My Ancestors were Bad-Ass, and other things I have learned from Genealogy

My Great-Grandfather was a pretty tough guy.

You have to be special to be a genealogist.  Really, special.  You have to dig into history books, crawl through piles of old papers full of earwigs, and be willing to spend time in research, with actual books, that weren't really meant for entertainment.  Sometimes genealogists stare at the computer screen so long that they can't even see straight. Not that I have ever done that. 

It's a rewarding obsession.  I've learned stuff that no one I know knows, like, what that code on the census record means, or what the difference between a land warrant, patent, and survey are.  Not to mention how to find the actual records themselves.  Sometimes genealogists have revelations. Some are deep, some aren't.  Here are a few of mine.  You get to determine their depth. 

My ancestors were badass -  My family lines seem to all have converged on the North American Continent in the 1700's. That means they came to live here when there was not a lot of anything and a whole lot of uncertainty about what was here.  They carved their lives out of wilderness and forged their own roads.  They fought off wild animals, diseases, Indian Raids, and British soldiers with a penchant to hold on to the King's land. They were amazingly tough, but that wasn't unexpected, considering where they came from. I sometimes wonder if it was because they had stronger faith to face the very real possibility of death. Of course, at some point it became more than a matter of faith, and more a matter of need to survive. 

People then were as stupid as they are now - People died from everyday things like cerebral hemorrhages (apoplexy), and tuberculosis, and senility.  They also died from being run over by horses, and in more recent times, by sticking their arms out of the side of a moving vehicle.  For real. 

Cowboys and Indians were real, and they weren't just in the wild west.  - Did you know that anything west of the Appalachian Mountains WAS the wild west at one time?  The first stockyards, Indian Wars and American "Western" legends started in the Mid Atlantic Region.  I was recently reading about a certain ancestor who came from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.  He was born in 1799, just ten short years after an Indian raid came through and killed entire families.  Who would want to live there?  My ancestors apparently. 

I will never know what my great grandfather 6x removed was really called. - His name was William, he was one of 6 that existed at the same time in his immediate and extended family that lived in one small area.  Surely, they didn't call him William. 

Alcoholic drinks were an important part of daily life. It's true.  Even Quakers imbibed from time to time.  A homestead wasn't considered complete until it had a distillery, and each homestead had a specific kind of drink they specialized in.  There were common drinks like AppleJack and Cherry Bounce, wines like those we drink now, and Whiskey and Bourbon of every variety.  Drinks were so important that during state hearings they had debates about where to purchase the goods for use while the debates and hearings were in session.  The Whisky Rebellion forced the hand of many people to up and leave from relative comfort to find uncharted territories so that they could continue production.  Guess where they went? Anyone?... The Appalachians. Moonshine is a national pasttime.  

And not finally, but in closing here, I learned that history is never what it seems.  The more I know, the more I find myself wondering what it is we are teaching in public school, 'cause it just doesn't match up much beyond the dates and names.  

That's all Folks! 

 

The Scots-Irish... not Irish at all?

Photo courtesy of :  BBC Click for more information.

My ancestry is mostly German and Scots and Scots-Irish, and some English.  Notice that word Scots-Irish wasn't used interchangeably with Irish. I've recently learned an interesting fact about what it means to be Scots-Irish, and what it doesn't.

Let's start here; Scots-Irish does not mean a mixture of Scottish and Irish. 
The Scots-Irish were a group of Lowland Scottish Presbyterians who were given claim to an northern area of Ireland known as Ulster as part of a plantation.  This group of people is predominately known as Ulster Scots, or Ulstermen, in other parts of the world besides North America.

So who were they? 
They were lowland Scots, a different group of people altogether than the notorious Highlanders most people associate with Scotland. These lowlanders did not really have need or desire to speak Gaelic, didn't wear kilts, and were often Presbyterian. Even down to the genetics Highlanders and Lowlanders are different, with Highland Scots being far more influenced by Viking and Gael ancestors and Lowlanders being more mixed with other eastern European influences.

Why did they end up in Ireland? 
Well, it's kind of a long story, drawn out by a few generations.  What it comes down to is that the King of England didn't care for Scotsman and didn't like the Irish either, and since he wanted control of both of them he set this group of Presbyterian Scots against the very Catholic Irish Gaels.  These Scotsman did the job of holding Ulster for the crown, but they eventually tired of the religious persecution that seemed to be coming from both the Kings of Ireland and Britain. As a result, some went back to Scotland, some emigrated to the Americas and some stayed put.

An American Story.  
The Ulster Scots that came to the Americas were a strong willed, wilderness savvy, and war experienced people.  They brought all the necessary tools for survival without even knowing it.  They were farmers, woodsman, and explorers, and when it came to the revolution they were predominately Rebels.  Later on, as families migrated through the American Wilderness and Canadian countryside, many of the Ulster-Scots, the Highland Scots, and the Germans would find common ground and move as a group into the Appalachians

So what does this mean for your genealogy?  Are you Irish?
It depends, I guess.  In some respects the Ulster Scots had been firmly planted in Ireland for a few generations. They probably had taken on some Irish culture.  On the other hand, they certainly weren't Irish.  The Irish didn't even like them, and barely tolerated their Presbyterian ways. A lot of references point to the Irish Kings hunting the Scots Irish to get rid of them. They were culturally and genetically identified as being from lowland Scotland, and many went back to Scotland, even generations later.
In my opinion, they were Scots.  I think they deserve their own term, the Ulster Scots, but I am not of the opinion they "became" Irish.
When researching your Scottish and Scots-Irish roots, I think it is important to keep all this in mind. While it may look as though your ancestors immigrated to Canada or the Americas from Ireland, if they were from Ulster, you might want to do more exploring in Scotland.  I think this is especially true for early immigrant Appalachian families, like mine.

Who am I researching? 
I am interested in the MacNeills (McNeal) and MacGeary (McGary) families.  The McNeal family is likely the same from the Barra Islands in Scotland, while the McGeary family were likely Ulster Scots.

Do You know a lot about this subject and maybe I have something wrong?  Let me know!

If you are interested in more detailed explanations (Several Kings of Britain really didn't like the Scots and Irish) I have added some reference links here:

RootsWeb
The Scots-Irish: The Thirteenth Tribe
Scots Irish in Colonial America

Why I love Death Certificates - A Morbid Fascination

Let's face it.  Genealogy is basically all about chasing down dead people's secrets. Whether they intended for them to be secrets is another thing altogether.  Death certificates for me, are like Christmas in the secrets department.  You can learn a lot by the remarks found there.  

Example:

This Kentucky death certificate from 1918 shows a whole lot of information about the person in question (A far back relation of mine).  It lists out where the person lived at the time of death, their birth date, marital status, employment, and, *drum role please*, names and birth places of parents! 

In addition to all this wonderful information, you also get a burial place and cause of death, plus an informant name. 

Like all records, you may need to validate the information found. Always record those corrections with the record you keep.  Print a copy! 

 

Some of you may think, well how come I can't just use a census record for this? The answer is, census records don't contain all this information.  This is especially true in the 1800's census, where there may only be information as to state of birth, and birthplace of parents.  

The trouble with death certificates, especially in rural areas, is that there isn't always one to be found.  Unlike the census, which did a pretty good job of at least collecting a name, date, and area, death certificates weren't mandatory until the late 1800's in many places.  Even after, many people simply died at home and were buried there with only a notice in the church paper or a notation in the family bible.  

Some death certificates I have found don't have complete information, and, it would be unreasonable to expect to find it complete 100% of the time. One of my (presumed) ancestors died in a tuberculosis infirmary and the only thing they knew was an approximate age and place of birth.  There was no record of her burial. This is not an uncommon situation.  Some old folks died in state homes, where there was not a lot of interest in recording the details. 

Finding death certificates in Ancestry.com is fairly easy! The index for the states that has released them grows every day.  You can locate the search for your state records by choosing the search button... located here -

Click on the Birth, Marriage and Death section, choose your state and enter your ancestors information.  

My advice is to be very general and be willing to spend some time looking through the results.  For instance, if you were searching for Thomas Rice, use the broad search, not exact, unless you come up with hundreds of results,  narrow it down slowly.  Ancestry seems to index ALL the names on a death certificate, so you might find Thomas, but it might be a certificate for a relative that he was mentioned in or signed off on.  Don't forget to record the information of burial.  

You can also request death certificates from individual state and county vital record departments.  You must be very specific when doing so and it usually costs a small fee. 

There are other secrets to death certificates I am just now learning.  Keep coming back.  I want to share! 

Chasing the McNeals

My Grandmother's name was Dora McNeal.  She was born in Boyd County Kentucky to her father, John Hackworth McNeal and mother, Martha Ellen Barney. 

This picture shows her and her four sisters.  They had no brothers from what we know. 

John Hackworth McNeal was the son of Thomas McNeal and Ellen McGary. Thomas and Ellen had many children, 11 that we know of. Both Thomas and Ellen were born in Pennsylvania and had moved to Kentucky. 

Thomas's parents were Matthew and Margaret McNeal.  This is where stuff gets fuzzy.  Matthew McNeal was not an uncommon name in Pennsylvania, and I have yet to determine in Margaret's maiden name was McNeal, or maybe something else.  

What I do suspect, is that the McNeal and MacGeary (McGary) family were nearby each other in late 1700 Westmoreland County Pennsylvania. I don't yet know for sure, but I believe that Matthew might have been born in Washington County, Pennsylvania and that his father's name might have been Archibald MacNeal.  

Matthew and Margaret had 10 children that we know of. 

Do you know anything about the McNeals of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania? 

Send me a note.... or a message in a bottle... actually, e-mail would be fine. ;)