I've always been interested in my family's history. One branch of the family tree can trace it's roots all the way back to the Battle of Hastings (1066, I shit you not, Google it), another branch to the Plymouth settlers who arrived on the Mayflower, one other only goes back a few generations primarily due to Finnish/Swedish language barriers. The people and histories are diverse.
The genealogy sites available today are quite impressive. The data available for free is extensive, and if you want to invest a little money on a pay site you'll have access to millions and millions of records from all over the world. I use a combination of both. But don't forget the resources available at public libraries. I would typically use Nashville Public Library's free Ancestry.com all-access account, but due to Covid, using their public computers isn't a safe option right now. I'll add more features to this page like a gallery page for sharing photos, links to trees, etc. Consider this a continual work in progress.
This renewed interest started in early November 2020 when I got an email from Family Search (the genealogy site run by the Mormon Church). I plugged myself into their family tree database years ago and get emails from them every so often. Fortunately they aren't like Lands End who will send you 7 emails in a day just because you clicked on a link to look at a cashmere sweater 4 months ago. Seriously. Anyway...so I got an email from Family Search saying they detected that one of my ancestors had a possible Mayflower connection. Ok, that got my attention!
Some background...My great grandmother, Violet May Young Benner Ganzer, was interested genealogy and had a book called "The Boynton Family. A Genealogy of the Descendants of William and John Boynton..." that was published in 1897 (recently reprinted and available on Amazon) that my grandfather gave to me. My family are descendants of John. The book contains a page of her scrawled notations that outlined the lineage she needed for her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR National Number 283340). I've been told that she was quite proud of her ancestry. It seems that I share Violet's interest in family history. I wonder what she would have uncovered if she had access to the tools available today.
So back to this email from Family Search. I logged in and sure enough. It only took a couple of clicks to link my name to Edward Bayles Benner, Violet's father, and then everything quickly fell into place. I find it satisfying that Violet is in the Mayflower lineage. I think she would be pleased.
To corroborate the free data on Family Search I purchased a subscription to Ancestry.com. I spent many hours and evenings wading through the Ancestry "hints" to make sure that I could verify the sources of the free data. It was tedious but important because I wanted to share the news with my family but only if the data was sound. To the best of my knowledge, I believe it is. If links don't work, let me know in the comments.
And...without further ado, I present The Relatives...
(Click link above thumbnail for printable PDF file)
This is so cool. Thanks for sharing the results of all your research!
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