52 Weeks of Ancestors Challenge 2021

 Week 17 - Favorite Place This was actually a very difficult prompt. I was torn between the family homestead where I grew up (which most relatives who might read this already know about) or something from Scotland when I visited a couple years ago.  I wouldn't be able to settle on one favorite place in Scotland - I visited both the Closeburn (Kirkpatrick) Castle and had a tour, and visited the Caerlaverock Castle - also tied to the Kirkpatrick's. These places were very different from each other.  Caerlaverock is in ruins, but very peaceful and fun to climb around in - and it had a moat! There is a legend attached to this castle, or maybe it was the earlier one (the foundation of the earlier castle is also on this property): Many Kirkpatrick's know the story of Roger Kirkpatrick with Robert de Bruce and the murder of Red Comyn in Greyfriars Church in Dumfries; after all, that’s where we got the bloody dagger as the coat of arms and the motto “I mak siccar.”  However, ...

  Week 16 - DNA DNA is what renewed my interest in genealogy. I have discovered so many new things, new “long-lost” 2nd and 3rd cousins, and have also been able to answer some questions in places where research and paper trails have dried up.   This week I’ll show how my siblings’ DNA has helped with these discoveries when my own DNA might not have been enough to do it. Years ago Melvin Alsager put together a book on the Kirkpatrick side of the family after he and Aunt Mary researched it. I’m sure many of you Kirkpatrick’s have it as he handed them out at one of our family reunions. At the end it says, “It is now up to each branch of the Kirkpatrick tree to add their own pages to this starter project and to keep the family history current as a continuing memorial to our ancestors. Please feel free to prune and graft onto the older limbs and even re-examine the reliability of the roots.” When I first got my DNA results, I was surprised to see I had so many Stevens, Carlo...

  Week 15: Brick Wall I have several brick walls, but the one I’m going to address here is that of mysterious David Hamilton Cutlip, my 3rd great grandfather on the Spencer side. I have information on his adult life, but not of his origins.  What appears to be a newspaper article or family newsletter article (shared on Ancestry by cecil347) states that he was born on New Year’s day of 1827 in Virginia, which later broke off into West Virginia. The article goes on to state that David’s father is not known but he was adopted by George Cutlip when he married David’s mother Lucinda Jane Fowler. (At least that’s what I can make of the article.) George and Lucinda had many children, so I assume I’m looking for DNA 4th cousins who matches other known 3rd cousins on the Cutlip side, but don’t have Cutlip in their trees.  The trees need to go back at least 4 or 5 generations, and then, hopefully, there is a common ancestor among these matches.  Then I have to take into accoun...

  Week 14: Great Since this week’s prompt is “Great”, I thought I’d feature my great aunt Bertha (Canaday) Thomas and her family. There are still some things I would like to learn about her, such as when did she move to Hawaii; how long did she live there, and why did she return when her sisters didn’t? However, here’s the story of what I do know. Bertha E Canaday was the oldest child of William Hardy Canaday and Anna Nelson. She was born in Amherst, Colorado on November 2nd, 1894. According to the 1900 census, her father (who went by Hardy) owned his own home and was a “stock raiser” - I assume cattle, but it didn’t specify. Hardy’s brother Obadiah also lived with them and was listed as a farm laborer.  Other people in the household included Bertha’s mother Anna and little sister Lottie.  Ten years later, according to the 1910 census, Bertha and her family were living in Notus, Idaho.  Her father is now listed as an “off bearer” at a sawmill and several more childre...