Way cool

Posted: Monday, February 27, 2012 by Travis Cody in
11

I've been doing some genealogical research on my family for the last couple of months.  I had a stall at my paternal great grandfather (WFC) for the longest time.  Any details I have from that side of my family are pretty sketchy.

Then I had a wacky idea.  I knew WFC's mother's maiden name from a verified birth record.  I also knew he had been born in Indiana.  Ancestry.com has Indiana marriage records.  So...maybe I could search for marriages referencing her maiden name in the state of Indiana.

Bada bing!! 

I found the marriage record and everything checked out as best as I can figure.  Then we were off.  Just from that record, I was able to trace a direct line back to my 10th great grandfather (WB), who was born in Burford, Oxfordshire, England in 1602.  My 10th great grandmother (AL) was also born in Burford, in 1604 or 1607.  I still have to nail down that date, but that's going to take an upgrade to an international subscription.

Searching further, I found a passenger and immigration manifest that says WB arrived in Boston in 1634, and AL arrived in New England in 1635.

Their son, my 9th great grandfather (WB Jr) in a direct line from me to him, was born in Ipswitch, Massechusetts, in 1640.

In all the research I've been able to put together, this is the earliest known record of any of my ancestors stepping foot in what would become the US.  I guess that means my DNA has been on the continent for 378 years.  Whoa. 

My people came from England, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Spain, and Peru.  We landed in the east and in the coastal regions of the south.  We migrated west with stops in West Virginia, Indiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, and Missouri.  I'm a 4th generation Californian on my father's side.

And I always thought I came from a small family.  Go figure.

Can't wait to see what else I can dig up.  I know from stories that I have ancestors who fought in the Revolution and in the Civil War.  I suspect I'm just a few mouse clicks away from proving it.

Cool.


11 comments:

  1. I did a little of that research last year. I didn't get that far down the family tree, but it was still a fascinating search.
    Since my mother was adopted, and the records destroyed in a fire, I can only trace my paternal side of the family. On this side of the pond, we come from Tenn. and Kentucky. By the time I get to the fourth great grandfather the location moves to Scotland and the trail ends. Congratulations on getting much further down the road on your search.

  1. Cool. I recently found a number of my ancestors who fought in the Civil War, all on the NOrthern side.

  1. Ivanhoe says:

    Oh wow! What a nice mix of nationalities :) I'm Czech & German. That's it. Keep digging :)

  1. Cherie says:

    Wow! 1634 & 1635, that's certainly among the earliest of settlers. Talk about a brave new world. Congratulations on your research success! Exciting.

  1. Jean(ie) says:

    Tennessee? We may be related...LOL! My California family was from the San Mateo/Burlingame area.

    Italian, English, French German, Canadian... I have lineage to two signers of the magna charta, a famous confederate general and several revolutionaries.

  1. Akelamalu says:

    WOW you did great to trace your ancestors back so far! Geneology is fascinating isn't it? MWM has been researching his family tree for a few years now, we even spent a day at the National Archives in London researching.

  1. Anonymous says:

    Interesting! I love to read about what folks find in/om their family trees.

  1. Very cool Travis....enjoy the ride and keep on going!

  1. Jeni says:

    With your love of history, I think researching one's ancestry has to be a natural thing for you to do! My ancestry is pretty straight-forward in this country with Swedes on one side and Scots on the other, settling in Pennsylvania but from there -it does get pretty expansive to just about every state and also Canada! With the help from a lady in Sweden who got me copies of church records there, I have traced a bit of my ancestry on my maternal Grandfather's side as far back as the early-to-mid 1600s. Not so lucky on the Scotland folks though as I've only been able thus far to go back to the early 1800s in Scotland. But it is a fun and often very exciting thing to do this stuff, isn't it?

  1. Wait.......you have HOOSIER roots?! That explains so much....Welcome to the clan. :-D