52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 1: Anna Ethel Watchorn

Anna Ethel Watchorn Lately, I have to admit that I have been having a hard time finding free time to blog about my genealogy research. A friend and fellow researcher suggested, in our Facebook group, that we try the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. I’m going to take her…

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Parents of William Hawley… Proven Through DNA…?

If you have been following my blog posts, you know that I have been searching for the parents of my 2nd great grandfather William Hawley. There have been ups and downs in the search. You can read more about my journey in the following blog posts; Re-thinking Research: The Parents…

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Could William Hawley have been a Bound Boy?

I mentioned in my last post Finding the Parents of William Hawley… One Step Closer…, that I found my 2nd great grandfather William Hawley in the 1850 census. William was 14 years old and living in the household of John W. Lockwood in Urbana, Steuben County, New York. As you can imagine, I…

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Finding the Parents of William Hawley… One Step Closer…

In a previous post called, Re-thinking Research: The Parents of William Hawley, I made the claim that William C. Hawley and Mary Oakley were not the parents of my 2nd great grandfather William Hawley. I used several methods to help back up this claim including a timeline comparison of the…

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Hezekiah Ingraham, a United Empire Loyalist

Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King’s Men; Patriots called them “persons inimical to the liberties of America.” They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution. – …

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Built on a Strong Foundation: The Women that Came Before Me.

A strong woman is one who can build a firm foundation ​with the bricks used to block her path Every once in a while, I have one of those days that remind me that no matter what I am going through, I come from a long line of very strong women.  I…

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A Strange, but Legal, Family Relationship??

I think every genealogist has come across their fair share of strange family connections and relationships. Some of these relationships seem strange, or even taboo to us, due to the time in which we live. However, one of the things that a genealogist must do is to investigate with perspective…

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The Founding of Long Rapids Township and the Role my Ancestors Played

Sometimes it is the research I do on a location, rather than the people, that leads me to a piece of interesting information. My plan for my next blog post was to write about a letter that was written by William Faught to his brother George Faught in 1871. While in…

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Faught Lake: Could it be Foch Lake?

In an earlier blog post called Road Trip Through Our Family History, I mentioned some photos that I found labeled as Faught Lake. If you remember the photos also suggested that this lake was named after my 2nd great grandmother Mary Anna Faught. Since I found these photos and wrote the previous…

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Re-thinking Research: The Parents of William Hawley

As all beginning genealogist, I relied on online public family trees to start my research. Over the last year, I have been going back over my research, verifying information, adding sources and filling in the gaps. During my research, I started to add sources for my second great grandfather William…

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Finding George Faught

George Faught, my 3rd great grandfather, was born on July 12, 1837, in New York, the youngest child of Lawrence Faught and Bridget Fogarty. By June 11, 1860, George was living with his mother Bridgette and two older siblings William and Ann in Lexington, Sanilac, Michigan. George’s father Lawrence had passed…

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Benjamin Burt and His Family: Captives of the Deerfield Massacre

Benjamin Burt is my 7th great grandfather. He and his wife Sarah (Belden) Burt were forced to endure a terrifying and unthinkable ordeal during the winter of 1704. In this blog post, I will share their story. I will admit ahead of time, that a large part of the information…

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