Research Category
Who Gets to Write History? Who Are We Keeping Out?
Posted on February 9, 2022 9 Comments
A bit of a kerfuffle over who gets to write history and ask why, along with a series of emails with an Oxford educated historian and a local political scandal has me thinking about the parameters genealogists are “supposed” to operate within when writing our family histories. People act as if “facts” are truth. Sadly […]
Adventure in Ancient DNA Part 2: Bridging the Gap
Posted on January 30, 2022 2 Comments
This post is based on the exquisite research of Vanessa Verbeeck of Belgium, who is the primary author. Because we are working in the past with sometimes scant historical records the work is speculative in nature but grounded in facts. BACKGROUND Long before the Romans occupied central Europe the area was held by ancient Celtic […]
EVERYTHING is a Working Theory: Beware of Sacred Cows
Posted on January 21, 2022 1 Comment
The Patchwork Genealogist tweeted “is this sufficient proof” and it made me think of all the times I have had to revise my tree or lop off a branch because new, or better information became available. My Blog post Keeping it Accurate was on correcting errors from long standing genealogies that have been proved wrong. […]
Keeping it Accurate: How Do We Correct Genealogy Errors?
Posted on January 19, 2022 9 Comments
Note: It’s a bit ironic that the Queen of typos and mistakes wants to write a blog post about them but I need to make a distinction between errors we unknowingly commit and those that we ignore or worse yet promulgate for some other reason. We all make mistakes and we all inadvertently pass on […]
Adventures in Ancient YDNA: R1b> U152>L2 to Celtic FGC22501
Posted on January 17, 2022 6 Comments
Introduction It all began with a search for my husband’s WHEATON ancestry. After 40 years of trying to connect him with either immigrant Robert WHEATON of Rehoboth, Massachusetts or Thomas WHEADON if Branford, Connecticut I resorted to giving him a YDNA test for Valentine’s Day! In less than 6 weeks I had my answer that […]
Locating the Actual place Your Ancestors Lived: Sheldon Land Records in Early Kingstown Rhode Island
Posted on January 6, 2022 12 Comments
Where John SHELDON of Newport and later Kingstown Rhode Island lived has been a bit of a puzzle that we have worked on over the past couple of years. After a recent visit to the Town Hall for South Kingstown located in Wakefield Rhode Island. [And if that isn’t confusing enough the property is now […]
2022 Genealogy New Year: The Anti-Resolution Resolution
Posted on January 2, 2022 2 Comments
It must be my contrarian nature, as I am not one to make promises I won’t keep. I get things done but not usually in a systematic, “finish this before starting that” fashion. Remember I am a firm believer in gophering. And gophering is all about going for one thing and ended up somewhere else. […]
One Thing Leads to Another: Our Ira ALLEN not “the” Ira ALLEN
Posted on December 13, 2021 3 Comments
While I was writing my post Ice Cream Melons & Foxes [ now many months ago] I was surprised to find several mentions of Daniel COATS’ father-in-law Ira ALLEN in the History of De Kalb County, Indiana 1885. So I parked that with the thought—okay that needs exploring, so here I am staring at the […]
Paleography for Genealogists Part 2: Transcription of a Warwickshire Deed from 1675
Posted on December 13, 2021 Leave a Comment
The 17th century document arrived quickly and I have to say it is much easier working off the two originals! That said this has been a very challenging endeavor but I have greatly improved my deciphering skills. Feels as if anything in English is now a piece of cake. So for those of you who […]
More Gophering for SHELDON Origin Clues: The Technique works for any Surname
Posted on November 24, 2021 3 Comments
In our search for the origins of Isaac SHELDON of Windsor, Connecticut and John SHELDON on Kingstown, Rhode Island As I wrote previously we gophered deep down on the early settlers of Windsor Connecticut who came with Rev Ephraim HUIT / HEWITT in our gopher networking (from my earlier post). Please note the HUIT or […]
Wheaton Wood 