Famous Fridays - Kevin Bacon

Kevin Bacon
Actor
Perhaps you've heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? Well the game works equally as well for genealogy. Kevin Bacon is my 11th cousin thrice removed on my father's side (via the Beasley family). Our common ancestor is Thomas Morgan, Lord of Castell-Arnallt, born about 1534 in Llanrhymny, Monmouthshire, Wales.

Likelihood of relationship: 40% for me.

While it may take up to six steps to connect anyone to Kevin Bacon through movie credits, scientists believe it may take only one or two steps to do it genetically. On the PBS show Finding Your Roots scientists at 23andMe.com used DNA evidence to show that all the celebrity participants (which included Kevin Bacon) linked to each other through only one or two relatives.

Fun fact: If you type an actor's name in to Google and follow it with "Bacon Number", Google will tell you how many degrees of movie separate the person is from Kevin Bacon.

My Military Ancestors

     This 4th of July I am thinking back about my ancestors that served the United States in times of conflict.  My ancestors fought in nearly ever major war, from the French and Indian War, through the Revolution and in to the 20th Century (the exceptions being World War I and the Mexican-American War).  Below is what I have been able to uncover so far about the military service of my ancestors.

French and Indian War

Battaile Harrison (1725-1776)

Lieutenant in VA Militia

Henry Francis (1734-1780)

Sergeant, 1st VA Regiment

John Hurlbut, Jr. (1732-1782)

Private, Connecticut Militia, Capt. Daniel Bradley's Company of Col.Andrew Burr's Regiment.

Kept a diary of his service at Fort Ticonderoga. More info.

Grave of Henry Francis, at the site of the Battle of Shallow Ford

Revolutionary War

Henry Francis (1734-1780)

Captain, VA Militia

Killed in action at Battle of Shallow Ford (NC), October 14, 1780. More info.

Battaile Harrison (1725-1776)

Lieutenant, MD & VA Rifle Regiment

Killed in action at Battle of Fort Washington (NY), November 16, 1776 More info.

Elisha Blackman

Elisha Blackman III (1760-1846)

Private, Pennsylvania Militia under Captain Bidlack.

Survivor of the Wyoming Massacre (PA) (July 3rd 1778) More info.

Henry Boas (1760-1834)

Private, Col. William Hay's Pennsylvania Regiment

Fought at Battles of Long Island, White Plains, and Trenton. More info.

Reuben Harrison Sr. (1749-1824)

Ensign, Amherst Co., VA Militia

Hezekiah Stone (1752-1798)

Corporal, 6th VA Regiment (Lunenburg Co.) Commanded by Capt. Garland.

Present at Valley Forge, PA in January, 1778.

Joshua Ferguson (1753-1837)

Private, Fairfax Co. VA Militia under Col. Waggoner.

Met George Washington and defended Mount Vernon and Alexandria, VA. More info.

Isham Beasley (1760-1855)

Private, Enlisted November, 1779, North Carolina

John Knight (1760-1843)

Private, in Regiment Commanded by Col. Matthew Locke in North Carolina.

John Stewart (1730-1805)

Private, 3rd VA Regiment (Halifax Co.) Commanded by Col. Thomas Marshall.

 

War of 1812

Reuben Harrison Jr. (1782-1844)

Major, Kentucky Mounted Militia.

Samuel Shelton Sr. (1793-1868)

John Selby (1786-1851)

Private, Virginia Militia, Commanded by Capt. Baldwin

Civil War

Jacob Frank (1833-1909) (Union)

Private, 9th Cavalry Regiment, Missouri State Militia Vols, Co. D.

Patrolled Missouri, mostly in Franklin and Gasconade counties. Protected rail lines from saboteurs. Reenlisted 1863, Thomas’ Callaway County Volunteer Militia G.O. #3 (Callaway County Home Guard)

James L Crisp (1830-1887) (Union)

Private, Company C, 42 Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia

Patrick Sullivan

Patrick Sullivan (1839-1888) (Union)

Private, Co. B, 7th Mo. Reg't Inv. Vols. under Captain Coffee.

Siege of Vicksburg, MS, May 18-July 4, 1863. Reenlisted as a veteran Dec 13, 1863 at Vicksburg, MS. Transferred to 11th Mo. Reg't Inf. Vols., Co. C under Captain Scott. Injured while on patrol in TN in 1865. More info.

George Gruenewald (1844-1917) (Union)

Private, 1st Missouri Vols., Co. C.

Jacob Gruenewald (1815-1869)(Union)

Private, 1st Regiment, Missouri State Militia Infantry, Co.K

Joseph Selby (1824-1874) (Union)

Private, 7th Regt Iowa Infantry, Co. E. Reenlisted as a veteran 1863 in Missouri

Jesse Beasley (1827-1904) (Confederate)

Private, 24th TN Inf., Co. H

Battle of Shiloh (TN, April 6-7, 1862)
Battle of Perryville (KY, October 8, 1862)
Battle of Murfreesboro(TN, December 31, 1862)
Battle of Chickamauga (TN, September 19-20, 1863)
Battle of Missionary Ridge (TN, November 25, 1863)
Atlanta Campaign (GA, May-July 1864)
Battle of Franklin (TN, November 30, 1864)

Forrest Frank Jr. and wife Ruth, Alabama, 1941

World War II

Forrest F. Frank, Jr.

Private, U.S. Army

Served in Pacific Theater, stationed at base in Philippines.

Selected Sources

Diary of John Hurlbut, Jr.

Describes his march from Connecticut to upstate New York and the capture of Fort Ticonderoga from the French in 1759.

Battaile Harrison Revolutionary War Land Bounty Application

Filed by his nephew.

Ancestor Spotlight Elisha Blackman III
My blog post recounting Elisha Blackman's experience during the Wyoming Massacre.

Revolutionary War Pension application of Henry Boas.

Details where he lived after the war.

Revolutionary War Pension application of Joshua Ferguson.     

In which he recalls his wartime activities in Fairfax County, Virginia, including meeting General George Washington. Transcript

Civil War Pension application of Hannah Sullivan, widow of Patrick Sullivan.

Includes testimony regarding his service and injury, as well as family birth and marriage records.

Famous Fridays - Jesse and Frank James

Jesse James and Frank James
American Outlaws
The James brothers, members of the infamous James-Younger Gang, are my 9th cousins 4 times removed on my father's side (via the Beasley family). It is possible that some of my Missouri relatives were knew the James brothers, perhaps from the other end of their guns. The James-Younger Gang was known for terrorizing the area of Missouri where my family lived.
My wife's family has a story that her great-grandfather, a very secretive man whose origins are unknown, was once a member of the James-Younger gang. If he was, it was under a completely different name, which I suppose is not that unlikely. Still, I doubt this story is true.

Likelihood of relationship: 50%

Famous Fridays - Barack Obama

Barack Obama
44th President of the United States
Barack Obama is my 12th Cousin on my father's side (via the Beasley family) and is my wife's 8th cousin on her father's side (via the Roberts family). My common ancestor is Robert Brasseur born in France, died about 1665 in Maryland. My wife's connection is a few generations closer, through Jacob Duvall, born 1715, died 1796 in Maryland.

Likelihood of relationship: 50% for me, 70% for my wife.

If you would like to learn more about our president's heritage, click here. That site contains a really great presentation on the genealogy of President Obama. My wife and I both connect to him through the Brasseur/Duvall line in his tree, which is shown on the far middle-left. The tree contains many interesting stories about his relatives and even contains a bit of genealogy for his Kenyan heritage. It also explains how President Obama is related to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Harry Truman, among others.

Famous Fridays - Dolley Madison

Dolley Payne Madison
First Lady of the United States

Dolley Madison is my 3rd Cousin 7 times removed. (via my paternal great-grandmother Charlotte Beasley)
Likelihood of Relationship: 80%

Famous Fridays - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

I'm starting a new ongoing post series today. Famous Fridays will spotlight famous relatives to whom I am somehow related. The idea for the title comes from a series of posts called Tombstone Tuesdays and Wordless Wednesdays, done on a number of genealogy blogs. Maybe Famous Fridays will catch on as well!

The concept is simple: Post a picture of a famous person, some information and your relationship to them. (i.e., George Washington, First President of the United States, 2nd Cousin 9 Times Removed).

First a disclaimer: A lot of these are to be taken with a grain of salt. The internet is full of "junk genealogy" posts that clog up otherwise good research. Eventually these errors on the internet get added to master databases such as Ancestry.com's World Family Tree.
Unfortunately, databases like the World Family Tree are the best way to find common ancestors with famous people. I try as best I can to check all the links to famous people for accuracy, but I can't guarantee that these are 100% correct. So for each person I will give a percentage estimate of how likely the relation is.

Starting things off is...

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
32nd President of the United States
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is my 9th Cousin 3 times removed. (via my paternal great-grandmother Charlotte Beasley)
Likelihood of relationship: 70%

Digging for Roots

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today.

-- Inaugural Address of President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009.


Hello and Welcome!

The above quote pretty much sums up why I am interested in genealogy. The stories of our ancestors make us who we are today. Their life stories, both famous and obscure, rich and poor, remind us of the significance each life has on the rest of the world.

I have created this blog in order to keep my family updated on the findings of my genealogy research. Most of the posts will be updates on research into particular family lines. I will post updates and interesting stories I find on the families I am researching. Along the way I will also post on other subjects related to genealogy. I am especially interested in efforts to digitize ancient records and make them accessible to the public. I will post on these efforts as well as tips on the resources available on the internet that I have found most helpful in my searches.

Here are the main family names I will am researching:

My father's family:

• Frank
• Dickson
• Beasley
• Backer
• Shelton

My father's family is from Callaway County, Missouri.

My mother's family:

• Sullivan
• Hickey
• Gruenewald

My mother's family is from the St. Louis, Missouri area.

My wife's father's family:

• Roberts
• Westerfield

My wife's mother's family:

• Ebelhar
• Riney

My wife's family is from Daviess County, Kentucky.

You can keep up to date on my findings for all of these families by subscribing to this blog's rss feed. Thanks for visiting, and I wish you the best of luck in your own searches.