The Ancestors' Geneameme
The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item
Which of these apply to you?
- Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents (M) (H)
- Can name over 50 direct ancestors (M) (H)
- Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents (M) Have 6 of 8, but still missing two of my European great-grandparents. (H) Have 6 of 8, but still missing one line.
- Have an ancestor who was married more than three times (M) Haven't found one in my family yet, but would love to! (H) His great-great grandmother Cansada Jones was married four times.
- Have an ancestor who was a bigamist (M) (H) Who wouldn't love to find this? We've got adulterers aplenty on both sides, but no evidence anyone tried to tie the knot twice at the same time.
- Met all four of my grandparents (H)
- Met one or more of my great-grandparents (H) Definitely something to investigate. One great-grandmother died three years after he was born, but lived at such a distance they likely did not meet.
- Named a child after an ancestor All our children are named after ancestors. They carry the names of my paternal grandmother, my husband's paternal grandmother, one of my maternal great-grandmothers and, coincidently, one of my paternal great-great grandfathers (we did not know this when he was named).
- Bear an ancestor's given names (M) I was not named for ancestors, but do share my middle name, Elizabeth, with at least 3 ancestors. A 3rd great-grandmother was named Susannah. (H) My husband shares his middle name (an ancestor's surname) with his mother and great-grandmother and on back.
- Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland (M) (H) Scads of them.
- Have an ancestor from Asia (M) Autosomnal DNA analysis indicates Asian ancestry in my father's Eastern European family.
- Have an ancestor from Continental Europe (M) My paternal grandparents were born in Europe. My mother's family includes colonial German and French lines. (H) There are German and Swiss lines.
- Have an ancestor from Africa (H) His great-great grandmother said her grandfather was Haitian.
- Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer (M) (H)
- Have an ancestor who had large land holdings (M) (H)
- Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi (M) I come from a long line of Baptist ministers. My father's family includes many priests, though I've not found a direct ancestor yet. His surname, however, means priest or father. (H) At least one. His 7th great-grandfather was a minister in colonial Virginia. Many uncles, aunts and cousins were Roman Catholic priests and nuns.
- Have an ancestor who was a midwife (M) My great-great grandmother signed an affidavit that she was the midwife when most of her daughter's children were born. (H) I know the oft married Cansada Jones had a sister who acted as her midwife. I would like to know if Cansada acted as midwife when her sister's children were born.
- Have an ancestor who was an author
- Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones (M) I have a Smith 3rd great-grandmother. (H) No Murphys, yet. But his mother is a Smith and his father had Smith and Jones ancestors.
- Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng
- Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
- Have an ancestor with a forename beginning with Z (M) A 3rd great-grandfather was named Zebidee.
- Have an ancestor born on 25th December
- Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day
- Have blue blood in your family lines (H)
- Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
- Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth (M) Two of the four were born in Eastern Europe.
- Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century (M) (H)
- Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier (M) (H)
- Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents (M) (H)
- Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X (M) (H) Likely. I've found X signatures on deeds, but do not have marriage certificates for those ancestors.
- Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university (M) (H)
- Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence (M) (H) There are a couple serious candidates on both sides for this one.
- Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime (M) Seems ghoulish to hope for, but it would be such fun to research. I have a great-something grandmother killed by Indians on the Virginia frontier, but that seems more an act of war than a criminal offense. (H) His grandfather lost most of his money when the town banker absconded with the bank's funds after the 1929 stock market crash.
- Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine (M) I wrote about my grandmother here. (H) I wrote about his great-great grandmother here.
- Have published a family history online or in print (Details please) (M) (H)
- Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries (M) (H)
- Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family (M) Not in this country, but as of 1991 cousins in Slovakia still lived in a home we think was the one my grandmother grew up in. (H) My husband's cousins have preserved the 18th c. home his great-grandmother was born in. It's hard to imagine a greater contrast between two homes. The one in Slovakia had dirt floors, minimal plumbing and was set on a small plot of land in a remote village in the Carpathian mountains. It was a breathtakingly beautiful spot, but clearly impoverished. The one in Virginia is a meticulously preserved colonial home, complete with gardens, still part of a working farm, set on a hill with sweeping views toward the Chesapeake Bay.
- Have a family bible from the 19th Century (H) An early 19th c. Bible is in the family, though we do not own it.
- Have a pre-19th century family bible
