Recently, the DNAsleuth shared a new way to visualize 7 family generations on one Excel spreadsheet and gave several examples of how it could be used.

I love this idea and I immediately had my techie person (hubby Dave) create a template for me.

I decided to color code my ancestors’ places of birth, which was the first example provided by DNAsleuth. It is a fabulous way to visualize data and, although I knew I was a great example of the American melting pot, this table proved it.

My ancestry is 50% Slovak, which accurately reflects my father’s side of the family, including the empty boxes representing the non-existence of records before the early 1800s in my great grandparents’ villages.

The red boxes represent those ancestors for whom birthplaces are unknown. Robert and Catherine (MNU) Carlisle, my most annoying brick walls, left no records hinting as to their origins. They were “Loyalists,” but Robert’s military service was at Fort Cumberland in Canada. I’ve found no viable clues as to Catherine’s origins. She may have come in the flotilla of ships from New York to Parrtown, New Brunswick, or could have been from a pre-Loyalist family. Walter Stewart was a Loyalist from New York, but have no idea who his parents were and if he was born in New York or somewhere in the U.K. Same situation for his wife, Sarah (MNU).

My colonial American roots are somewhat hidden in this chart because of the Canadian ancestors, who are noted in orange. All of these families were Loyalist lines that fled the U.S. in 1783, but most of whom had been living in the colonies for generations.

My Danish ancestors are coded in green and represent my great grandmother’s family. My Swedish ancestors are in light blue.

Philip Crouse represents my one Dutch line. He was from Zeeland, Netherlands and, from family lore, was born there (c1760), emigrating to the colonies as a young boy. The family undoubtedly came in through Philadelphia, but by the time of the American Revolution, Philip was living in North Carolina. I’ve never found any clues as to the names of his parents, but it is said he had some brothers who remained in North Carolina after the war.

Philip didn’t marry Sarah Burt until he settled in Canada – she was the daughter of Loyalist Benjamin Burt from Connecticut – and I would love to know why he felt so strongly about supporting the king. He was a recent immigrant and a very young man, of Dutch origin and left brothers behind to move to Canada. It is unusual and an atypical scenario for a Loyalist.

I loved creating this visual picture of my ancestry and will definitely be using the template to try out other data sets.

Thank you to DNAsleuth for this idea! 🙂