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Topic: OT - Weird History

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SFBadger96

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4550 on: March 27, 2025, 02:40:27 PM »
On both my mom's and dad's side of the family, we can trace our ancestors in the United States back about 400 years. My last name (and direct ancestors) have been here since the 1600s (from England), and same for my maternal grandmother's family (Scotland). My maternal grandfather's family (my mom's maiden name) came in the early 1800s, also from what would become Germany, through Ohio. My great grandfather moved the family to California in the 1920s. My dad's parents moved him from Columbus, Ohio (my paternal grandfather was from Minneapolis) to San Diego in the 1950s. 

On my wife's side, her father's family (her maiden name) also traces back to the early 1600s (the aughts) in Maine (also from England), but her paternal grandmother came from England as an immigrant in the early 20th century, and her mother's side immigrated from Slovakia and Poland through Ellis Island also at the beginning of the 20th century. In a lot of ways, I find that history more compelling than the lineage that goes way, way back in the U.S. But each are interesting in their own way. Most of both sides of our family are Yankees, but my maternal grandmother's family was Virginian until the 1800s. Her great grandfather (I think that's the right number of greats) was born in Virginia, but fought for the Union as a naval officer assigned to a ship in the Great Lakes. Some interesting stories there, including why on earth we had naval vessels on the Great Lakes during the war. After the war, the navy moved the family west to California (I think in the 1880s). From a California perspective, we are relative oldtimers--with mom's family here before 1900, and dad coming here in the 1950s. Of course, having an old Virginian family means a history that includes slavery, which feels icky, but is also part of the nation's history. We proudly highlight the Virginian serving for the Union, but we weren't the people making those decisions, we're just the descendants. 

And--of course--along the way there have been a whole lot of branches with different geneology. I find it all moderately interesting, but I've left it to other family members who are much more interested in it to dig deep. It's good to know where we are from. But we are all here now. :-)

medinabuckeye1

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4551 on: March 27, 2025, 02:43:20 PM »
So if we assume that was 250 years ago, subtract your age (50), that's 200 years.  Given that your ancestors double every generation, and average 25 years between ancestors (probably too much time but nice round number), I assume you have 8 sets of Great-Great-Great (to the 8th degree obviously) grandparents, which makes for 16 total ancestors.  So out of 16 ancestors, 15 of them were already here prior to 1776?  That's pretty impressive. 

I've traced back some of my family history.  It seems were mostly from England, pretty vanilla stuff.  Many of them came over in the 1850's and landed in Galveston.  A few served in the civil war.  Many settled and stayed in Texas.  A few are from TN area, Georgia, and other places in the SE.  I really don't know much about them to tell you the truth.  A lot of Williams and James in the family name. 
Not exactly but yes in general.  

The one exception takes up two or four slots in the "250 years ago" list and there are a few that I simply haven't been able to trace that far back yet.  However, I assume that they were pre-Revolution arrivals because I can get back close to the Revolution and at that time they weren't remotely close to the coast as recent arrivals would tend to be.  

I had ancestors on the Mayflower.  This is a funny story:
Stephen Hopkins is my (a bunch of greats) Grandfather.  He was the ONLY Mayflower passenger with prior New World Experience as he had been at Jamestown and was a witness at Pocahontas' wedding to John Rolfe.  Hopkins returned to England in 1614 to care for his children due to the death of his wife while he was away in the New World.  

Hopkins wasn't a Puritan but when the Puritan Pilgrims were preparing to sail in 1620 they hired him to come along due to his prior experience in North America.  I claim that my ancestor ran the first bar in North America because (as a non-Puritan) he ran what was then called an "Ordinary" but would later be called an Inn, Alehouse, or tavern.  He was cited and fined by the Puritans on several occasions for his activities.  

Stephen's son Giles Hopkins was also a passenger on the Mayflower and Giles is my (one less great) Grandfather.  Giles was a boy of about 12 or 13 years old aboard the Mayflower and, unlike Stephen, was not a signatory to the Mayflower Compact due to his youth.  

I also have one ancestor who was born in Ireland after the Revolution but her parents were born in North America before the Revolution.  They were Quakers and it appears that the parents had travelled to Ireland on some kind of Missionary or fundraising trip, had a daughter while they were there, then returned to North America.  That branch is odd because they WERE here prior to the Revolution but then they returned to Europe (I have only a vague idea for how long) then they were back in North America by the time that daughter got married.  With this type of geological research all I generally have is the dates and locations of births, marriages, and deaths so in this case:
  • I know that the parents were born in North America before the Revolution.  
  • I know that the parents got married in North America after the Revolution (so they were kids during the war).  
  • I know that their daughter was born in Ireland.  
  • I know that the daughter was married in North America.  

There is about an 18 year gap between 1&2 and I assume that they stayed in North America that whole time but I have no evidence.  

There is a relatively short gap between #2 and #3 so I can surmise that they travelled to Ireland sometime during that gap but that is as close as I can get.  

There is about an 18 year gap between #3 and #4 and I have no way of knowing when during that time she travelled to North America.  

847badgerfan

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4552 on: March 27, 2025, 03:00:25 PM »
Family history isn't much of thing with me. I'm adopted.

I know they were German, and not married, but that's all I know.
U RAH RAH! WIS CON SIN!

medinabuckeye1

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4553 on: March 27, 2025, 03:04:17 PM »
On both my mom's and dad's side of the family, we can trace our ancestors in the United States back about 400 years. My last name (and direct ancestors) have been here since the 1600s (from England), and same for my maternal grandmother's family (Scotland). My maternal grandfather's family (my mom's maiden name) came in the early 1800s, also from what would become Germany, through Ohio. My great grandfather moved the family to California in the 1920s. My dad's parents moved him from Columbus, Ohio (my paternal grandfather was from Minneapolis) to San Diego in the 1950s.

On my wife's side, her father's family (her maiden name) also traces back to the early 1600s (the aughts) in Maine (also from England), but her paternal grandmother came from England as an immigrant in the early 20th century, and her mother's side immigrated from Slovakia and Poland through Ellis Island also at the beginning of the 20th century. In a lot of ways, I find that history more compelling than the lineage that goes way, way back in the U.S. But each are interesting in their own way. Most of both sides of our family are Yankees, but my maternal grandmother's family was Virginian until the 1800s. Her great grandfather (I think that's the right number of greats) was born in Virginia, but fought for the Union as a naval officer assigned to a ship in the Great Lakes. Some interesting stories there, including why on earth we had naval vessels on the Great Lakes during the war. After the war, the navy moved the family west to California (I think in the 1880s). From a California perspective, we are relative oldtimers--with mom's family here before 1900, and dad coming here in the 1950s. Of course, having an old Virginian family means a history that includes slavery, which feels icky, but is also part of the nation's history. We proudly highlight the Virginian serving for the Union, but we weren't the people making those decisions, we're just the descendants.

And--of course--along the way there have been a whole lot of branches with different geneology. I find it all moderately interesting, but I've left it to other family members who are much more interested in it to dig deep. It's good to know where we are from. But we are all here now. :-)
I don't have any Ellis Island history to compare to but I'd also find that equally interesting. 

My connection to the Civil War is MOSTLY on the Union side.  My mom's ancestors were mostly Quakers and they were all anti-slavery.  However, they were also pacifists.  My great-great Grandfather Joshua DeWees and his brother Caleb basically told the Quakers that slavery wasn't going to end by them talking about ending it in the meetinghouse, it was only going to end by force so they joined the Union Army.  Both were excommunicated.  <- that isn't actually true, "excommunicate" is a Catholic term and they were Quakers, known as the "Society of Friends" so I always say that (dad joke warning) they were "unfriended", LoL.  See what I did there. 

Joshua was in the 97th OVI (Ohio Volunteer Infantry) and survived the war.  His son Joseph was my great-grandfather.  Joseph's daughter Helen was my Grandmother (1909-2012) and her daughter Joyce (1944-) is my mother.  Caleb was not so lucky, he was in the 73rd OVI and is buried at Gettysburg near where he died on July 3, 1863.  He was a silent witness to a rather famous speech* made by President Lincoln at the dedication of the Cemetery where he is buried.  Within said speech, Lincoln said that History could "never forget what they (including Caleb) did here." 

I also had a bunch Pennsylvanian Civil War veteran ancestors on my dad's side but the other half of my dad's side was from Georgia so I had ancestors on both sides of multiple battles during the Civil War. 

*I've always found it hilarious that one of history's most famous and memorized speeches starts out with the line:  "History will little note nor long remember what we say here." 

Edit to add:
Attached is a picture of Joshua DeWees' Civil War service record. I learned from a historian that he most likely paid to have this done (in 1899) because he needed it to claim his Civil War pension. This copy hangs in my office today.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2025, 03:09:59 PM by medinabuckeye1 »

SFBadger96

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4554 on: March 27, 2025, 03:47:00 PM »
I had one of my best Army buddies over for dinner about a year ago, along with his wife and a couple of their kids. We have a family tree from SFIrish's side of the family, tracing the family name back to the early days in Maine, hanging in our dining room. This friend--and his wife--are politically pretty different from us, but--as humans do--around the dinner table we found many of the things that connect us, and bonded over them; not least our shared experiences so many years ago--and what they led to after we split ways. Commenting on the family tree, his wife said something at once very simple and also profound: how each of those people on that piece of paper lived their own life with all the joys and troubles that came with it. As little as we know about most of them, we are all so similar.

As frustrating as people can be, most of us are basically the same. We love our families and our friends, we want more, we love and laugh about things that cost nothing, we suffer, we celebrate, and we want "things" to get better, but we endure what we have. That's true regardless of where we are from.

medinabuckeye1

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4555 on: March 27, 2025, 03:51:12 PM »
My dad's parents moved him from Columbus, Ohio (my paternal grandfather was from Minneapolis) to San Diego in the 1950s.
You'll get a kick out of this:
My dad had an all-expenses paid three-year trip to Southern California from 1958-1961 courtesy of the United Stated Marine Corps.  When my family (Dad, Mom, Brother, and I) went to the 1997 Rose Bowl, dad took us to see the base he had been stationed at from 58-61 (Twentynine Palms).  In December, 1996 Twentynine Palms was an EXTREMELY busy base with not only USMC but also Army and Air Force Personnel training for desert warfare.  

Dad was amazed at how much the base had expanded.  When he was in the Service, the US Military was mostly preparing to fight WWIII in the Fulda Gap.  Consequently, they had little need for Desert Warfare preparation so although Twentynine Palms was geographically huge, it was VERY sparsely populated.  My dad's unit was stationed there only because they were an 8" Howitzer Artillery unit and Twentynine Palms was one of the few bases large enough to actually shoot their guns.  

As anyone with even a cursory knowledge of history knows, the Korean War ended in 1953 and Vietnam (although we had some people there MUCH earlier) didn't really heat up until 1965 so my dad always said that he "played cops and robbers in the desert for three years".  Basically, they shot at rocks.  Seriously, they would set up the gun and a forward observer would attempt to calculate the correct solution to hit a particular rock somewhere in the desert a number of miles away from the gun then they would make the requisite corrections until they hit said rock, then pick a new rock and start all over.  All of this was practice not just for the gunnery officers but for everyone.  Everyone was doing the functions that they would need to do in an actual war, just without the other side shooting back since the rocks were conveniently unarmed.  

My dad had a number of jobs including Military Truck Driver (because ammunition is EXTREMELY heavy so an artillery unit has a LOT of truck drivers) and he was an MP (Brig Chaser as they were called) for a while.  He once told me that his favorite job was that he was the driver for a Forward Observer.  As he explained this job I both understood why it was great in peacetime and why it would SUCK if the rocks could shoot back.  In this role he (17-19 years old) drove a VERY junior officer (usually a 22 yr old 2nd Lt) out to some spot from which they could see the target.  Then dad just basically hung out while the young officer called in coordinates and corrections until the rock was suitably destroyed.  In peacetime this meant that my dad and the young officer who were about the same age were basically just hanging out without the usual military discipline.  In peacetime it was a great job.  In wartime this job had a life-expectancy measured in hours because the observers had to have line-of-sight to the target and obviously if you can see them, they can see you.  Worse, they know EXACTLY what you are doing and, worse yet, if they take you out, they don't have to worry about the gun because it will be blind.  

Anyway, after his time in the USMC, my dad managed Rental Property and eventually bought his own Rental Property here in Ohio.  He once talked about the fact that if he had done this in SoCal instead of Ohio . . .  Well, lets just say that Property values in SoCal increased a LOT more between 1960 and 2000 than they did in Ohio.  

MikeDeTiger

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4556 on: March 27, 2025, 03:55:01 PM »
That is cool! 

If you are a history buff like me...

I'm pretty crap at European history, and I would've never spotted the problem you detailed.  

I want to clarify one thing I said earlier, the part where I said we don't know much beyond the couple of details I listed about the first one of our name here.  What I should have said is that while we know quite a bit about his life in Louisiana, we knew very little about his life before coming here, i.e., where in England was he from, why did he leave, what was his background and his family's background, etc.  His life in southwest Louisiana is actually well-documented for its time.  He kept a detailed diary, and that diary is today held by one of the historical societies in the area and is considered one of the main primary documents for the history of Lake Charles, LA.  Most interesting is that he became the first school teacher in the parish (county, for all you non-Louisianans), which is kinda cool.  His son married the daughter of another southwest Louisiana man (who would also be my ancestor, though not of the same name) who fought at the Alamo in 1836.  Which has always been bizarre to me, because I don't know the story there at all.....like, why did this guy pick up and go to San Antonio and battle for Texas independence?  We don't know.  But his name is on the wall at the Alamo, and I've always scratched my head in bewilderment as to what that Louisiana-boy was up to.  

Maybe that's why I've lived in Texas so much.....being drawn to TX is just in my blood :)

To SFBadger's point about stuff we're not proud of....   I mentioned we never knew much about the school-teacher's life prior to coming here, and there were always some hints that perhaps he fell out with his family and got cut off from them.  Perhaps he decided to go elsewhere and make a new life, who knows.  There were also more than hints that some other stuff to not be proud of lurked in his past.  After the research my cousins did on him, the details are a little filled-in but still sketchy, but also the lost family members in California we've found through the miracle of Facebook had more verbal history to offer.  It's still a lot of speculation on my part, so I hesitate to even put it out there, but filling in some gaps with my own best guesses, my theory is that he worked for his dad in something to do with the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  I believe his father and perhaps he himself transported and sold slaves, and I hope I'm not incorrectly impugning their activities.  Some kind of family falling out happened, and ties were cut and he settled in Louisiana.  The "California cousins," who are black, believe he either married or attempted to marry a black woman, and that solves the mystery I always had of why there are black and white families with this odd English name, are we actually related, and if so, how far back do you have to go to find where that happened?  Although a couple I talked to believe that it was darker case of an owner forcing himself on a slave.  Yet others in both CA and LA think there was no blood relation and that slaves who were later freed just took the name of their owners.  So getting back to "Theory A," that relationship ended, for whatever reason, after which he married a white Louisiana woman, and that's where we come from.  There are a couple of reasons there he and his dad might have fallen out, if indeed they fell out. 

If I'm right about any of that, then like SF said, it's icky.....but.....there's also not anything to do about it.  Whatever happened, happened, and as SF says, here we all are.  

medinabuckeye1

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4557 on: March 27, 2025, 04:28:42 PM »
we knew very little about his life before coming here, i.e., where in England was he from, why did he leave, what was his background and his family's background, etc.  
I think it is pretty unusual to have more than guesses at these things.  In most cases I only know that a certain ancestor was born in a certain town in England on a certain date and got married ~18 years later somewhere in Massachusetts or whatever.  So I can narrow down the time of the trip to somewhere in the ~18 years between when they were born in England and when they got married in "Plymouth Colony, British Colonial America" but I don't even know if they came by themselves as a young adult or if they were brought along by their parents unless I can find burial records for the parents which will tell me whether or not they came.  The "why did he leave" is even more obscure.  I think we all just tend to assume it was for "Opportunity" or "Adventure" but realistically there were a lot who came here because they were in some sort of trouble or had a falling out with family or whatever.  

Like Jimmy Buffet said in Banana Republics:  
"Some of them are running from lovers, leaving no forward address.
Some are running tons of ganja, some are running from the IRS."  

So yeah, it is pretty much all guesswork when you are trying to figure out WHY some remote ancestor whom nobody you know ever even met decided to pack up and leave England (or wherever) many centuries ago.  

My ancestor from "Germany" is a great example.  Here are the facts that I know (I had to go open my ancestry database):
  • Catherine Roop, born ~1807 in "Germany".  My note says "Birth year and place are from 1850 census.  Husband is NOT listed in that b/c he died in 1848.  Her daughter (my ancestor) IS listed in her household in 1850 as an 18 yr old.  In 1850 living at Perry, Montgomery County, Ohio).  
  • She is my 3 great grandmother, my maternal-paternal-paternal-maternal-maternal grandmother; my mom's dad's, dad's, mom's mom.  
  • Married Friday, May 22, 1829 at Montgomery County, Ohio.  
  • Her daughter, Mary Elizabeth Studebaker was born Tuesday, December 25, 1832 (Christmas Day) in Pennsylvania

That is it.  I don't have a date of death for her nor a place of burial.  

Now trying to guess to fill in the gaps:
Catherine almost certainly came to America as a child with her parents.  It would have been EXTREMELY rare for a young single woman to travel alone to America and her husband was from America so she *MUST* have met him after she got here.  Thus, she more than likely arrived within 15 years or less of her birth so sometime before 1822ish.  

It seems odd that she got married in 1829 in OH, had a child three years later in PA, but then was back in OH 18 years after that but my best guess is:
Her husband was born in PA so he must have moved his family back to PA after he got married but then he died back in OH so for whatever reason sometime between 1832 and 1848 they moved back to Ohio.  

What became of her after that 1850 census is a complete mystery.  She *PROBABLY* didn't live a whole lot longer because if she had I likely would have found reference to her in the 1860 (or later) census.  OTOH, in 1850 she was a widow approximately 43 years old so she may of remarried or lived another 60+ years as a widow and met my infant grandfather (born in 1900).  


MikeDeTiger

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4558 on: March 27, 2025, 04:42:40 PM »
I think it is pretty unusual to have more than guesses at these things. 

I tend to agree.  Just that in my case, the guy left a very detailed diary, which is now public, and yet he seemed to intentionally obfuscate his previous life or his family in England.  The stuff about his dad now comes more substantially from the work of the lady in England I mentioned earlier.  That the father was a trans-Atlantic slave-trader, I think is likely.  The stuff about the son who settled here is more speculative, and I admit that his seeming refusal to talk about it in his diary causes me to assume some things that perhaps I shouldn't.  However, I don't discount oral family history, and the stories the CA people gave me lend some weight to at least something along the lines of what I've speculated.  

About your ancestor:  I have to say, that is some Sherlock-level deduction there.  No snark intended....seriously....I think that's all reasonably warranted conclusions, for as far as it gets you.  

MikeDeTiger

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4559 on: March 27, 2025, 05:07:11 PM »
For something on my mom's side to look into one day, my great-grandmother straight up the matriarchal line was a full-blooded, real-deal Cajun.  Did not speak English until she went to school, where she was beaten on the hands with a ruler if she spoke French, because that's a thing you could do in those days.  Her mother and father never learned English.  I knew her very well as she lived until I was in my mid-20's.  

That family name is Aucoin, which is pronounced Oh-kwa, where the "a" in "kwa" would be pronounced like the "a" in "can."  (if utee is paying attention, note the silent "n" at the end of the word, again.)  I mention that because she claimed her family was actually originally from Ireland some time back, that their name was O'Quinn, and that they settled amongst the Cajuns at some point in the past and their name eventually took on a Cajun pronunciation and spelling. 

We once found a restaurant named Aucoin's which the owner ran with his family, and he and my grandmother worked out that they were second or third cousins or somesuch, and she believed she remembered playing with his older siblings when he was a toddler and she visited.  Well, my grandmother made the mistake of floating her mother's notion to them on one of those restaurant trips that the family was actually Irish, and buddy let me tell you, did they bristle at that.  They disputed it hotly, said there was no way that was true, and they pointed to the Aucoin coat of arms hanging on one of the walls which traces back to France, they said.  Needless to say, we left that one alone from there on out, because I think they were legit about to kick us out.  If you've ever pissed off a Cajun, you know what I'm talking about. 

I've been curious ever since to know who's right in that story, and I wonder if I can find out the truth.  

medinabuckeye1

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4560 on: March 27, 2025, 05:27:49 PM »
So if we assume that was 250 years ago, subtract your age (50), that's 200 years.  Given that your ancestors double every generation, and average 25 years between ancestors (probably too much time but nice round number), I assume you have 8 sets of Great-Great-Great (to the 8th degree obviously) grandparents, which makes for 16 total ancestors.  So out of 16 ancestors, 15 of them were already here prior to 1776?  That's pretty impressive. 
FWIW:
My family's generations (at least the recent ones) have been MUCH longer than 25 years:
  • My 2 parents were born in 1944 and 1940 so 31-35 years before me.  
  • My 4 grandparents were born between 1900-1910 so 65-75 years before me.  Generations at 32-37 years.  
  • My 8 great-grandparents were born between 1869-1894 (all in the US) so 81-106 years before me.  Generations at 27-36 years.  
  • 10 of my 16 great-great-grandparents were born between 1830-1868 (all known in the US) so 107-145 years before me.  Generations at 27-36 years.  The other six are mysteries.  
  • 18 of my 32 3-great grandparents were born between 1783-1839 (all known in the US except the aforementioned Catherine Roop who was born in "Germany") so 136-192 years before me.  Generations at 27-38 years.  

My first pre-Revolution born ancestors show up at the 4-great grandparent level where there are 32 of them but some of those were born post-Revolution in the USA.  Among those born pre-Revolution:
  • 2 from Cecil County, Maryland, British Colonial America
  • 1 from Carteret County North Carolina, BCA
  • 2 from Anne Arundel County, Maryland, BCA
  • 1 from Goose Creek, Loudon, Virginia, BCA
  • 1 from Buckingham Bucks County, Pennsylvania, BCA
  • 1 from "Hopewell MM", Fredrick, Virginia, BCA - "MM" stands for "Monthly Meeting", it is a Quaker designation.  
  • 1 from New Garden, Chester County, Pennsylvania, BCA
The rest are either unknown or born after the Revolution.  


medinabuckeye1

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4561 on: March 27, 2025, 05:32:12 PM »
For something on my mom's side to look into one day, my great-grandmother straight up the matriarchal line was a full-blooded, real-deal Cajun.  Did not speak English until she went to school, where she was beaten on the hands with a ruler if she spoke French, because that's a thing you could do in those days.  Her mother and father never learned English.  I knew her very well as she lived until I was in my mid-20's. 

That family name is Aucoin, which is pronounced Oh-kwa, where the "a" in "kwa" would be pronounced like the "a" in "can."  (if utee is paying attention, note the silent "n" at the end of the word, again.)  I mention that because she claimed her family was actually originally from Ireland some time back, that their name was O'Quinn, and that they settled amongst the Cajuns at some point in the past and their name eventually took on a Cajun pronunciation and spelling. 

We once found a restaurant named Aucoin's which the owner ran with his family, and he and my grandmother worked out that they were second or third cousins or somesuch, and she believed she remembered playing with his older siblings when he was a toddler and she visited.  Well, my grandmother made the mistake of floating her mother's notion to them on one of those restaurant trips that the family was actually Irish, and buddy let me tell you, did they bristle at that.  They disputed it hotly, said there was no way that was true, and they pointed to the Aucoin coat of arms hanging on one of the walls which traces back to France, they said.  Needless to say, we left that one alone from there on out, because I think they were legit about to kick us out.  If you've ever pissed off a Cajun, you know what I'm talking about. 

I've been curious ever since to know who's right in that story, and I wonder if I can find out the truth. 
Good luck with that.  

Maybe Louisiana had better records back then but I know from trying to research my Georgia Ancestors that births and deaths tended to be recorded in family bibles and unless you actually have the Family Bible you are out of luck because birth certificates, death certificates, anything resembling governmental record-keeping is rare indeed.  Even my Paternal Grandmother (dad's mom) born in 1910 had no original birth certificate.  She had to get one made up retroactively to get a passport sometime in the 1950's or 1960's.  

MikeDeTiger

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4562 on: March 27, 2025, 05:40:07 PM »
Medina,

As you've researched your family, how far back can you get prior to the Revolutionary War and states forming...that kind of thing?  I've never had reason to know about anything that far back, so I'm curious if you know when European settlers started keeping public records.  Like, what year did they start building courthouses and filing birth/marriage certificates?  Never really thought about it before now. 

EDIT:  Oops, lol, I see you kind of already answer that

MrNubbz

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Re: OT - Weird History
« Reply #4563 on: March 27, 2025, 07:02:07 PM »
through Ohio. My great grandfather moved the family to California in the 1920s. My dad's parents moved him from Columbus, Ohio (my paternal grandfather was from Minneapolis) to San Diego in the 1950s.
I knew you were a closet Buckeye,denials will get you nowhere
"Let us endeavor so to live - that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." - Mark Twain

 

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