Interesting find in genealogy

[Tidewater]

Okay, this is out of left field but I found this this weekend and thought i would share.
In doing my family history, I found I am descended from (among other things) the French royal governor of Acadia (Nova Scotia): Alexandre Le Borgne de Belle-Isle. His father Emmanuel le Borgne (born in 1610 in Calais) had been named governor of Port Royal, but had not been able to assume his office. Alexandre led a military expedition and made some small conquests. Apparently he was quite the drinker.

Alexandre's grandson Jean Pierre Barnabas Leborgne Bellisle was born in 1740 in Port Royal. In 1754, refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the British Crown (Britain running the colony by this time), he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Middlesex England. Convicted of some other crime, he was sentenced to go to America as an indentured servant to a Colonel Tyson in upstate New York. He was a ferryman at a place called King's Ferry. He worked off his indenture and petitioned his master for payment, and surprisingly was awarded $125. He moved to Henry County Virginia. He then moved to Wilkes County, NC, married a girl, had some kids. She died so Barnabas farmed out the kids to members of her family, and moved back to Henry County. Here he married an Indian girl named Susannah, settled down and started to raise tobacco and five sons there. Barnabas and Susannah were both murdered in 1798.

Barnabas's life reads like an Alexander Dumas novel, like the Count of Monte Cristo. Petty nobility to prisoner, to indentured servant to small landowner.

Anybody else got an interesting story from family history?

 

[Bazza]

Mostly just their military service.

 

[Tidewater]

Mostly just their military service.

You've told us about your mother's service. Who else do you have?

 

[Elefantman]

My family

 

[Bazza]

You've told us about your mother's service. Who else do you have?

Mostly on my father's side. 3 generations in the Navy going back to my great-grandfather. His Dad was born in Germany so not sure if it goes back even further....

 

[Tidewater]

Dad's side of the Family (Paternal):
1. Rey Alfonso XI de Castilla "El Justiciero" is my 17th Great Grandfather and related to the Hapsburgs and Romanovs.

2. Cesar Romero is my cousin through his Grandmother Carmen Miyares.

3. 28th Great Grandparents are Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman and the Basque Princess Onneca Fortúnez or Pamplona. from Al Andalus.

4. My 4th Great Uncle was Fernando Vicente Miyares y Pérez-Bernal and was the Captain General and Governor of Venezuela and his wife Inés Mancebo Y Quiroga was the wet nurse to Simon Bolivar when his mother couldn't nurse him. This is her real picture and not the one in google search.

Bolívar honró a Inés Mancebo de Miyares

En los libros de historia se ha escrito que la negra Hipólita, esclava de la familia Bolívar, fue la primera en amamantar al niño Simón, sin embargo, fue la que reemplazó a Doña Inés Mancebo de Miy...

www.aporrea.org

View attachment 49235


There are a lot more interesting historical stories from my Spanish relatives.

Mom's side:

1. The Snake is my cousin from Foley, Alabama through my 3rd Great Grandmother Rebecca Stabler.

2. My 3rd Great Grandfather Darling Lafayette Horton from Clarke County Alabama was a member of Company I of the 38th Alabama Volunteers. The Story: Pvt. D. L. Horton, who was a member of Company I, was struck in the neck by a ball at Chickamauga. While he was recovering in the hospital he cut the collar from his uniform and sent it home to his family. Pvt. Horton survived the war. The collar is pictured below.
View attachment 49233

My Grandpa (Mom's Dad) Howard Conlee was a gunner in WWII and shot down Nazis! His photo and online diary.

View attachment 49234

Conlee, Howard M., gunner

Howard M. Conlee was a gunner on Alexander Munsell's crew.

www.armyaircorps-376bg.com

That's awesome.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Some years ago, Mrs. Basket Case and I did the Nat Geo DNA test. It's since been discontinued, but we did that one for precisely the security and data-gathering capabilities that I think eventually caused them to stop.

Anyway, we both got mostly what we expected -- British Isles ancestry. But we also got a surprise each.

Mine was about 10% - 12% Finnish / Siberian. That would indicate a great-grandparent (or two great-great grandparents) from the area. I'm totally unaware of that and wonder if someone had a child fathered by someone other than her husband.

Mrs. Basket Case's surprise was 5% or so Italian. Most of her peeps were from England proper (as distinct from Scotland, Wales or Ireland), so I'm guessing Roman soldiers there.

Nat Geo didn't get as specific as others do now, but I'd be surprised at any nobility -- except maybe from the wrong side of the bedsheets. Mostly dirt farmers.

 

[Slowpoke Catracho]

I deleted my post that Tidewater responded to because it may come off as "bragging" to some. I don't want to do that, however I'm an active DNA and regular genealogist and can trace most of family back to the Middle Ages and some beyond.

The one thing you have to watch out about "DNA Ethnicity" is that it isn't an exact science and it varies from company to company. The reason for this is that your DNA is measured against the sample population at the company. It also is based on current regional ethnicity and of course ethnicity has changed over the hundreds of years in various places in the world. GEDMatch is probably the best place for ethnicity since it has a database from all of the big companies.

There are also myths out there about it doesn't measure "Native American" DNA and that's false. My daughter is 1/2 Native (Lakota, Navajo (My Wife) and then my DNA) and it measures her perfectly.

 

[Bazza]

Really enjoyed your post, @Slowpoke Catracho ! Very interesting family history there!

 

[Slowpoke Catracho]

BTW - I was born in Mobile, Al and grew up in Selma until my about 14.

 

[Tidewater]

I deleted my post that Tidewater responded to because it may come off as "bragging" to some. I don't want to do that, however I'm an active DNA and regular genealogist and can trace most of family back to the Middle Ages and some beyond.

The one thing you have to watch out about "DNA Ethnicity" is that it isn't an exact science and it varies from company to company. The reason for this is that your DNA is measured against the sample population at the company. It also is based on current regional ethnicity and of course ethnicity has changed over the hundreds of years in various places in the world. GEDMatch is probably the best place for ethnicity since it has a database from all of the big companies.

There are also myths out there about it doesn't measure "Native American" DNA and that's false. My daughter is 1/2 Native (Lakota, Navajo (My Wife) and then my DNA) and it measures her perfectly.

I definitely did not see it as bragging.
I love the interesting family stories. The fact that you can go that far back is interesting and unusual.
I guess only royalty/nobility can be traced that far back because nobody was recording the births and deaths of common folk.
In Virginia, a law from 1853 required all births, deaths, and marriages to be recorded in a ledger in the county court house (at least all free people, black and white).
The marriage ones are particularly useful since it recorded bride's name, groom's name, bride's parents' names, groom's parents' names, county of birth of bride and of groom, and ages of the bride and groom. This is a genealogical gold mine.

 

[Tidewater]

Mostly on my father's side. 3 generations in the Navy going back to my great-grandfather. His Dad was born in Germany so not sure if it goes back even further....

View attachment 49231
Bazza, got a date for that photo?

 

[Bazza]

I went back and looked....sorry....no date.

 

[Tidewater]

I went back and looked....sorry....no date.

When I first went into the Army, they taught us to attach our laundry bag (a green cotton bag 24 in by 32 inches with a white draw string) by folding the end of the bag over the horizontal bar at the foot of my bunk bed and wrapping the white string around the "neck" on the other side of the horizontal bar.

Years later, I saw a photo of an Army barracks from the 1890s (guys training to go to war with Spain) and they were attaching their laundry bags to their bunks exactly the same way.
It made me feel the connection of things over time.

 

[Bazza]

For @Slowpoke Catracho ---

 

[AlistarWills]

I found an ancestor who was supplying for the Revolutionary War. Seems I saw some documents where he was paid post-war for his efforts.

 

[Slowpoke Catracho]

I definitely did not see it as bragging.
I love the interesting family stories. The fact that you can go that far back is interesting and unusual.
I guess only royalty/nobility can be traced that far back because nobody was recording the births and deaths of common folk.
In Virginia, a law from 1853 required all births, deaths, and marriages to be recorded in a ledger in the county court house (at least all free people, black and white).
The marriage ones are particularly useful since it recorded bride's name, groom's name, bride's parents' names, groom's parents' names, county of birth of bride and of groom, and ages of the bride and groom. This is a genealogical gold mine.

I found a lot of documents in Spain on their government site and I had a Spanish Genealogist help out on the ground over there.

 

[tusks_n_raider]

I wish I knew more about my history than I do.

I've always been uneasy about the DNA/genealogy testing though because I just don't want anyone having my DNA in a database.

But I do know that on my Mother's side my Grandfather was in the US Navy in WWII and his family was from England and my Grandmother's Father was Japanese and was Adopted but being that was the late 1800's/early 1900s it's hard to get details.

On my Dad's side my Grandfather was also in the US Navy in WWII and his family was from Germany and my Grandmother's family was from Ireland.

So I'm basically this weird mix of English/Japanese/German/Irish.

I am pretty sure though I come from peasants and not the noble and wealthy.

 

[92tide]

outside of my dad's paternal line, i've never seen much detail of our family's history more than a couple of generations back.

in that line (through north carolina), we do have a brigadier general from the war 1812, a few nc state and federal reps 1790-1840s, one who was also a minister to spain. his younger brother was a unionist who ended up fighting for the confederacy and rose to brigadier general and was then taken prisoner. he was released by lincoln (lincoln had served in the house with his brother) two weeks before lincoln was assassinated. his son ended up being an early president at virginia tech and he had an "illegitimate" son who ended up being the wealthiest black man in north carolina at the turn of the 20th century.

my particular branch, however, resembles elefantman's post above

 

[Tidewater]

I wish I knew more about my history than I do.

I've always been uneasy about the DNA/genealogy testing though because I just don't want anyone having my DNA in a database.

But I do know that on my Mother's side my Grandfather was in the US Navy in WWII and his family was from England and my Grandmother's Father was Japanese and was Adopted but being that was the late 1800's/early 1900s it's hard to get details.

On my Dad's side my Grandfather was also in the US Navy in WWII and his family was from Germany and my Grandmother's family was from Ireland.

So I'm basically this weird mix of English/Japanese/German/Irish.

I am pretty sure though I come from peasants and not the noble and wealthy.

You would probably be pleasantly surprised to find out what people have put online.
Lots of fee-for-service companies, but a lot of free stuff as well.
I would start by talking to the oldest relatives you have and work your way back as far as thei know. (Parent, grandparents, great grandparents). Get the info down while that person is still alive. It will be key and when family members die, their memories die with them.