Genealogy

I have been into genealogy for at least 15 years, though I’ve always been somewhat interested.  I have been fairly successful, taking several of my lines back to Europe.  I currently have two dead ends, my father’s maternal grandparents and my mother’s maternal grandparents.  I may have had some recent luck with the former.

I find it unfortunate that so many people really don’t care about their ancestors, and others only think about their own surname, and maybe the country it happens to originate from, i.e. many Americans with Irish surnames are somewhat proud to call themselves  Irish.  I suppose I have a common mix….Stroup/Straub is German, Miller and South (and probably White) are from England, Moran and Bruton/Brewton are Irish, and Queen/MacQueen, and possibly Watts are from Scotland.

My chief reason for getting into genealogy was looking for Confederate ancestors.  So far I have found 5 gggrandfathers and a ggggrandfather that served, 4 gggrandfathers in 3 different Miss Cavalry units (18th Bn Miss Cav, 5th Miss Cav, and Power’s Cav Regt), one gggrandfather in the 35th Georgia infantry, and the ggggrandfather serving in a Georgia militia unit guarding the Ironworks he worked at.

I also have found a couple of grandfathers serving in the Revolution, Jacob Stroup (aka Jacob Straub) and his son Adam Stroup, both serving in the NC Militia.  Also two grandfathers serving in the War of 1812, John Evans Watts and Richard Simmons, both serving in the Mississippi Militia.

I find genealogy very interesting, I guess due to my love of history.  Also, many Sunday afternoons during my childhood were spent sitting on the floor with my mother’s father, talking about family and history.  He greatly influenced my love of both…thank you Papaw.

Relevant lines:

  • Stroup/Straub of Lincoln Co, NC-Tippah Co, MS
  • Watts of VA-SC-Southern Mississippi
  • South of VA-SC-Northern Mississippi
  • Colbert of Bolivar Co, MS (dead end)
  • Pitts of French Camp, MS (dead end)
  • White of Washington Parish, LA (hopeful)
  • Moran of Halifax Co, NC-Tippah Co, MS
  • Queen of VA-NC-Tippah Co, MS
  • Miller of Campbell Co, GA
  • Bruton/Brewton of SC