A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Memories that last a lifetime, photos of family are the treasures of the past. I'm sure you have heard the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words", but for a family historian seeking photos of family members, long gone is really a dream come true.


Have you ever been into an antique store and seen framed photos and wonder who they may have belonged to? There have to be memories linked to such things. Maybe you have seen old photo albums, silver framed photos that are now probably tarnished and could use some extra loving care. Vintage clothing? An old wedding dress or a child's antique toy? I love going into antique stores even if it's just to look at all the things that may have been cherished by a person in a bygone era. Going into these shoppes, have you ever wondered if you were passing up a good find? What if one of those photo albums that was displayed, was a part of your family history and you just never thought to really look at it? I'm not talking about merely glancing through the images, but really looking at the pictures, looking for names and dates and so on. Are you willing to walk away and just forget about these artifacts of the past? I don't think I could!


As a family historian myself, it would be a dream come true to find such a priceless, prized possession! Even if the album or photo didn't have my particular family history attached to to it, I would want to seek out the person that it may have rightfully belonged to. How did it not get passed down through the families generations? How did it end up in an antique store to begin with? 


Personally, I would love to have one of my grandmothers older photo albums, an old journal, love letters, her wedding dress, or any other type of memorabilia from her past. It's all about staying connected to her in a much more personal way even though she has already passed. Today, people take such things for granted and consider something like this as just old junk that should be tossed away or donated. 


Try visiting an antique store in your area, take a look around and see all the lost items of our ancestors past.


I found a website that caters to finding these gems of the past and would like to share it with you!
Check this site out and let me know if you found something :)


Abby's Buy And Sell Genealogy


Image Source:
ImageZoo.Shopping At An Antique Store. (Online Image) Available at http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/77377764/Imagezoo
 Image # 77377764

Read More

Your Genetic Genealogy~ Is It As Accurate As You Think?

Good morning and Aloha! 
It has been breezy but also rainy here on Oahu this morning and it makes for great sleeping weather, so what am I doing up? It's 9 a.m. that's why; I cant sleep in like my husband can, he can sleep through a tsunami! If I were only that lucky...but anyway, I have been wondering about the accuracy of DNA in our genealogy. 

Image Source:

DNA Genetics

How do we know this is truly accurate, as DNA is taken from the living, not the dead? The genetic genealogy tests can be expensive, depending on your own economic standpoint. So just how great is this anyway? I've been reading up on several different articles that pertain to this topic and in my opinion, I wouldn't waste my time or money on something that isn't 110% accurate. I'm not saying that a person shouldn't do this type of testing, if it leads them to finding their missing links in their families history. By all means, go for it if that's what you want to do. I am merely expressing my own opinion. After reading the following article, I became a little skeptical. There are many companies offering these types of services that promise to trace your lineage through means of a DNA test, whether it's paternal or maternal, the price goes up depending on your needs. Read this article from another blogger, who seems to have done her research and then let me know whether you think this type of test is something you would do. 


Genetic Genealogy Blog




To My Readers: Have you tried this sort of testing to trace your ancestral roots? Did you have any success? Please post your success stories! Below is a company offering this type of service. What do you think?


DNA Ancestry Project

Read More

Family Stories That May Be Lost Forever

Thank you Ancestry.com! I have made contact with family members I didn't even know existed. By researching the Cornett/ Sutherland heritage on the web site, I have connected with others who are researching the same family as I am and what do you know? They're actually family. This is very exciting! The branches of my tree have become so tangled and intertwined, but in such a good way. What a great way to share data gathered through web sites such as Ancestry, and being able to share that knowledge with your own family, is priceless.

Image Source: Family Stories

Photo Credit: Andrew Bret Wallis

I was just talking to my oldest son, John, who was recently asking about our ancestry. He has become somewhat curious about who his relations were back in the "old days". I was so excited that he even asked, that I think I may have bored him with my rantings of our family tree and what I had found so far. When I was his age, I "tuned out" my family when I heard the stories of ancestors past. Now I'm kicking myself for not paying attention! I went into my own little world of music and television so I didn't have to listen to boring stories that related to history of people I never even knew. Today, I really wished I had recorded their stories in some way. Now that the older generations in my family have passed on to a better place, there is no way I can get that history, or even the stories back. The stories seem to have died with them. 

Family stories casually chatted about at the dinner table, or told again and again at family gatherings can parallel great epics or notable short stories. The memorable stories of our lives and of others in our family take on special importance because they are true, even if everyone tells different versions of the same event. These tales are family heirlooms held in the heart not in the hand.


So knowing that I lost those memories forever, how do I continue my research into a quest for family stories that relate to my family? Any suggestions?

Read More

The Mystery of My Grayson Family Heritage~ Will It Unfold or Be Untold?

This past week has been all about making new contacts that would eventually help me in researching my Cornett ancestry and understanding exactly who they were. I found a connection and a book entitled, "Bicentennial Heritage Grayson County, Virginia 1793", which was published in 1995 by the Grayson County Bicentennial Foundation. This book is no longer in print, unless you are lucky enough to have a copy of it in your possession already.

Image Source

Grayson Seal

My "connection" has sent to me, parts of this book as they relate to the Sutherland /Cornett families and myself. Just scanning through these pages, I'm  thinking that my new "connection" might in actuality be related to me in some way, not just through the Sutherland lines, but also through the Cornett family too. How exciting is that? Finding a family member that has been researching the same families lineage that I am; I am super excited to read through these papers more. There are several pages of Cornett names and their ranks listed on both the American Revolutionary War and the Civil War pages. 


There is still the mystery that surrounds Alexander Sutherland (Southerland) and his wife, Margaret Elizabeth Bryan. Who were they really? What were their hobbies? Did Alexander like to hunt like most men back then? In what year did he move to Virginia from Scotland? What kind of life did they live? Will I ever find out who Alexander really was? So many questions, so few answers.


In my past posts, you've read about Alexander and his role in the British Army. I think I read somewhere that he was 2nd Lieutenant. But don't quote me on that just yet! He has been the most intriguing family member I have researched so far; probably because there are so many different views from so many other people, that the truth has yet to be documented. Alexander Sutherland is a true mystery; one that I hope I can solve one day. 

Read More

Tips For Surname Research

When researching surnames in your family ancestry, here is some good advice.


(1) Get documentation beginning with your parents and work your way backwards. Be absolutely sure of the first three generations, which are easily documented, before going back farther.

(2) Treat all siblings equally, along with their spouses. Don't just gather information about your direct ancestors.

(3) Get accurate locations for every event in their lives, including township, county, state or province, etc. and always give that information when posting queries.

(4) Find every possible family member in every possible census and make a timeline showing where they lived and when.

(5) Post a query to any forum or board giving full names, dates and locations for each generation, including all siblings and their spouses. This will help out in the long run, so researchers or volunteers know what to search for.

(6) Use any information found online or posted in response to your query as a *clue* and always go back to primary sources. Don't believe everything you see online. Never add unsourced information (online family trees are NOT sources) to your database until you have sourced the info.


Surname Database ~ Search For Yours Today!
 
Image Source: Photographer: VisionsOfAmerica/Joe Sohm


Hoping everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!

Read More

Genealogy- My Passion My Obsession

Thousands of people around the globe are in search of their ancestors all the time. As for myself, it has become a daily routine. My blog is the first place I go, then I'll look at my family tree and decide who I would like to research and how far back in history I may be interested enough to do research on. I like genealogy and history both, but by no means am I a professional researcher. I only research for myself. It's a hobby of mine and the more I get myself involved, the more I want to learn. Genealogy is probably one of the most popular hobbies that people get into. That's just my opinion though. Just think about it, who wouldn't want to know where their family originally came from? Were they related to someone famous, from so long ago? For all I know, I could be related to some King or something! Hmmm..King Knut? Not too sure yet, but it's always fun to investigate and dig deeper into the history. Don't you think so? It's almost like those C.S.I. guys and I'm the investigator with a new case profile to find data on! Just kidding. I was getting too excited about the topic of genealogy again wasn't I?

Image Source

http://www.belleandrollo.ie/

I recently visited the U.S.S. Missouri in Pearl Harbor, on Memorial Day to be exact, and let me tell you, that ship had so much history behind it. It intrigued me so much that in the back of my mind I'm thinking, "Did one of my family members ever board this ship? Sleep in those bunks with the woolen blankets? Did they stand in the Truman line waiting for their meal?

What starts out as a curiosity can quickly lead to a new found obsession when it comes to genealogy research. You may just want to satisfy your own curiosity as to who you are and where you may have come from. But there are other good reasons for taking up this subject too. You may have children who will one day be just as inquisitive as you are now. What will you tell them? They need to be given a sense of who they are too, where they may have come from and how they lived their lives and what they went through during that time period. You may want to preserve cultural traditions and share them as a family. Another good reason would be medical history in your family. A family member may have had an inherited disease or disorder and you never would have known unless you researched it! Whatever reason you choose, it's very interesting to find out just who you are. 

Genealogy is like a huge puzzle, just waiting for you to put the right pieces in place! Let the journey BEGIN!

Read More

Climbing Up The Family Tree

Aloha Kakahiaka or Good Morning! It is a beautiful morning here in the islands today. I made my move several months ago, and couldn't be happier. To be sitting outside with my laptop, cup of coffee in hand and my research, it is the perfect atmosphere to add to the Cornett blog. Don't you think? The breeze from the beach makes it quite comfortable and has put me in the mood to talk about anything I want. But mainly as this blog is more focused on the genealogy side of things, that's what my focus will be on; at least for now. :)

So I searched on my family tree and just picked someone random, that, as it turns out happens to be a very interesting individual. His name is Sir Frederick Tilney, Sir Knight of Ashwellthorpe; he was my 13th G-grandfather. Whew! That was a long name, I'm so glad I don't have to carry a title along with my name in today's world. How do you think our family lived back in that time, about 700 years ago? It must have been pretty cool! Television glamorizes everything in the movies, like Troy, but wouldn't it be great just to live in Renaissance times, if only for a day?

The Renaissance period was from the years 1350-1600! 700 years was a long time ago and happens to be the period from which Sir Frederick Tilney was born into. So with that said, let's begin our journey!

Sir Frederick Tilney, Sir Knight of Ashwellthorpe was born about 1416 of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, England and died in the year 1447 at the age of 31. He married Elizabeth Cheney of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire, England. Exact marriage date is unknown, so far as my research to date. Sir Frederick's parents were Sir Philip Tilney and Isabel Thorpe. From what my research says, their daughter was also named Elizabeth! She was Lady Elizabeth Bourchier Tilney; so how is that for some name confusion? When searching for your ancestral roots, it becomes confusing to realize who you are researching when both the mother and the daughter have the same first name!

I've seen several web sites that state that Sir Frederick and his wife Elizabeth, had 4 children altogether, I'm not sure how true this is; I have also seen the supposed children's names also listed as Frederick's brothers.

Sources:


Sir Frederick Tilney, Sir Knight of Ashwellthorpe




How I am related to Sir Frederick Tilney   

Read More