In my quest for empirical evidence of ancestry, I've decided to spring for a 12 marker DNA test. Basically, there are several surname projects out there that are already correlating DNA test results to prove common ancestry. The two branches that apply to our particular surname are in lock-step with oral tradition as to our family's history. So we'll know for certain in a few weeks.
An interesting side note: I'm told that the testing lab gets busy between Thanksgiving and December, and it's pretty easy to see why. Families get together, tell stories, etc, and want to know more about their ancestors. Strangely I didn't really get into it because of that (I got interested before Thanksgiving). I was more interested in being able to provide my kids with some sort of history. Perhaps even stories.
For example, on Steph's side, she apparently had a great great grandfather that was the superintendent of a mine. One of his responsibilities was to deliver payroll checks to the miners. One day he was delivering the payroll, and was held up in a robbery. The thieves delivered a non-fatal bullet to his head, and he went on to deliver the payroll without a loss. I'm told he was buried many years later with the bullet still in his head.
There's another story that he was involved with his brother and other investors in a mine that had a fatal accident and subsequently closed. All of the investors, save one, took their insurance payoffs from the closure and went on to other business ventures. The one took his payoffs and gave it to the widow of the fellow that was killed in the accident. I'm sure you can imagine that it was Steph's great great grandfather who donated his cut to the widow.
On my side, there are just as many colorful stories. I've been told by a long time that we are related by marriage to one Rebecca Wolfe. If you don't know that name, you might recall her "heathen" name: Pocohontas. I don't have any empirical evidence to support this, and apparently a lot of other people don't either. Just google for "pocohontas family tree" and you'll see what I mean. There are other stories too - my grandmother even wrote a children's book regaling her mother's story of the Civil War.
Anyway, the subplots don't end there - but that's all stuff for another post, perhaps another website. We're just laying the ground work here - and by we I mean Brian and myself. He did a lot of work on the our mother's side of the family some time in the past, but the information was lost. So we're building from scratch - and sometimes starting over from the end, working your way back to the beginning is the only way to do it.
