| Greetings Fellow Family History Sleuths,
Y'know, when you keep your eyes open, genealogy pops up everywhere. This month alone I've spotted it in the form of DNA testing specifically for Rusyns (?!), another annoying appearance of the name-changed-at-Ellis-Island myth, the extinction of surnames, online time travel, DNA being used to learn about American colonists, and more. On a more personal note, 222 of the soldiers I've researched have now been identified(!), I came across more kind words for my Annie Moore book, and I couldn't resist sharing my article on the secret sauce of Stephen Colbert's roots. Here's hoping there's a little something for everyone as we ease into the early days of Summer.
Keep on sleuthing!
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| P.S. If you have any genealogy buddies you think might enjoy this newsletter, I'd appreciate it if you'd let them know they can subscribe here (right column). It's free and I promise to never share your name or email address. Thanks! | |
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The Amazing Women in Stephen Colbert’s Family TreePhoto by: PhilipRomanoPhoto, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons It was a damp morning in late February 2008 when the phone rang. Harvard scholar and PBS host Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr. was calling with one of his random genealogical requests. He was going to be on The Colbert Report later that day. Did I, by any chance, know anything about Stephen Colbert’s roots? Luckily for him, I had two hundred years of family history at the ready. Unnaturally obsessed with the ancestry of my fellow Irish Americans, I had already snooped into Stephen Tyrone Colbert’s past and discovered that he was about as Hibernian as they come. 15 of his 16 great-great-grandparents were either born in Ireland or of Irish heritage, and rather remarkably, their descendants continued to marry only with other Irish Americans for three generations until Stephen himself slightly disrupted the flow when he wed Evelyn “Evie” McGee. In his own words, “I have broken the pattern, and am in a mixed race marriage. I’m Irish, and my wife is Scots-Irish. Somehow we make it work.” Continue reading Back to top^
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| Genealogy Roundup, May 6Miller, Kelly, 1863-1939, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Henry Johnson (World War I soldier) – So frustrating! I researched (William) Henry Johnson, a WWI hero, for his posthumous Medal of Honor award in 2015. Someone emailed today saying Ancestry told them they were a cousin. I checked. There are 25 trees for this man on Ancestry and ALL of them are wrong. ALL have an incorrect spouse and parents. Marleka Identity Labs – I can’t believe that what I’m about to share is a thing, but there’s now a company focused specifically on analyzing *Rusyn* DNA! Yes, really! They have an excellent website that explains everything you need to know (and will even offer some Rusyn merch soon ).
Here’s a portion of my Dad’s results (and FYI – he’s got pan-Rusyn roots that include villages in present-day Slovakia, Ukraine and Poland).
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| | | The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island: Uncovering the True Story of the First Immigrant to Arrive at America’s Isle of Hope On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore of Ireland tripped into the pages of history and became the poster child of immigration by being the first to arrive at Ellis Island. And then she disappeared. Adding insult to injury, a different Annie Moore usurped her place in history decades later. Now – 150 years after her birth and 100 years after her death – a determined genealogist finally sets the record straight and reveals the true story of Ellis Island’s first. |
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| Megan Smolenyak | St Petersburg, FL
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![Wikimedia Commons](<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Johnson.PNG">Miller, Kelly, 1863-1939</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons){kind=link}