More Cousins Meet at the Library!

Tim Cox sent word of another cousin meeting at the CGS library.

Second cousins Christy Gale and Sally Bentley met online via ancestry.com a few months ago and made plans to meet in person at the California Genealogical Society Library. They attended the First Free Saturday Intro to Genealogy class taught by Lisa Gorrell on June 5, 2010.

(L to R) Sally Bentley, Christy Gale, and Catherine Lewis. 

Sally sent this note:

Since Christy had recently become a member of the CGS she asked if I'd like to meet her (and her niece Catherine) at the library for a beginner's meeting. Oakland was a good half-way point between Concord and Fremont. It was great to meet Christy and Catherine in person. It's always fun to meet family even if we are 2nds! A couple of years ago I had another online meeting with another 2nd – Russell Gale – who is Christy's first cousin. We keep in touch share information with each other.

During their visit, CGS President Steve Harris gave the cousins some assistance and was able to locate the obituary of their common ancestor, great-grandfather William Henry Gale.

By all accounts it was a successful encounter in every way.



Copyright © 2010 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Bowen Cousins at the Intermediate Classes

I love sharing stories of cousins found at the CGS library! Mary Mettler informed me earlier this year that she had met some CGS cousins at the Intermediate Genealogy classes. You will recall that Mary shared information about some of her New England lines last summer in her Tuesday Tales series. Mary and Kristen Netterblad found they shared Richard Bowen (born about 1589 in Wales, died 4 Feb 1674/5 in Rehoboth or Swansea). Mary told me she was "sure we probably share some other lines, as the land-owning Baptists stuck together." They met for lunch and an examination of Mary charts when Kristen's mother was in town in March. I was able to snap this photo when they came by the library.

Kirsten Netterblad, Mom and Mary Mettler.

Here's Kirsten's summary of how the cousins met:

You never know who you're going to meet at a CGS class. As a 2008 Christmas present, I promised my mother I would break our Emily (Bowen) Smith (1806-1870) and/or Philip F. Cyphers (1826-1890) lines. Since I'm under some time pressure, I took the Spring Intermediate series of genealogy classes to help me along. I'm a bit of a talker and started chatting with the people around me about my project.

It turned out that Mary Mettler, the person who was sitting next to me, is a distant cousin off my Massachusetts Bowen line! She provided help connecting our trees and after comparing our additional lines in more depth, we're related in about a dozen different ways (Terry, Smith, Trumble, Loomis, Wright, Sheldon, Belden, etc).

Now that I've learned Emily's parents were Peter and Martha (Norton) Bowen, I'm just sourcing my information as I take all of my new lines back to the immigrant (my people are old New England, so I need a consistent stopping point).

I guess the moral of this story is that everybody is related to somebody else. If you don't take the time to chat with the people around you, you might miss out on an important family connection and new genealogy friend.

Emily Bowen Smith brought the cousins together.

Image of Emily Bowen Smith courtesy of Kirsten Netterblad.

Photograph of Emily's descendants by Kathryn M. Doyle, 3/14/2009, Oakland, California.

It's Catching! More Cousins Discovered in the Library...

It seldom happens that you meet someone in person whom you connect to genealogically, although it seems to be happening quite frequently at the CGS Library. First Marianne Frey, Dick Rees and Lavinia Schwarz discovered that they shared New England ancestors, then board members John Moore and Shirley Thomson found that they were fifth cousins, once removed.

Now it has happened again to member Dorothy Koenig, nationally-recognized expert on early Dutch families in New Amsterdam. On Saturday, November 11, 2008. Dorothy volunteered her services as a consultant as part of the California Genealogical Society October Family History Month activities. Laura Spurrier, one of our volunteer librarians, signed up for a one-on-one, members only session with Dorothy. Laura was pretty sure she had a Dutch line but needed help documenting a link in the early nineteenth century. Laura came to the meeting with charts to help explain the problem. Dorothy looked, looked some more, and came to the realization that one of Laura's charts contained her own ancestors! The cousins connect via the Hegeman, Van Wyck, Polhemius and Rapalje families.

The story became even more astounding when another CGS volunteer librarian entered the discussion. Barbara Hill was also in the library that day and connects to both Dorothy and Laura through the early Rapalje line. Just like that – three instant cousins, instead of two.

Dorothy wrote to let me know that the cousins share another coincidence: "All three of us – Laura, Barbara, and I – have retired from our careers at the Library on the University of California Berkeley campus. It must be the genes we share!"

So is there a statistician out there who can calculate the odds of finding a cousin at the California Genealogical Society Library? They're starting to look pretty good to me!

Citing "Occult Powers" in a New Netherland Genealogy

It happened again - a cousin found in the library - only this time I was an eyewitness. While waiting for last week's board meeting to begin, director John Moore was relating a fascinating story about the Wilsey family. One mention of the name and suddenly he and Shirley Thomson were New Netherland cousins! John sent the full story:

Shirley Pugh Thomson and John Moore.

Last Wednesday, prior to the Board meeting, we had a discussion about the "unusual research" methods used in determining the origins of the family. The story goes something like this.

The Wilsey family is an early New Netherland family with many descendants, including at least two members of the present CGS Board. In 1908 Jerome Wiltsee published a genealogy for the Wiltsee (Wilsey) family. Jerome Wiltsee, Sr., A Genealogical and Psychological Memoir of Philippe Maton Wiltsie and his Descendants, With a Historical Introduction of the Wiltsie Nation and Its Colonies, (Atchinson, Kansas, 1908). The book was given a broad distribution (we have a copy in the CGS Library.) It identifies Philippe Maton Wiltsie as the original immigrant and ancestor of the Wiltsie family. Phillip is described as a Walloon refuge from Wiltz Luxembourg who came to Fort Orange in 1623 and was killed by the Indians in 1631 with two of his sons captured by the Indians before they escaped in 1639. One of these sons Hendrick Martenson is the ancestor of the Wilsey family in America.

Over the years there were several membership applications submitted and approved by the Holland Society based on Phillipe Maton as the immigrant ancestor. In 1975 the Genealogical Committee of the Holland Society asked George Zabriske to research Jerome's account. After a through study Zabriskie determined that many of Jerome's conclusions were pure fiction and had no basis in fact. Philippe Maton Wiltsee just did not exist! Jerome had however warned his readers that his conclusions were based not only on normal genealogical research but also on his "supernatural" or "occult" powers.

Does this mean that the way to resolve "brick walls" in genealogical research is through communication with the spirit world? It certainly would revolutionize our society! Something to think about!

On a more serious note, the Jerome Wiltsee book is now out of copyright and copies are available not only in many libraries but also on the Internet. From time to time we hear from genealogists who have traced their ancestry back to Phillipe Maton based on Jerome's book. Fortunately the Zabriskie analysis is set forth in a series of articles appearing in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (Volumes 106-108). Wilsey researchers who have relied on Jerome can be referred to these articles. Incidentally, the real Wilsey immigrant ancestor is Hendrick Martenson van Copenhagen and his male descendants do qualify for membership in the Holland Society!

I have agreed to bring some of my material to the next board meeting to compare notes with Shirley. We are both descendants of Hendrick Martenson van Copenhagen but we are not yet sure where our lines differ.

Best,

John

John Moore has been interested in genealogy since his law school days when he devoted some library time to research his mother's family. He has more time since retirement from Kaiser Aluminum where he was Vice President Deputy General Counsel and Secretary. John served six years as a Trustee of the NEHGS and is currently a member of the NEHGS Council and a Director of the California Genealogical Society. John has a number of New Netherland ancestors and holds membership in the Friends of the Holland Society.

Shirley Pugh Thomson has held a seat on the society’s Board of Directors 1998-2008 and is a former chair of the CGS Publication Committee. She has been interested in family history all of her life, although these days she admits to spending more time on CGS business than on her own research. Shirley made some progress during the past year using DNA. She recently presented Hints on Publishing Your Family History with Matthew Berry.

Finding Cousins in the Library

Genealogists are always on the hunt for cousins – it's what we do. But imagine finding them in the next chair at your local genealogical society library!

That's what happened to three active volunteers at the California Genealogical Society. Book repairers Marianne Frey and Dick Rees were chatting one second Tuesday and realized that they had both attended Yale and both had New Haven, Connecticut ancestors. When they started comparing surnames, they zeroed in on KITCHEL (an original settler) and his SHEAFE wife.

On another day at the CGS Library, Lavinia Schwarz referred to an upcoming visit to her daughter in New Jersey and some family research time in nearby Morristown. Marianne's ears perked up at the mention of the ancestral home of "hordes" of her ancestors and, as she tells it "we started tossing names around and found several in common, including KITCHEL."

Seventh cousins: Marianne Frey, Lavinia Schwarz and Richard Rees.
[Photograph by Kathryn Doyle, January 19, 2008]

Marianne provided this background:

"The KITCHEL clan was part of a large group of colonists who didn't like the way things were being run in their part of Connecticut. They got a charter to start a settlement (now Newark) in New Jersey, which was Dutch when negotiations began but became English before they were finalized. Expansion meant moving inland, westward over the low "mountains" into what is now Morris county.

Some of the Kitchel-Sheafe tribe moved to New Jersey while others stayed in Connecticut. There's been lots of research, including articles in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register and The American Genealogist in the early 1900's and two books on the Kitchel family -- a slim volume from the 1800's and a nice thick one from the late 1900's.

I discovered the latter volume when a Jane Kitchel appeared on the roster of my folk dance club. She owns the book, which enabled us to figure out that we are seventh cousins, not removed! (During the 1800's someone in my line started spelling our name "Kitchell" with two L's.)"

In July 1983, Dick had the opportunity to visit Cranbrook, Kent, England, the home of their common SHEAFE ancestor. Dick sent this photograph of the monumental brass rubbing he did of the Thomas Sheafe (ca. 1470 - 1520) tomb in St. Dunstan's Church. The oval on the right is made up of Sheafe's initials (T.S.) with his merchant mark in the center.

Dick provided this account:

"Cranbrook is not easy to reach. I had to take a train from Canterbury to Ashford, then one from Ashford to Staplehurst and a bus from there to Cranbrook. I bought the last stick of rubbing wax in the town, along with black paper and a huge roll of masking tape. I made three rubbings of the brass (my brother has one of them and I don't know what became of the third.) I had time one evening and the next morning to walk around Cranbrook. There are several buildings still standing that belonged to the Sheafe family, as well as some windmills and a school named for Mary (Harman) Sheafe, the wife of Thomas Sheafe II."

Besides sharing New England ancestry, the cousins have lived for a time in the New England states while pursuing their education (Lavinia received her M.A. at Tufts) and all three have worked as educators. Marianne taught junior high (two years) high school (seven) and community college (twenty-three). Dick started his teaching career in public schools in Connecticut, moved to private schools in Shaker Heights, Ohio; in Montecito, California; and finally in San Francisco. Lavinia, better known as Vinnie, worked for a time as a preschool teacher.

At CGS, Marianne Frey was membership chair for a few years and set up the Lookups project on the Web site. She and Dick Rees are members of the Book Repair Committee. Dick wears several other hats at the society. He regularly teaches the class for beginners on Free First Saturdays, does occasional desk duty, manages some special projects and handles the mail. Lavinia Gilbert Schwarz is a member of the CGS Board of Directors and handles Lookups (with Pat Smith) as part of the research department. Vinnie is currently also overseeing a research project for the Peralta Hacienda.