Let's Chat!

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David Rumsey Map Collection


Genealogy Chat

I had a great time at our latest Genealogy Chat session on 28 November. This is an open group that meets the fourth Monday of each month 1 - 3 pm Pacific time; no agenda, just whatever comes up.


Land Records

This last Monday we talked a lot about land records and where to find them. Alexis and Kathryn talked about the Tennessee State Library and Archives for records. Alexis showed us a set of plat maps for historic counties in South Carolina; the plats were for land granted before the Revolutionary War!


History of the Old Northwest

Sandra brought up David McCullough's book The Pioneers for the settlement of the Ohio territory and the importance of the Northwest Ordinance in US history. Several people spoke up about their ancestors having gone to Ohio from other areas--New England especially Connecticut, Virginia and Kentucky. There was a great migration to Ohio and later to Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois because of the federal land made available after the Revolutionary War. It is a time period and area worth the effort for further study.


Push-Pull Migration

When I think about the westward movement of my own families, I know that my maternal line migrated from New England through Vermont to Wisconsin and points west.  My paternal line migrated from Virginia with a brief time in Ohio before moving on to Indiana and Iowa.  I haven't spent much time researching in Ohio; just haven't gotten that far back yet.


DNA Evidence

I recently discovered an anomaly at Ancestry; according to ThruLines®, my 5-times great grandfather Gamaliel Reynolds is also my 6-great grandfather. Upon closer study I find that his daughter Sarah married Samuel Millington and moved from Connecticut to Vermont at about the time of the Revolutionary War or shortly after. Fifth great grandfather is the correct relationship with Gamaliel through his daughter Sarah.

What I had never studied so closely was my Beckwith line when it came out of Connecticut.  It seems that Simeon Reynolds, a grandson of Gamaliel settled in Ohio in the early 1800s; his daughter married William Riley Beckwith before they migrated to Iowa. It is through this line that Gamaliel is also my 6-times great grandfather on my paternal line.


Northwest Ordinance

It also points out a new area of the country that I need to study further.  I have taken Sandra's suggestion and checked out The Pioneers to refresh my memory of the Northwest Ordinance, the congressional action which opened Ohio for settlement and established the federal land grant system which is still in use today.

What strikes me most about this whole process is that, as I am reading about the specifications for settlement including surveying the vast territory, admitting new states to the union, setting aside land for education including universities and prohibiting slavery, I learned this once upon a time but it was sooo boring!  Now that I have players in the game, it is much more interesting!


We Are Part of History

Personally, I have a very similar reaction to other history and geography that I "learned" in middle and high school. I learned the facts but not the passion for the subjects. It is now, 60 some years later, that I have a passion for more than just those topics in which I have family ties.

We have all heard the adage, "those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."  We family historians are blessed in that we have the opportunity, in fact the necessity to re-learn it!  So, get out there and refresh your knowledge of history, geography and social studies and then come on the Genealogy Chat and share with the rest of us!


MaryLynn Strickland

Comments

  1. ValorieDecember 5, 2022 at 3:36 PM

    You inspired me to buy David McCullough's book. You are so right about history. We're in it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MarciaDecember 14, 2022 at 6:05 PM

    If you know where in Ohio your ancestors lived in those early and mid-1800's, you can read a wealth of interesting descriptions of life there in the county histories you can find online at Internet Archive. It can help to look up when counties were formed. New ones were split out of one or more prior ones as the population grew. I have read stories about my 5X great-grandfather, a Revolutionary veteran, establishing a church in Miami County (est. 1807) in histories published between 1880 and 1919.

    ReplyDelete

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