52 Ancestors Challenge Week 1: "Start at the Beginning" - This Year's Research Goal and Who Lured Me into This Kind of Research

My genealogy goal for this year is to write brief biographies on each of my direct ancestors back to at least my great-great grandparents.

Every summer I teach a genealogy course through a graduate program to pre-service librarians, those pursuing a masters degree in library and information science. I give them the assignment to write a brief biography on one of their ancestors, typically they choose a great grandparent. They need to use resources to substantiate names, dates, locations, and relationships in their ancestor's story. So now I am going to try it for 30 of my ancestors (2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents). 

I have been at this genealogy thing for a long, long time now; about 40 years and it is high time that I put my work to words on paper for future generations of my family to inherit in some digestible format. I love documents but looking at a heap of them doesn't really explain what I have learned from all that I have gathered. So in addition to picking up the 52 Ancestor Challenge again, I've set my own time table to write these biographies. Basically I plan to write one every 2 weeks, give or take a day. I hope to share some of them. Although, any that includes information about the living will not make it onto my blog.

I plan to write about direct ancestors, but it isn't a direct ancestor who lured me into my genealogy research journey. I share this story often, every time I give a presentation, in fact. This is how I got started.

When I was a pre-teen, I attended a family reunion for my paternal grandfather's mother's family, the Losee Family. While we were there my paternal grandMOTHER's brother, Richie, and his wife, Jeannette showed up. I thought that odd because they weren't Losees, they were Henrys. I thought maybe the invitation was sent to extended family members as well but my grandma explained that Aunt Jeanette was born a Losee. That kind of blew my mind and I couldn't quite get my head around it. How were we related? At the time, neither my Grandpa Earle or Aunt Jeannette couldn't explain the connection. And that is what began my research. I had to figure out how Aunt Jeanette was related to Grandpa Earle.

To make the matter even more puzzling, I asked my grandmother who introduced who to their current spouse. "Oh no," she replied and proceeded to tell me that it was after she had married my grandpa that her brother Richie got engaged to Aunt Jeannette. Grandma's parents threw them an engagement party at the Henry home so that everyone could meet Jeannette. While there Grandpa asked Jeannette her last name. When Jeannette replied "Losee" my grandpa stated his mother's maiden name was Losee.

Now this reunion was back before the Internet so my research process began with a trip to the Freeport Memorial Library in Freeport, New York with the knowledge that the Losees had lived in Freeport for a very long time. While there my grandmother and I were taken into what they called the Memorial Room and up on the wall there was a plaque explaining that the library was a memorial to those in the community who had died in the American Civil War. Among the names was Benjamin F. Losee. 

After resolving that Grandpa and Jeanette were second cousins, they had great grandparents in common, I was then lured into figuring out who Benjamin F. Losee was and how I was related to him. (He's my great-great-great grandfather's brother, by the way.)

If you have been doing genealogy research for any period of time you know first hand that once you resolve the answer to one question, several more pop up. It is a never ending quest to piece together a puzzle that has no edges.

Serendipity in DNA Research

Once again, something remarkably serendipitous has occurred in my genealogy/DNA research.

A few years ago, my father’s cousin learned he had a daughter he had unknowingly fathered in the Philippines during his service in the Vietnam War. Things like this are happening all the time now with the inundation of direct-to-consumer DNA testing available. People are finding out deeply buried secrets about paternity and parentage; connections that might not otherwise had been discovered if not for the ubiquity of DNA testing.

The organization that brought my Cousin Anna Lisa to our awareness is called Father Founded. They are dedicated to supporting Amerasians, individuals of mixed American and Filipino heritage, in their efforts to connect with their American birth fathers, typically former GIs. These connections can have profound impacts of the individuals involved and their families; sometimes negatively but hopefully positively, as was the case for my family. Sometimes the birth fathers reject their Filipino children, which is truly heartbreaking.

I have worked on two cases for this organization. In my most recent case the man had two rather high DNA matches, who I will call M and C. They turned out to be siblings to one another. I can tell from the amount they shared with my client that they were most likely first cousins to whomever was my client's bio-father. Those top matches share 481 cMs ad 396 cMs respectively with my client; cMs stands for centimorgans, the unit of measurement for DNA. Those sibling's had a mother who was an only child and their father only had one sibling. That one sibling had two sons. It could only be one of those sons who fathered my client.

After sending Ancestry messages to my clients top matches, I went looking for M and C on social media. Not only did I find that they were both FaceBook friends with the one living, possible bio-father, M and I had a mutual FaceBook friend; a woman who grew up across the street from my grandparents in the home my Cousin Anna Lisa's bio-dad grew up in. Small, small world.

Strangers with Some Gems

On October 9, 2023, a post appeared on the Facebook page of the Freeport Historical Society of Freeport, New York, an area settled by my 10th great-great grandfather, Edward Raynor, in the 1640s. The post shows a map from 1896, which is part of the Historical Society's museum collection. It includes a highlighted area that appears to delineate the boundaries of the town. Just above the northern perimeter is the name of my great-great grandfather, John M. Losee Jr. (March 25,1870 - May 24, 1940), written as "J. Losea" on the map. I commented that I was descended from him. 

Months later on July 24, 2024, a man, who I have never connected with before, replied with an image of my third great grandparents' marriage certificate; John's parents, John M. Losee (Sr.) (August 17, 1841 - February 10, 1918) and Susan Amelia Combs-Losee (October,1843 - January 8, 1904).

I had never seen the document before, I had no date for their marriage until that point, and we are unsure how his great grandmother came into possession of the document. But it is lovely.

You never know where, or who, might possess a piece of your family's history. I am delighted that it has been so well cared for and cherished for such a long time by its stewards, however they may or may not be related to me. Thank you, Russell!

FINALLY!! Added a Calendar

At the encouragement of a colleague, I have finally added a calendar of speaking engagements to my blog. You should be able to see it off to the right at the top of the blog. Going forward I will try to make entries a little more fleshed out with descriptions and links to the libraries. Some Libraries require registrants to be residents of the community, some libraries allow entry to anyone interested. You'll have to check on that with the individual libraries if you are planning on attending any of these events.

Thanks, Librarian Danielle. 

It was Just a Matter of Time

Every summer for the past 8 summers I have taught an intensive 4.5-week graduate course in genealogical sources and services to pre-service librarians for St. John's University, my alma mater. I knew it was just a matter of time before I had a relative among my students. While I didn't know it going into this semester, I knew it was bound to happen. 

Although the Library Science program is fully online, St. John's still has a substantial number of students from New York. If you're from New York, you may very well have deep, long-standing Long Island roots. If you do have ancestors stretching back to the 1600s on Long Island, you're likely related to everyone else who has genealogy stretching back to the 1600s on Long Island. Long Island was quite remote then, which led to a situation called endogamy. Endogamy is when people only marry within their own group or community. In an isolated place where there was limited interaction with outsiders, people ended up marrying others from their own group. For the most part white settlers were not intermarrying with natives, resulting in a small number of families to reproduce with. Do that for a few generations and everyone is related to everyone else in town.

I didn't know going into class that I had a cousin among my students. I only discovered it when I looked at my student's family tree. Her great-grandmother had a common old Long Island surname and a middle name that was also a common old Long Island surname: Smith and Remsen respectively. Seeing that I looked further down that line on her extensive family tree. Smith - - DeMott - - Combs - - Valentine - - and there it was, a union between Benjamin Tredwell (1740-1803) and Keziah Bedell (1747-1803) of Hempstead, Long Island, New York. Who forgets a name like Keziah?

Benjamin and Keziah are my 7th great grandparents; they are student-cousin Pam's 5th great. The connection makes us 6th cousins twice removed. 

It is kind of extraordinary but, again, not all that surprising, truth be told.

Now we are talking about a couple who lived through the American Revolution here on Long Island and lived in locations I commonly drive past.

Pam's tree is much more fleshed out on this shared branch than it is on my tree, in part because there is a lack of documentation about these people. To build a tree like hers, one must rely on published family histories, which certainly exist but which I myself have not delved into extensively. I guess this fall I will be examining Cousin Pam's sources. Thanks, Pam.

Two Uncles, Same Homeroom

The title of the post reveals a lot really, no surprise coming. When I discovered it though, my mind was blown.

I received an Ancestry hint for a "V. Prastaro", my uncle. He was married and subsequently divorced from my maternal aunt. Sadly, both are passed but Uncle Vinny remains in my family tree of course. His wedding to my aunt was the first I ever remember attending. I was little. I think it was the summer before I  started kindergarten, so maybe I was 5.

I followed the Ancestry hint to a yearbook photo and sure enough, there he was - Uncle Vinny in 1975 before he was my uncle. 

While examining the photo though I saw the name "J. Puppelo". Wait a second. That is my step-mother's brother! Another uncle by marriage pictured long before he was my uncle. Uncle Joe has also passed.

It was such a surprise to see them there together in the same yearbook. I had never really given it a thought but they were about the same age and lived in the same town. And yet there they are!!

But Where in Ireland? Answer Buried in Records

In 2018 I traveled to Belgium to attend a friend's wedding. Afterwards, my cousin Peter and I spend 10 days driving around Ireland and Northern Ireland. Peter and I share Irish ancestors but we also have Irish ancestors on other branches of our separate family trees.

I loved Ireland. I especially loved the natural beauty of Northern Ireland. Being there did somehow make me feel closer to my Irish ancestors even though, like many Americans with Irish ancestry, I don't know exactly where most of my Irish ancestors were from. Once most immigrants arrived in the U.S. they didn't identify themselves by the town they came from, just the country.

On my paternal grandmother's side I know my great-great grandmother, Annette Hinch-Henry came from Barnamelia and Hackettstown, in County Wicklow. Also on dad's side, I know my Hughes came from Liscolman, Clonmore, again, in County Wicklow and my Grays came from County Cavan. 

My mom's side is more elusive and they suffer from very common Irish surnames; Joyce, Kelley, O'Neill, and Fay. Their U.S. records just record their place of birth as Ireland. No towns, no counties, just Ireland. Even if I may not have been in my ancestors' exact footsteps, I felt very at home in Ireland.

Years later, in 2021, suffering from the wanderlust caused by the Covid-19 world health crisis, I set about visiting the graves of my direct ancestors in this sort of cemetery marathon on which I dragged my cousin Peter. Actually for one cemetery visit I dragged both Cousin Peter and Cousin Ashlee all the way to Dayton, Ohio. I wrote about that adventure in this blog post: https://diggingupthedirtonmydeadpeople.blogspot.com/2021/06/third-great-grandpa-john-joyce-dayton.html 

Prior to that visit to the grave of my third great grandfather, John A. Joyce, I ordered his military pension file from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington D.C. In fact, I ordered the file on April 22, 2021. I made that trip to Dayton in June 2021. In November 2021 I finally received John's file; a 89 page pdf related to his military service as a First Class Boy in the U.S. Navy during the Mexican-American War. It took more than 6 months to obtain the file.

Now if you are like me, you don't know much about the Mexican-American War; but you see that word Navy and you feel all queasy - sea sickness sets in, right? It does for me. I have so many seafaring souls in my gene pool but any body of water makes me a little green. Ugh, I can't with the boats, people!

Anyway, John was in the Navy. He enlisted January 19, 1846. 1846!! His whole military service was a surprise to me really but I did not expect him to be in the U.S. before the potato famine.

Ireland suffered the famine between 1845 and 1852. It was a period of starvation, disease, death, and immense emigration. The poor were leaving Ireland in droves for America where they had the hope of not starving to death. Often Americans refer to their Irish immigrants who came during that period as Famine Irish. John enlisting in U.S. Navy in January 1846, that was pretty early on in the Great Famine, so it's likely my Joyces were pre-Famine Irish immigrants; that they arrived in the U.S. before 1845. 

Another great surprise is that John enlisted in the Navy in Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia! My people are all New Yorkers. Philadelphia? Really? So this has put me on the path of searching for John, and perhaps his parents, yet unknown to me, immigrating through Philadelphia rather than New York. We'll see if I can find anything now that I have that lead.

The most amazing discovery in John's pension file, though, was the name of the county in Ireland where he was born. Yup! On page 24 of the 89 page pdf, at the bottom of the page it states "...born at ___, in the County of Armath, and State of Ireland..." Now Armath has to be County Armagh because there is no Armath. 

County Armagh is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. I don't think Peter and I drove through Armagh though. The closest we would have gotten would probably have been Banbridge on route between Belfast and Dublin. Guess I gotta go back!