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My History

I've been researching my family history in earnest since the fall of 2003.  I had made a couple of false starts earlier, but once I was given the job of Employment Specialist at my church I was off to the races- the Employment Center uses the same computers as the Family History Center but doesn't have nearly as many customers.  I set up the family history section of loafingcactus.com soon after that.

GRANDPARENTS

DYER: A Scottish lowland family known for their protestant missionaries who mainly settled in northern New England.  My great-grandfather immigrated directly from Wales to Hawaii in the late 1800s.  Nothing is known of his genealogy.

DYKE:  An English family which immigrated to Elryia, Ohio in about 1850.  Nothing is known of their genealogy.

HUME: An aristocratic Scottish family with a current Lord recognized by Britain.  Ties into many of the Scottish Clans as well as royal lines of the Isles and of Europe.  My American line can be found in this article.

KRUSI: A small Swiss protestant family from Gais with a small number of immigrants scattered across North and South America and the Far East.  Also KRÜSI or KRUSIE.

GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

CLARK:  George Washington Clark (gg) immigrated to the USA from Ireland in the mid-late 1800s.  Nothing is known of his genealogy.

CLAWITER:  Edward Clawiter (gg) immigrated to San Francisco in the mid 1800s from Gammin, Prussia.  Nothing is known of their genealogy.

ECKART:  Jonathan Eckart (gg) immigrated to Quebec, Canada in the late 1700s.  The family was settled in Chillicothe, Ohio for a couple of generations and married fellow residents of Chillicothe.

MEEK:  Euphamia Meek (g) of Edinburgh, Scotland married into the Dyer family.  I know very little of her genealogy.

GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

BUCKAN:  Margaret Mary Buchan was the mother of Euphamia Meek.  She eventually immigrated to California.

DUNHAM:  Caroline Dunham of Maine married into the Krusi family.  She was a descendant of New England and the mid-Atlantic, from the Mayflower through the revolutionary coalition, including the Adams family of Massachusetts.  It is almost certain that she is a relation of the Gorhams, though I currently do not have a documented relationship.

GADING:  Mary Gading married into the Clawiter family.  Nothing is known of her genealogy.

RAYMOND:  Annie Raymond married into the Hume family.  Her father, William Wakman Raymond, was from New York and her mother was Almira David.  Nothing else is known of her genealogy.

GORHAM:  The Gorhams are an early American family, starting with the first immigrant who married a daughter of Mayflower immigrants.

Nationality and Culture

Because the early immigrants of the Mayflower and the American Revolution meant to be Americans, I shall count them as such.  Therefore, the mutt that is the Cactus is know to be as of 15AUG2004, at the 5th generation: 19% English, 19% Scottish, 13% Irish, 13% Welsh, 13% American, 13% Prussian, 6% Swiss and 6% unknown.

Before starting this project, I mainly felt a rootless person of Swiss descent.  Here in 2004 I feel most strongly connected with the Scottish culture as the majority of my recent research has been on Scotland and the Scottish culture is powerfully presented through the tradition of the highland games.  I hardly notice the English, except to see them on the opposite side of battles where I wished to back the Scots, and I haven't connected with Ireland, Wales, or Prussia at all.  The connection to American history has been very real, since I was of course educated about American history in grade school.  I am unsure what to make of my connection to that history, just as most people are unsure of what to make of citizenship, and that uncertainty and bit of rootlessness remains, even after all that.

What I've Learned Dabbling in Family History

What I've learned from family history, approx. week five (18 November 2003):

1. Don't be too proud of your ancestors- that king and that hero descended from Cain, just like everyone else.  That's true whether you take it literal or figuratively.  And if you do away with the story entirely and just focus on apes, it is still true.

2. Don't be too proud of your king or your hero because the fact is that the world is a very small place, history is very short, and everyone is a descendent of a king and a hero.

3. Almost everyone is related.  My Swiss grandfather and my Scottish grandmother are at most 50th cousins.  My husband from India and myself are probably at most 60th cousins, though we probably won't ever be able to prove that.

4. Baby name books are an abomination.  Your family history should give you plenty.

5. The history of the world is your history.

6. The stories of the Bible are a genealogy just like any other.  So there is a whole dimension of the Bible that you can't really understand until you have studied your family history.

7. Creating Adam was an even bigger miracle than just creating Adam (see  my comments under item #1 if you want to be contrary).  It took millions of people to create you and me, not just a biological even between one man and one woman.

My research project takes about $30 a month to support, in addition to the costs of the website.  This includes various ancestry.com subscriptions, specific documents that can be requested from regional historical society and libraries or government agencies for a fee and other printing and correspondence costs.  I spend about 20 hours a month working on the research and producing information such as this site.  Go here to learn more about supporting this site and our research.

This page last updated 12 Sep 2004.

thecactus@loafingcactus.com