I'm lucky that my mom and father's mother did a lot of research on our family. They got us into the Mayflower Society and the Daughter's of the American Revolution. Using these data and Ancestry.com I was able to find a lot about my family's history. All told, I've found 175 direct antecedants and many other relatives. I'm sure I will get even more as I keep researching. The 175 antecedants break down as:
I'll discuss the interesting tidbits grouped by my eight great grandparents. The nationality listed is a guess at where this line comes from. I don't put much emphasis on this but it is fun to calculate. Each great grandparent represents 12.5% of the total.
The all male Bacon line goes back to Anthony Bacon who was born in 1657. He is part of a number of Bacon's that come from the Derbyshire region of England. Derbyshire is known for the Pentrich Rebellion of 1817. We're descended from a Miles Bacon and there was a Miles Bacon involved in the Rebellion. I'd initially thought this was the same Miles but that's not the case. The Miles Bacon we're descended from actually left for the US before the Rebellion. However, two of our 4th great grand uncles were considered leaders of the rebellion and were banished to Australia as a result.
The number of Miles Bacon's made this research maddening. There are six Miles Bacon's from this time and place that we're related to but are not on our direct line. There are four other Miles Bacon's that are sequentially in our direct lineage (birth years of 1758, 1784, 1829 and 1852), the last of these being this Miles.
The Miles Bacon born in 1784 moved to the Ontario region in the early 1800's. He met up with Anne Eller Allin who was born in 1790 in Nottinghamshire, England. She also moved to Ontario in the early 1800's.
Ernest's father's mother Anna Elis was from Ireland adding 6.25% to our Irish heritage. She was born in Londonderry in 1826 and moved to Ontario before 1850.
Nationality: English - 6.25%, Irish - 6.25%.
Ernest's mother, Florence Evangeline Pitcher, is bit of a mystery, her parents being the only 2nd great grandparents I can't figure out. She was born in Michigan in 1861 and appeared to live with an unrelated older couple at age 19 still in Michigan. Only three years later she gave birth to her first child Ernest in South Dakota 1883.
I found some leads on Florence's parents but nothing verifiable. A census report has her mother's birthplace listed as England. Her father may have been born in New York.
Nationality: English - 6.25%, Early American - 6.25% (This latter designation is where I can only trace back the lineage to an relative in early America. It also could be 'Probable English'.)
Grandmother's Edwards lineage is very early American in general, with many from Kentucky. It's interesting the westward trend of many going from Virginia in the late 1700's/early 1800's to Kentucky. This westward trend goes from Kentucky to Missouri in the mid-1800's. Missouri is where Omar was born in 1895. She continued the trend even further, giving birth to our father in South Dakota in 1916.
This line does not yield much information. I can go back only a couple of generations and can only determine that they're all from Kentucy.
Nationality: Early American - 12.5%
This is a fascinating line that earned Emma Omar membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). This moves back eastward to Sergeant John Bryant who was born in Cumberland, Virginia in 1760. He fought in the Revolutionary War. Interestingly, his four grandparents are all French giving us a 0.8% French nationality. The name of his grandfather is actually Briant (with an accent) and he was from France as was his wife.
In determining heritage, I can't determine the specific nationality of anybody in this line except for Bryant. Most of these antecedants stop at Virginia, Missouri or Kentucky, with many showing the westward movement mentioned above (i.e. born in Virginia, died in Kentucky). The people found here largely have English names like Robinson, Burbridge, Smith, Arnold, Hudson and Edwards. Still, we have to call this almost all 'Early American'.
Nationality - Early American - 11.7%, French 0.8%
Isaiah is fully Irish making us a full 1/8 Irish from him alone. His grandfather, Abraham Pratt, is from Ireland and there's an interesting story of several of his family members coming to America after a bit of a feud over a marriage between a Pratt girl and some high and mighty Irish family. Abraham owned a hotel in Sligo County.
The Pratts went from Ireland to Ontario and lived there for much of the 1800's. Ernest moved to Winona, Minnesota where my mom was born in 1918.
Nationality: Irish - 12.5%
Wentworth's mother, Susannah Brownlee is also a bit of a mystery. There are a couple of census records that show her parents as both Irish in origin. It makes sense that she's Irish and hooked up with someone else from the Irish settlements in Ontario.
Nationality: Irish - 12.5%
The most interesting line of all is our Mayflower Society link to John Howland. This is possibly the most researched genealogical line of all with over 19,000 trees including Howland shown in ancestry.com. Many celebrities are linked to Howland including the Bush Presidents and Sarah Palin.
Howland was an indentured servant who nearly died after falling off the Mayflower. They were able to rescue him with a boat hook since he got caught up on some of the rope lines after falling off. He was one of the most prolific residents of Plymouth fathering many children leading to his genealogical fame.
Our great grandfather Franklin Pierce Sawyer was born in Maine and made his way to Winona where he fathered Adelaide. He eventually ended up in Los Angeles as a number of our more recent grandparents did, finishing the westward expansion. (Of course, this final move to LA by both sides of the family was how my own parents ended up meeting.) The Sawyer line is exclusively from Maine back from Franklin until the early 1700's being from Massachusetts before that. The line to Howland shifts over to the Cobb family and then the Chipman family before getting to Howland. As one gets closer to 1620 more and more people are from Plymouth itself.
Howland's father, Henry Howland was a somewhat important person from Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England (about 30 miles north of London). Thus, there's a lot of information on him. It appears that one can research his ancestors back to the 1,300's and beyond. I plan on doing this but it'll take some time to do that. One must treat other people's family trees skeptically, especially on data this old.
Nationality: English - 12.5%. (Of course, the link to England goes way back and there's a lot of early American here.)
Three quarters of the Randall line quickly dead ends at a Scottish relative giving us 9.4% Scottish heritage. The other quarter is a very English line that goes way back with the Randalls coming to America in the 1600's. They first settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts and then mainly lived in Rhode Island. There's some movement to New York and Vermont with Ida's father, James A. Randall, settling in Winona in the mid-1800's.
The Randall line is also a very well-researched line with ancestry.com showing over 3,000 trees going back to Simon Randall who was born in 1574 in Lincolnshire, England. I will try and research this further as time allows. Randall didn't come on the Mayflower but came soon afterwards. It seems like this line is for those that can't trace their lineage directly to a Mayflower passenger.
Nationality: Scottish - 9.4%, English - 3.1%
Here's the final tally on our nationality. Again, this is not intended to be scientific but done mainly for fun.