Gateway Ancestors & the Relationship Tool

It's fun to find out you're descended from royalty, Mayflower passengers, Magna Carta barons, and other famous people.

To join a lineage society, you need to prove your ancestry. Gateway ancestors can cut this job in half.

A Gateway Ancestor is an accepted descendant from a famous person. So you only need to prove your relation to the gateway ancestor, because the ancestry from there is already proven.

Most genealogy sites have a Relationship tool that shows you a possible path to a famous person that is quick and easy to use.

I often use this tool in Wikitree (https://www.wikitree.com).

I entered my genealogy in Wikitree (it's free!) out to 6 generations. Of course, you can only enter what you know, but the more you can enter, the easier it is to link up to famous people.

When you find a famous person in Wikitree and it has a possible connection, a banner appears showing your connection. (You need to log in to see this.)

To see the path from you to the ancestor, scroll down to the bottom of the page, then click your genealogical relationship.

The list of ancestors appear.

Now the work begins.

All Mayflower passengers have gateways. In the case of Mary Chilton, her descendants have been proven down to 5 generations. You can find these in the book series "Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants" (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2017). From Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass., December 1620. Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1975-2015. https://www.americanancestors.org/DB2731/rd/59157/771-co1/1428910147).

Wikitree also has most of these descendants posted on their website.

In this case, Mary is proven down to Jacob Orcutt. So I only needed to prove from me to Jacob.

I had in my possession birth and marriage records from me to my 2nd great-grandparents (Henrietta Cousins Long). 

I went to FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/en/) to get the original documents I lacked (also free!).

I am now armed and ready to apply to a lineage society, such as, The General Society of Mayflower Descendants (https://themayflowersociety.org/). During my research, I found that Jacob Orcutt also qualifies me for the DAR (https://www.dar.org/).

Check Cyndi's List (https://www.cyndislist.com/societies/lineage/) for a comprehensive list of lineage societies you can consider.

A relationship tool is also on my website (https://olddeadrelatives.com). You can find the relationship between any two people that are on my website (related to me in some way). Navigate to a person, then select the Relationship tab. Find the second person, then click Calculate. 

The descendents show up. You can choose to show spouses (which I find helpful).

In Wikitree, you can also use the Relationship tool to see how you are connected to anyone else, such as U.S. Presidents. I am a cousin to over 20 presidents (with another 6 connections that are questionable), although I am not directly descended from any of them. They are still part of my heritage.

Often I find more than one way to connect to someone. If one path doesn't pan out, try a different one.

Sometimes the Relationship tool sees connections that aren't quite there, so you need to do your research and confirm the facts. But it's a great place to start to find out about your people and where you come from.

Duncan Stewart - Captured in Battle and Indentured in America

Duncan STEWART [Dunkin Steward, Stuart] was the son of a local Scottish lord, Duncan Stewart, and his wife, Helen Margaret Campbell. Born in Kilmadock, Perthshire, Scotland about 1623, his life was one of privilege, but not idle wealth. He and his brother, Alexander, became skilled in the fighting arts, and so were ready to defend King Charles II against the notorious Oliver Cromwell.

The Battle of Dunbar

Scotland declared Charles II as King of all Britain on 1 May 1650. A call was made to all Scotsmen to support him, and to build an army to defend him. Cromwell brought his army of 16,000 into Scotland on 22 July, against the Scottish force of over 22,000.

Indentured Servant

The British had so many prisoners, all young, strapping men, that they couldn't find room to keep them. So, they sold them to businessmen in America. The prisoners were forced to work without pay for a specified period of time (usually 7 years), with no rights or privileges. At the end of their contract, they would be free.

Duncan and Alexander were both transported to Ipswich, Massachusetts as indentured servants to George Hadley, shipbuilder.

Marriage and Family

Duncan met Ann Winchurst [Winehurst], another indentured servant, and (according to Torrey) they married around April of 1654, probably in Ipswich. Sometime before they were married, they were whipped for fornication by order of the church. 

In Jun 1657, their first child, Catherine, was born.

Farmer

In 1659, they moved to Newbury, Massachusetts, where they bought a farm and lived for about 30 years.

Castles in My Family - Bletsoe Castle

 

 Bletsoe Castle was built by John Pateshull, who got permission to fortify an existing manor house on the east side of Bletsoe in 1327. Pateshull had owned the manor of Bletsoe since 1313, but after his mother passed away in 1324, he inherited more land, which allowed him to get the permission he needed to fortify the property.

In 1421, the house was inherited by Margaret Beauchamp, who married Sir Oliver St John. After his death in 1437, she married John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, and they had a daughter, Margaret Beaufort. Margaret, who was born in the house on May 31st, was later known as the Countess of Richmond and Derby. Although there's some debate about whether she was born in 1441 or 1443, Margaret Beaufort went on to become the mother of Henry VII of England.

 

Castles in my Family - Berkeley Castle

Berkeley Castle (pronounced "BARK-lee") is a historic castle located in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England. Dating back to the 11th century it's recognized as a Grade I-listed building by English Heritage.

This castle is famously associated with the murder of King Edward II in 1327. The Berkeley family, who rebuilt it in the 12th century, have owned the castle for most of its history, with the exception of a period of royal ownership during the Tudor era.

In 1882, the Berkeley barony split from the earldom, and the 8th and last Earl of Berkeley (1865–1942) passed the castle down to his 13th cousin, Captain Robert Berkeley of Spetchley Park, Worcestershire (1898–1969). His grandson, Charles Berkeley (born 1968), who served as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire for 2019/20, inherited the castle and estate from his father, Major John Berkeley (1931–2017).

You can visit the castle today. See https://www.berkeley-castle.com/ .

How I use Cemeteries in TNG

The documentation on cemeteries in TNG confuses me. I am currently using v13.

After much experimentation and adjusting, I have settled on a way that I like to use cemeteries.

My objectives are:

1. I only want to track burial places of my direct ancestors, although others can get swept in.
2. I don't want to showcase every cemetery from my database.
3. I don't want to replace or replicate FindaGrave, BillionGraves, Internment.net, ObitsArchive, Obituary Daily Times, or any other like-minded website. While I often search these sites to find clues to my ancestors, they do a better job at what they do than I could ever hope for. They absolutely suppleement my research.

The parts to Cemeteries in TNG are:

• Cemeteries - of course
• People - who is supposedly buried (or honored) at the cemetery.
• Media - photos of the cemetery uploaded to your server
• Headstones - media files attached to people

Cemeteries

The fun part.

After you have imported people with burial places, you can create a cemetery.

1. In admin mode, go to Cemeteries, then click Add New.
   
   
   
   
   
2. In the Associated Place field, enter the first few letters of the cemetery name, then click the Find icon. TNG will search Places for items matching your cemetery name. Pick the one you want from the list. If it's not there, create a new Place (in Admin mode), then try again.
3. Click Fill Place. The data automatically enters into the fields.
   Any field that isn't included might not populate correctly. For example, if you don't have a county in your place name, your info might be shifted or missing altogether.
• Be sure to create State and Country field data before you import. For example, if you are missing the state of Connecticut from your list, any Cemeteries in Connecticut might not auto-fill. Click Add New.
4. Check the information in the other fields. You can modify the data in any field, but leave the Associated Place info as it is, so the burials can be found.
5. If you have a Google Maps API key, you can link to a map location. See https://tng.lythgoes.net/wiki/index.php/Google_Maps_-_Getting_Started
6. Click Save & Exit. 

People

Be sure the Burial field is spelled exactly correctly. And extra space or punctuation could cause linking failure. All people having that exact Cemetery name in the Burial field will automatically show up in the Cemeteries section of the public site.

Media

While in Admin mode, upload any cemetery photos you have and save them in the Headstone collection. You don't need cemetery photos to create a Cemetery.

Headstones

This one is tricky. Save your headstone photos in the Headstones collection and link them to the appropriate person.

The Headstones collection has some options not available to other media. These are the settings I use:

The Title and Description show up in the Person record:

Once a cemetery has been created, you can link to it from the drop down list.

This shows up in the Cemetery public listing:

Click the cemetery name in the public version to see all the burials you have for this cemetery:

For more details on the other options, see https://tng.lythgoes.net/wiki/index.php/Cemeteries

How I use Reunion Notes

Sometimes my notes appear in Reunion for Mac under the wrong person. It's as if the information got shuffled around. I can tell because the information is obviously incorrect. I often can't tell where it belongs, so I often simply delete the note and hope for the best. It doesn't happen all the time, but enough to be frustrating. I don't know how it happens or how to fix it. I only know it happens until I come upon a record with the wrong data. Grrrr.

So lately, I have been using Reunion's linking feature within my notes, so when I find an errant note, I will know where it goes.

For example.

I often simply list the children within the Mother's notes, instead of creating a record for each. My database is big enough. So a note would look like this:

If the father is not namedd SMITH, then I would know something is wrong. It would take a lot of time and energy to find out where it goes.

Usually my notes are more generic:

How can I know it's in the correct place?

Here is a more obvious example:

To combat this, I have started adding links to the people mentioned:

I drag the names from the People list to create an automatic link. Now when I find "lost" notes, at least I have a chance to put them back where they belong.

If I feel extra energectic, I can link the children to any records I have created.

An indicator appears on the Person card when any links have been applied.

These links show up in TNG as Associations, if you import the Linker and the Linkee together.