Susan Anderson
Honor Code SignatorySigned 31 Dec 2016 | 27,940 contributions | 1,642 thank-yous | 1,203 connections
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Born and raised amidst all the transience and novelty of California, I grew up with the permanent fixtures of ancestral stories. By the time American History classes came my way, almost any major event the teacher or textbook mentioned could spark a thought of, "Oh, yeah: I know about that because Great ... Grandpa/Grandma/Uncle/Aunt/Cousin was there" or "did that" or "fought that" or, of course, "fled the area to avoid that." The stories made the history personal and, for me, turned history into stories.
I ended up a history major in college and, ultimately, with a Ph.D. in Medieval History and a specialty in Early Medieval Intellectual History. [No: That is not an oxymoron.]
Since academic jobs in history had virtually disappeared by the time I was ready to apply for them, I did research for a number of years on subjects such as offshore oilfield development and military training policies at a think tank, where "pre-historical" meant, essentially, "pre-1960" and "uncertainty" meant "plus/minus 5%," rather than "this is my best guess, based on these sources and considerations." It was a flawed match.
Genealogy has come to me in my "post-working" years. At first, it was a way to help the Family Historian-Designate sort out family stories and track down mysterious branches of the tree. Then I discovered WikiTree, collaborative genealogy, and people who value sources, appreciate uncertainty, and try to use courtesy in debate. Now, I've inherited the slot of Family Historian-Designate and am learning how to fit my hard-learned research skills into the WikiTree environment, with a whole new universe of potential sources to learn ... and, of course, a world of unexpected pitfalls to avoid.
If you're reading this because you are wondering about contacting me: Please do. I welcome prospects of collaboration and discussion. If I've erred, I'd like to hear about it.
For the most part, I work on whatever branch or twig of my family is currently generating inquiries from family members. I also tend to work on completely unrelated (so far!) families when I find documentation which provides sources for those profiles. As I can, I work formally or informally with various parts of the U.S. History Project, especially with the Massachusetts Project. Since my mother's maternal family started settling in Washington Territory in the 1860s, I've also joined the Washington State Project, where most of the people whose profiles I work on were in the eastern part of the state. As I spend a lot of time trying to track down, sort out and trace the Logsdons of Hart County, Kentucky, I joined the Kentucky Project, in addition to the Appalachia Project. Along the way, I discovered that the rest of my maternal grandmother's ancestors also qualify as Appalachian, from New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio: Lots of cousins! Something this project has taught me is that a "connection" in Appalachia is simply a cousin whose relationship hasn't yet been established.
I thoroughly enjoy the 'Thons and have found a home on the Toddlin' Tortoises: They're just my speed!
Chebacco Parish One Place Study: This is an on-going effort to document the families of Chebacco Parish in Ipswich, Massachusetts Bay Colony/Province of Massachusetts Bay/Massachusetts from 1677, when the parish rebelled against making the trek to attend church in the town of Ipswich and hired their own minister, until 1819, when it was incorporated as the town of Essex, Massachusetts.
1718-20 Migration of Scots-Irish from Ireland to New England: Research and Notes for Scots-Irish Migration. This is a much more organized research effort, thanks to the Scots-Irish and Ulster Scots Project and, most especially, thanks to Caryl Ruckert, my co-researcher. For me, it began with my attempts to find documentation for the ancestors, family and background of David Spear of Windsor (later Ellington), Connecticut. Since he married Mary Clark (descended from William Bradford), and then neglected to leave us readily-found documentation for his son, John, he has long provided one of my family's more frustrating research problems.
Ireland: One branch of my Canadian family came from Ireland in the 1840s (County Tyrone, it appears) and 1850s (possibly from County Carlow). I've been trying to piece together one of the families from County Tyrone, the Spears or Speers, from the Canadian records. The next step will be to try to find them in County Tyrone. Before they left Ireland, one of the Speer daughters married a Wilkinson, so the Wilkinsons of County Tyrone are also on my list.
Sweden: Since my father's paternal family immigrated to the United States from Sweden, I have begun learning about Swedish history in an attempt to place their emigrations in context. Thanks to Eva Ekeblad and other members of the Sweden Project, I now have documentation of my great grandparents' births and families in Jämtland and Västerbotten. As all the histories of those provinces I've been able to locate are in Swedish, I'm also attempting to teach myself to read Swedish.
Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.
Susan is 28 degrees from Zendaya Coleman, 29 degrees from Sting Sumner, 19 degrees from Josh Brolin, 20 degrees from Timothée Chalamet, 22 degrees from José Ferrer, 19 degrees from Frank Herbert, 18 degrees from Richard Jordan, 22 degrees from David Lynch, 19 degrees from Virginia Madsen, 22 degrees from Charlotte Rampling, 26 degrees from Patrick Stewart and 22 degrees from Denis Villeneuve on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
Categories: Central Appalachia Team | Northern Appalachia Team | WikiTree Challenge Researchers | University of California, Los Angeles | Pasadena, California | Oakland, California | Los Angeles, California | Mayflower Descendants on WikiTree | Appalachia Project | Washington State Project | Kentucky Project | WikiTree Day Attendees
Join us for our online Appalachia Project Party on Saturday, December 9th, 2023 at 2pm (EST)/7pm (UTC).
If you are signed up for our Project's Google Group, look for an email with the easy instructions on how to join. If you are on our Project's Discord Chat Channel, all details were posted under Announcements.
(Please make sure to check your Spam folder as many have mentioned the Monthly Newsletter and other communication is landing in their spam.)
Need to sign up for the Appalachia Project Google Group or Discord channel: Google Group and Discord Chat Channel
Sandy
It is once again time for our annual Ireland Project check-in. Please respond within the next three weeks to let us know:
You can respond to this message by posting a reply below or sending me a private message on WikiTree. If we don’t hear from you within the next three weeks we’ll assume your interests have changed or you no longer are able to participate in the Ireland Project at this time, and your badge will be removed. If your circumstances change later you will be welcome to reapply for membership.
Many thanks for all that so many of you have contributed to the project in the past year, and very special thanks to those who answered the project’s call and gave generously of their time to be part of Team Seanchaithe during the most recent connect-a-thon. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
le dea-mhéin, Jen Hutton, Ireland Project co-leader
Welcome to the Appalachia Project - Northern Appalachia Team!
When you have the chance, please add your Northern Appalachia interests next to your name on this page https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Northern_Appalachia_Team
Please add the following: The team categories to your profile: Category: Northern Appalachia Team
If you prefer stickers, our Member sticker is available from the stickers page at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Appalachia_Project_Stickers .
I am always available for any questions or help. Thanks for joining the team. You are already such a valued member of Appalachia, it is wonderful to have you "officially" in the north as well as in central. We are so happy to have you!
Erin, Northern Team Lead - Appalachia Project
We need the Kentucky Project Members to join the Kentucky Genealogical Society's WikiTree Challenge! We are going for the record.... over 500 new profiles!
https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1592825/wikitree-challenge-research-kentucky-genealogical-society
Do you mind if I link 2 more profiles in the Arizona space page? Bob
Absolutely no objection. Check the page for all the categories and stickers - we've set it up so you can just copy and paste, with only a little editing on the military service sticker.
We've put together a survey for you to fill out to check in with you, it will only take a moment as there are only a few questions. Filling out the survey lets us know you are still interested in coordinating your study and provides an opportunity for you to share any suggestions you may have for the project.
If you have decided to step away from your study, please reply to this comment to that effect.
Join us for our online Appalachia Project Meetup on Tuesday, April 18th, 2023 at 7pm (EST). If you are signed up for our Project's Google Group, an email was sent this morning with all the details. If you are on our Project's Discord Chat Channel, all details were posted under Announcements.
Please make sure to check your Spam folder as many have mentioned the Monthly Newsletter and other communication is landing in their spam.
Appalachia Project Google Group and Discord Chat Channel
Sandy
"What a Wonderful WikiTreer you are".
edited by Melanie Paul
It’s time for our annual Ireland Project check-in! Please respond within the next two weeks to let me know:
Please respond to this message by posting a reply below or sending me a private message on WikiTree. If we don’t hear from you within two weeks, we will assume you are no longer interested in participating in the Ireland Project, and your badge will be removed. If you wish to reapply for membership later, we will be happy to have you back. Many thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely,
Jen Hutton, on behalf of the Ireland Project
Thanks for the thank you for Sarah Barnes. I'm going to be working on the Magna Carta trail for William Barnes of Long Island, NY, and going through each generation I found a major issue with her link to my ancestor Stephen Barnes III. and so I had to do the work on the other end to remove her and correct the obvious issue of the Sarah Barnes death record and my Sarah Barnes. Your Barnes line is not the same as mine, and now it makes sense why it was an odd marriage. I think part of it was the fact that a generation later both Barnes lines lived next to each other in Farmington and Southington, CT.
We have a shared connection through my paternal line in Kimball and Morse. My great great grandfather was also from Sweden- Johannes Gabrielsson of Tisselskog, Vastra Gotaland, Sweden, a tiny little place in the forest. I'm just getting started here but I've been doing this sort of thing for 25+ years now and it is a lot easier to populate information here because they took away RootsWeb, or rather Ancestry obliterated it!
Thanks again!
Darrell
Thank you for your participation in October 2020’s Source-a-thon. Your contributions helped us to clear over 57,000 profiles that needed sourcing. This makes our Shared Tree all that much better.
Keep up the great work!
Pippin Sheppard WikiTree’s Appreciation Team
The 2020 Source-a-Thon is taking registration now at this [1]. The S-a-T will take place from 8 AM EDT Friday, October 2 to 8 AM EDT Monday, October 5. If you want to participate as a member of Team Massachusetts, go to the post and answer indicating the team name. You need to answer the question so Eowyn can officially add you to the Team. We did a good job last year. Let's see what we can do this time around. Don’t forget to visit our Chat Page. Bob
John Williams