Grandma's Granny's Family Album

I thought I would try a different kind of ancestry chart, so I tried this circle chart with my sister Jane's family.  At the bottom is the link to the whole picture.                                                                  Arnold Side of the Family The parents are in the tan circles, and lines connect them to the grandparents in the dark blue circles.  Each generation back in time lightens in color.  Great-grandparents are medium blue, great-greats are light blue, and great-great-greats are white. The dates in the circles tell  when  the person was born and died.  The tan tags under the circles tell  where  the person was born and died. The women are listed with their maiden names.  If they have no last name, it is because I don't know it.  If there is a question mark, that means that I am not sure of the accuracy of the fact.                                                              Sullivan Side of the Family      I don't know as much about the Sullivan side, s

Well!  So much has happened, I don't know where to start.    Sisters Anna Jean Spence Wood on left and Nellie (Na) Spence Oliveto on right, daughters of Howard and Nellie Spence.  Their cousin Jean Robertson Brendel, daughter of Bessie Spence Robertson, in the middle.  At Grannie Phoebe and Grampa Bill's house on Aberdeen St. in Springhill, about 1940. I started DNA testing to find my children's paternal biological family, since Doug was adopted.  But he died before DNA testing existed, so the genealogists at Ancestry told me to test all 3 of our children.  With all 3 of them, I was told, all of Doug's DNA would be present somewhere.   It's funny now how excited I was when I saw those first matches!  They were clues to where Doug's father came from and where he lived!  Now, it's laughable, because I have thousands of matches and those first ones are so far removed.  But I started out by trying to sort and triangulate my family, since I know them, and if I co

I couldn't let my kids have all the fun, so I did my DNA too.  I have only one grandparent born in the US, Arabella Zoeller, and she is the daughter of German immigrants.  My grandfather, Jacob Sulzbach, was born in Hesse, a German staat by the Rhein River.  The Sulzbachs have lived in their town, Rockenberg, since 1600.  My father is obviously completely German, making me half German.  We drank beer and ate cheese together when I was three. My other grandparents are from Nova Scotia, which means New Scotland in Latin.  Joseph Robertson has a clan of his own and Bessie Spence has at least a tartan.  My mother did have a German grandmother, Ann Acker, making her a quarter German.     So I thought of myself as about 2/3 German and 1/3 Scottish.  Ich habe Deutsch in die Schule gelernt, and I speak it well enough to have bought myself vielen Glas Bier and driven on das Autobahn in my two visits there.  I also hiked the Scottish highlands, ate haggis, and bought a full wardrobe in Rober

 It is strange to think that Springhill did not even warrant a name on a map before the 1880s, when coal mines and railroads combined to create an economic boom and farmers arrived from all over to become miners.  In 1881, the Spences were still farmers in Halfway River, but had moved to Springhill by 1886, when the oldest son, Uncle Sam, married Aunt Mary Ann Shields, who also lived there. on this 1831 map of Cumberland County, I don't see any towns between Amherst and River Philip By the 1890s all our people were mining families in Springhill -  Grannie Phoebe and Grampa Bill (Grannie and Grampa English) 2 of Phoebe's 4 sisters (Aunt Abby and Aunt Mini)  1 of her 3 brothers (Stephen) all 5 of Bill's brothers (Uncle Sam, Uncle Palmer, Uncle Wes, Uncle Murd, and Uncle Ains)  his sister (Aunt Ellen)  and his parents (John W. and Almira) 2 of Bill's 4 uncles (Samuel and George Francis)  and all 3 aunts (Mary Ellen, Hannah, and Ella) In 1891, Canada was very concerned abou

  The Brown, Johnson, Thrower, Pate, and Williamson Families of Richmond, Virginia; Chatham, Moore, Lee, Richmond, Wake, and Scotland Counties, and Raleigh, North Carolina; Petersburg, Virginia; and Henry County, Indiana.

  The Spence, Pettigrew, Rushton, West, Rector/Richter, Brown, and Scholfield Families of Springhill, Parrsboro, Halfway River, Roslin, River Philip, Westchester, Southampton, and Maccan, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia; Wechmar, Saxony; Ireland; Westchester County, New York Colony; Horton and Cornwallis Townships, King's County, Nova Scotia; and Rillington,Yorkshire.  For next ancestors, see Rushton, West, and Scholfield Pedigree Charts.

 I know a lot of us have Ebenezer Spence in our family trees.  He doesn't exist.   (  See Spence Pedigree Chart).   Some people have even given him parents and a birthplace in Great Britain.  As for his wife Margaret Merriam, she is doubtful too.  Well, I guess there is an Ebenezer Spence in Britain, but he doesn't belong to us. Just to recap, Ainsley, Murdock, Wesley, William Mariner, Palmer, Ellen, and Sam Spence (generation 4) are all the children of John William Spence and Ann Elmira Pettigrew (generation 3).   I am color-coding the generations in the hope that it will lessen confusion.   John William, Reuben B., James Edward, George Francis, Samuel, Mary Ellen, Hannah Merriam, and Ella R. (generation 3) are all the children of Samuel Spence and Ellenor Rector (generation 2). Who is Samuel Spence (gen. 2) the child of?  Does he have any siblings?  Looking at generations 3 and 4, with all those sons, he should have like 5 brothers.  Is it any wonder there are so many

U.S. Civil War map - Union in blue, border states in red, Confederacy in gray, neutral territories in white After the Civil War, Robert Monroe Brown of defeated North Carolina wrote to President Andrew Johnson asking for the job of local postmaster.  (see Friends with the President, see Brown Pedigree Chart).  He went to great lengths to show he had been opposed to the War and slavery all along.   I thought that Robert was only exaggerating his beliefs to get a job, and to get by in a conquered country, but it turns out that he was indeed President Johnson's friend "privately, publicly, and politically," as he claimed.  Robert gave the name of Governor W. W. Holden as a reference.  He even attested to being a Union man in the newspaper. I thought this was odd, and the description of Robert's Unionist activities during the War piqued my interest.  So I looked into it.  In fact, Robert was part of the most controversial and dangerous political parties in North Car