More Discoveries As I Climb my Family Tree

I have been away from this computer and blog for a very long time. There have been no posts for almost a year. Obviously, there is a reason; life has a way of diverting the paths of rivers and the direction of the humans living on Earth. That was the case with me and I hope to make good on my promise of more regular posts.

This post has to do with realizations I have come to in the past couple of weeks while visiting my daughter and grandchildren in cold, rainy, snowy Maine. This first-in-a-while post will not be too long but I hope it will be informative for anyone newly interested in genealogy, the process of climbing your own family tree. First, a short lesson in basic biology.

Every human has two parents. Each of those parents has two parents, and so on. In my own lines, the names of those humans are Wilkinson and Batty from my paternal side and Burke and Thompson from my maternal side. But each of those names will have different names since tradition had the women take the man's name. In the Burke case, the female line's name was RAYMOND.

In genealogy, each line deserves attention to detail; in my case, that is critical because of a lack of accurate information from my childhood. (In other posts, I have described how wrong I was about some early beliefs and how little information I have from my parents and grandparents - none, really.

To recap quickly, I thought my maternal grandfather was from Ireland and his wife, my grandmother, from Scotland. My beliefs were wrong on both accounts and I have verified (a very important step in genealogy!) that my maternal grandfather's line has a long history in northern Massachusetts. In fact, in the mail just this day, I received documentation that my 7X GGF (7th great-grandfather), WILLIAM RAYMOND, was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1666, and he died there in 1709. I believe, though I have not completely verified, that my 8X GGF, WILLIAM RAYMOND was the first of my maternal grandparents' line to arrive in this country. According to my preliminary information, he was born in Glastonbury, England, and came west during the Great Migration, settling in Massachusetts Bay in British Colonial America, where he died in 1709.

I have not learned how he got here; whether he was a passenger on the Mayflower or another ship is part of my current research. As you can tell, picking one grandparent that I knew and following her ancestral path back to its origin leads to all kinds of new amazement.

And to think it all started when I learned her son, my grandfather, did not come from Ireland!

The Joy of Genealogy

Readers of this blog will remember that the challenge of finding and validating information as I make my climb up my family tree is part of the joy. It is also frustrating and infuriating, but it is always fun. Here is more fun I have had this past couple of weeks.

I am a paid member at Ancestry.com's All-Access membership level, which includes everything Ancestry owns and has access in their massive database...all USA and world genealogical records as well as Fold3 military records, and the basic level access to Newspapers.com. The past couple of weeks have revealed so-far-unvalidated facts about my distant ancestors that have totally surprised me. The readers I mentioned earlier might recall my earliest memory of family history was of four immigrant grandparents, a memory that I have since proven to be false; instead of a strict immigrant background, I also have been amazed to find a long family history in southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts. This week has increased that amazement.

As a reminder, my family comes from two main lines: Wilkinson and Burke. My paternal Wilkinson side were immigrants; that much is verified. Finding and validating information from them is very difficult because they hail from England...the records I have found so far are frustratingly slim.

My maternal Burke side, on the other hand, is where the excitement and discovery are happening.

Ancestry.com recently updated their system with significant improvements and access to the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the largest single repository of world genealogical data. In doing these upgrades, they have made more information available in a much easier to read format. That, in turn, makes finding, validating, and/or excluding clues to my past much easier.

If the information I have found recently is validated - a process I take very seriously because of my background as an investigator - then my own Massachusetts ancestry now goes back to at least my eighth-great grandparents on my maternal great-grandmother's maiden side, Raymond.

For those not familiar with genealogical references, that would be my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents, WILLIAM RAYMOND, SR., and his wife, HANNAH BISHOP, from Beverly, Massachusetts.

The farther back I go in time, the more rigorous I must be to ensure I am putting accurate information in my tree and not just pluck names out of a hat because they sound right; there are many similar names, both within a family and in neighbors, so care is required. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but so far, I have validated enough information to give me a high degree of confidence in my findings and I have to tell you this is about as exciting as I have been in a long time. Learning that my own family was involved in pre-Revolutionary War New England amazes and astounds me. In fact, back then, according to local probate records, Massachusetts was called "British America."

I am so excited to keep my search going to find out just how far my roots spread. Am I related to someone on the Mayflower or one of the other ships that came to the New World early on? Which of my relatives was the first to arrive? Since their arrival in the 1600's, how and why did they come here? If they fought in our Revolutionary War, did they fight with the English "Redcoats" or for the British American revolutionaries?

My journey up my family tree continues as the tree grows taller and fatter.