Grandma's Granny's Family Album

Before genealogy was popular, I was asked a lot why I liked it.  Because it's a puzzle, I said, and everybody likes puzzles.  Family history is a seek-and-find puzzle:  in these 100 random letters, can you find the names you want?  Sometimes they are easily found in the top horizontal line, and sometimes you have to catch a break to discover them bafflingly diagonal and backwards. 

 That's right!  I have been having so much fun with this, and you can too! Go to https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/ You can join for free, or you can just look.  Type in any ancestor's name and see who you are related to.  For best results, pick the furthest back ancestor you know. If you are a descendant of Phoebe Esther Rushton Spence (Grannie, Grannie English), or her mother Susan West, you have a ton of famous relatives:     Royalty!  Queen Elizabeth II - 20th cousins twice removed.  I always felt I was related to Princess Anne!   My bride dolls - Princess Anne  and Princess Diana And 21st cousins once removed from Princess Diana! As well as the last kings of France, Belgium, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

 The most fun part of the tree was....well I guess it was all fun.  But I really enjoyed finding a clipart for each person.   I was looking for something else when I saw this pipe. I felt all warm and cuddly inside and knew it just had to represent my father.  But he was an engineer too, so I added the tools.

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time.  I've been working on a long-hoped-for project, displaying my family tree on a wall in my house.  Here it is in all its glory!  Do you think it is worth the wait? I received the tree itself for Christmas, and started working on it the next day.  It was just finished yesterday!

 Last year's episode of Anne Searching for Ancestors in Nova Scotia ended with our missing links in the Mayflower Descent still missing.  As you will remember, the descent of Passenger Richard Warren on down to Planter Samuel West is proven.  My documents of my 2xgreat-grandmother Susan West Rushton down to me are solid.  It's how we get from Samuel to Susan that's the problem. 1782 1804 1810 & 11 1853 1854-1875 1861 & 71 1881 1891 1901 1911 19 18 Saml born Samuel marries Samuel has kids                           Levi lives in Roslin w wife and kids Levi lives in Kings Co   w son     ...

 Do you have a radio?  What is your house built of?  Did you work yesterday?  The 1931 Canadian census just came out, and I was struck by the meager salaries and months of unemployment our family endured.  I thought I would write about how we made it through.   I included a family chart at the bottom to help you keep track of everyone mentioned (go to bottom for family charts; see posts Robertson Family, Spence Family, Rushton Family Pedigree Charts, Descendant Charts) My grandmother Bessie Spence Robertson often spoke about how she managed a household during the Depression.  Every penny was put to use.  She planned with such precision that "at the end of the week, I didn't even have a nickel left over to buy a Coke."  There was swimming at Valley Stream Lake State Park not far away, but it cost 10 cents after 9 in the morning.  The Robertson kids went swimming, but only before 9 when it was free.  Of course it wasn't hot out that ...

     We know we are descended from Mayflower passenger Richard Warren, we are somehow descended from the first European woman in New York, some of our West family think our Massachusetts Wests are the same Wests who founded Virginia (not likely), so could we also be descended from survivors of the Lost Colony of Roanoke?  Could we have had ancestors at the foundings of most of the North American colonies? Artist interpretations of: Englishmen finding the carving on the tree; Westover Plantation, Virginia; Catalyntie Trico rocking her baby in Albany, New York; Richard Warren signing Mayflower Compact Probably not. One of Americans' biggest unsolved mysteries is that of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.   In the 1500s, there was a lot more activity off the southeast coast of North America than we generally think of.  The English were making landings and meeting the local Indians.  But the ships couldn't land in the shallow waters off of present-day North ...

When I saw my DNA saying I am 1% Nigerian, I knew that it must be from Catherine Oxendine.    (see Attack! and Fall, the Bloody Tragedies of Catherine Oxendine post, see Robertson Pedigree Chart). Now my mother's hair was platinum, so blonde it was almost white.  She was so pale, she could get sunburned in the shade - 2% African.  Auntie Grace's skin resembled white tissue paper - 4% African. Anne Robertson Sulzbach on Jones Beach, NY, abt. 1942 Auntie Grace Robertson Wilson's 96th birthday, June 1980, with grandnephew Gary (grandson of her brother Joe Robertson) My mother Anne is easy to spot in photos because of her shockingly blonde hair - here in 1922, her father Joe's hair is the same color If we take this back, that means that my great-grandfather Joseph Ellis Robertson was 8% African, his mother Catharine Madden 16%, and the little girl who had to flee the American colonies for Canada, who saw her father shot to death by an arrow, was 32% African.   ...

Scovel, Arter 7 (son of Arthur 6, grandson of Stephen 5, ggrandson of Arthur 4) and his wife Jemima Coldwell 7 (dau of Jane Jordan 6, granddau of Jane 5)                                                                             seventh generation Scoville is also spelled Scovil, Scovel, Scovill, Scovell, Scofield, Schofield, Scholfield.  In each case I have used the spelling that is most often associated with that person. Jemima & Arter's 4 oldest children:  Nathan/Nathaniel, William, Levi, and Ezekiel Scoville  Jemima & Arter's 3 youngest children: Abner, Jerusha, and Charlotte Schofield see Scholfield Pedigree Chart see Scovel/Scovil/Scoville Pedigree Chart see Scholfield Family - Hannah Ward & Nathaniel Scholfield Descendant Chart see West Family - Charlotte Schofield ...

 West, Seth 7 (son of William 6, grandson of Capt. Thomas 5, ggrandson of Dr. Thomas 4, gggrandson of Francis 3) and his wife Mary/Polly Crossman 6 (dau of Alice Potter 5)                                                              seventh generation Polly & Seth's 2 known children:  Samuel and Jane West see West Pedigree Chart see West Family - Charlotte Schofield & Samuel West Descendant Chart

West, Samuel 8 (son of Seth 7, grandson of William 6, ggrandson of Capt. Thomas 5, gggrandson of Dr. Thomas 4, ggggrandson of Francis 3) and his wife Charlotte Scofield 8 (dau of Jemima Coldwell 7, granddau of Jane Jordan 6, ggranddau of Jane 5)                                                                                                 eighth generation Charlotte & Samuel's 3 known children:  Levi, Abner, and George West see Scholfield Pedigree Chart see West Pedigree Chart see West Family - Pheby Scholfield & Levi West Descendant Chart