Genealogical Research

Sometimes I have to wonder why I am doing this whole Ancestry.com thing.  I have solidly substantiated what I already knew about both mine and Mark's families.  I can trace us both back at least 5 generations......except for two families in Mark's ancestry and one family in mine.  It is very frustrating, to say the least, when you are faced with names that you think are unique enough to be easily traced and yet, when you look, you find there are three or four people with the same name, in the same town, at about the same time!  Gaaah!!! 

I've uncovered an adoption in Mark's family that he never knew about, and a direct link to Switzerland in my family that none of us knew about.  It is fun finding these little tidbits of history.  We found that Mark is related to a family that was living in the Kentucky area (Martin's Station and Ruddle's Station) when British and Indian forces raided and killed the residents and then rounded up the rest and marched them off to Detroit, then in Canada.  Early on in the march Rachel Van Hook Loveless was carrying a baby, as well as a young toddler.  According to reports, the Indians were not happy with having an infant present to slow them down and so they "brained" the infant by smashing its head against a tree.  The toddler fared some better and was carried papoose style.  Pretty much everyone in the group survived, but they were held captive in Detroit for four years. 

It is stories like these that make the research interesting.  I realize that the further back I go in time, the less accurate the apparent lineage becomes.  Names change, families change, adoptions...recorded and not, occur.  It becomes more and more difficult to feel certain of my research, and that has become okay with me.  When you get beyond 4 or 5 generations the research just becomes history and stories.  I like that, no matter who it is about. 

I suppose my next step would be to interview some of the older family members still living and hope that they can shed some light to take me back just a little bit further.  It would be nice to complete the 5 generation pedigree with reasonable certainty.  Then I would be happy with what I have learned and print out the documents and pedigree.  Maybe no one will care what I have learned, but it will give me something to share with my kids.  We now can place people that we are related to in American history.....hopefully it will give them a sense of ownership for the founding and shaping of this country.  I think it will.