While I haven't been involved as much in the community as I had expected, there is actually a good reason for that - I've been working at expanding my tree thanks to this group.
And WOW!, has it expanded in the last couple of weeks. Between getting back to ancestry.com and just following up on some contacts that I hadn't conversed with in a while, there has been a lot of advances. I've got some information to share, and a couple of requests for help below.
First, here are the accomplishments that I've been able to make over the last couple of weeks.
- With additional information available on-line, I was able to trace one branch of the family from Tennessee to Ireland along with a name change from Gallagher to O'Gallagher.
- I was able to find online a story that documented a Riggs branch from Tennessee to Maryland to New Jersey, and from there to Massachusetts in 1636!
- With additional emigration data, I was finally able to trace my husband's family (at least a couple of the great-grandparents) back to the same village in Poland. When I showed him the two different ship's entries, he remembered that he'd been told that the two of them had known each other in Poland before emigrating at different times, then meeting up again in Chicago. (I think this was the most fun, as he became more involved in what I've been doing!)
- Finally, I've made tremendous progress in finding out information about a line that I had almost given up hope of ever moving beyond where I was at. I had a great-grandfather that had committed suicide, and the family stopped talking about his history. Further details are below this list, as this story is more detailed.
My father's father's father committed suicide in the early 1900's, and as I was growing up, I knew that my father had been told some things about it, but didn't really know what had happened. Before my father died, he went back to his home town library, and was able to get a couple of articles on the suicide from the time that it occurred. That was the extent of the information that I had, and I had no other information except that his father was born in Virginia, which I'd obtained from one of the census records.
There were differing stories about what had happened, depending on which grandchild of the man you talked to. At least from the newspaper articles, I was able to get information that indicated that my father's story was closer to the actual event than the one provided by his baby sister, who had fancied herself the genealogist in the family. Thanks to making friends at work with another genealogy enthusiast, and re-establishing communications with a great-grandchild from a different one of the children of the man, some amazing progress has been made.
When I indicated that one of the newspaper articles my father had copied indicated the cemetery where he'd been buried, the other descendant indicated that he had a contact at that cemetery, and quickly asked for information from the cemetery secretary. The response that he received back was full of information, including the first names of his parents, and the fact that he had recently divorced. From the two of us, it was evident that the divorce must not have been spoken about. Also, there were indications of at least one brother and two sisters, which we really didn't have any information on before. From my enthusiast friend, she did some searching as well, and believes that she has found some indication of where in Virginia he was from.
I've been re-reading my aunt's genealogy on this part of the family and can only say that most of the information is now incorrect. She was wrong about the method of the suicide, and information that she thought she knew about his brother.
As for the questions, I have a few that might be able to be answered by other enthusiasts here.
- I have an ancestor who had a sibling who seemed to just disappear. In searching census records, I found a census that documents a person of the same name who is listed as "insane" and a resident of a County home. How best to approach asking for more information about that facility?
- How to get more information on an ancestor who emigrated from Sweden, and died shortly after my grandmother was born? Little is known about him except his name.
- How to get more information on my husband's ancestors from Poland?