A Goodly Heritage

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

I’ve spent a couple of days looking over family records—genealogy. It’s one of my favorite things to do. One thing I must keep in mind is how much time this takes away from my writing. It’s very easy to get sucked down those winding paths of one’s family. Mine is a doozy, believe me. I start out looking for one line and wind up on one totally unrelated, pun intended.

Years ago, close to twenty, I was in the genealogy library in Bartow, Florida. Bartow is a tiny little town not too far from the Tampa Bay area. One thing you must understand is how friendly the world of genealogists is. Most of us willingly share our work and actively help one another.

On this day, I’d gone in, checked my purse and any pens, leaving them in a locker (no pens or highlighters allowed in a genealogy library), and set up on a table near the Alabama section. A lady at the next table noticed that I was in the Alabama section and asked what line I was working on. I told her the surname. She proceeded to tell me that a gentleman was there with frequency and he was also working that line. Interesting. 

Cousins-They're Everywhere!

About half an hour later, I was busy pouring though the books I’d found which referenced my family names when the lady walked up to me and pointed to a man who’d just come in and said, “There he is. I bet you’re related.” She brought him to my table and we bean a conversation which revealed that, indeed, we were from the same line on my Daddy’s side.  

A few weeks later, there was a horrible hurricane which tore through Winter Haven, his home. He had a bit of damage, but he was so concerned about his files that he got in touch with me and asked if he could bring those files to my home. He left them with me for weeks with instructions to take any duplicates he had of anything and to copy anything else that I wanted. Amazing.

Fast forward to about three years ago. By then I'd lost contact with this cousin as we'd moved to NC. I’d proven my DuPree and my Lanier lines for the DAR and DAC respectively, and I had moved on to trying to find my Mother’s family. She knew nothing about them, only her siblings and half siblings. She didn’t really know cousins. All she could remember was her grandfather was Andrew and her grandmother, Ellen. So, Sis and I began a twenty-year-plus quest to find that line which resulted in connecting to more cousins than we could ever have imagined.

Then Ancestry came along, and the good internet, and DNA. Another world opened to us. Say what you will about Facebook, it has become a great place for families to connect. It was through the Facebook DNA study of Mama’s family name that I came to know so much rich history of her family. 

Surprises All the Time

One night this week, I put together some records I had of several of Mama’s connecting families and I sent that to the two administrators of Mama’s surname’s Facebook page. As we private messaged one another, the records I sent rang a bell with one admin who went on a search. Her husband is in this same line. Unbelievably, she discovered that my seventh and eighth grandfather had the same last name as the man I’d met in the Bartow library almost twenty years ago. He is related on both Daddy’s and Mama’s sides. A double cousin. At least.

This story is my way of saying to keep looking if you have come against a brick wall. There will always be someone out there who has just the piece of paper or record, or even photographs for which you are searching.

DNA Test? Do It

If you’ve not done a DNA test, I’d certainly recommend you do that. I know it isn’t for everyone, but if you have no qualms, by all means, do one. I don’t recommend a particular one. I can say that if you are male, you want to do a yDNA test which will give you your family Haplogroup. But I’d also do one probably at Ancestry as it is autosomal, which gives both sides of your family, your mom’s and your dad’s. And by all means, join your surname study page. I am a member of several Facebook pages that deal with my complicated family lines. My knowledge has multiplied exponentially.

Go do that DNA test and find those long-lost cousins. You may find one just across the table in your local library.

Are you into genealogy? Have you done a DNA test? Have you had a chance encounter such as mine? I call this a Divine Appointment. Share your experience with us.

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Psalm 16:6 Yea, I have a goodly heritage. (KJV)