werner Kessler and Elisabeth Baldwein. The Baldwein family is documented back to several noble lines, including the Von Rittenhofen and Von Sponheim families. These bring me back to Gottfried Von Sponheim (b. 1120 Sponheim, Bavaria, Germany) and Mathilda Von Lothringen (b. abt. 1123 Lorraine, France). Mathilda's lineage has been well documented. She descends of Baldwin I of Flanders (837 France-879 France) and Judith of Flanders (844-870). Judith's father was Charles the Bald, King of West Francia, her grandfather was Louis I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and her great-grandfather was none other than Charlemagne (742 France-814 Prussia).<br /><br />I had already confirmed my girlfriend's line of descent to royalty through her ancestors Edward Fitz Randolph and Elizabeth Blossom and William Spencer and Agnes Harris - Edward and Agnes were American colonists who both have been definitively linked to royal ancestry. Now I've confirmed a line from my own family.<br /><br />By my best estimation, she and I are 27th cousins, twice removed based on my latest findings! We descend of Baldwin V of Flanders and Adelheid, Princess of France, who married in 1028 in Paris - me of their son Baldwin, she of their daughter Matilda. How about that?Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-57178682548336847402008-10-27T04:10:00.005-04:002008-10-27T04:28:00.681-04:00A lead to Eislingen...The <a href="http://labs.familysearch.org/">FamilySearch Labs project</a> is certainly an exciting one, as it provides glimpses of what genealogy research might be like on the Web in 5-10 years from now (and beyond).<br /><br />Millions of records are being digitally scanned and transcribed onto the site. Volunteers can sign up to help create the indexes at <a href="http://www.familysearchindexing.org">FamilySearch Indexing</a>. I've already transcribed about 1,700 names to help with the effort. It's easy to do and it's fun to help.<br /><br />I've had success with the new indexes before, and I had success after poking around the site tonight. Fellow Württemberg researchers who might be familiar with the region I'm about to address - the Jagstkreis/Donaukreis area - I'm sure will appreciate this.<br /><br />I checked the new Germany birth/marriage indexes (1700-1900) for members of my Biser/Bieser family. My 4th-great-grandfather Andreas Bieser was born in a small village called Wäschenbeuren in 1799, and his family had lived there for over 150 years.<br /><br />The index turned up a new lead for me and a new town: Eislingen. My ancestors Joseph Bieser and Eva Hockenmaier, who were both born in Wäschenbeuren and married there in 1722, had 10 children, but I've only found 3 (Michael, Lucia, Anna) to date to remain in Wäschenbeuren. I've long wondered what happened to the rest.<br /><br />Apparently, two relocated to Eislingen. Elisabeth Bieser married Xavier Mayrhoefer in Eislingen in 1754, and the record states she was the daughter of Joseph and Eva. It's a match. A younger child of Joseph and Eva is also found, and his parents again are identified on the marriage record (thankfully) - Anton Bieser married Ottilia Gassenmayer in Eislingen in 1770.<br /><br />Just like that, I have a new town to research. If I'm interested in later checking out possible descendants of Elisabeth and Anton, and distant relatives of mine (and I am if I get the chance), I can order Eislingen records and go at it. There's a number of Bieser's in the Midwest and elsewhere in the U.S. that I'd love to connect to, and perhaps Eislingen's where I need to start.<br /><br />It's all thanks to the FamilySearch Labs project. It's a great one. Check it out some time.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-83860188698545440482008-10-22T18:39:00.004-04:002008-10-24T19:23:07.857-04:00My 10-year anniversary...I started researching my family history in Oct. 1998. It's now Oct. 2008.<br /><br />It's been a wild ride and a quite enjoyable experiencing learning about my family's past and being able to connect with so many relatives - both immediate and distant.<br /><br />The Internet has lent itself perfectly to such a hobby. There's no question about it. This is where I've made the majority of my people-to-people connections. While some people joke that genealogy is all about "dead people," I think it's the exchange between living people - and learning more about <span style="font-style:italic;">their</span> lives - that makes it so special.<br /><br />As a wise man from Connecticut, John Payne, commented in <a href="http://www.craigkanalley.com/blog3/2008/08/long-history-of-tracing-my-family.html">my first blog entry</a> - we're all related if you go back far enough. It couldn't be more true. And when you have two people as different as, say, Barack Obama and my girlfriend Nicole - and they're distantly related - and you're able to prove that - it's just so much fun to trace your family's past to see who you might be related to and where your ancestors fit into history.<br /><br />For now, I celebrate. But once you catch the bug, there's no going back. There's no question about it; this will be a lifelong hobby for me. I look forward to what discoveries and links the future will bring!Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6274766906256850262.post-62596192753159101212008-10-10T01:38:00.006-04:002008-10-10T01:49:40.870-04:00Social networking and genealogyPunch the word 'genealogy' into the growing social networking site Ning, <a href="http://www.ning.com/?view=search&term=genealogy">and you'll find dozens of results</a>.<br /><br />Ning allows Internet users to create their own social networking site. People are using that to create sites for their own families, for genealogy and technology, and for researching family history in general.<br /><br />Then there's Facebook, which of course has taken off exponentially in the last few years. There's applications that users can put in their profiles, like "We're related." Here's what mine looks like:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.craigkanalley.com/blog3/uploaded_images/family-726901.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.craigkanalley.com/blog3/uploaded_images/family-726897.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Is this the future of genealogy? I mentioned in my last entry that it seems to be dying down in popularity on the Web. But maybe that's because it's just growing in new areas, like social networking.<br /><br />Social networking and genealogy are obviously a natural marriage. They make sense to go together. Long lost cousins have the chance to create profiles, post their respective trees, and connect. It opens up exciting new doors in the world of genealogy. And I think there will be a lot more of it to come in the next few years.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04088763811784840519noreply@blogger.com11