Five Hours of Online Genealogy and Family Tree Research

Description

The exciting world of genealogy grows every day and the amount of family history made available continues to expand. If you are interested in where you came from and who your ancestors were or you've had your DNA tested and you now know the area your family originated from and would like to connect some dots, I can help you. I'm continuously amazed at the information, documents and stories one is able to find. I've done extensive research for New England, Virginia and Canada and have access to international records that are available online.
I was recently working for a family who had always been told their ancestors were on the Mayflower, and they wanted to know the lineage. I was able to find their ancestral line that went back 400 years and found the connections they were looking for. It also included the Longfellow family and their early settlement of Maine. During the research I read about one Mayflower passenger that has one million descendants. I also worked on a family's genealogy in Massachusetts that led to the very first settler of Andover, MA who was 19 years old, in 1639 when he went into the wilderness. He was a rebel and flaunted his disdain for the religious norms of the day in Massachusetts. I then found that he was "a true descendant of that primal irresponsible family rebel, Wat Tyler, a Kentish man of England". (North American Family Histories) Their story went on to include the Witch trials of Salem and they were both accused and accusers. I found pictures of a house they built that was still standing and was on the historical register. I found the boulder with a memorial marker embedded in it to mark the contributions  he and his family made to the community as being the first settlers. His burial place was unknown.
Another family tree I worked on, the husband's ancestor was being tried as a witch and the wife's ancestor was the minister giving the prayers at the opening of one of the trials and was present at one of the final hangings where he was cursed by one of the unfortunate women being hung.
One family tree included Anne Boyelyn as an ancestor. Queen Ann's cousin appeared to be a scoundrel and often changed political sides depending on which way the wind was blowing. He finally took too many chances and had to flee to the colony of Virginia where he received a large land grant and went on to have thousands of ancestors that spreads from early Jamestown and Williamsburg to the Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond.
Another family tree I traced went back to their 8th great grandfather in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  In 1654 he was kidnapped from Kinsdale, Ireland, at the age of 11, by the order of Oliver Cromwell, a statesman for the English Parliament. He was sold into servitude for 9 years in exchange for corn. The ship he came on was the Goodfellow and had been filled with women and children that had been kidnapped to be sold in Barbados and the Americas, and the captain was George Dill. After 7 years of servitude for Samuel Symonds, deputy governor of the colony, he applied to the court of Massachusetts to be set free as he had worked for seven years without being paid. Because he was held by a government official it is believed that he came in contact with people that gave him the information he could use to fight his case against Symonds. The court ruled against him and ordered him to serve two more years to make a total of 9 years of servitude. I found the transcripts of the court proceedings where he plead for his freedom. He stated that he had been kidnapped from his home as a child and his parents still did not know what had happened to him. His pleadings had no effect on the court. He was freed in 1665 and married in 1666. He fought in King Phillips War by order of the government despite the fact he and his neighbors had good relations with the Natives in the area. He lived until 1708 and went on to have many ancestors throughout New England and beyond. One of his great, great grandsons fought with George Washington at Valley Forge and I found the hand written supply request he submitted before he went into battle. In this ancestors obituary it stated that he had become good friends with George Washington.
In my research I love finding the personnel stories connected to ones ancestors, To see the struggle that women went through, the hardships of having numerous children in the wilderness and knowing what they contributed to their survival. They made all the clothes, washed them by hand, grew the food and cooked for large families and cared for the sick and the wounded without any conveniences. They were the heads of families as the men fought in wars. Their stories are often left untold in history books but it is there between the lines of the censuses, marriage and birth records and old wills. Their struggle was real and their contribution was enormous!
This opportunity is for five hours of extensive research with all the tools I have available. In five hours I can often find a wealth of information: censuses, birth, death and marriage records, pictures, wills, property records, military records, registry for the wars, and if and where they fought. If there are stories about them and there families, I'll find them.
All you need to do is send me any information you have and what area of interest you are most in search of. Even if you only have a small amount of information on a family, it's a good starting point. If you have one ancestor that would be on the 1940 census and know where they lived and approximate age at that time it's the best starting clue.
I will send all the information I find in plastic sheaths that you can put in a three ring binder. I've found it is an easy way to move information around as you add to your family history, make copies and share with others.