The Genealogy Journey

To be honest, my Father’s side’s records are a bit hazy (my last name has no ethnic origin). My Mother’s side is a different situation.

Next this reflective paper will examine my personal family origin in relationship to family legacies, intergenerational transmission, loyalties, justice and

This semester, you will have the opportunity to construct a family genogram for informational purposes. You will develop a genogram, documenting information from both sides of your family (maternal and paternal) for 4 generations starting with yourself. The genogram may be hand drawn or you may use a computer drawn one. (You can download a basic program from www.genopro.com/free or from http://www.progenygenetics.com/students/ ) Your

I usually do one line of my mother's side, and once my road block was cleared of who my 3rd great grandfather's father was, that arrived in Canada via New York and Albany in August 1785, the line was very well documented in Clan and Peer books. Other lines are obscured with the lack of records when they arrived, born, married, lived and died all before regular census records. So the quilt has many holes.

In the story “No Snapshots in the Attic: A Granddaughter’s Search for a Cherokee Past” by Connie May Fowler is about a granddaughter who is determined to find out her heritage. She was unable to find any pictures or documentation of her family, from back then. She was searching for answers from unreliable sources. For example, her grandmother, that seemed ashamed of her culture. All she had to go on were stories that were told to her form her mother, and even that was not enough. She, then, stumbles upon her grandmother’s incomplete birth certificate, which was practically useless to her. Missing from the birth certificate were her great-grandparents’ names and her grandma’s social security number, which was a major part to her research. The

William, known as Bill, was born on July 20, 1921 in Minneapolis, MN. He worked in the plaster/stucco business for over 25 years before working at Northwest Airlines. His wife’s maiden name was Lorraine Mulcahy. Lorraine was born on August 13, 1922 in St. Paul, MN. Lorraine went to college at the University of Minnesota where she got her Bachelor of Science degree and became a dental hygienist. My grandma “Lo” is the genealogy nut in our family. She has searched for birthdates, marriage licenses, and other documents of her grandparents. I called grandma Lo to get some information on my great-grandparents and family stories. I found out I was part Norwegian and I never even knew it! Grandma Lo’s parents were Edward Mulcahy and Olga Shermoen. Her father Ed was born on April 15, 1880 in Minneapolis, MN. Ed worked as a claim agent for the Great Northern Railroad in the twin cities. Olga was born on March 15, 1888 in Hawley, MN. She also worked for the Great Northern Railroad as a matron. Edward was 100% Irish while Olga was 100% Norwegian. This makes my grandma Lorraine 50% Irish & 50% Norwegian. My grandpa Bill was adopted in Minneapolis so his genealogy is unknown. He was told by his adopted parents that he was mostly Irish. If we pretended Bill was 100% Irish, this would make my mom 75% Irish and 25% Norwegian.

At some point of our lives, we’ve all wondered who our ancestors are, and what might

This paper summarizes the ancestral immigartion of my primary paternal ancestors. The Thompson surname in itself traces its roots back to Reverend William Thompson (abt. 1598 to abt 1666). Within this paternal lineage are the surnames Willis, Meade, and Stevenson.

The turn of the 20th century was a time of great optimism and anxiety ("1900: A Year in the Life of America." - Genealogy.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Aug. 2015.). There were constant advancements in technology and new products being made all the time, making life much easier ("1900: A Year in the Life of America." - Genealogy.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Aug. 2015.). This better life attracted immigrants from all over ("1900: A Year in the Life of America." - Genealogy.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Aug. 2015.). Sadly, for many of them as well as natives, the only work they could get was mediocre with poor working conditions, long hours, and small paychecks ("1900: A Year in the Life of America." - Genealogy.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Aug. 2015.). The same can be said for the Nolan family from “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”. Francie Nolan, an Irish-American girl growing up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, doesn’t let her family’s poverty drag her down ("Analysis of Major Characters." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 19 Aug. 2015.). The story

I started a family, researching into genealogy last year. I found distant cousins through trees and Ancestry DNA. Jaguanana reached out to me on Ancestry our DNA predicted us 1st-2nd cousins by

History is defined as the study of the science of humanity in the past. It's a broad subject that spans over countless people groups throughout the years that the world has been around. Even before the times we have written word history was still being made, and it is still extremely important. We tend to forget that in our average day to day lives we are still making history. That all over the globe everyone is taking part in what might be in a history book someday.

U.S. accreditation regions: You are expected to have research experience in each state in the chosen region. It is recommended that a minimum of 80 hours be spent researching in the records of each state from the chosen region. International accreditation regions: You are expected to have research experience in 5 or more state type (province/shires etc.) divisions in the chosen region. You are expected to have research experience in a variety of record types in the chosen region. It is recommended that you have experience using 10 or more record types from the chosen region's list of recommended record types. It is expected that you will use at least 10 different repositories including Internet sites in your genealogical research. (Repositories include: archives, libraries, Internet sites, courthouses, etc.) An accredited genealogist is required to read and understand a variety of old documents.

This paper attempts to study the geneoligical lineage/origin of my family dating to the 7th generations.

One overarching principle in genealogy is to ask oneself: How do you know? Is that really Robinson Jacklin's dad? and then Why does it matter? Sometimes probability and statistics were employed when a degree of certainty needed to be established. (A threshold of the probability of there being another case with the same characteristics being less than 10-6 was chosen or roughly 4.75 σ for the more mathematical types. The reason for such a strict requirement is that I will need to apply it many times in studying a family or many families and I want and hope not to make a big identification error and hence reconstruct a story that is fictional.)

What is your method for making sure you have researched all records, leaving no stone (or brick) unturned? Do you have a checklist you consult? Is there a formula that has been ingrained in you due to education or instruction? However you choose to make sure your research is complete, you are performing a specific form of methodology known to genealogists the world over.