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
