We Are All Related

William H. Seward Have you ever heard of William H. Seward? Maybe some of you know of Seward's Folly? William H. Seward was a Governor of New York (1839-42), a Senator (1849-61) and later became Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson (1861-69). He is primarily known today as being the buyer of Alaska (1867), which had been termed as Seward's Folly in the press at the time. People thought it was outlandish and a waste of time and money - pure foolishness. After 100+ years, the buying of Alaska is now thought of as a steal and a great investment. Seward was a great orator and nearly became a presidential candidate during the 1860 election. He was also severely injured by a John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirator when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. My 2nd Great Grandfather William Beach - Quite a Character I have researched my father's family, the Beaches, for several years now and I cannot get much of anything past my 2nd great grandfather William...

Believe What You Preach I am a fun-loving, joking kind of person most of the time. I sometimes make outlandish statements just to see what the other person says or to see the shock on their faces. You just never know what I'm going to say. Is all of it true - No! "I would love to play Lebron James just once and see if he could dunk over me," I once said. What??? I was just feeling it at the moment. "Well, I would have loved to play him at my prime!" Lebron would abuse me like a freight train running over a snail. I was watching my Golden State Warriors (I love to watch Stephon Curry play) and Lebron had just made one of those faces after a breakaway dunk. My wife looked on as I was watching with a look of disbelief on her face. "Whatever," she said as she laughed at me. All of that is well and good, but there comes a time where you have to believe what you preach - we are all related. Super Tree - Does It Include Everyone? I had been adding peop...

Challenge to Myself Amelia Earhart has been in the news lately because the Smithsonian Channel is airing a documentary on new evidence found recently. They claim that she may have been found by the Japanese because of an old photo where some people in the photo resemble Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan. I got a crazy thought and wondered if I could find out how I was related to her. I have roots in Kentucky and upstate New York, so I believe I am like the universal Anglo Saxon descendant. I am feeling great about the possibilities. First things first When I go to see if I am related to a historical figure, I use geni.com . I do a google search using the keyword geni and the historical figures name. So in this case I googled geni Amelia Earhart . I clicked on the link which took me to an Amelia Earhart tree and I clicked the links on her parents and other ancestors looking for surnames from my ancestry.com tree. You may want to go to your tree and do a once over on your tr...

Have You Ever Wondered? Have you ever wondered if any of your friend's are related to you? I have. I am adopted and never had a family tree of my own until late 2015. I found out that one of my wife's friends was related to me (7th cousins 4x removed) and it spurred me to find out if other friends were as well. It can be a tough undertaking, but you can find out - most of the time without asking your friends! This works especially well if you are in a small town or rural setting. For example, this does not work too well in Atlanta, where there is a large, diverse population. But I know this works well in Tuscaloosa, AL. Getting Started - Think Like a Private Eye There is a wealth of information on the web just waiting to be found. I usually start with a google search with the person's name and the town they live in. This sometimes pulls up some newspaper links. Newspapers have obituaries and marriage notices that contain great information for finding parents and gr...