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Cat Herder


Understander of unimportant things

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Fun with Genealogy
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There is a small town in the southern part of our state that carries the same surname as my family.  I did a little research on the town's origins, because to the best of my knowledge, there has never been any of my direct surname line ancestry who have lived in this state.


The town was named for a benefactor in the county who donated money for a school bell.  He was a businessman of sorts, instrumental in the early railroads in the state, having come here from up state New York.  He later served four or five terms in the US Congress, and was vice-president of the Republican nominating commitee for Ulysses Grant as presidential candidate.  Anyway, I thought, how neat.  I wonder, based on the year and general area from where he left New York, if he was somehow related to my ancestor (who was also in that general area of upstate New York, and where he and his wife ostensibly joined the Church).  So, I found the guy's birth information from the Congressional biographies, and went to work on the Church's genealogy website.


I did find a tie in... but not to my family... rather to my wife's family.  My wife's family goes all the way back to the New Amsterdam colony (New York) and is Dutch.  Funny thing is that there were some Cat Herder folks that showed up in the lines by marriage.  Me thinks they were Puritans who had left England for The Netherlands, because the Cat Herder name is not Dutch, but English.  When my wife and I were married, my father-in-law was always thrilled to point out that it is not the first time the Cat Herders and van Not Cat Herders have intermarried.  I also like to point out that there still has to be the link tied back to where the Dutch Cat Herders actually tie in to the true English Cat Herders...   And with the records on the van Not Cat Herders only going back to early 1600's, and the Cat Herders we know of to not even that far back, it is going to be hard to find that tie in, despite there being a town called Cat Herder in the UK, because my Cat Herder documented ancestry doesn't even go back far enough to tie them to the town. 


Now, are you thoroughly confused? 



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salesortonscom


Wise and Revered Master

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Who knew that Catherding was such a popular occupation back then!  Interesting to note, my ancestral name is also English and they came through New York back in the 1820s.  The town area where one was born was called Genese.  Maybe my ancestors knew your ancestors..... 6 degrees of generational separation.  Almost as much fun as the Kevin Bacon Game. http://oracleofbacon.org/

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God Made Man, Sam Colt Made Him Equal.

Jason
arbilad


Head Chef

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Some of my lines are hard to trace, such as my paternal grandmother. Her family moved around a lot and changed their last name a lot, so it's hard to trace back. But on my mother's side, I'm related to the Doolittles (Do a little more a little better). They have extensive genealogy done, they have their own geneological society, etc. They go far, far back.

Like pretty much everyone, when I go far back in my genealogy I'm related to kings and nobles. For instance, I'm a descendent of Duke Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev. Then again, a great many people are, because he was a man of great passion and had a lot of children.  



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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
- Samuel Adams
glumirk


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I actually just got our PAF files today from my mom.  They are having a DNA day here in town where you show up with a 4 generation family tree (I'm assuming biological) and then they'll take a swab of your dna with mouthwash, and see if a database will help track down geneology.  As long as they keep it pretty confidential I'm ok with it.  Has anyone seen the movie Gattaca?

I'm pretty excited to find out about my family history though.  The only story that I really know is about my ancestors from Denmark.   A two brothers joined the church in the mid 1800's.  While the saints were being encouraged to make the journey to Utah, one brother decided to make the journey, and the other stayed in Denmark.  While my brother was on his mission (the Denmark Copenhagen mission) he tracted into a house that looked just like a picture of an old homestead in our geneology books.  Turns out the man he tracted into is a decendent of the brother that stayed in Denmark, and he hadn't really heard of the church at all.  We, however, are decendents of the man who made the journey and followed the prophet.  It's pretty cool to think about how our righteous decisions today can have a good influence on our children, and our children's children.



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Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you. — Oscar Wilde
arbilad


Head Chef

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This Thursday I get to get baptized for my wife's father. I'm pretty excited about it.

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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
- Samuel Adams
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