As we roll on through the dog days of summer, it’s Saturday once again and Randy Seaver has a new Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge for us all:
1) How many known ancestors (at least a name) do you have in your generation of 4th great-grandparents? What about your significant other’s generation of 4th great-grandparents?
2) Tell us how you figured this out, and highlight your most recent additions to your list.
I’ll start with #2 – I have a big paper chart (20 generations) that I love and have had for decades. It’s taped together at this point, but still much more useful for answering this kind of question. It also just happens that I’m working on the 4th great grandparents in my source citation project so the chart is sitting on my desk. All I have to do is count the names in that generation.
Because the paternal side of my tree is all Rusyn and records begin in the late 1820s, I only know the names – nothing else – of seven of my 4th great grandparents in the Rusyn lines – John Fucsik, John and Elisabeth (MNU) Haluska, Andreas Patorai and Maria Janoskova and John Szurgent and Anna Gmitrisinova, all names obtained from their children’s marriage records.
On the other side of the tree, my maternal side, I know all 32 of my ancestors in that generation. However, I don’t know three of the maiden names of the females, just their given names.
Therefore, I have identified 39 of those ancestors.
For my husband’s tree, I have the same paper chart. I am missing a number of 4x greats in his tree, too, but for a different reason. His families lived in New York (the black hold of genealogy), a number of Southern states, lacking vital records, and they loved to move to the frontier, where there were no records.
On Dave’s paternal side of the family, I’ve identified 27 ancestors (one missing maiden name and one missing father, as the child was identified as illegitimate under the mother’s name). The maternal side has 20 ancestors, but all maiden names are known.
That’s a total of 46 known 4th great grandparents for him, which is slightly better than my 39.
While my Rusyn branches are as far back as they can ever go, I still might be able to uncover a few more of my husband’s 4x greats.
Thank you, Randy, for another fun challenge.
I like the idea of the paper chart for easier viewing but it is more difficult to make changes on unless you have it done in pencil.
It was originally done on a typewriter! However, recent additions have all been in pencil so easy to change.
A 20-generation chart? Wow! That must be really fun just to look at. And done on a typewriter is even better.
You have one side completely done. That’s wonderful. The best of luck in finding ways around lack of records in all those places you’re researching.