Genealogy

[DeeBeeCreative]

I'm not one of those people who go 'hog wild' about finding my ancestors. I can't/won't pay for that. However, some years ago, I found a 'free' site where I could look for ancestors. I can't remember where or how I actually did it. But I do remember: I put in the name of a person (grandfather maybe) and then looked for 'his grandfather'--and so on. I found relatives back to the 1200's!  It turns out my ancestors came from England, Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, and Germany. 

 

I learned that one of my father's ancestors--John Stoops--came to the US from England and was a deacon in his church. That was the first of my ancestors to arrive here--as far as I know, for sure.

I was recently talking to my sister and helped her start an account at Family Search. So today I've been trying to organize the different folders of screenshots (of my family tree). It seems now, Family Search only has info back to the mid 1600's. I haven't been able to find the folders/screenshots of those early ancestors.  I have a feeling I may have lost them when one of my external hard drives died; I know I saved those screenshots. But  I'm still 'looking' and hoping to find the those. 

 However, my sister-in-law (husband's brother's wife) did go 'whole hog' and traced husband's family back a few hundred years. She actually gave me a large pile of printed out info. My husband isn't interested--and neither was I--so we never paid much attention to those. I think I put them in a file cabinet; but that was over ten years ago.

Anyway, as I was organizing things today, I found some interesting information.  It turns out that Helen Adams Keller (yes, the famous Helen Keller) was my 3rd cousin, 4 times removed.    I was happy to hear that. It balances the fact that one of my ancestors--infamously--was an instigator of the Salem witch trials.  I really don't like claiming that person as a relative!     

[Aggie]

As far as I know. I come from a line of Prussian draft dodgers. Then in 1946 went from 100 percent Prussian to 1/4 Polish.