So I've heard of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge before, but never joined in until this year. In the past, I found out halfway through the year, or already had too much else going on here. This year, I decided that since I was almost entirely silent here the last year or two, that it would be a good way of getting something on this blog. If you're interested, you can join the challenge here.
The first week's prompt is Foundations. I've been pondering this one since I got the prompt, trying to figure out what this would be about, since it is so very general. I did think about the person who made my maternal grandfather's family line so strong, but I've written about him a lot, so I wanted to do something different. I just wasn't sure what that might be. So this morning, I glanced through some of the other entries that have been posted to Twitter, and realized just what I wanted to do. The foundation of why I got into Genealogy in the first place.
I remember tales of my family tree as a background of my life since I was small. I remember my grandmother and her sister digging into their own lineage when I was young. My father even made hand-calligraphed family trees for each of my great grandmothers before their deaths in the early 80s. But it wasn't until 1991 when I lost my grandfather that I felt the need to actively dig into my family tree.
My grandfather's mother, Mary Park was Irish American. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania along with all of her brothers and sisters, but their parents came from what is now Northern Ireland. Upon my grandfather's death, I realized I knew almost nothing about that branch, and that there were almost no members of that family left. It set me on a path to learn everything I could about that side of my family tree. Eventually, that became all branches of my ancestry, but that side has always held a deep fascination for me.
At the beginning of my search, all I knew was what I could glean from my mother, her siblings, and their mother. The nice thing was that they'd spent a lot of time with Granny before her death in the early 80s, since Grandpa was her only surviving child. The bad thing was that they knew nothing before Granny's parents. So for a long while, all I had was the name of my great-grandmother, her siblings, and their parents. And nothing before they had arrived in America.
Until I finally got my hands on their death certificates. Which helped with my great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Park nee Curran, but not my great-great grandfather, Robert James Park. Her parents were listed as Thomas Curran and Jane Blair, which led me to several more records, and a more firm knowledge that that branch, at least, was from Antrim in Northern Ireland. His parents, unfortunately, were far less helpful as listed on his death certificate: John Park and Dunlop. No first name, just Dunlop.
Now, I had often wondered if perhaps my great grandmother might have been named for her grandmother, as that is a very common thing to do, and her middle name was Dunlop, so that part, at least, was confirmed. But I had no way of proving her grandmother's first name, as I could find it listed nowhere else.
Until last year, when a cousin got in touch with me. (Hi Kate! :D) Her grandmother was my great-grandmother's youngest sibling, and so we had a lot in common trying to untangle who Robert Park was, and who his parents were. Some of the records I found confirmed a birthplace for him of Ballymena, Ireland, now in Northern Ireland. But none of the records either of us could find listed anything quite right to prove his parents. So she began to check with her DNA matches and compared them to possible records, and ended up talking to someone at Family Search who helped her confirm Robert's parents. Not John, as was listed on the death certificate I found, but David Park. And the wife listed? Mary Dunlop. So now I know for certain, my great-grandmother was named for her grandmother. The Dunlop middle name was also passed to two of her younger siblings.
So as of now, my ancestral line on this side of my family goes back solidly another two generations. Starting from Robert, his parents were David Park Esquire and his wife Mary Dunlop. David's father was John Park. We haven't yet been able to determine his mother's name. Mary's parents as my cousin found them were Robert Dunlop and Mary Baird. And that's as far back as I currently have. Not bad, given that I had one and a half people before, and one was wrong.
So my lessons to anyone interested? Even if it takes 30 years, keep looking. New records are uncovered or uploaded to the net every day. You never know what you might find. Talk to family. Because they see things different than you, or may have information you don't have. And get those DNA tests, because that was a lot of what gave my cousin the hints that helped her focus in on names.
That's all for now. Good luck in your searches!
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