On Saturday morning I opened up my Tweetdeck console, and while I checked out my Twitter messages I decided to post a few Surname Saturday messages. Surname Saturday is a daily blogging theme that I and many genealogy bloggers use over at GeneaBloggers - it lets us post our surnames we are researching either in a blog post or as a message on Twitter. The goal is to get a wider recognition for some of the surnames and to see if others are perhaps researching the same lines.
Well, I posted some of my usual Surname Saturday messages on twitter which always include the hashtags #surnames and #genealogy (click the image to embiggen):
Pretty soon, I receive a reply from someone on Twitter. While it isn't related to my MacEntee or McEntee lines, it is someone who also has a surname from Ulster County, New York:
Right away, I could see that we were probably cousins - I have the names Roosa (also related to the Roosevelts of Hyde Park, New York) and Schepmoes in my research. So in my next message, I say how I am related along the Schepmoes line:
Well it turns out that we have the same 6th great-grandmother - Rebecca Schepmoes, born 1687 in Kingston, New York! You can see the rest of the messages here:
So to see if we are even further related and how far removed, I wanted to trace my descendancy from our common ancestors. Hopefully I'll get a response from Chris, my new found cousin in Charlotte, North Carolina!
Jan Pieter Schepmoes, d. 24 Jun 1608 - 9th great-grandfather
Jan Janszen Schepmoes, 1605 - 1686 - 8th great-grandfather
Dirck Jansen Schepmoes, 1648 - 1724 - 7th great-grandfather
Rebecca Schepmoes, b, 1687 - 6th great-grandmother
Isaac Abraham Roosa, b. 1728 - 5th great-grandfather
Isaac I. Roosa, 1780-1860 - 4th great-grandfather
Jane F. Roosa, 1822 - 1903 - 3rd great-grandmother
William R. Krom, 1847 - 1891 - 2nd great-grandfather
Loretta Margarette Krom, 1892 - 1947 - great-grandmother
Loretta Slattery, 1920 - 1986 - grandmother
Richard MacEntee [dates withheld for privacy purposes] - father
So the lesson of all this is: put those surnames out on Twitter, Facebook and other social media just as you would post a query on a genealogy message board! You never know who is going to find you and what connection you will make!
© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee
Well, I posted some of my usual Surname Saturday messages on twitter which always include the hashtags #surnames and #genealogy (click the image to embiggen):
Pretty soon, I receive a reply from someone on Twitter. While it isn't related to my MacEntee or McEntee lines, it is someone who also has a surname from Ulster County, New York:
Right away, I could see that we were probably cousins - I have the names Roosa (also related to the Roosevelts of Hyde Park, New York) and Schepmoes in my research. So in my next message, I say how I am related along the Schepmoes line:
Well it turns out that we have the same 6th great-grandmother - Rebecca Schepmoes, born 1687 in Kingston, New York! You can see the rest of the messages here:
So to see if we are even further related and how far removed, I wanted to trace my descendancy from our common ancestors. Hopefully I'll get a response from Chris, my new found cousin in Charlotte, North Carolina!
Jan Pieter Schepmoes, d. 24 Jun 1608 - 9th great-grandfather
Jan Janszen Schepmoes, 1605 - 1686 - 8th great-grandfather
Dirck Jansen Schepmoes, 1648 - 1724 - 7th great-grandfather
Rebecca Schepmoes, b, 1687 - 6th great-grandmother
Isaac Abraham Roosa, b. 1728 - 5th great-grandfather
Isaac I. Roosa, 1780-1860 - 4th great-grandfather
Jane F. Roosa, 1822 - 1903 - 3rd great-grandmother
William R. Krom, 1847 - 1891 - 2nd great-grandfather
Loretta Margarette Krom, 1892 - 1947 - great-grandmother
Loretta Slattery, 1920 - 1986 - grandmother
Richard MacEntee [dates withheld for privacy purposes] - father
So the lesson of all this is: put those surnames out on Twitter, Facebook and other social media just as you would post a query on a genealogy message board! You never know who is going to find you and what connection you will make!
© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee
7 comments:
Great post, Thomas! I've done surname saturday in the past, but I never really phrased my tweets like a query. I'll have to give that a try.
Hi Thomas,
Of course I'll respond! How could I not? I've been wondering why there wasn't more genealogy work being done on Twitter for the last 18 months.
Looks like we're onto something.
As for our common lineage, appears that we start to branch away at the 4th generation. I don't have any details of the family of Isaac Abraham Roosa b. 1728, our common GGF5, but I'll infer that your GGF4 Isaac I. b. 1780 is a brother of my GGF4 Abraham I. b. 1776. From there, my line includes Moses, Milford, and my GGM Nina Bell Roosa Galloway. There's a family store in Hudson Michigan for which I have deeds from the 1830's. Hoping to get up for a visit. Not sure if the Milford Roosa (my GGF2) and family lived there, or maybe stayed back East.
Let's try to expand the Twitter based Genealogy search thing. Maybe others are already out there doing it?
Or maybe you've started something new.
I put my RootsWeb out there a few months ago when I discovered the #genealogy hashtag, in hopes someone might stumble across an interesting surname. Food for thought. See http://bit.ly/povRoots
By the way, I have a good friend named Slattery from college. You don't suppose ..?
Have a great Sunday, cousin! Let's stay in touch.
Chris Jones
Charlotte, NC
Excellent advice. (Of course, this means I'll have to start tweeting some day....) I think of all the various places where we can "put our surnames out there" - Facebook, Twitter, blogs, message boards, Footnote, and many more - as something like "real estate" - invest in a lot of different places and at least some of them will pay off!
Greetings from a cousin-in-law -- Chris M. in Albuquerque.
My ggrandmother's sister, Mary Henrietta Towell (1878-1969), married Washington Scripp Roosa (1867-1994). In my family research I always cast a wide net so had done some preliminary work on the family of "Wash" Roosa in Scott, Pike and Fulton Counties, Illinois. Thanks to the tweets between Thomas & Chris J. which I read on Thomas' twitter page I spent a fruitful Saturday searching out more Roosa roots.
"Wash" Roosa was the 3d son of Dr. Andrus I. Roosa (b. 1820 in NY, d. 1875 in IL). Other sons include Velpeau, Tunis, Delano and Arthur. Andrus is said to be a son of John Roosa (b. 1790, Ulster Co., NY, d. 1845, Kingston, Ulster Co., NY) and Elizabeth Johnson or Krom (b. 1789, Kingston, Ulster Co., NY, d. 1864, Pike Co., IL). John's father is said to be Tunis Roosa "a large landowner and an extensive farmer of Ulster County".
Thanks Thomas and Chris J. for the twitter exchange which prompted me to further pursue the family of my ggrandmother's brother-in-law.
P.S. Thomas -- I'm looking forward to another delightful dinner with you. FGS2010 was great! My turn to treat.
Hello Chris from Albequerque - and yes, I can't wait for another wonderful dinner with you!
Are your dates for Washington Scripps Roosa correct? It seems as if he lived to the very ripe old age of 127! Too ripe for me! LOL
Fat fingered flub by me. Thanks for seeing my typo Thomas.
My Scott Co., IL, family lines do tend to live long lives but "Wash" Roosa's wasn't as long as some, and certainly not 127 years. Wash died at age 77 in Winchester, Scott Co., IL, 9 Oct 1994, *not* 1994.
His wife, Mary Towell, did live 90 years. Hardy stock from two first-generation children of Irish famine immigrants -- James Towell and Catherine McCarty.
James Towell was born 1852 in NY, probably Rockland Co. Katy McCarty is my thickest brick wall! Hope to spend time in Scott Co. before FGS2011 in Springfield seeking clues re Katy. Or perhaps in Iroquois Co. with my Belgian lines. Then again I'm drawn to Chicago by ggrandfather James Kirby, president of the Carpenter's Union, 1913-1915. I hear a chorus of ancestral voices calling me from Illinois!
One last try! "Wash" Roosa died 1944, not 1994.
Have decided to take my repeated typo as an omen and will not enter any data into my genealogy databases today!
Am now inspired to participate in Surname Saturday via Twitter. Thanks Thomas!
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