Favorite "Ancestor" You've Lost

Started by Private User on Saturday, April 23, 2011
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Showing 1-30 of 46 posts
Private User
4/23/2011 at 9:59 AM

I had been very excited for months that The Right Honourable Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of England and Saint was showing up as my 13th-great-grandfather on Geni. I followed the line back and it looked good to me, so I figured it was accurate. However, it recently got lobbed off my tree, and I'm assuming that someone else knew more than I did and found a mistake. Now he's "just" my first cousin 14 times-removed's wife's great-grandfather. I'm glad for the sake of historical accuracy that it was corrected, assuming it was indeed wrong, but...I'm still kinda bummed! I want my saint back! :)

Have any of you lost an "ancestor" like this on Geni? Or were you able to debunk a family story once you started doing more research into it? Which "ancestor" stories do you really wish were true?

4/23/2011 at 10:54 AM

I lost Anne Wildbore daughter of Governor William Bradford and boy was I sad! It turns out that despite centuries old lore that she was the wife of Samuel Wilbore, "The Immigrant" my X great grandfather, it's not true. I believe that Savage or Cooke declared her to have married Samuel Wilbore, so people believed this for a long time, given the reputation of the person making the claim.

4/23/2011 at 10:58 AM

William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony She was not the daughter of Bradford, she was some kind of relatives. A lot has changed for the better in the Bradford line since some good profile cleaning up.

Private User
6/12/2012 at 6:40 PM

I don't know if I've lost Governor William Bradford yet or not. Each branch of our family I've found insists we're related to him (which, of course) doesn't necessarily mean descended from him). But we all seem to be stuck at the marriage of Percis Darrah to, supposedly, Joseph Bradford about 1819 (don't know where for certain, though probably in either New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts - gives a lot of territory to choose from). As far as I know, none of us have been able to find out anything on "Joseph," and the last time I saw a book (listing something like 7 or 8 generations descended from the Governor), we still had a gap and only one remote possibility - a Joseph or John Bradford (I forget which) born in Montville, Connecticut about whom nothing else was known!

Do any of you have any light to shed on updated information? Hatte?

6/12/2012 at 7:13 PM

Private User - I can look at New England Genealogical and Historical Society (NEGHS) online. Another person who's great at these families is Erica Howton. I'll be out of town and may not be able to follow up on this for a couple of weeks.

Private User
6/12/2012 at 7:26 PM

What is interesting is that once I lost Edward III, but I think now I have 3 paths to him via 3 of my grandparents and I'm sure there are probably more. Also, I've got 2 paths at least to Charles The Mad king of france through both sides, I am sure there may be more also, who knows.

6/12/2012 at 7:43 PM

I lost Llewelyn "The Great" ap Iorwerth, King of Gwynedd, Prince of Wales for awhile. Both he and his father-in-law John I "Lackland", King of England were my 20th great grandfathers through different lines, which I thought was very cool. I fixed up my Welsh ancestors' tree and lost him but now I have him back again I see, through another path.

I read Here Be Dragons so being related to Joan, Llewyllen and King John was amazing.

6/12/2012 at 8:36 PM

I lost Constantine the Great for a short while, however it re-connected, also realzed he was a Great Grandfather via nearly every connection.

Private User
6/12/2012 at 9:09 PM

Sir Thomas More is now my 16th-great-grandmother's husband's granddaughter's husband. I just found a new line of Moores in my ancestry, though, so I'm holding out hope! :)

6/12/2012 at 10:08 PM

You do know we have a member who is an expert on the St Thomas More tree? So wherever the connects are that show, we should be able document and verify. It's really nice to have the tree right.

6/12/2012 at 10:11 PM

I think the Edward Kings are probably good for multiple paths to ancestry. I was really tickled when Constantine the Great showed up for me and therefore the Tsars of Russia who ordered the pogroms that chased my Jewish side to America. Ha!

6/13/2012 at 4:38 AM

Ashley, I've found that the relationship calculator gets off track when someone has made a merge somewhere in between you and the relative in question, and they failed to reassign parents. If you can remember the line that took you to Sir Thomas Moore before then follow it checking relationships along the way. When you find the point where direct linage stops being your grandparents start there, and begin reassigning parents until you resolve the problem.
;) Bill

6/13/2012 at 7:44 AM

I also lost St. Thomas More as my 15th great grandfather

6/13/2012 at 11:33 AM

I lost @Pocahontas and with her my last hope for a Harvard professorship. :)

Private User
6/13/2012 at 1:39 PM

Marilyn Jean Horn Now that's funny...but I hope it's not an Elizabeth Warren Joke.......ttfn

6/13/2012 at 3:15 PM

My favorite ancestor I have lost was Count Lamoral Van Egmont as my 13th ggrandfather, but got him back as my 4th cousin. He was a knight in the Order of the Golden Fleece and excuted protecting the Protestants.

Private User
6/13/2012 at 3:30 PM

FNDuck, I beleive that's who she was refering too. check her ( Marilyn) profile out. I did. It's all a big joke. I thought Geni doesn't like having these jike profiles on here!

Private User
6/13/2012 at 4:14 PM

(Judy)J.A.L.M./J.l. I really did think it was funny ...... Before you go checking out my dear dear cousin Marilyn I assure you she is real and not a joke . Hey I'm a Duck would I lie to you ......ttfn

Private User
6/14/2012 at 3:56 AM

Then why did she put all the joke name in for family members. Initals I could understand but joke names.

Private User
6/14/2012 at 4:01 AM

Castro Mess Totto Mess , Note, those are some of the so called names. Look she's not a joke but the warren thing is beginning to waree on some of us in Mass. Weather the woman is or not Indian/ Native American I don't know. But I do know one thing, she was told she was and like a lot us can't prove it. Records are gone. People passed for white to stay alive. At one, they just a few years ago changed the law, that no Indian , meaning Native American , could enter Boston. O'couse no remembered that law or even knew about it for years.But it was there and they took it off the books.DNA tests are expensive.

Private User
6/14/2012 at 10:05 AM

I am descended from a couple 10 GGP 2-3 times: Stille's Swedish, DuBois French and depending on who I click on It might show my GGP as GGP or Great Aunt and Uncles. Funny when I realized that NJ State Archives had given me the wrong Newkirk thought I wasn't descended from VanMeteren's any more than this Jan discovered that my Miller's = Mollenauer in Dutch and in 2 sucessive generations had m. Elisbet VanMeteren's so back to being...also back in the day LDS had used the wrong S Jersey Reeves and was able to correct that cause a descendent had the same name as my 4GGF Stille Chew who I knew from Church strange world

Private User
6/14/2012 at 1:32 PM

(Judy) J.A.L.M./ J.L. There are many people that do that to keep track of different lines, sources and notes. They go nowhere and are just markers. I guess if I was searching for todos, messes and castos it might be disappointing but what the heck they are private anyway. Make a request to her about the Horns you are looking for she may help you out.
The Warren thing you speak of may not have been her intent maybe it was I that misuderstood the context. Discussing it would be political and I tend to stay away from both politics and religion in most forums. The person whom you refer to is highly intelligent and I am surprised they would not have taken the lead from a certain birth certifcate problem. Even if as you say the records are gone. I don't think the price of a DNA test would be that much of a problem. I know if I was living in a 1.7 million dollar home in Cambridge a DNA test would be cookie jar money.
Massachusetts has great Blue Laws:
BOSTON LAWS:
Two people may not kiss in front of a church.
No more than two baths may be taken within the confines of the city.
No one may cross the Boston Common without carrying a shotgun in case of bears.
Duels to the death permitted on the common on Sundays provided that the Governor is present.
Women may not wear heels over 3 inches in length while on the common.
No one may take a bath without a prescription.
I am particularly fond of the forward thinkers in Marlborough:
One may not detonate a nuclear device in the city.........ttf

6/14/2012 at 2:12 PM

Wow! (Or should I say "Pow Wow"?) Who would have thought genealogists could be so thin-skinned? Lighten up, folks!

No matter where you stand politically, it'd be hard to imagine anything more ludicrous than the never-ending Elizabeth Warren - Cherokee blood controversy, especially when put in the context of the Birther movement, the infamous "one drop" rule (and the Pocahontas exception), and Harvard's appalling record of minority hiring.

But it just keeps getting better. It turns out that Elizabeth's "family" recipe contributions to the "Pow Wow Chow" cookbook of traditional Native American were plagiarized from a French-born chef writing for the New York Times. Hard to swallow that her 'Crab omelet with tomato mayonnaise dressing' (made with Worcestershire sauce and imported Cognac) is not an authentic Cherokee recipe, I know. Who could have imagined it?

Marilyn

P.S. Yes, Judy, there IS a Marilyn Horn (many of them, in fact, although to my knowledge none of the others are related to me). I can see how you might have thought I was a hoax, given that Geni inexplicably swapped out my photo for a portrait of @Augustus S. Tabor, a distant relation. I left it for a while because it had so much more panache than my own.

And there's a reasonable explanation for those oddly-named family members that you found so troubling. I needed a place for my notes, since I don't always work from the same computer. (Geni, are you listening?)

6/14/2012 at 3:43 PM

Marilyn! You're out of drag, too bad. I should try to relate myself to RuPaul, perhaps. This conversation is making me miss lobster.

6/14/2012 at 4:44 PM

Marilyn, we are listening! But I haven't seen the notes profiles you mentioned... can you point me to an example? Why not use either (a) about me, or (b) a project for your notes?

Private User
6/14/2012 at 5:34 PM

Marilyn Jean Horn....Greetings, I am your 11th cousin once removed.... Geneologist !!! you must have me confused with someone else (it happens here all the time) I will however try to be thicker in the future..... Pow Wow Chow great recipes except the crab omelet "hard to swallow" it was terrible....I could'nt afford the expensive cognac so I swapped it out with Muscatel maybe that was the problem. Don't swap the crab with "Herring" either.
You may find this interserting. There are 241 Mess(es), 228 Todos ( are they all lists?) and 23,390 casto(s) all here on Geni...ttfn.

P.S. Erica Howton......It is Marilyn Horn not Marilyn Manson ( see it happens all the time)

6/14/2012 at 8:28 PM

My favourite ancestor that i've lost is Joseph Schiefer, born c.1870 (fl. 1906 in Cologne, Germany).
One family legend has it that he lost a leg fighting for Kaiser Bill at Verdun which would mean he was still alive in 1916, but as with family lore i have no idea the truthfulness of this.
I also have a wedding certificate from 1931 where he as listed as father of the groom, he was not present at the wedding (no signature) but there is no statement that he was deceased at the time, so it is highly possible he was still alive.
Not, i realise, the intent of this thread but posting in the German portal has not turned anything up.
NOTE: He definitely was not Cherokee, but probably did like cognac.

6/15/2012 at 6:44 PM

Hi Mike --

Just answer your questions (and then some) --

I never thought of using the "About Me" tab on my profile for my notes, but isn't it always readable by others? I'd prefer to have a scratch pad/to do list that is private because my notes can be pretty rough and not ready for discussion. Also, if I started using "About Me" for genealogy notes, I wouldn't be able to use it for its original purpose (I haven't done that yet, but after learning that some users regard me as charlatan, I'm thinking I should.) Finally, the About me tab doesn't give you any way to organize your notes by branches. It becomes unwieldy if you have more than a screen or two of info.

It also never occurred to me to use a project, because I just assumed that projects were by definition collaborative and public.

What I'd like would be to have an independent page for notes (preferably one to which you could add multiple tabs as you need them for different family lines) and/or a todo list feature where you could prioritize items.

Also, I'd love to have another tab on the each person's profile for reporting problems with that particular profile (timeline issues, mothers too old to have given birth to the linked children, contested or undocumented claims, inconsistencies, etc.). The Problems tab should be editable by anyone (not just managers and pro users, but even basic users) to alert other users to be careful before completing a merge. On the merge page, there would be a red Problems Reported field that would show up if any problems had been reported. People would be able to click on the field and read the notes before completing a merge. I think this would help improve the accuracy of the profiles and prevent at least some bad merges.

Finally, I'd like to have a bookmark feature so you could easily jump to particular profiles that you've been working on.

I'm dreaming of course.

6/15/2012 at 7:45 PM

Hmm, yeah if you want to keep your notes private even though the profile is public, I can't really think of a good way to do that (at least, not on a Friday night :)

6/15/2012 at 9:25 PM

Someone suggested NoteFuser as a private work pad. I started to try it, but never got it to work.

http://notefuser.herokuapp.com/

Showing 1-30 of 46 posts

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