Which Ancestor Would You Most Like to Meet?
Which ancestor would I most like to meet?
It might be my g-great grandmother, Henrietta, whose last name so long remained a mystery to me. Why is she listed only as "wife of" on her tombstone? What were her dreams and aspirations before her life was cut short by typhoid fever at the age of 24.
Or it might be my gggg-great grandfather Ezekiel Crisp, who was born in the rugged wilderness of eastern North Carolina more than 30 years prior to the American Revolution. After reading the Outlander series, I've often spent time thinking about how hard their lives must have been back then...
Or what about my g-grandmother Barbara (Ryzyllo) Toman who came to America from Poland on her own with four children nearly two years after her husband first left Poland to make a new home for his family. This was nothing unusual for immigrant families during the early 20th century, but to me it seems very brave and almost heroic. How scared and alone she must have felt.
I could go on and on... There aren't really any of what most people would consider "famous" ancestors in my family tree, but they each have their own very interesting story. How I wish I could actually go back in time to experience their lives first-hand.
Which ancestor would you most like to meet and why? Click on "comments" below and share your story!
Comments
If I could meet one ancestor it would be my friend’s ancestor, Sherrod Williams born 1776-1831. My friend, Vaughn A. Williams is over 80 years old and the one thing he has been searching for, we haven’t been able to find, the names of the parents of Sherrod Williams (which married Mary Ann “Polly” Looney in Hawkins Co., TN in 1800) and lived in Franklin County, TN most of his life. If I could meet any ancestor I would choose to meet his so I could ask the names of his parents for my friend, Vaughn, and give him his wish before his time on earth is done.
Doris
If I could meet an ancestor one would have to be my Great Aunt Carrie Buck Detamore. She was the first person in Virginia to be Legally Steralized after she gave birth to a baby that was conceived due to a rape. I wish I could see her fight for her rights in 1927 after she found out she was sterilized in a hospital that she was put in and win the battle in court so that the government could no longer determine who deserved to have children.
If I could meet one of my ancestors,it would be my great-great grandmother Della Locklear-Lilly because she was a cherokee indian. I would have loved to have met her and ask questions about her family.
I would like to go back to my great, great Grandfather who was born in 1806. But maybe in 1835 so that I could ask a whole lot of questions and find out as much as I could, and see their wedding!
I would know my great great grandmother Nancy Knox born circa 1840, Pennsylvania. Why would a black woman in the free north, travel to Georgia pre-civil war and give birth to 14 children (first 2 said to be mulatto?)
I would like to have known my grandmother, Lillian Bramer Muhlenbruch, who died after a short illness when my father was 8 years old. The little I know about her makes me wonder how much I inherited from her.
To Doris E. Williams-Keefer (first entry on this forum)
1. I found their graves on FindAGrave.com (Sherrod and Polly Williams) …
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScid=20299&GRid=15979410&
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScid=20299&GRid=15979410&
2. This is from FamilySearch.org:
IGI Individual Record FamilySearch™ International Genealogical Index v5.0
North America
Sherrod Williams Pedigree
Male
Event(s):
Birth: 20 APR 1776
Christening:
Death: 12 SEP 1831 , Madison, Alabama
Burial: Williams Cem, , Franklin, Tennessee
Parents:
Father: James I Williams Family
Mother: Dont Know French Woman
3. Also from FamilySearch.org:
Family Group Record FamilySearch™ Ancestral File v4.19
Search Results | Download GEDCOM
Husband’s Name
Sherrod WILLIAMS (AFN:S91F-HW) Pedigree
Born: 20 Apr 1776 Place:
Died: 12 Sep 1831 Place:
Married: 14 Nov 1801 Place:
Father:
Mother:
Wife’s Name
Mary Ann LOONEY (AFN:S91F-J3) Pedigree
Born: 14 Feb 1781 Place: , Hwkns, Tn
Married: 14 Nov 1801 Place:
Father: Michael LOONEY (AFN:S91K-WJ) Family
Mother: Temperance CROSS (AFN:S91D-Z6)
I am 75 years old and wish I could have known my maternal grandfather. He and my grandmother divorced when my mother was very young. My mother never got to know him but I have a few pictures of him that she was given. She didn’t get to know him either and it was a heartache she never got over. I have been able to trace his family back to England so I am please with that.
I would like to meet my Great Grandfather .He was killed in the Civil war, I can’t find him or where he is burrird. It is like a dead end.
I would love to meet my paternal grandfather. I wonder; who was this man who raised my father? I know they were very poor, Dad lived in tents most of his childhood. They were “fruit tramps” meaning they picked crops from Southern California to Washington state each year. Not one of his kids or grandkids ever got into any trouble, they are hard working, patriotic, family men. One very hard year he got hold of a 100 pound sack of beans that would with care feed his family over the winter. Before the day was over he had given away ninty pounds to other families they travelled with. Grannie said he was a very quiet man; his sons were certainly not quiet. He apparently said that he knew he would live to see Lee’s first child. (That would have been me) I was three months old on the 2nd birthday of his only other grandchild, when he committed suicide. Until 2002 when I got interested in genealogy, his family believed he was an orphan with no family in this world. He did in fact come from a large family, had four living sisters and three brothers, plus a son from a previous marriage he never mentioned. Strange,complicated, man. How I would love to have a cup of coffee with him.
One (of many) ancestors I would like to meet is my g-g-grandfather, William Louderback. His wife died before their only child was a year old. He left the child with relatives and went to fight in the Civil War, came home on leave and died of a disease. Why would you leave a baby and go off like that? She never spoke of him, probably didn’t know much about him. I’d like to understand his thinking.
I wish that some of the wishers who have written and I could correspond. I too would like to know who my great,great grandfather’s (I think it’s two times-I’m 69 yrs old.) parents were. He married a Cherokee woman - I also would like to trace her roots.
I would like to meet my Grandmother, Florence Brockett. She died in the 1964 when my mom was 8 from Ovarian Cancer and my mom barely got to know her. She had 9 children before she died and I know she wanted more. I heard wonderful stories about her and how beautiful she was. I would like to meet the woman who gave my mom the strength to be a great mother since she had no motherly role model to look up to with us.
I would love to bond with my great-great grand father Bentick Sancho (abt. 1809 – before April 16, 1884). I have too many unanswered questions. I believe Bentick Sancho would enlighten me concerning the following;
Dates of Births, Place(s) of births, Dates of Marriages, Place(s) of Marriages, Dates of Deaths, Place(s) of Deaths, Names of Parents, and their data, Names of Spouses, Mothers of Children, and their data, Children and their data of numerous relatives including; himself, Bentick Sancho, and his brothers, John Sancho, Tuckness Sancho
Are Africans surnamed Sancho of the United Kingdom, Liberia, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, St. Vincent and Barbados our relatives? If so? Who and how?
Which group of African people do I belong (in simple wording Bentick Sancho would or should know my place in Black life and culture)?
Who are his father and grand father – and that would prevent me and Sancho researchers from climbing up the wrong tree – even it were Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780).
What is the maiden name of his wife Mary and who are Mary Sancho’s immediate relatives?
How did our people acquire the surname; Sancho?
What does he think of the politics and the politicians of Guyana, especially during the last sixty years? What does he think of Golden Grove and Nabaclis and its people? However, the pivotal question I need answer why did he Bentick Sancho and his brothers, John Sancho, and Tuckness Sancho migrate to British Guiana. When did they arrive? What on earth allowed for such thought process?
I would have loved to meet and know my grandmother Annie Helena (Lena) Davidson Thorne. She had 14 Children and her life was very hard. She would be able to answer many questions I have. She now has 13 of her children in Heaven with her.
I would like to meet my grandfather Thomas M Quirk from Coomasaharn Co. Kerry Ireland who came to the USA in 1858 as a young boy of 16.I hAVE visited Coomasaharn 3 times in the last 30 yr’s & it was a very emotional time in my life to see what he saw as a boy.There is so much I would want to know especially how he survived The Famine.There were 14 familys of Quirks on the mountain before The Famine the ruins of the homes are still there.They are our seed & breed as my father would say.So much to ask.
I waould dearly love to meet my grandmother. I knew her when she was alive, but now I’m reseaching my family tree, there’s a question I really would love the answer to, Why did she revert back to her maiden name of Gurton when my father ws born, she’d only been married 3 months.She even gave the name Thomas Gurton as the childs father when it should’ve been Thomas Flint.Yet she had three more children who’s surname were Flint My fathers older brother, and a younger brother and sister. It does’nt make sense.
All the people I asked knew but refused to tell me.
Please Nan What’s your secret?.
My eye would be turned to the medieval era, and earlier. Especially to my 41st g-grandfather Caractacus. How did they hold out fimr in their beleifs when Rome was so determined to destroy them. I hope there’s something of it in my DNA, so that I could follow his example. Don’t you love dead people!
I would want to meet Charles Watts, my husband is his 3rd great grand nephew. Charles brother Edward was my husbands 3rd great grandfather.
I have about 20 letters Charles wrote to his brother.
Charles came to America from England between Dec. 1835 and Jan. 1836. It took him 16 years to persuade his brother to come to America.
Since I have been focusing on my Shrader family the last few years, I would love to meet my great-grandmother, Mary Frances Shrader Tarpley. She came to Collin Co., Texas with her parents, brothers, and sisters in 1872 or 1874. Her nickname was Frank. I was named for her (Frances), but, oh my, the things that happened to her. When she had given birth to her fourth son just four days earlier (April, 1886) her husbands gunbelt fell off the hook on the wall. The gun went off and her husband was hit. He died a couple of days later. Like the mighty women they were, she raised her sons, all to be good, honest men. She went into New Mexico in 1905 with her two of her sons. She and only one of her sons remained in Quay County, New Mexico. She died suddenly at only age 58.
Then there was another great-grandmother, Lucy Ella Beale Smith Hawkins. I have learned she was mid wife in Denton Couny, Texas. Her husband died young also and she was left to raise her daughters. She remarried, had another daughter, but again, her husband died young. I have many items that she owned, that my grandmother gave me. I think of these two great-grandmothers daily and wish I had known them during their active lives.
John O. Young my great great grandfather would be my choice ancestor to meet. my first question to him would be, ” why the heck are you hiding from me”? i have searched years for john o. and his wife, elizabeth prater Young. i love knowing that he was a sheriff in van buren county, ak in the eighteen hundreds. there are no pictures of him…i love to visualize him as having a stetson, a gun on each hip strapped low and a long handled bar mustache..john O. is my man…and if i never find him on this side, he will be one of the first i will look for when i pass on…orrrrr will he still be hiding then? thanks for the time…rose benson loyd
I would love to meet all of my ancestors so I could fill in all the gaps and have a complete genealogical record of my whole family tree down to the last nut.
But especially my GGG Grandfather Rev. Henry Mossburg that came from Germany as a child. He was one of the first settlers of Liberty Township, Bluffton County, Indiana.
Also my Grandfather Albert Hubert Poupard who was born in Toledo in 1894. He said that he was part indian and I have always yearned to prove this and to know the exact tribe.
I know this supposed indian’s name and I have a picture of her but no information on her except for death. No parents have been located.
I also would love to talk to Guilliam Couture from my French-Canadian line. He was a explorer, indian interperter,Jusuit priest and founder of a little town in the late 1600’s that is near Quebec City . He was captured by the indians after he killed the chief and made a prisoner. Eventually he was given an indian name and was highly thought of in the indian community.
I could go on and on. But I would love to have a pow pow with all of these elusive creatures that are hiding their records from me.
peggy
I have several I would like to meet for various interest reasons. My first choice would be my g-g Grandfather Louis Schoen. I would just love to sit and listen to his stories of his home land-Germany prior to his immigration to the USA with his wife (Victoria Lentz-Schoen) just prior to 1858. I have been unable to get much research results on him prior to immigration. And I would thank him for his gift he gave all his descendants, when he brought his family to the this wonderful country.
I would like to meet my gr-grandfather James Harvey Anderson on my mother’s side. He fought in the civil war for the North and escaped from a Civil War prison camp with his brother. He also went blind in one eye due to an war injury. He married and went to No Man’s land in Oklahoma where his wife died in childbirth, later he went to Kansas and married a schoolteacher about 30 years younger than him and had 3 more children. When he was in his sixties he went back to Oklahoma in the land rush on a horse with one one eye. He built a cabin and went back for his wife and kids. My grandmother talked about him all the time when we were kids. He had a lot of energy and courage
I would like to meet my great-grandfather, Marcus Hanlon, who came to NYC in 1864 from Ballyduff, County Offlay, Ireland. Marcus was very involved in politics in the new world, and his name has popped up in books and in many, many news articles of the time. He is the key however, to his ancestors in Ireland. His parents, John Norman Hanlon and Mary Anne England Hanlon (imagine my surprise when I found that she and I were Mary Anne Hanlons separated by several generations)ran a corn mill in Ballyduff. Marcus could have told me where his parents were born and perhaps of his own grandparents - which would push my quest further back into County Antrim - from where the clan of O’Hanlon originated. Right now I am stuck at John Norman and Mary Anne. Great-grandpa: come to me in a dream and give me a clue!!
Adam and Eve
I’d love to have met my maternal grandfather. He seems to have been a bit of a pioneer, having travelled from Scotland to Canada/USA at the turn of the century. His wife and family came later. He was a miner and also a temporary member of the RCMP. The family couldn’t settle, so they finally returned to Scotland, where he resumed work as a miner. He joined the army in 1914 and was killed a few months later (MIA). The stories he could have told me……..!! I did know my grandmother but she was a very quiet lady and never spoke of her adventures as a young woman. (travelling alone with 2 children from Scotland to USA by ship). I wish I’d paid more attention to her and asked her to tell me her stories.
I would love to meet my greatgrandfather Micheal Sear who was born in East bend N.C. I feel like I knew him, but he passed long before my time.
I would love to meet my GGGGGrandfather Joseph Gardner and talk to him awhile.I’m sure I would hear some very interesting tales. Also, GGGGFrandfather Antoon Haps who came here from Holland in 1847 through the Port of New Orleans. Son John, died at the Old Soldiers Home in Biloxi Mississippi years after the Civil War. He fought for the South, and died at Beauvior where he is buried. All this are was devastated by hurricane’s Katrina and Rita. I know he was a printer, and writer. He fought for John Morgan (Morgan’s Raiders). I just think it would be so wonderful to have time to speak with these and others I cannot find much on. Maybe one day I will find the answers to some of my questions.
Judy
I’d love to meet my ancestor who arrived in Jamestown,VA abt.1623 and learn what life was like there.
Or, all my ancestors who came from Germany. How brave all these people were.
I would love to meet my paternal grandfather’s parents - because I have no idea who they are. I started to say I’d like to meet my grandfather again (I was very young when he died) but he did such a good job of hiding his past and family when he was alive, I doubt he would tell me anything now. The few names and places that he told his children are complete dead ends.
The ancestor I would most like to meet is my great-great-grandfather Wyatt Roberson. He fought for the North (3rd TN Inf) while living in North Carolina during the Civil War. He became a very religious man as he grew older. I would love to know what he REALLY thought of his brother-in-law, Jehu Reed. Wyatt, I would love to know more about your parents and grand-parents - your brothers and sisters, especially your brother who left and went to Texas. Why? You’ve always been an intriguing character to us during our family research.
I would love to meet my father who died just eleven days before my fourth birthday. I would ask him questions about his part in WW II and listen to the stories he could tell me. I would ask him about the circumstances surrounding his death. I’d like to learn about all unanswered questions. I would love to be hugged and held by my father and be told that “everything is going to be okay. I never had that. I would tell him thank you for watching over my son, his grandson, who was injured in Iraq. I feel he was my son’s guardian angel and kept him alive.