Genealogy/Family History

[stilljugglin]

Anybody into researching their family tree? I've been doing it on a part-time basis for about 25 years.

[dgriffin]

I find that fascinating and I've sometimes looked at Rootsweb and the other genealogy sites. A old friend who is of Dutch descent once told me not to bother to research my Irish family because she said they never wrote anything down. But my cousin's son has had quite a bit of luck with it. But that's no doubt because after Ancestor Mike arrived in Utica in 1832, the family stayed put in the same church (St. John's) and the same cemetery (St. Agnes') until my generation began leaving in the early 1960's. My cousin hasn't had much luck back on the old sod, even though he hires a guy in County Cork from time to time to research public and church records in and around Fermoy. Research for Americans is a cottage industry in Ireland.

[stilljugglin]

Believe it or not, I have found that the internet has not been advantageous to my research. Actually, visiting the libraries, town clerks, cemetaries and historical societies in the towns where my ancestors lived was the best!
I can't say that I will give up on my Irish ancestors, even though I have had quite a time with them!! I'm mostly Irish, so I must keep trying!
One set of GGrandparents (McCaffrey/McCrea) have been hiding from me for years, but I will find them someday!

[dgriffin]

Jul 25, 2008 10:35:26 GMT -5 stilljugglin said:

Believe it or not, I have found that the internet has not been advantageous to my research. Actually, visiting the libraries, town clerks, cemetaries and historical societies in the towns where my ancestors lived was the best!!

I believe it. Every time I view records on the internet, it's obvious they're a very small portion of all the "hardcopy" information at the places you mention.

[Ralph]

My cousin has been doing this for the past 20-30n years as well.
Picked it up from where my uncle had left off years before.

Our family is of Irish/Welsh decent and my uncle had gotten the Irish side back to county Clare.

But he has wandered about every cemetery in NY over the last 20 years or so and says that the Internet is not always complete or factual in what he can find. Old hard copy records tend to be best, if they can even be found.
So many places have burned down or never kept adequate records to begin with.

Good luck to you though.

[dgriffin]

Jul 28, 2008 1:17:41 GMT -5 Ralph said:

But he has wandered about every cemetery in NY over the last 20 years or so

That reminds me of the time a number of years ago a guy I worked with perked up when I told him I was going up to visit folks in Utica.
I could save him a trip, he said, if I'd look through a small cemetery near Barneveld for a family name he was researching. I accepted the task, although I really didn't think I'd get around to it. However, that weekend I found myself with the kids and nothing to do for the afternoon, so we drove up to Mapledale Rd. and made a game out of finding the name in the small cemetery there. We didn't find it, but I guess that was useful information too.

[Clipper]

When my grandmother was getting quite old, and was the last of her brothers and sisters living, we took a trip to Quebec to take her "back to her roots" on last time. She had not been to Canada since she was a young woman. We went to a church in Notre Dame de Lasallete, Quebec, and traced the family lineage back several generations through baptism records. We also looked up some cousins of hers, and re-established contact with that side of the family. I was then able to spend summers on a dairy farm with cousins I never knew I had.

My dad had 1st cousins there and that was a relationship that was revived by the trip. We once attended a French Canadian wedding that would put an Irish wedding to shame. It lasted all weekend, and they had built an outdoor dance floor platform onto the farmhouse porch, that was about 40 0r 50 foot square. They killed a large pig and did a pig roast. There was 24 hour dancing and live music, and around the clock beer, whiskey and a constant flow of food. The only breaks were for the relatives to all go home and milk their cows and then they returned to the party and continued the festivities. We stayed in a motel, but there were about 10 campers, and several tents, of relatives from all over Canada. The whole damn farm was like a mini-woodstock for the three days, the day before the wedding, the day of, and the day after.
I still am in contact with cousins that have since left the farm, and work in Montreal. The farm is their summer place, and there are no longer cows or a working dairy there. My dads cousins are now gone or living in town.

Geneology is a great thing. The history of mother's side of the family is documented in a "family book." It is a hardcovered, professionally published book of their family history. It goes back to the 1700's in Normandy. My uncle has the book, and is in the process of updating it and writing a supplement to it, from the early 1900's to present. He is the only son on that side of the family, and he has one son that will carry on the name. My grandfather's brother had only one daughter, so my Uncle Jim, and my cousin are the true sole survivors able to carry on the name.

We have a very old cemetery here. I have wandered there a couple of times, reading the stones of civil war era folks, with historic significance to Bristol history. There is also a "slave cemetery" which until recent times was sadly neglected and overgrown. In the last few years, the black community and others have restored it, and cleaned it up. There are stones there that go back to the early 1800's.

I met a black lady one day, while wandering around the slave cemetery. We talked for quite a while, and she told me that she had journals that were written by a distant ancestor, who was the only slave able to read and write in the area at the time. She is in the process of trying to have the journals copied, and the originals, restored and preserved, as they are in a very fragile and brittle condition. Her intent is to compile the journals into a book for publication. She is a school teacher, and a prominent member of the local community. She said she would contact me when she had the journals in a condition where they could be safely read, without danger of falling apart.

Well, I guess I have gone on a rambling expedition again. Sorry to carry on, haha.

[rickolney]

Jul 28, 2008 7:52:08 GMT -5 @dgriffin said:

Jul 28, 2008 1:17:41 GMT -5 Ralph said:

But he has wandered about every cemetery in NY over the last 20 years or so

That reminds me of the time a number of years ago a guy I worked with perked up when I told him I was going up to visit folks in Utica.
I could save him a trip, he said, if I'd look through a small cemetery near Barneveld for a family name he was researching. I accepted the task, although I really didn't think I'd get around to it. However, that weekend I found myself with the kids and nothing to do for the afternoon, so we drove up to Mapledale Rd. and made a game out of finding the name in the small cemetery there. We didn't find it, but I guess that was useful information too.

My wife's mother and her family members are buried in that little cemetary, Dave.

I actually am knee deep in planning and pulling off a Family Picnic that is pulling in distant cousins from around the State the 17th of August. I'm my generation's family history person. I have a cousin and her mother that are into it also, but they never share much of what they gather or any photos. This will be our 2nd attempt at this type of family gathering.

Far as who lived where and of any note, my family can be traced back to the village of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England. And please, no pancake jokes. I've heard them all. Like many white anglo saxon protestant based families ... ours had a castle, the remnants still standing. We also have a family crest.


Our earliest known history reads like a comic book or swashbuckling movie from the 1930-40 period. Family of note to the King of England suffers indignity upon accusations of witchcraft and magic. Good bye, old country! Hello, new world!

Then there is Thomas Olney, an early settler of Rhode Island, and crucial to what helped Rhode Island become a State eventually.

Thomas Olney, born in England before 1605 and died Providence, RI between 16 June 1682. His son is called "Jr." and 9 October 1682, when his inventory was taken. He was a shoemaker by trade. This is borne out by his inventory, which included considerable numbers of shoemaking materials. And, who, for whatever reason settled in Salem, MA where their third son, Nebabiah, was baptized in 1637. In that year there were five persons in Thomas Olney's family and he received three acres in the Salem land grant. He was also made Freeman that year. Thomas' ability and competence were soon recognized, for by 27 4mo 1637, he was selected as a member of the jury to hear cases in the Essex Quarterly Courts.

The family's sojourn in Salem was short; they were among those invited to leave the MA Bay Colony, and they moved to Providence, RI in 1638, where Thomas rose to a position of importance in the tiny colony.

And later -- Simeon Olney, who led the attack against, and the burning thereof the hated British revenue schooner, HMS Gaspee, by Rhode Island patriots in 1772.

Another later relative Nelson R. Chandler was one of the original group of Adirondack guides. Chandler's distinction was that he became Theodore Roosevelt's personal guide on hunting and fishing trips into the Adirondack region before roads and many of the trails existed. This was during pretty much all of Roosevelt's life in politics. He had been a NYC councilman, a Senator, and then the 26th President of the United States. He hunted and fished with my grandpa Chandler during much of that time.

Nelson Chandler was the grandfather of my paternal grandfather, Nelson R. Olney. My granddad was a Mason, a Shriner, a personal friend, hunting & fishing pal to Alexander Pirnie, and to John T. McKennan, along with being the gun safety instructor for the UPD and other area police agencies. He also coached and led the UPD Competitive Pistol Team to several championship wins back in the late 1930s-50s.

I love delving into my family history! I just learned and now have proof of who the father to my great grandfather, Archie Olney was! Archie was a lovable scallywag, who had a canal boat that ran the entire length of the canal system and then some. He was my granddad's father. I also just learned that I was mistaken in thinking that there had only been 3 sons born to Elva Chandler Olney and Archie. Seems that they both lived in the Toronto, Canada area for a time and (with help) I've found three other children, each born and having died at very young ages due to illness.

Sometimes what you find isn't always good news.

[frankcor]

I also thought it ironic that Rhode Island was founded by people who were seeking religious freedom from people who were seeking religious freedom (Pilgrims). It's interesting to learn now that some of them were Olneys.

[rickolney]

Yes sir!

I guess back then when the King's minions, for whatever reason, accused a person or strain within a family of uncommon religious practices --which isn't meant to define the craft of witchery or magic, necessarily -- it's a good idea to leave before the villagers start stocking up on marshmellows, if you know what I'm saying.

Although, I always did find that curious about Salem being the 'go-to' place. Heh, heh...

[stilljugglin]

Clipper and Rick,
You are lucky to have all that info and all those memories!

"Sometimes what you find isn't always good news."

Yes - we have to keep an eye out for "root rot"!! And that's okay with me - I know that nobody is perfect, not even my ancestors!!

[rickolney]

Aug 1, 2008 11:25:42 GMT -5 stilljugglin said:

Clipper and Rick,
You are lucky to have all that info and all those memories!

"Sometimes what you find isn't always good news."

Yes - we have to keep an eye out for "root rot"!! And that's okay with me - I know that nobody is perfect, not even my ancestors!!

Well, Stilljugglin, I've had a little help over the last handful of years by a distant cousin in researching some of the stuff. It is true that every family is lucky if they have any knowledge of their past or roots. There are not as many people interested in it as one might think.

I've been writing a family book that I started back in 2000. Yeah, I've put it down a few times over the years. I'm nearly finished with it finally though. Planning to publish it through Xlibris. I also have the 8mm family films from the early 1950s to mid 1970s that my dear Dad took at all the various family and other special events transferred from real to DVD. It is fantastic what computer software can do in pulling one-of-a-kind still images from that 8mm film printing pictures wise. Amazing.

We're including a set of the DVD's with copies of the book for our family members and the various close friends and their surviving families. Every family is getting a complimentary copy of the 'package' if they're in the DVDs. My way of putting more closure to losing my parents and honoring their memory.

And, if I didn't post this earlier -- I now know who my great grandfather's father was. So I have to build that information into the family manuscript.

[stilljugglin]

Sounds like an awesome project Rick! Keep up the good work! I know that your descendants will appreciate it!

[rickolney]

Thanks. Every time I get close to the finishing touches another 'discovery' comes to the forefront and I'm left thinking it has to be mentioned in a small chapter of its own.

Like just this last weekend, we had a large family picnic. Since I last participated in your message thread here I've learned another link that substantiates that the Olney family came originally to this area of upstate New York as ONE family. We had an ancestor on the Mayflower, although her last name wasn't Olney. Many years later, William Floyd married a 3rd or 4th cousin of the Boonville Olney's and that connected our family with the Westernville Olney clan. My own grandparents were 3rd cousins that intermarried. That was acceptable back in the days before the 1900s. I have not yet figured out where (former Mayor of Poland) Stephen Olney (who I've met yaers back when he was with the O.C. Planning Dept.) is related, but I can see the strong visual family resemblance in his facial features. We're also related to the Folt's & Vale families of the Herkimer County, Cold Brook and thereabouts area. At one time my grandfather had the LARGEST potato and vegetable farm in Woodgate, New York. He grew pumpkins, carrots, and all kinds of veggies. That all dates back from the 40s into early 1960s. So yeah, Genealogy/Family History is a big thing with me.

[stilljugglin]

Hey Rick,
I can't believe I haven't been here since August! Well, much has been happening and things have finally quieted down, so...
How DID your family party go? Did you get a lot of family members and lots of good pictures??
It sure sounds like you've been a busy researcher!
I ended up getting a new laptop with Vista and decided to purchase new genealogy software. Went with Legacy and boy, have I spent some hours playing around with it! I was able to easily import the .gedcom file, but had to do some tweaking. Great software, though! What do you use?