Pedigree Work

I just typed out a new Waltz-Creamer pedigree.  Boy do I have a lot of work to do!  I have been neglecting that part of my family tree!  It used to have more information than the Berry-Richards pedigree, but not anymore!  I am lacking some people, and  many places and dates of events.  It is neat to see where both sides of the family overlap.  Yes, they overlap.  I am line-bred like a puppy mill puppy.  Actually, I am line bred more like a well bred purebred.  Nothing TOO close to cause too many problems.  I bet my relatives from the Mayflower had no clue when they married their respective spouses that somewhere, hundreds of years later, their families would meet again, a few more times, to eventually create ME!

Painting of the Mayflower sailing stormy winter waters

William Brewster- My husband's and my common ancestor

Plymouth Rock- after a long journey

William Brewster signing the Mayflower Compact, actually signed while still on the ship.

Oh, and my husband and I are related.  So far we are only related by marriage.  I am related to Isaac Allerton who was married to Mary Norris.  Mary didn't live long after arriving in Plymouth.  She didn't survive the winter.  She had been pregnant on the Mayflower, and gave birth as they arrived.  Unfortunately her child was stillborn.  I'm sure that conditions did not really support a healthy pregnancy on the Mayflower journey.  She must have been weak and sick from pregnancy, birth and the long trip.  Anyway, she lasted a couple months tops.  Isaac remarried a woman named Fear Brewster. My husband is related to Fear.  Fear ended up dying somewhere, perhaps in Machias from my reading, from one of the outbreaks that went around.  No one is really sure where she was buried.  Perhaps another book source has more information on that.  By the way, Isaac was not a model citizen by any means.  He was a scammer and swindler who was eventually kicked out of the Bay Colonies for screwing over too many Pilgrims.  What do they say?  You can pick your nose, you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family!

John Howland Family Memorial Plot

Reconstructed Howland House- at Rocky Nook

Howland Stone at Rocky Nook

Different areas of those 2 parts of my family tree that overlap are:
Josiah Keen
John Howland and
Elizabeth Tilley
Maybe Josiah Wallis
John Blethen and
Hannah Keen
Robert Sprout and
Elizabeth Samson
John Creamer and
Margaret Seiders
James Richards and
Sarah Foss
Thomas Oldham and
Mercy Sprout
and the whole Wallace, Wallis, and McIntire (and some Blethens) clan from Sagadahoc County, Maine.  And the latter... They can't use original names either!  They have to use family names, intermingle surnames with given names, switch the spelling a little.  They have made my research hell.

The Native American Family Member

I think most people like to have a Native American tucked into their very white family tree.  I have read articles warning of family stories of the family's "Native American Princess".  Don't believe all of the stories your older family members tell you.  Make sure to research the facts.  When I did my tree, I did just that.  I knew a story that my great aunt told me about an Indian Princess that married an early Camden, Maine settler and tucked it away in my brain for future reference.  Six "Greats" into my Mother's side of the family tree and there it was!  It was true!  (Well, I don't know about the Indian Princess part, but...) There was no story to go with it or anything, but I found the records and added her name to my family tree.  My great aunt did not have access to internet genealogy sites that harbored the false "Indian Princess" scams in family tree pages.  She was remembering this information from word of mouth.  Someone in her family told her this.  There was no need to make it up.

Since this information was given to me from my seventy-something great aunt (whose mother was a Richards) I would not have to worry about my Indian Princess ancestor being fake.  Well, perhaps she wasn't a princess.  I am not really sure.  That isn't what mattered most to me.  I just wanted to have my family tree in order.  Aunt Glad wanted to help me with that.

Then, today, I was checking out a page on the Maine Genealogy Network and there was a site about researching Native American relatives.  I clicked on the section about the "fake" indian relatives.  Not me!  Down the page, I saw the name "Big Thunder".  My heart kind of sunk.  That was supposed to be the name of my Great great great great great Grandmother's father.  She couldn't be a fake!  If she was then who did my great 6x Grandfather really marry?  I'm here so he had to have married someone!  I did a careful research of my family tree.  How could this happen?

Well, I read the article regarding "Big Thunder" and it seemed my heart would sink further til the very end where it gave some examples of some possible facts regarding a "Big Thunder" character.  The last example was of a "Little Fawn" marrying a man named Dodipher Richards.  Little Fawn was also called "Sarah Tarratine", a little factoid I discovered in my research and not something that came up in the Big Thunder scam.  And of course, Little Fawn and Dodipher settled in the Camden, Maine area and had many children, as they did way back then.  There were little Dodiphers and Sarahs running all around in the large Richards' family (Dodipher's brothers etc. lived fairly near).

My advise is DO YOUR RESEARCH!  Write down your sources.  Are they reliable?  Census records (not available for the time period of Dodipher and Little Fawn). Birth and Death records.  Verify family stories with facts.  Why the heck people would try to deceive others by posting fake family trees is beyond me.

Anyway, here is the source that I read all this information from.
http://www.nedoba.org/gene_fake.html


UPDATE!  June 7th, 2013  [Sarah "Little Fawn" Richards]

On Maine Genealogy Network I requested information regarding my Native American relative and her husband, Dodipher Richards, asking for any kind of  proof that Sarah was a Native American, or something with her real last  name on it, because maybe her name wasn't "Little Fawn".  I knew that the Richards part of my family is very large, generations producing many children, and many still living in the area.  Today,  someone posted information about that section of the Richards' family.  Here is what he posted:

Permalink Reply by Ben McMullin 5 minutes ago

Hello there,

My 3rd great-grandfather, Mormon pioneer Willard Glover McMullin (b.1823, North Haven, Maine) married Martha Richards (b.1814, Searsmont, Maine).  Martha's parents were Josiah Richards (b.1785, Maine) and Ruth Richards (b.1789, Lincolnville, Maine).  I have Josiah listed as the son of Dodipher and Sarah Little Fawn, while Ruth is listed as a grand-daughter of Dodipher and Sarah (fancy that).  

Back to Willard and Martha...they arrived in Utah in 1848, and were sent to help establish the community of Harrisburg, Utah, in the late 1850s. From what I've read about Martha, she was an expert basket maker/weaver and was given a name by local Native American groups that translated to "Golden Woman", due to them always being welcomed at her door.  I've seen her photo, she had a dark complexion and straight, black hair.  If Sarah Little Fawn was both Martha's grandmother and great-grandmother, it makes sense she would have been an expert basket maker/weaver and a friend to the local Native American groups.

I was very happy to get information to help confirm Sarah Richard's Native American ancestry.