Medical leave has given me time to catch up on genealogy. I decided to pass the time by researching my Goodger kinfolk who lived in the counties of Warren, Lincoln, Greene, Hancock, and Taliaferro, Georgia after 1800. While some Goodgers stayed in Georgia, my 4th great grandfather, Stephen Goodger, and his brother, Andrew Martin Goodger, did not, migrating first to… More →

I’ve had quite a bit of unexpected time on my hands recently so I decided to chase one of my ancestors through court records. My Goodger ancestors left Chesterfield County, Virginia sometime after 1799, following the death of my 5th great grandfather, Martin Goodger. His widow, Elizabeth, was left with 10 children, eight of whom were minors, and debt. We… More →

Have I mentioned that when I first became interested in genealogy I was shocked to hear folks who were much more experienced than I say things like “I’ve been doing family history for 30 years.” I remember thinking to myself – quite arrogantly in retrospect – “What is taking you so long?” I get it now. The farther back you… More →

Happy American Independence Day! The War of Independence took on new meaning for me when I started researching my ancestors. Beforehand, it was nothing more than a subject I had studied in school. Today, I have identified five ( proudly-confirmed) male ancestors who served in the Continental Army. In remembrance of their service to our country and with deep gratitude,… More →

I finally took 23andMe’s DNA test. I wasn’t really expecting any Earth-shattering revelations, having already tested with Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage and BritainsDNA. Not so. 23andMe has an interesting facet to their test results: they report on the amount of Neanderthal DNA you have. I assume they tested a bunch of Neanderthal remains and came up with a way of comparing… More →

The lack of recent posts doesn’t mean I have abandoned genealogy. Quite the opposite, I am knee-deep in research on a couple of fronts. I have discovered a Charles “Peirce” and George “Peirce” living in Lincoln County, North Carolina in the 1790 census. “Charles” was the name of my 4th great grandfather Spencer Pearce’s father. Spencer was allegedly born in… More →

My mother was very proud of her paternal German ancestors who came to America in 1836 and settled near Osage County, Missouri. Before her passing, she gifted each of her children with overflowing notebooks of her genealogical research – the history of our ancestors. But, as all genealogists know, there’s always more to be learned and always another ancestor to… More →

Admittedly, I am a sucker for anything having to do with genealogy and DNA. So, when an email landed in my inbox promising 25% off something called a “GPS Origins” DNA analysis, I jumped at the chance to learn more about the migration patterns of my “ancient” ancestors! How could I pass up the opportunity to get GPS coordinates pinpointing… More →

The first rule of genealogy I learned is “search for research done by others”. That lesson continues to yield phenomenal results! Searching for Hambleton and Womack research I came across a four-volume work compiled by Edward Pleasants Valentine, who, incidentally, is a distant cousin! Published posthumously in 1929, Edward’s tome of abstracted colonial court records on 34 family surnames includes… More →

My string of good luck continues! I expected that researching all 12 of the John Sims enumerated in the 1787 census would take some time. I’ve talked about the FAN principle here before – when seeking genealogical evidence, examine your ancestor’s Friends, Associates and Neighbors. Sometimes it doesn’t yield diddly squat; but, in this case, it payed off big time!… More →