Rooting Around: My Genealogy Journey

“Somewhere back there in the dust,

That same small town in each of us.”

---Don Henley

“Strap yourself to a tree with roots.”

---Bob Dylan

“We come on the ship they call the Mayflower,

We come on the ship that sailed the moon;

We come in the age’s most uncertain hour,

And sing an American tune.”

---Paul Simon

Not too long ago, when asked about my ancestry, I could shrug my shoulders and joke, “Poor white trash doesn’t leave much of a paper trail.” But those days are gone.

My genealogy journey has been under way since 1975, and I expect it will continue with some level of additional research until I become one of the departed ancestors my grandkids can investigate. But I’ve decided it is time to start recording the things I have found. I’m sure this project will require multiple blog posts. And mostly I’m doing this here to provide a permanent online record of our lineage for my own descendants. Others, however, may find a larger theme about the classic American melting pot. They also may learn some tricks about genealogical research. Some may learn about ancestors in their own lineage by reading about mine. Hopefully, they’ll be eager to post comments and share their own stories—or correct me if I’ve misconstrued those that I’ve found. To reflect on songwriter Paul Simon, they can share the discovery of my American tune. And I’m sure I can offer an enchanting tale or two worthy of a read.

To summarize my findings to date and headline this report, I have learned that I am descended from four who arrived aboard the Mayflower with the Pilgrims in 1620. I want to reassure my friends that I will not let this go to my head. Even if I am welcomed into the Mayflower Society after submitting my verification, I’ll try to still be that same old wise-cracking fellow you’ve always admired. Besides my Mayflower connection, I’ve learned I also am descended from some prominent Puritans of the Seventeenth Century, including the Hingham, Massachusetts oligarch Peter Hobart (1604-1679) and his father, Edmund Hobart (1575-1646).

In addition, I learned that another multi-great grandpa was a Scottish prisoner of war captured by Oliver Cromwell in 1650 at the Battle of Dunbar Castle and shipped to New England to work in the iron foundry as an indentured servant. Then there was the English fisherman who arrived in the early 1600s as an indentured servant to fish the waters off the coast of Maine. He and his sons served valiantly in the great war against native leader King Philip later in that century. Among the other ancestors I’ve met was a multi-great grandpa who killed three bears as a teenager while traveling by wagon from Virginia to Missouri in the 1800s.

I’ve discovered some darkness, as well. One of my multi-great grandpas murdered my multi-great grandma by breaking her neck in 1733. Before he was hanged for the crime he told acquaintances she “has been a plague on me for 20 years.” I’ve also uncovered slave-holders among my ancestors. I’m sure several of my ancestors took advantage of the Native Americans whenever they had the chance, but wasn’t that the tenor of the times? And I found an intriguing story about a multi-great grandma who allegedly was born the child of a prostitute on London Bridge and managed to carve out a successful life in the New World by seducing and marrying a wealthy Virginia planter in a yarn that sounded like the plot for a movie on the Lifetime Channel. Truth or legend? How can I know? But I intend to retell it anyway because it’s just too fascinating to ignore.

If I could have placed a lot of these folks in a room together back in the old days, I bet they’d have had one hell of a fight. You just wouldn’t have invited all of them to the same party. But they did have several traits in common. Most importantly, they all proved they were willing to risk everything for a shot at a better future. I’ve thought often about the challenges they faced in fulfilling their destinies, both physical and emotional, and wondered how they could compare with the challenges faced by me in a much more civilized time. In addition, they proved they possessed the qualities required to at least survive in most cases and to thrive and prosper in many others. I thank all of them for providing me with the foundation for my life in the later Twentieth Century, and for the lives of my grandchildren in the century ahead. I’m reminded of Cormac McCarthy’s nut line from his classic, The Road: “Are you carrying the fire, boy?” My genealogical journey is designed to answer that question for me. And I think the answer is: Yes.

To provide a little context on my personal genealogy journey, it began after the birth of my oldest daughter in April of 1975. I realized she represented my connection to the future, but I started wondering about our connection to the past. I realized I had never made the effort to question grandparents while they were available and learn some first-hand accounts of those who had come before. Back in 1975, our genealogical tools were limited. We had a great genealogical library in Houston, the system’s Clayton Branch, and I still recommend it as a research location for those with access. It even has free parking in the downtown. I started out with index cards, legal pads and pens. I wrote letters to great uncles with forms attached for them to provide all the details they knew. And most were only too eager to help. Little by little I crafted a small family tree. But it raised more questions than answers.

I experienced the magic of finding the name of a great-great grandfather on a microfilmed census record, where I could see the names of his neighbors in the farmlands of central Missouri. I could note the last names of future brides for his sons residing just a pasture away. And why wouldn’t that be the case? Who else are you going to marry when the nearest town remains a two-day buggy ride? Every time I kicked over a genealogical rock, it seemed, some ancestors would crawl out. Then, at some point, all I could find were the rocks. The ancestors stopped popping, I grew bored and life got in the way.

Off and on over the next 30 years I piddled with research when I could, but that failed to provide much satisfaction in the days before development of the Internet. I took one of the early DNA tests in 2005 through Houston’s FamilyTree organization to see what new details scientific advances might provide. That test and subsequent updates proved that I am thoroughly a mixture of Scottish, Irish and British to a point where 84 percent of my DNA connects to the British Isles. Oh, there is a smidgen of Swedish, but that’s to be expected from historical knowledge of the Viking era and the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Normandy in France had been settled by the Vikings before that conquest, and, of course, the Viking raids into England of the Ninth Century have been well documented.

As I neared retirement from my journalism career in 2012, I organized my thoughts about the ancestral things I knew for certain. Most of my people had lived in Missouri, where I had been born in 1947 in St, Louis. I knew my father’s Taylor lines had moved to Missouri from Kentucky in 1830, while my mother’s primary family, the Wrights, had come west from Virginia about the same time. But I kept finding a curious outlier demanding attention. My mother’s grandfather, Henry Augustus Libby, had been born in Maine in 1852, according to family and census records. Why did I have this ancestor from New England migrating to Missouri around the time of the Civil War? Seeking an answer, I discovered the web site of the John Libby Family Association and inquired by email. In a quick response, someone sent me a copy of pages from a book written in 1882 detailing my line through Henry Augustus Libby (1852-1913) back to that young fisherman, John Libby (1602-1677)—the immigrant who had arrived in the wilds of Maine about 1630 seeking his fortune. Like a fish on young John’s line, I was hooked again on the lure of genealogy. But now I had the time for pursuit, and I quickly learned I had more tools at my disposal than I had time available to use them.

In the years since 2012, I’ve polished my methodology by focusing primarily on two free online resources: FamilySearch.org and WikiTree.org. The first is the product of the Mormon Church and its ambitious goal of mapping the world’s family tree. You don’t need to join the church to use its massive research banks online. All they want is your email address and a sign-in for authentication. Meanwhile, at WikiTree I’ve discovered a place where I can create what I call my official online family tree. Although WikiTree has no online data banks like Family Search, it ranks as a premiere repository for genealogical research because of the honor code each member must sign before they can post family information on the WikiTree.

In addition, WikiTree encourages participants to learn more about genealogy through projects. I am qualified for work on pre-1700 ancestors and the Great Puritan Migration of 1630-1650. As I developed my personal information on WikiTree, my branches would eventually reach the branches of other trees for merging. And I am usually certain that WikiTree information is about as correct as it possibly can be. The WikiTree Honor Code suggests members collaborate with cordiality, but these people are really serious about genealogical research and I have been the recipient of some tough love when posting an ancestral profile without sufficient source material. I usually link my sources back to the actual documents available online at FamilySearch for efficient review by other researchers. For example, on my profile of Henry Augustus Libby, you will find links in the source box to his census records and other written works about him available at FamilySearch. Just click and a new window opens with a document to read. Try it here.

At times, I’ve also paid for services through both Ancestry.com and AmericanAncestors.org, but I believe I can complete most of my research now through the free sites of FamilySearch and WikiTree. For anyone who wants to review my lineage, I have created extensive trees at both sites and at Ancestry as well. To find me on WikiTree, try this link and then move backward through my parents and so on, or call up the entire tree  for a broader view.  At FamilySearch, visit this page.  If you have an Ancestry subscription, you can look here.

In addition, I’ve continued to perform independent research by email, regular mail, telephone, visitation and any other means that might be available. I’m currently mired in an investigation to unravel a family mystery about good old Henry Augustus Libby that has me arbitrating a dispute between two cemeteries that each claims to be the final resting place for his father, Joseph Clement Libby (1831-1903). Based on my acquisition of a death certificate from the Macoupin County (Illinois) Clerk, a copy of the report from a 1902 coroner’s inquest into old Joe’s accidental drowning, and my interviews with representatives from each boneyard, I have declared Bunker Hill (Illinois) Cemetery the winner over Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. But I can provide more detail in a later post.

For now, however, it’s best to journey further back in time on my genealogical journey to the most prominent and interesting place to start. My next post will tell the story of my ancestors aboard the Mayflower. There were four of them. And none were Pilgrims.