Is your family part of US History? Please post here to join us in the United States Project [closed]

+85 votes
12.4k views

The United States Project and its myriad sub-projects cover the people, places, and events through time in the geographic region that we know today as the United States of America. See the United States Project page for information on our scope of activity, our sub-projects, and some related projects.

If you are a WikiTree member who would like to help improve profiles and other WikiTree content in one or more of the US History sub-projects, please:

  1. Introduce yourself by answering this post. (Please post an answer, not a comment.) Tell us about your interests in the United States or its history -- and how you intend to contribute -- and we will get you a United States badge.
  2. Add united_states to your followed tags, as well as tags for any specific states or special topics that you are focusing on.

Please be sure to check out our project page for links to the various sub-projects you might want to join. Note that several other specialized US-related projects, such as US Southern Colonies, Mayflower, Puritan Great Migration, US Presidents, and the 1776 Project, have their own badges separate from this one. You don't also need to join the US History project to participate in one of those projects, but most of us work on multiple topics and may want to be in more than one project.

Thank you!

Please post your request to join us as an answer, not a comment or reply.

WikiTree profile: United States Project WikiTree
in Requests for Project Volunteers by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
closed by Darlene Athey-Hill
William, I have given you the United States badge. For colonial New York, it would be worthwhile to become familiar with the project pages for Project:New York and Project:New Netherland Settlers, determine where your interests lie, and contact the appropriate Project Leaders.
Janet: I fixed that error.

The Categorization Project processes requests for new categories...
Thanks!
Hi, I have ancestors who settled in Virginia, Tennessee and Massachusetts from the British Isles, Eastern Europe. I would like to join your project! Thank you! Amy
I'm hoping to be joining the Maine Project, and perhaps others in the future. This is exciting. Lots of ancestors from many states, but Maine is my home and where I can be most useful (in going through records, cemeteries, etc for information).
Hello. I'm new to WikiTree, but I've been researching my family history for almost 10 years. Paternal ancestors lived in mostly in Texas and Alabama. Maternal ancestors are from Germany. I still have many brick walls to knock down, but I don't mind helping others in the process.
I have ancestors who settled and born in, Polk County and Clam Falls Wisconsin in 1800's, possibly American Native great-grandmothers.  I would like to be added to your Wisconsin project.  Thank you!
Mine is, however I have not been a member for 60 or 90 days whatever it is. This really makes me feel like trying to join your “groups” is like a school kid we don’t like you party. So it won’t be shared.
Will be working on the Austin Family and O'Keefe family of New York.

Adding information to my Coulters as they crossed the United States. Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas as beginning states.
Is there something more I need to do to be considered? I posted Jan. 1 (Page 20). I'd like to join, since nearly all my ancestors were very early immigrants and helped shape American History.

521 Answers

+32 votes

Been working on the Jewett family for several years now ... suppose it's about time I signed up!!  Pretty much started with Maximilian (Jowett) Jewett  and his brother Joseph (Jowett) Jewett   .They came to Massachusetts in 1638 and helped found the city of Rowley, Massachusetts in the Spring of 1639.  Descendants have branched out most everywhere ... my ancestors moved to Canada after the Acadians were ousted and land was cheap.  I'm currently adding descendants from circa 1870 or so ... some still in New England but lots in the mid-West too.

by Bob Jewett G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)

Better late than never, Bob! Actually, you've been working on the Jewetts on WikiTree since well before the US History project was started, so you probably ought to be grandfathered into the project by now.

I hope you'll be making yourself available as a resource for the Massachusetts Project and to other folks who need assistance in their research.

I didn't know about where the Jewetts came from. I always run into them researching Lints in New Brunswick.

I believe that Daniel Jewett was one of the first Jewett's to head North (early 1760's).  There's a town called Jewetts Mills in New Brunswick ... It was moved from it's orignal location because the river was damed up and that spot was then under water.

This is interesting I was just cruising thru one of my early Massachusetts families and I came across Jewett, again. This keeps happening. :)
Music from Twilight Zone playing in the background . . .
Hahahaha
And I'm running into them while working on Tracy and Griswold lines in early New London, CT.   :)

There is a Jewett City in Connecticut.  It is located in Southeastern CT.  According to Wikipedia - The borough was named for Eliezer Jewett, who founded a settlement there in 1771.

Yes, Paula ... he's here: Jewett-348 ... he probably needs a better biography!!
Omg I just them in my family tree on Ancestry lol

Eta, I just checked and we’re 10 cousins, small world.
I believe I have come across one of your Jewett family in the course of my Kenyon research on the 1850 Census East Lima, LaGrange County, Indiana.

Charles Kenyon, born 1830, New York, tailor was living in a hotel, which appears to be owned by Francis F. Jewett, born 1804, New Hampshire, an attorney. He was married to Lucrecia, b 1804, CT, daughter Anne E. born 1832, Ohio and Lovici, born 1837, Indiana.
Both my grandfather and grandmother are descended from Maximilian. My grandfather’s grandmother was the last Jewett in my family! They are certainly one of my biggest focuses.
Josheph Jewett is 18 degrees from Me!
+33 votes
Per the Wikitree algorithm I am related to 38 US Presidents, a number of US authors, members of Mayflower voyage to the Americas, relatives at Jamestown, and unfortunately the Salem Witch trials accuser.

Yes, I would be interested.

Suzette Goolsby
by Suzette Goolsby G2G1 (1.6k points)

Hi, Suzette. Glad to have you in the project. I see that you have deep roots in the American South.

But I have doubts about your connection to the Salem Witch Trials accuser. It isn't credible that Zachariah Putnam could have been born in Virginia in 1690 to parents (Thomas Putnam and Ann Carr) who were born in Massachusetts, died in Massachusetts, and were in Salem in 1692. I hope that collaboration with other members of the US History project and related projects like Virginia, Southern Colonies, and Witch Trials, can help you do the research to find the real story!

Same I'm rated to alot of us presidents, infamous and famous people from around the globe.

Hi there. Check out my Presidential Page I started. I did it really quick about 3 days or so of joining. Life kept me away, but hopefully I can spend some time now getting back into it and adding more information. If you are connected to that many presidents, then we are most likely Cousins somewhere. Always interesting to find out. You can find my Presidential page HERE

I looked us both up as we share much of the same ancestry! Howdy cousin. We share a great grandfather 17 or so generations back:)
A lot of the older generations are less credible. If it is correct, it is still 17th cousins and that’s not very rare. Virtually all Europeans are supposedly descended from William the conqueror. My grandfather is an 8th cousin of Herbert Hoover, no times removed.
+31 votes
I'd like to join the US History Project. Someday I'll find out Jabez Rollings's ancestors probably came into Mass. during the Puritan Great Migration. No such luck so far, grumble, grumble.
by Elizabeth x G2G6 Mach 4 (47.6k points)
Welcome to this project, Elizabeth! I guess you've been working with the Massachusetts sub-project (and possibly others).

I suppose you may not feel comfortable doing this, but my experience here leads me to think that you might discover more potential research collaborators here if you change your profile from Private to Private with Public Family Tree.
I would like to join United states
+33 votes
Most of my ancestors on my fathers side were Scots who first emigrated to Ireland first, and then to the Americas. On my mothers side the ancestors were already here having been members of the Plymouth and other early settlements. Most of my efforts at this point have been in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the migrations to Kentucky/Indianna/Illinois and then to Oregon.
by William Dunlap G2G5 (5.5k points)

I would also like to participate in the South_Carolina and THE FAMILIES OF BACK COUNTRY SC, SOUTH_CAROLINA  projects

Welcome to the US History project, William! It looks like you've been working in the US History territory for some time already.

Those Scots who emigrated first to Ireland and later to America are a major theme in American history, and a research challenge for many of us.

And those South Carolina projects you mention are within the scope of US History, so there are no extra badges to request. But you should contact South Carolina leader Paula J and Coordinator Mary Richardson to introduce yourself and discuss your interests. smiley

Hey william I'd like to join!
We may be related!
on Which family line/lines do you suspect we are related? There are so many possibilities.
Calhoun? They originally came from Ireland to scot then I believe Canada maybe and settled in America?

Any one of these?
+30 votes
Primarily would like to work on early families in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  Most recently I've been working on my Hardy family ancestors from Bradford, Mass, but I'm also descended from multiple Great Migration families and three (possibly four) Mayflower families.   I grew up in Cheshire Co. New Hampshire, and it seems a good part of my family was in that area as early as the mid-1700s.   Moving forward I would think that's where most of my focus will naturally end up (Massachusetts and NH.)

But then I've also found one line we always thought to be  French-Canadian that was actually from Southern Revolutionary British colonists who resettled in Nova Scotia after that war (and that's why genealogy is so addicting....)  so....who knows. :)
by Muirae Kenney G2G5 (5.4k points)
So glad that you joined this project, Muirae!  I love your story about your surprising discovery about your "French-Canadian" ancestor. Please introduce yourself to the leadership teams for the Massachusetts and New Hampshire projects. We look forward to the results of your productive interactions with other WikiTreers.
I just was looking up someone and found Hannah Hardy, she is 12 degrees from me! says her husband was John Tupper, his daughter was Hannah Tupper!

Kim Stokley-105
+30 votes
I am 8th generation Maine girl on both sides of my mother. My interest is early Maine and offering solid proof of lineage not family tree dumps.  I am volunteering for the Maine project. Armed with volumes of Maine books.  I love the smell of old paper in the morning. I trace my roots back to 2 Mayflower families.

Cheers!
by Lissa Debrees G2G2 (2.9k points)

Glad to welcome you to this project, Michele! I hope that you will be abel to share information those books of yours with other members who are researching folks from Maine. Please let James Paxton and other Maine Project members know that you are here.

Our Maine ancestry (a maternal greatgrandmother) is the weakest part of the genealogy work of my grandparents, although my mother's and sister's namesakes were from Maine.  I spent a lot of time in online Maine records for 1720 on.  I just submitted preliminary application to Brewster society, using our Maine descent as an alternative to the Virginia one.  The Maine line includes all Mayflower HOPKINS as well.  I imagine if I am challenged to provide full sources I will fall short. There may be Quakers but I don't have much evidence. I just posted a 1926 photo of this greatgrandmother with her husband on her profile.  The photo includes unidentified grandchildren, probably including ones who died in childhood.
+30 votes
My name is Alexander Steuart Williams and I have a particular interest in Maryland history in general and the history of the Steuarts of Maryland in particular. I have created a significant number of WIkipedia pages (around 160) including this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Steuart_(politician)

It seems that the rules on citations at WikiTree are similar to those at Wikipedia, so I imagine I will be able to be of assistance.  Many thanks in advance - ASW
by Alexander Williams G2G1 (1.1k points)

Welcome to WikiTree and this project, Alexander! Your ancestor(?) George Hume Steuart has a page here at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stewart-21817 , but your Wikipedia article has more information. We look forward to your contributions here. smiley

You'll find that wiki-coding here isn't exactly the same as at Wikipedia, but your Wikipedia experience should make WikiTree feel pretty familiar. (I'm also a Wikipedia veteran, so a speak from experience.)

I suggest that you make contact with the folks at Project: Maryland, if you haven't done so already.  (It's a subproject of US History.)

Hi, Alexander -- look forward to your Maryland contributions!  I see the Steuarts are mixed up with the Tilghmans and Calverts!
+29 votes
I have requested to join the Maine project and would love to get a badge and help here, too.  My ancestors moved to Maine starting in the 1700's and a good portion of them stayed where they settled.  I'm happy to help in any way I can.
by J Clark G2G3 (3.6k points)
Welcome to the US History project, J Clark. The Maine project is a subproject of US History. Glad to know you've already connected there!
Thank you.  I look forward to helping however I can.
+28 votes
I have been working on the Badcock, Bigelow, Bradish, Drury, Eames, Fairbanks, Frost, Gibbs, Gleason, Goodrich, Leland, Jennings, Maynard, Moore, Needham, Pratt, Rice, Stanhope, Starr, Warren, Weare and Winch famlies in and around Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony for over the last 14 years, covering the time-frame from the mid 1600's to the mid-to-late 1760's, when the families went North to Vermont, New Hampshire, New York; and then some of them on to Canada after the war.

I would like to join this history project and I am interested in assisting where I can in this area.
by K Hackett G2G1 (1.0k points)

Welcome to this project, K Hackett. Please introduce yourself to the Massachusetts Project -- a subproject of US History. Also, a number of the families you named include people who arrived in New England as part of what WikiTree calls the Puritan Great Migration; please take the time to get acquainted with the Puritan Great Migration Project's protocols and resources. smiley

A word to the wise: I see that you uploaded a Gedcom and added content from your Gedcom to some of these families' profiles. WikiTree veterans have learned that when editing a profile from Gedcompare, it's very important to preview the biography section of the profile to see how the content you are adding is going to appear -- and review it carefully once again after you complete the edit to make sure that the profile looks OK. The Gedcom-parsing process sometimes generates content that looks like gibberish, and Gedcompare does not check to see if the data, sources, and other content in our Gedcoms is already in the profile. After you look at the Gedcom-generated content, you might decide that it would be better to manually copy your data into the profile. I visited a few of the profiles you edited, and found both duplication and ugly text. I think the program that created your Gedcom uses some formatting that is incompatible with the Wikicoding used in WikiTree; format codes like «b» and «i» are not converted into a human-readable format, so they simply makes your text difficult to read. The profiles that I visited are https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bradish-30 , https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gennings-30 , and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Jennings-5959 . Other profiles, such as https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Eames-226 and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Winch-88, still show some of the kinds of issues I tried to rectify on the profiles I edited.

I too descend from the Bigelow family that moved from Massachusetts to Vermont, then on to New York, where my branch stayed.

Thank you for that explanation.

+28 votes
I have always been interested in U.S. History and while my college major was Business, I also had 18 units in History.  My Genealogy hobby grew out of my interest in History; I wanted to know what my ancestors might have doing, and where they lived when events took place.

Bill
by William Brewer G2G2 (2.7k points)
Thanks for joining this project, William.
+28 votes
I have been researching Southern Maryland families for decades and these families have contributed a lot to US History.  I am always happy to highlight Marylanders' contributions. My interests include Scrivener, Summers, Dent, Weems, Somervell, Sasscer, Gwynn, Wallis, and Kent, among many others.
by Anne Agee G2G6 Mach 3 (37.7k points)

Thanks for joining us, Anne. Do introduce yourself to Jack Day, Coordinator for the Maryland Project (if you haven't done so already).

Hi, Anne -- looking forward to your Southern Maryland contributions.  We're probably cousins!
+26 votes
I have been researching information about my paternal grandmother's family. So far I have traced it back to 800 A.D. Her family originated in Berstadt, Wetteraukreis, Hessen, Germany. Immigration to the United States began in 1719 when Johann Adolph Groethausen, with his younger brother Henry Greathouse, both of his parents: Johann Herman Groethausen and Mary Mott Groethausen immigrated from Heidleberg, Karlsruhe, Baden- Wurttemberg, Germany to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From that point on the family continued moving south and west over the next three hundred years. Many of my family members were soldiers in every war, many were farmers, businessmen and women, many were teachers and several were church clerics or clergy. The earliest ancestors were European Royalty with blood relationships to England's Kings and Queens as well as France's Kings and Queens.
by Living Hirons G2G2 (2.3k points)

Welcome to this project, Natalie. As you add profiles for your ancestors, be sure to provide information about the evidence that supports your data.  (I see that you've created some unsourced profiles. I think most of us do that when we're in a hurry to add our family trees, but unfortunately it's way too easy to forget to go back and add our sources.)

It appears that your Greathouse ancestors arrived in America in the Palatine Migration, so you might want to see what's going on in the WikiTree Palatine Migration project.

+25 votes
I would like to join the project. I’m very interested in the Iowa project. I also have relatives who were involved in Great Migration, Revolutionary and Civil War and Quaker Ancestors. My ancestors came to Iowa from Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania.

Marye
by Marye McLaud G2G1 (1.1k points)

Welcome to the US History Project, Marye. Congratulations on tracing your Iowa ancestors back to the eastern colonies! Please be sure to introduce yourself to the other Iowa volunteers at the Iowa Project.

+26 votes

I have always been interested in U. S. History (and in History in general) but since becoming active in genealogy for the last 50 years I have become even more interested.  All of my ancestors were in what is now the U.S.A. by 1842, and at least one of them, John Howland, arrived in 1820 on the Mayflower.  I am a member of the Mayflower Society.  I will, hopefully, aid the project by continuing to enter information that links my ancestors to the history of the U.S.A. and aiding outhers.

by William Brewer G2G2 (2.7k points)
Probably typo that needs correcting to 1642 and 1620.
+25 votes
Hello, I would like to join the U.S. History Project. My ancestors come from Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania (England and Germany too). I'm most interested in the early settlers in these areas.
by Danelle Freed G2G3 (3.4k points)

Thanks for joining us in this project, Danelle. I hope that interactions with other project members in your areas of interest will be mutually beneficial! Please introduce yourself to the leaders or coordinators of sub-projects like the Virginia Project and the Pennsylvania Project.

+25 votes
I have worked on my large family tree for over ten years. I have both maternal and paternal lines that reach back to Mayflower and the Great Migration. They left for Nova Scotia as Planters, returned to Boston 19th c.-early 20th c. I find early New Hampshire, Maine and Connecticut history as well as Massachusetts.
by Judith Sivonda G2G1 (1.5k points)

It's my pleasure to welcome you to this project, Judith. You have the US History badge now. I accidentally gave you a different badge and removed it -- sorry for the confusion!

It's great to see that you have been finding existing profiles for some of your ancestors, connecting them to the more recent parts of your family tree, and making improvements. smiley

As you dig back into your deep ancestry, please acquaint yourself with the particular expectations of specialized projects like the Mayflower Project and the Puritan Great Migration. And note that all of our projects urge contributors to insert citations in-text in the biography, so as to clearly indicate where the various bits of information came from.

+25 votes
I would like to join this project. Many of my husband's ancestors lived in the United States hundreds of years ago, and I have done work on those profiles.
by Ellen Spertus G2G6 (7.7k points)

I'm happy to welcome another Ellen S to this project.   smiley

As you get involved with those early American ancestors of yours, please be sure to engage with the cognizant projects such as Puritan Great Migration and the Massachusetts project.

+25 votes
I, like my dad was, am a bit of a history nut so when my wife alluded to some faint whisper of the Mayflower in her family the curiosity was overwhelming as I love a good puzzle to untangle. After thousands of hours of dead ends and revelations I found a lot more than anyone bargained for. It has turned out that since this particular family never moved out of Rhode Island and Massachussets they intermarried with most of the more historical lineages from early America and Europe. With this in mind I can contribute much of my found information of many of the lines that run through Rhode Island, Massachussetts, and Connecticut.
by Jason Dillon G2G Crew (950 points)

Welcome to this project, Jason. With that description of your ancestry, I have a hunch that you and I will turn out to be cousins. smiley

It looks like you are working on ancestral lines in the 1600s. For those early time periods, note that we get extra persnickety about sources and citation. Thus, when you create or edit profiles such as https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Geer-913 , please don't just indicate that you got some information from (for example) the Barbour Collection; also identify the town and the page number (if available), and document the details from the record (for example, "So-and-So, daughter of XYZ and ABC, was born in [Town] on date.") And do get acquainted with the cognizant WikiTree projects (such as Puritan Great Migration, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) and consult with them on sources, citations, etc. And I strongly recommend that you look into joining the New England Historic Genealogical Society, if you aren't already a member. NEHGS is the premier online research resource for information on early New England.

Again, welcome!

Thank you for the welcome. I'll make the suggested amendments to the citations I've added and do them that way from this point on. Thank you for the directionals for genealogical resources as well. Ancestry.com and the internet only goes so far.

Regards.
+25 votes
I would love to be part of this project. I am part of the PGM and I am apparently descended from Mayflower Passenger John Alden as well as several Revolutionary War soldiers, and several Civil War soldiers. My big interests are the South, Texas, German migration, and pushing my family tree as far back as possible
by Michele Dowdey G2G2 (2.7k points)
Welcome to this project, Michele. It sounds like your family spans many facets of American history!

As you work on researching and documenting your family, please look around WikiTree to find the projects and sub-projects that support work in the times and places you are researching.
+24 votes
Two great-grandfathers came from Norway in the 1800's, so I feel that this is a component of US History. Several were here as some of the first to arrive in America and were a part of the populations that created the colonies. This is part of the history of the U.S. correct? I would like more of an elboration of those person of the 1800's and continue to seek the quantification of those ancestors of mine that created the colonies and may not be represented yet.
by

Hi, Jodi. You weren't logged in when you posted that message, but it's pretty clear who you are, so I'm giving you a project badge. I think that you can edit your post here (if you are logged in on the same computer that you were using when you posted it) to "claim" it as yours.

WikiTree doesn't have a "Norwegian" project, but I know there are other members here who have worked on researching Norwegian roots and may have good advice to offer. My husband (who is not a WikiTree member) had good luck finding his ancestors in Norwegian records (in spite of a dearth of information from family sources here) and visited with some of his third cousins in Norway, so I know it CAN be done!

Also, as you note, the broad topic of immigration is an important one in American history. Steven Harris has been working on a sub-project related to immigration to the United States, so I suggest you contact him about your interests.

Thank you for the information regarding my post Ellen. I have been able to gain a great deal of information from the website Norway Heritage. The person who manage the forum are very efficient and helpful. I was amazed to have the dialogue which was very friendly and also the detailed information. They were very fast in responding to my communications also. Jodi

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