Find Your Folks: Ancestor Approved Award

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Ancestor Approved Award

I would like to thank Mavis of Conversations With My Ancestors and George Geder the Evangelist
for African Ancestored Genealogy, for passing me the Ancestor Approved Award.

I apologize for my tardiness in accepting this award. My life has been quite busy during the past few months and there has been little time for blogging.

The Award Rules
As a reminder, the rules are the recipient of the Ancestor Approved award lists ten things learned about their ancestors that have surprised, humbled, or enlightened. The recipient then passes the award to ten other bloggers that are doing their Ancestors proud.

Here are ten things I have learned about my ancestors that have surprised, humbled, or enlightened me.

Surprises

After 15 years of researching my ancestry, there is still more to be found.
All of my ancestors living prior to the Civil War were not enslaved; two lines were free—the Ashe family in Halifax County, NC and the Greenaway family in Greensville County, VA.
I have such a high percentage (22%) of Native American genes showing up in my admixture DNA.
I was able to determine the names and number of babies delivered by my Midwife great great grandmother Luvenia Jeffress Bullock (1864-1951) by study of birth certificates in Vance County, NC. Birth records are easily accessible in NC and there is not time stipulation on obtaining certificates if you are not a direct descendant. If my ancestor had been a midwife in Virginia, then I would have not been able to do this study since the birth record accessibility laws are tighter.

Humbled

By the struggles and sacrifices made by my ancestors and their perseverance though hard times such as racism and slavery.
Appreciative of the benefits of the clerical and computer skills I obtained through education and work experience prior to doing genealogy research. These skills have been an asset in the process of genealogical data.
By all of the wonderful opportunities I have gained through my genealogy hobby such as meeting numerous relatives whom I never knew, conducing genealogy workshops, writing about my ancestors, attending numerous family reunions, and appearing on television in a genealogy related segment.

Enlightened

How study of ancestral records is helping me with transactions in my own life such as study of land deeds and wills.
Discovery of “good people” in my paternal family whom I did not get to know when I was growing up.
That the study of genealogy is more than just about history, but covers other disciplines such as science/genetics, geography, language/writing, mathematics, and so on.

Passing the Award
Finally, I am passing this award on to the ten bloggers listed below. By the way, these are all genealogy blogs I just discovered from the MyHeritage Top 100 Genealogy Site Award.