Question of the Week: If you could time travel, which ancestor would you go meet first? [closed]

Question

If time travel were possible (and you wouldn't mess up the future by going to the past), which ancestor would you go meet first? 

For me it would be Johan Peter Langholff, my 3rd great-grandfather and perhaps most frustrating brick wall.   He stayed behind in Prussia, presumably to fight in the war, and his wife and their 10 children headed to America where they settled in Wisconsin.  Johan never followed and we figure he might have died in the war. I would love to know their story and be able to move that line further back!

How about you? 

PS Reshare the question on Facebook and get your friends and family talking. 

Comments

I'd probably go visit Adam Edgar (Edgar-2006) back in the late 1700s South Carolina. I'd love to find out who his parents were, whether his wife was really native american, who her parents were. I have a cousin who had done SO MUCH research into this dude (including into all his known friends and aquatiances) and i'd love to be able to break through the wall. Also Adam was an abolitionist during a time and in a place where that was not popular at all and I'm pretty proud of that.

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I would visit my great grandmother and ask her why she changed her name from Lizzie Gill to Elizabeth J. Jebb without marriage or any other reason why the change.  And why did she change my great grandfather's name from Samuel McKinnan to Samuel A. McKennon, after he died. They were both born in Ireland but married in the states.

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Well, I have always had a fascination about Wales so I think it would be my several greats grandfather, Rev. John Henry Trevena.  As a young married couple in 1853, he and his wife came to America to work in the copper mines in Tennessee.  I would like to know more of his ancestors and what their lives were like, where they lived exactly, etc.  I was totally lucky to run upon their marriage record.

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I'm not sure yet.

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That's really neat!

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My Dad

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I would visit my 3rd great-grandfather, Daniel McKaskle, who was born in Scotland, but can to the US as a young man and lived in North Carolina. I would like to know who his parents were. Just have not been able to make the leap across the pond!

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I would want to visit my 2nd great grandfather on my mother's side. Some interesting things have come up in someone's family line, would love to talk to him. His name is Dr. Henry Calton Hook. He had 7 children, but his only son is my gt grandfather, Ivan Lambert Hook.

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I would go back and tell Adam, "DON"T LET EVE EAT THAT FRUIT!" I and "If she DOES eat it, YOU must not eat any when she offers it to you".  

YHWH will make a new and better wife for you and you can start over...and save us all a WHOLE LOT OF PAIN AND SUFFERING!

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My 9th great grandmother, Princess Anna Eleanor von Hessen-Darmstadt.  Who wouldn't want to meet a Princess

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I have a few that I would like to talk to.  First one that came to mind is my 3rd great grandfather Joseph Reader (Reader-465).  He could answer a few questions for me. Joseph is one of my brick walls.  I figure he could also tell me a couple of things:

1) why after his death in Minden, Nebraska in 1890 did his son, John and family go back to New Jersey.

2) where he, his wife Veronica, and brother John are buried.

3) what happened to his daughter, Mary Hilton.

4) would love to hear about their adventure traveling from New Jersey to Nebraska.  Joseph, his wife Veronica, his brother, John, daughter Mary, son John, daughter in law Lillia, grandson Addison travel with two of Lillia's sisters and their families.

5) his parents, siblings and other relatives.

6) Where is Blaybach ant., Walderch, in Baden, Germany. and their records.

Answer 1

It would have to be my paternal 2nd great grandfather Pitser Coop.....there are so many family stories of him and his brushes with the law, I would like to learn if they are true

Answer 2

Definitely Eleanor of Aquitaine. I'm a bit of a fan girl. She was a strong leader and landholder in her own right but she also lived through some incredibly tough times. I'd love to hear her experience, strength and hope.

Answer 3

henry Wadsworth Longfellow thru the Richard Warren line

Answer 4

This one is an easy answer for me. I would go visit Lucinda Shelton born 1834 in NC and seems to disappear after her 5 children are born. Marriages, death and burial places and times have not been located and her only 2 sons are not a match to each other for yDNA testing. Yes....I have questions for her.

Answer 5

Bartholomew Stovall, first “Stovall” line immigrant.

Answer 6

I'd like to meet Ann Blackberry. That is such a sweet name, I'm sure she would be interesting.

Answer 7

My 6x-grandmother, Unknown Unknown: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-391695

All that is known about her is from various court documents involving her children. Not even her first name is known. She had four sons with (at least) three different men, all of them born out of wedlock. Time travel is probably my only chance to get this story. What was happening in her life? Who was she, and where was she from?

Answer 8

There are several but choosing one, it would be my Great-great grandmother, Levicy Smith. She married my 2x great grandfather in 1828 in Georgia. She had three children and died in 1833 at 22 years old. I cannot find a birth family for her and I really sometimes feel like she is a lost person. Almost any surname except Smith in that area would be easier. I never lose hope!

Answer 9

I would seek out David B. Pendleton. A Confederate soldier and a sharpshooter who was captured and sent to a prison camp and later paroled.