Saturday, March 27, 2010

Seeing Ghosts


I'm hooked! Yes, Ancestory.com finally got me. That and Lisa Kudrow's new series, "Who Do You Think You Are?" I've sleuthed around on Ancestory's website and found a few things. I've blogged about a distant cousin who sent me information about my mom's family, but not until yesterday have I really gotten into looking into the past. Using the little information I have about my great-grandmother, Jennie, and the connection to her great-grandfather who was killed in the Civil War, I was able to hook into family trees on Ancestory.com that led me back from those folks. Several of the threads stopped the generation before people immigrated to the US, leaving me 'stranded' in Ireland, Holland, and France. But a couple of threads back into England and Scotland continued. The English kept great records. Occasionally I'd see an ancestor "Sir So & So" or someone who was born in "Castle Whatever." Then I found the Plantagenet name...interesting. From there the branches exploded into lines from Henry II of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Louis VII of France and the 4 daughers of Raimond Berenger of Provence who at one time were all queens in Europe. Could I be distantly related to royalty? Was one of my favorite women in history, Eleanor of Aquitaine, a family ancestor? More sleuthing to come, I think. In the meantime, I'm seeing ghosts!

3 comments:

Esther said...

Evelyn, I too have been traceing my family. My parents had some good records to start with. I have gone back to England, Scotland and Ireland. My Gr. paternal grandmother was a Devereux and I found a book taking the family back to Queen Elizabeth I. not blood but associated with. The family is in one of the 1920 NEW ENGLAND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER. Graandfathers in the revolutionary war and Civil War. It's interesting. I got some copise of Civil WAr pention papers.
Keep looking.
Esther

Evelyn said...

Esther...really cool! This is one thing that computers are good for. This kind of research would be almost impossible without them.

Stacy Wills said...

evelyn, my husband and i started looking, too, after seeing an episode of that show. i've always wanted to know more about the threads that were woven together to bring about the fabric that is me!

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