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Ancestry, Quite Interesting!

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PAUL161

PAUL161

Great Pumpkin
Silver
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The wife has, for the past month, been deep in researching the family history, so far, back to the 1500s. She found out that one of my great grandfathers, many times removed, was Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Graves, 1605 to 1653/4. Killed in the English channel by a Dutch fire ship. www.graveslightstation.com/about-graves-light-boston/thomas-graves-1605-1653/
Amazing what comes to light when you dig in to the past! Ironically, my wife is Holland Dutch. :highly_amused: PJ
 
Paul - that is *really* interesting to a history nut like me. Congrats on finding that story. It's amazing how "foggy legend" turns into detailed reality when we do the digging.

Your Admiral Graves was an early visitor to New England (1628) - so we may be related by blood or at least acquaintance. My namesake left Yorkshire and first settled in the Massachusetts Bay area in 1633.

Tom M.
 
Tom, We know, or have been told, that the city of York and the Saxons are buried in the family history somewhere. My daughter-in-laws uncle, Rodger Hewett a British subject, is a York historian. I haven't seen him in many years, but I remember I could set all day and listen to his stories. I have a ton of information on Roman architectural history and when they were in England. It was a passion in my earlier years. The family tree is expanding more than I ever expected. The wife is also researching her family history, the VanOrders of Holland, that should be interesting. PJ
 
Found out a few years ago from a second cousin doing the digging that my paternal side started in the US with a Scotsman. Came to the American continent in the late 1600's. The maternal side had been plotted out many years ago by mother's younger brother. That set of grandparents came through Ellis Island in 1915, from Italy. I'm just an uncouth mutt. :smirk:
 
DrEntropy said:
Found out a few years ago from a second cousin doing the digging that my paternal side started in the US with a Scotsman. Came to the American continent in the late 1600's. The maternal side had been plotted out many years ago by mother's younger brother. That set of grandparents came through Ellis Island in 1915, from Italy. I'm just an uncouth mutt. :smirk:
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:lol: Aren't we all Doc! :highly_amused: The wifes grand parents came through Ellis island also. PJ
 
Cool. My aunt has done EXTENSIVE genealogy on our family. We have a name of one of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower who is our direct ancestor, and several others that trace back to the same time frame. My last name traces back to Dutch settled in the Hudson River Valley prior to the revolution, and before that to Holland, and also French Hugonauts.
There is also a lot of British and some Irish in there. It's a surprisingly closed lineage with almost no recent immigrants in the line. there must have been something in the culture that kept older immigrant families away from more recent immigrants. My family lines in America almost all stretch back well before the Revolutionary War. My wife on the other hand is 3rd generation German on her dads side. Her Grandfather was a German native.
 
I was never particularly interested but have a cousin who did extensive research a few years ago. He discovered an entire book written about one branch of the family (by a family member, of course) that covered about 200 years of "hatchings, matchings, and dispatchings". We gradually translated it into English. The only notable event occurred about 300 years ago when an ancestor was killed in an outhouse explosion. There was no explanation. Probably just as well...
 
coldplugs said:
The only notable event occurred about 300 years ago when an ancestor was killed in an outhouse explosion. .
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No sh*t?! :jester:

seriously, mrs JP was recently contacted by a second cousin - he has catalogued 21,000 ancestors - on her mother's side. amazing. My mothers roots go back to the 1500's - also Huguenot.
 
I'm a first generation Canadian, both my parents came here from other countries and met here... My dad Russian and my mom British... I find that it's quite rare to find people here in Canada who have family that dates back to pre-1900, most have family that came here during various immigration waves of the 20th century...
 
Sherlock said:
I'm a first generation Canadian, both my parents came here from other countries and met here... My dad Russian and my mom British... I find that it's quite rare to find people here in Canada who have family that dates back to pre-1900, most have family that came here during various immigration waves of the 20th century...
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same here - My parents Dutch immigrants (though they met in Canada) Mrs JP's British - married knowing they were immigrating to Canada.
 
A great great aunt who passed on before I was born in the 50s traced much of the Davidson branch of the family going back to the 800s. I know one direct ancestor arrived in Jamestown VA in 1609. Earlier than that one arrived with the Norman invasion of England and was said to have been married to a daughter of William the Conqueror. And one more recent killed by refereeing a country shootin' contest when one shot clipped a tree. Found the 1880s obit online, nothing like modern death notices, nearly half a page long..
 
Trevor Triumph said:
My parents discovered that Dad's family were Hessians- paid by the British to shoot at my mom's family- colonial Virginians.
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Ouch - bet that put a damper on Thanksgiving :0 :)
 
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