Family genealogy

You found the public genealogy website of the Mormon Church ... and Mormons are BIG into genealogy.

You can go to a Family History Center at select Mormon churches for more extensive access to online records and the Family History Library has a lending program in which you can borrow from an incredibly large catalog of printed family history material.
Yeah I thought it was weird to be on a "Mormon" church website for this stuff. I figured that was just one of their ministries they felt like sharing with everyone. To my knowledge, my people weren't/aren't Mormon. But I ppreciate their generosity for giving a place for people to connect their trees!
 
Yeah I thought it was weird to be on a "Mormon" church website for this stuff. I figured that was just one of their ministries they felt like sharing with everyone. To my knowledge, my people weren't/aren't Mormon. But I ppreciate their generosity for giving a place for people to connect their trees!
If I understand some of Mormon theology and beliefs correctly, they pray for their dead, and may possibly have baptisms for the dead, so it is important for them to know who their forbears are since their belief is that they can have an impact on where their deceased relatives spend eternity, if I got that right.
 
I started a search for the Gillock name several name several years back & lucked upon "The Book". It's a book that was put together on th Jones-Gillock family. A total of 900+ pages of the family tree with another 3-400 pages of pictures in PDF format. It goes back to 1642 Virginia. Saved me a few years of research.
 
Need to find out how to track down every one of us who has served & find out period of service, branch, rank, campaigns & whatnot. I take it as a point of pride that so many of us from each generation have sworn that great oath & signed that blank check.

I have been working on that, too. I have some people going back to the civil war, but not much earlier.
 
I started a search for the Gillock name several name several years back & lucked upon "The Book". It's a book that was put together on th Jones-Gillock family. A total of 900+ pages of the family tree with another 3-400 pages of pictures in PDF format. It goes back to 1642 Virginia. Saved me a few years of research.

Be careful with "The Book". As I said earlier - the author who published "The Book" on my great-grandmother's family name got her marriage wrong. Years ago (now) my wife's family held a reunion in Williamsburg. It was hosted by one of the members with the same name and all the people with that last name were invited. We went (along with her parents and her sisters) and had a great time. The author of "the Book" of that family name was there and handing out family data sheets so the next edition of "The Book" would be up-to-date and correct. We ordered a copy and when it came - they had had still gotten her marriage to me WRONG!!!!

So, the take away from this is - verify everything to YOUR satisfaction that it's right. Even on Ancestry I have found errors that have just been copied from someone else's research that was wrong. I've seen my stuff copied to someone else's family research and I know it came from me because I'm the only one with that photo from the 1900's.
 
On my dad's side of the family, I'm at a dead end. My great grandmother, while single, was working as a housekeeper in Statesville for a prominent surgeon and became pregnant. I have no idea who the doctor was so that branch of the tree has stopped for now.

On my mother's side of the family, it appears one of my relatives probably shot and killed General Davidson at the battle of Cowans Ford. He was the only person in the area at the time to own a " rifle" as opposed to a smooth bore musket. Davidson was killed with a rifled projectile.

From http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/lincoln/bios/hagar01.txt


The attempt to ascertain who killed a man in a battle of the Revolution is
an odd and difficult undertaking; yet the writer has gathered extracts
from those who have written on the Battle of
Cowan's Ford, touching the part taken by Frederick Hager and General
Davidson's death, and a careful examination of these can leave little
doubt as to who killed General Davidson. Fortunate for such
investigation, two of the British and two of the Whig participants
wrote accounts of the passage.

The British entered the wagon ford just below the G. D. Abernethy
Mill and went directly across the river; the horse ford entering at
same place, turned down the river and came out on the Mecklenburg
side, a half a mile below the other. General Davidson's camp was
three-fourths of a mile from the river. He had guards placed at each of
the fords, but expected the British to follow the horse ford. The
Catawba, at this point is about 500 yards wide and the Cowan's Ford of
today is a new one.
General Joseph Graham, a brave soldier, captain of a cavalry company
under General Davidson, and who fired upon the British during the
passage, in his history of the battle says;

"The command of the front was committed to Col. Hall of the guards,
who
had for a guide, Frederick Hager, a renegade Tory, who lived within two
miles of the place. They entered the river by sections of four and took
the wagon ford."
The enemy was advancing slowly in line and only firing scatteringly,
when General Davidson was pierced by a ball and fell dead from his
horse,
"The General was shot with a small rifle ball near the nipple of the left
breast, and never moved after he fell. It was well known that their
pilot, Frederick Hager, had a rifle of this description and it was always
believed that he shot him.

.
 
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I wasn't clear I guess. I've heard of the one your talking about. The title wasn't just titled The Book it is the book of the Jones-Gillock family it was compiled by a family member & only the 1 was ever done. He wasn't an author. Those pages have never been sorted & put together properly. I got a PDF copy from a guy that was able to copy all the pages.
 
On my dad's side of the family, I'm at a dead end. My great grandmother, while single, was working as a housekeeper in Statesville for a prominent surgeon and became pregnant. I have no idea who the doctor was so that branch of the tree has stopped for now.

I had a similar situation. My great-grandmother was illegitimate and family lore said her father was a rich lawyer (not likely in the backwoods where they lived) for whom my great-great-grandmother was a housekeeper. One day I had to check the actual census page for info about my great-great-grandmother and when I finished my eyes glued to an entry a couple of households away on the census sheet - - a rich lawyer (the 3rd richest person in the census district). The lawyer had given up the city life to move to the boonies and marry the older spinster daughter of a wealthy local landowner.

Check the Statesville census to see where your great-grandmother lived around the time in question. It is likely that she did not live far from the doctor. Even live-in housekeepers often came from nearby.
 
My aunt mentioned having to correct some entries that she found on Ancestry.

I'm very excited about being back in touch with my German peeps & looking forward to reaching out to the other American & Romanian branches. Maybe they're interested, maybe not. I dunno. It is kind of fun though, thinking that "my people" fought Julius Caesar & helped to decimate three Roman Legions in the Teutoberg Forest, under the leadership of Arminius.

Per my grandmother, one of my German forebears was some kind of minor nobility/hero of the realm type, whose grave has been carefully preserved over there. Hoping to verify that, once I get ahold of all her data. Again, just my twisted curiosity.
 
My aunt mentioned having to correct some entries that she found on Ancestry.

I'm very excited about being back in touch with my German peeps & looking forward to reaching out to the other American & Romanian branches. Maybe they're interested, maybe not. I dunno. It is kind of fun though, thinking that "my people" fought Julius Caesar & helped to decimate three Roman Legions in the Teutoberg Forest, under the leadership of Arminius.

Per my grandmother, one of my German forebears was some kind of minor nobility/hero of the realm type, whose grave has been carefully preserved over there. Hoping to verify that, once I get ahold of all her data. Again, just my twisted curiosity.
It's not twisted curiosity. As Americans, we've lost touch with these sorts of things. Someone dies, we make a big (often times fake) hooplah, throw in the ground (or the oven), and forget about them. Nothing is passed down, no stories, no more towns being named for them. Hell, many times we do nothing but thrash other family members, then pretend to be sad at their funeral, but can't wait to erase them from our "books."

There's something 100% natural about genealogy--the Bible makes a big deal about it, humans have made a big deal about it for centuries. Then we modern folks come along and let iPhones and sportsball replace our ancestors.
 
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