Sons of the Pioneers.

[robby]

My dad likes genealogy, and has me search on-line records for him. We come from a very old American family, and I'm finding some incredible stuff. Our family came over about 20 years after the Pilgrims, and I'm finding military records from militias that were formed in 1630 to fight the Massachusetts Indians. One ancestor was with Washington at Valley Forge, and one in the Civil War. My Grandfather was a boy in San Francisco during the 1906 Earthquake, and later fought in World War 1.

Comments

[downwardlashes.livejournal.com]

wow that is very cool. it must be fascinating to find out things about your ancestors. i used to work at an archives used mainly for genealogy and would leaf through some books when i was supposed to be putting them away, but i only knew one half of my family at the time, so it was difficult. the people who go there (the archives) seem to be obsessed with it. youd think theyd have found everything they could, yet they come back every week. one man was so old he couldnt speak anymore and shook all the time, but he still pored over old obscure books and microfiche at least once every two weeks.

Re:

[robby.livejournal.com]

A lot of records are on line. People have entered all the data from those dusty old books into an electronic database. The Mormans have done a lot of it, because they believe they can 'baptize: their ancestors, and thus allow them to go to Morman heaven, One odd thing is that the men, generation after generation, have the first name John or Thomas, with is now my Dad's and Uncle's name. Back in the 16th century there were some Benjamins. All of us come from equally old families, and unbroken chain to the beginning of the human race.

ps. go to bed!

Re:

[downwardlashes.livejournal.com]

no, you go to bed! :P i somehow managed to sleep twelve hours today and dont forsee sleep soon in my future :(

[laughingsal.livejournal.com]

Wow. My family didn't come over until much later. I'm afraid there's an ocean between me and my history. I wouldn't know where to begin seraching.

[robby.livejournal.com]

In Italy, the churches keep marriage and baptismal records. At some point, they will be online. The Mormons did much of the database work in the US. As I recall, My first American ancestor came over about 1590, and listed his father and mother's vital statistics. They were from the Isle of Jersey, and I've e-mailed distant relatives, still there, that do genealogy. They haven't heard of him, but some of the old church records are missing or hard to research. The original name was Le Messurier, and that family did Crusades in the Middle Ages, and claims to trace it's origin to the Roman times.
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