For the past several years, I have not been as actively pursuing or researching my family roots as I have done in the past.  My focus has been to get the ghost town pages to the top of their game.  As a result, much of the information posted on my genealogy pages has not been freshened.  However, I have been adding info to my non-posted database as it has been accumulated.  Nothing is posted online within two generations of me.  Other than my surname there are no direct references as to how these lines are related to me.  This is due to an attempted identity theft/fraud a couple years ago.  I still wish to post this info, but have edited out the relationships. 

My family is a typical American hodge-podge of names, locations and dates of entry into what is now the United States of America.  The dates my immigrants arrived, range from the early 1600s until 1881.  There are no Mayflower descendents in my ancestry; there are no American presidents in my direct line; I have not descended from any Cherokee “princesses” (or other Native American blood); and there are no other directly famous individuals I have descended from. However, my family does have some “close calls.” Coming up my ances-tree, a number of famous individuals and I DO share common ancestors (as do many Americans.) 

One of my ancestors, Henry HOWLAND, was the brother of Mayflower passenger John HOWLAND.  Both presidents BUSH, and former presidents Richard NIXON and Gerald FORD all descended from this Howland clan, as did British Prime Minister Winston CHURCHILL.

My next brush with a famous person and the closest thing to a “Black Sheep” in my family occurs through my 6^th-great grandparents William JAMES and Mary HINES.  They were the great grandparents of Jesse and Frank JAMES, the notorious outlaws.

My last close call with fame is through my SPECK line.  My 3^rd Great Grandfather Archibald SPECK and wife Eliza Jane BOYD are the great-grandparents of Jackson POLLOCK, the famous painter. 

Even though we share the SPECK surname, the 1966 era mass-murderer Richard SPECK and I thankfully are not related.  His family is a totally different line than my family, and I have not found any common connection other than the same last name.  

A number of my family members fought in the American Revolution, and are listed on the rolls of the D.A.R. and S.A.R.  Members also fought on both sides of the Civil War. (OR, the War of Northern Aggression – depending on which family line we are looking at!) 

My gene pool falls into four basic nationalities as listed below, with the approximate Old Country ancestry percentages running 33% German, 49% English/Irish/Scottish, 12% Swiss, 6% Danish.

1 – GERMAN:  I have three distinct clusters of German ancestors in my lineage.  One line descended from a Hessian Soldier who was shanghaied by the British, and brought over to fight in the Revolutionary War.  He originated in the Dresden area of eastern Germany.  The second and largest cluster of German ancestors came from the small town of Goldlauter, which is in the southwestern part of the former East Germany, east of Fulda. These folks immigrated to the Midwestern states of Illinois and Iowa in the middle 1800s.  The third cluster of German immigrants came from the Bremerhaven area in the 1880s, settling in Iowa.

2 – ENGLISH/IRISH/SCOTTISH:  Many of these families arrived, beginning in the early to mid-1600s.  A large number of them fought in the American Revolution.  There were a number of Patriots, some of whom are listed in the SAR and DAR records.  Some of these families also fought in the Civil War, on both the Union and Confederate sides.  They mostly settled in the Virginia and North Carolina area, and spread west from there.

3 – DANISH:  One of my great-great grandmothers is said to have been of Danish origin, but I have NOT begun to trace her ancestry, nor been able to verify that claim.

4 – SWITZERLAND:  This Germanic-Swiss family group arrived in the US in the 1840s, and the immigrant fought in the American Civil War, marching with Sherman through the south. This family married into one of the German lines in Iowa.

SURNAMES I am searching for.

There will probably be many errors.  If you are related to any of these lines, and see any errors or omissions, please don’t hesitate to contact me so I can fix ‘em.  If you have additional information (or photos) on any of my listed family lines you’d like me to share with the world, please let me know and I’d be happy to post it. 

Due to the tremendous amount of viruses, worms and “spam,” out there, I no longer open any e-mails with unsolicited attachments, blank subject lines, OR messages on the subject lines with “Hey”, “Hi”, “Need help”, “Help Please”, “???”, etc.  If you do send an E-mail asking for information, or sharing information, PLEASE indicate the appropriate surname AND/OR location, or other appropriate genealogical topic on the “subject” line.  THANK YOU!  :o)