Explanations of Ancestral Homelands

Part of why I took up genealogy as a hobby was that I was motivated by envy. I had friends who had pictures of their grandparents in the Old Country, but I didn't have anything like that. Where were my Old Countries? My ambition is to run each line of ancestors back to the Old Country (or Native America, if they are Native American), but I doubt I'll ever achieve this. Still, I'll have fun trying, and here are my Old Countries so far.

My links to Austria are not very certain. The source is from an article in William and Mary College Quarterly Magazine, 2nd Ser., Vol. 7, No. 3 (Jul., 1927), 174-180 by William Shepard. He quotes a letter from Samuel Shepard of Norfolk County, Virginia, written to his children November 15, 1782. I don't know where the original letter might be.

My mother was Miss Mary Kavanaugh, born in France, of the eminent old Irish family. Her father was Michael Kavanaugh, whose father was James Kavanaugh, married while in exile in Spain Senorita Delores Campomanes. Michael Kavanaugh married while visiting the Irish exiles in France Mademoiselle Berthe Dumas, the daughter of a Parisian gentleman, Rene Dumas and his wife Gertrude Strauss of Vienna, Austria. My father Samuel Sheppard married Miss Kavanaugh in Gloucester, where I and my sisters and brothers were reared. My brother and William moved to North Carolina and reared families.

My great-great-grandfather, Lawrence Samuel Smith, was born in Governor's Harbour on the Island of Eleuthera in 1849. He is on the 1880 census for St. Louis, Missouri, and on the 1900 census for Little Rock, Arkansas; he claims he immigrated to the USA in 1861. I have not found him on the 1870 census.

He's my most recent immigrant ancestor.

I put the flag of Cameroon here because Lawrence Samuel Smith's father, Robert George Smith, had mitochondrial DNA belonging to haplogroup L1c3. We know this because a maternal line descendant of Robert's mother, Mary Demeritt, tested as belonging to this haplogroup.

A maternal line descendant of Lawrence Samuel's sister, Juliana, has tested as mtDNA haplogroup L3f1, which is found all over West Africa. Although Lawrence and his siblings counted as "white" both in the Bahamas, and in the USA, I do not yet know whether they were aware of their African ancestry, and "passing", or whether earlier ancestors crossed the color line without informing their descendants. History being what it is, these African women most likely arrived in the Caribbean via the Atlantic slave trade, but it is at least theoretically possible my African ancestors are further back in time.

For more information see the Bahamas DNA Project

With the exception of Berthe Dumas mentioned in Samuel Shepard's letter, my French ancestors were Protestants.

If other people's research is reliable, then my 10g-grandfather was Louis DuBois, who was born in France 27 Oct 1626 at Wicres, near Lille, Artois, France. He was the son of Chretian DuBois. He moved to Germany (OK, the Rhennish Palatinate, since Germany as a country didn't exist then) and married Catherine Blanchan in 1655. Then about 1660, the couple and their children moved to New Netherlands to what is now Ulster County, New York.

Other French ancestors were my 9g-grandparents, Jacob Trentsols and Elizabeth LeRoy, from Picardy. They moved to Mutterstadt in Hesse, Germany, and their son, Abraham Transue, immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1730.

My 2g-great grandmother, Ora Moll was born in this country, but her ethnic group was "Pennsylvania German". I don't have all of her lines of ancestors back to immigrant ancestors, but here is what I do have:

George Frederic Newhard, born 4 Jul 1699, Rumbach, Pfalz, Germany and Maria Margaretha Fraudheuger (born 4 Aug 1707 in Katzenthal, Alsace) Immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1737. They were my 7g-grandparents. Dennis Allen Kastens, in Neuhart Chronicle (Vol. 4, 1988, p. 15) says:

The year 1737 proved a momentous one for several Neuhart residents of the village of Rumbach, then subject to the duchy of Zweibruecken, now part of the west German state of Rheinland Palatinate (Pfalz). Frederick was a cordwainer in his 38th year when he received permission to leave with his family for the "new land". Besides his wife and young children, his party also included his half-brother, George, age 21, and his nephew, Jacob, age 15. Cousin Michael, age 24 with wife and 2 very young children also made the trip, albeit without known permission. They all left Rumbach in May, sailing down the Rhine river to Rotterdam, clearing some 20 odd custom check points along the way. After some weeks in Rotterdam, they booked passage on the "ST. ANDREW"; arriving at Philadelphia on September 26, 1737. Males 16 and above were then marked to the courthouse where they signed the required oaths: (1) Allegiance to King George of Great Britain, and (2) declaration of fidelity to the Proprietors and promise to obey provincial law. Ship Lists 47 ABC, Pa. German Pioneers.

Johan Staub, my 6g-grandfather, was supposedly born in Reichenborn, Germany. He died in Pennsylvania about 1776.

We already discussed Abraham Transue, but his wife, Anna Margaretha Miller (Mueller?) was supposedly born in Upper Silzheim, Mutterstadt. They were my 8g-grandparents.

On another branch of my family tree, my Turney ancestors, although originally from Switzerland, moved to Germany before moving to Pennsylvania. My 7g-grandfather, Johan Peter Turney, was born in Rieschweiler, Western Palatinate about 1710 to Swiss parents, and immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1741.

My ancestors who immigrated from Ireland to what is now the US were mostly Protestant, mostly from Northern Ireland and probably from Scotland before they lived in Ireland. William Gibson (1771-1853), my 4g-grandfather, immigrated with his mother and brothers from County Tyrone to Iredell County, North Carolina shortly after the American Revolution. William married Elizabeth Edmond (1776-1840) who had also immigrated from County Tyrone to Iredell County with her family.

According to Gordon Fullerton (The Fullertons, Fullartons, and Fullingtons of North America, 1995, vol 2, Pennsylvania Clan #022MT-1A page 1) my 6g-grandparents, James Alexander Fullerton (1746-1778) and Mary Sharp (1749-1818), came from somewhere in Northern Ireland, and left from the port of Belfast arriving in Philadelphia in 1768.

William Bone (1670-1728), my 8g-grandfather, immigrated from Londonderry about 1692 and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. See History of the Bone Family in America by Robert Gehlmann Bone.

According to a source that I haven't verified, my 7g-grandparents John Dickey (abt. 1703-1789) and Martha McNeely (b. abt. 1718) were from County Antrim. They immigrated to Virginia, and then moved to South Carolina.

Again, I haven't confirmed this, but my 8g-grandfather John Gregg (1668 - aft. 1735) was from Ardmore, Waterford, which is now in Republic of Ireland. He died in Deleware.

Another ancestor from what is now the Republic of Ireland was my 5g-grandfather, Robert Campbell (1718-1810), who was born in Drumboden, Kilmachrenan, County Donegal. He immigrated with his parents to Virginia, but he himself moved to Tennessee.

William Larkin, my 6g-grandfather, was supposedly born in Ireland, but my source says nothing more than that.

According to the letter of Samuel Shepard cited above, my 9g-grandfather, James Kavanaugh, fled Ireland for Spain where he married Delores Campomanes. If this is true, then he's the only Irish Catholic I have found on the family tree.

According to family tradition, my 3g-grandfather, John Ramsey, was born in Mexico. Indeed he is on the 1860 census for Limestone County, Alabama claiming that he was born in Mexico about 1819. What ethnic group he belonged to? I don't yet know.

Steven Courtes van Voorhees was born near Hees in Drenthe, Netherlands about 1600. He immigrated to New Netherlands in 1660 with his second wife, Willempie Roelofse Seubering, and several of his children and children-in-law, arriving on the ship "de Bonte Koe". They settled in Flatlands, Brooklyn. They were my 9g-grandparents.

My 10g-grandparents Jan Joosten van Meteren, born about 1621 at Thielerwardt, Gelderland, Netherlands and Mackyen Hendrigksen, born in 1624 at Meppelen, Drenthe, Netherlands. Vic Legerton says that they immigrated to New Netherlands in 1662.

My only tie to Spain is my supposed 9g-grandmother, Delores Campomanes, mentioned in the above letter from Samuel Shepard.

My 7g-grandfather, Johan Peter Turney (born about 1710), was baptised at the Rieschweiler Reform Church in the Western Palatinate in what is now Germany. He immigrated arrived at Philadelphia in 1741 on the ship Friendship. His parents, Johannes and Eva Thurny, were from Betterchigen in Canton Bern, Switzerland and had immigrated to the Western Palatinate perhaps with many members of their community before 1700.

My 8g-grandparents, Johannes Fraudheuger and Barbara Jacki, were also from Canton Bern and married there about 1695. They moved to Alsace and their daughter, Maria Margaretha Fraudheuger immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1737.

Many of my surnames are from Scotland, but were the people? Some of them probably started in Scotland, and then moved on to Ireland and the American colonies. I don't have good records or evidence yet, but here are some claims:

My 3g-grandmother, Georgiana Jamieson, who lived in the Bahamas, was supposedly born in Scotland in 1821 before immigrating to Bermuda as an infant and being adopted by Dr. Benjamin Tynes. According to family legend, she was very sentimental about her Scottish heritage and would sing Loch Lomond and have a good cry. However, this has not been verified by any outside documentation, and her maternal DNA is African rather than European.

According to some sources, my 5g-grandfather, John Woolsey (1737-1819) was married to Sarah Oliphant (b. 1751). She was (supposedly) the granddaughter of Duncan Oliphant who immigrated from Perth to Hunterdown County, New Jersey before 1709.

Isabella McCune (1767-1831), my 5g-grandmother married to Thomas Fulleron (1767-1837), was born in Scotland.

My most recent English ancestors were both transported to Virginia for theft. James Haycraft (b. abt. 1720), my 7g-grandfather, a chimneysweep, was convicted at Old Bailey in London of stealing some small metal items such as belt-buckles from a shop in 1744. His trial can be found on Old Bailey Online here. His wife, Ann Henley, was found not guilty, so the couple was separated. He married an unknown woman in Virginia who is my ancestor.

My 5g-grandfather, Richard Gammon (1750-1833) was likewise found guilty of theft and sentenced to transportation. His 1765 trial is here. He was more interested in cloth goods such as handkerchiefs. Once in the New World, he settled in East Tennessee and became a rather respectable guy.

George Woolsey (1616-1698) and Rebecca Cornell (1628-1712) were my 8g-grandparents, both born in England. George was born in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England and spent time in the Netherlands as a child. In 1643, he sailed with the Dutch for New Netherlands, settling in what is now Flushing, New York. More information is from professional genealogist Wilford Whitaker here.

George Woolsey married Rebecca Cornell in Flatbush (now in Brooklyn, New York) in 1647. She was from Essex and the daughter of Thomas Cornell and Rebecca Briggs, who had immigrated to Boston by 1638. They may have gotten involved with Anne Hutchinson's religious movement, and soon left for Roger Williams's more tolerant colony of Rhode Island. While Williams was in England negotiating for his colony, the colonists were granted permission to live in New Netherlands. I am getting this information from Wright, T. A. Genealogy of the Cornell Family. New York, 1902, 468 pp (17-24). See more here.

Way less certain is my relationship to John Throckmorton (b. abt. 1600 - d. 1682) and Rebecca Collville (b. abt. 1620), who may be my 10g-grandparents (if other people's research is OK). Throckmorton was from Norwich, but I don't know where Rebecca Collville was from in England. They also immigrated to Boston with Roger Williams in 1631. They moved with Williams to Salem and fell afoul of the religious authorities. Like the Cornell Family, Throckmorton moved to Rhode Island, and then New Netherlands (Throgg's Neck is named after him), but he ended up in New Jersey. He became a Quaker, much to Roger Williams's unhappiness. Here is an 1891 article on Roger Williams, Throckmorton and others.

Immigrant John Motley, my 8g-grandfather, was born in England, but don't yet know where, about 1635, who immigrated to Virginia about 1660. He died in Cittenburn Parish, Rappahannock Co, Virginia in 1683.

Elias Fort and Phyllis Champion, my 9g-grandparents, were also born in England, and immigrated to Virginia before 1667. They both settled in Isle of Wight County. Much information on the Fort family is from A Family Called Fort by Homer T. Fort, Jr. and Drucilla Stovall Jones. (West Texas Printing Company, Midland, TX 1970).

There are probably plenty more English folks, but they are mostly on the same line as Throckmorton, and I am not sure enough of that information, so I will stop here.

Haven't found anybody from Wales yet, but they are probably there.

All of my grandparents, great-grandparents, and fifteen out of sixteen 2g-grandparents were born in the USA.