1) Ellen Thompson-Jennings posted 20 questions on her blog last week - see Even More Questions About Your Ancestors and Maybe A Few About You (posted 27 June). 2) We will do these five at a time - Questions 6 to 10 tonight (we did 1 through 5 last week)
6) How many DNA companies have you tested with or transferred to? Have you tested at all the 5 major companies?
Two. I have tested with AncestryDNA and transferred to MyHeritage. I really haven’t explored this aspect much.
7) Do you have an ancestor that had a successful business? Is it still in business?
Where do I start? Over the years many of my ancestors were farmers with various businesses on the side. They were what today might have been known as a side-hustle.
Two that come to mind belonged to a first cousin twice removed and his son. For many years around the Auburn area, if people bought a Chrysler automobile, it would have been from George H. Ward & Son. Later, when George sold and retired, his son, Barry Ward started a company: Ward’s Wrecker Service.
Of course, the one I immediately thought of was the one my Uncle Alden Ward started in 1929. He was a distributor of oil products for Sinclair Refinery. You know those local service stations? He made sure the oil and gasoline among other products were there for them to sell. His company, A.D. Ward & Son operated in Auburn and Cortland, NY. In later years, it was known as Ward Oil, and officially as Gordon J. Ward Oil Company, Inc. The business evolved over the years, having a retail office, a convenience store for a time, and finally selling tires under the name of Ward Tire and Wheel. As the names and the nature of it changed, it also changed hands. My father was the Gordon in the incorporated name. My brother, David, was the last to operate it and he closed the doors and retired this past May.
8) How long ago was your last “genealogy/DNA happy dance?”
Was it a dance? Not exactly, especially since I was in a cemetery. However, my last celebration was last weekend in two cemeteries in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. My 3-great grandmother, Bridget (Bailey) Tifft Coon settled near North Towanda in Bradford County, Pennsylvania with her second husband. I still cannot find where she is buried, however I did visit the graves of her daughter, Elizabeth (Tifft) Bennet and son, Nathan Coon. I believe she is likely in one of their plots without a stone. Nathan’s was indeed a victory as it took a couple mis-turns on winding back roads to find the cemetery.
9) Did you ever discover that a friend was also a distant cousin?
Since starting my research, I don’t think I have ever discovered a current friend was related to me. However, I had a best friend in kindergarten that I lost track of after her parents divorced. Her grandfather always said he was related to our family. A few years ago, I made the connection of how we are.
There are people in the genealogy community that I am acquainted with as well that are distantly related. Many of us descend from the same early settlers of this county including our lines to George Soule and John & Elizabeth Howland of the Mayflower.
10) Do you have a genealogy brick wall? Do you think you will be able to use DNA to work past it?
Is this seriously a question? Too many to count. I keep chipping away at them until I can finally break through to the next brick.
One that has plagued us for years is that of the Wooster line. My uncle and I know that we are directly related to some of the first settlers of Derby and New Milford, Connecticut. However, there is a gap in the line at my 3-great grandfathers parentage. I am still working on writing the indirect evidence case to prove who his parents were as any direct evidence drops off between these 2 generations. Even the best evidence of his parents’ marriage consists of a church entry of "[not given] [not given] & [not given] Munson m. Mar 1786; Notes: A stranger & ------ Munson”. This found in the Stratford, CT Episcopal church records. That period at the end of the Revolutionary War when actual records can be scarce, especially in Upstate New York that the two generations settled in. DNA has, so far, proven that there is a connection between these families.
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