Published April 9, 2023

The vital records of St Kitts document births, deaths, and marriages, and are invaluable in genealogy research on my husband’s family tree. The birth records in particular usually list the mother’s name as well as the baby’s, and often the father is recorded along with the mother’s maiden name (if…

Read More Following breadcrumbs in the St Kitts vital records

Published March 16, 2023
Published February 3, 2023

I am fortunate to live in the neighborhood of Smithtown, NY, on Long Island. It is the home of Caleb Smith State Park. The park features 543 acres of nature preserves with hiking trails, bird watching, a pond stocked with fish, and the main house and museum. It was home…

Read More The Long Island Smiths: looking to a more inclusive view

Published December 31, 2022

I’ve written before about trying to determine if old family stories, passed down over a century or more, are completely true, only partly true, or just made-up wishful thinking. The question of a possible ancestral relationship on my mother’s family tree to the US president James Monroe (1758-1831) has been…

Read More James Monroe – truth or sketchy family lore passed down?

Published November 24, 2022

My husband’s great-grandfather Burchell Edward Marshall (1873-1951) was the son of a school teacher who became a prosperous businessman and landowner in his native St Kitts. During the first half of the 20th century, he owned a number of sugar cane estates on the island, which was not typical for…

Read More Idle folly or desecration and sacrilege?

Published October 8, 2022

My husband’s DNA covers a broad range of Northern European roots, with some Southern European and African thrown in as well. This reflects, in part, his diverse paternal ancestry from the West Indies, from places like England, Wales, Madeira, and areas of Western African where people were seized and sold…

Read More A deep dive on a DNA connection

Published August 24, 2022

Going back to the 1600s on my maternal grandfather’s tree, I’ve traced back to Laurens Jansen De Camp (about 1645-1719), a Huguenot who came to New Amsterdam in the 1660s. In the New World, he married Aeltje Mandeville, a Dutch woman born about 1657 in Holland. Aeltje’s father was Yellis…

Read More Location, location, location!

Published July 23, 2022

I’ve written many times about my husband’s ancestors from the tiny Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis, including the use of surnames as middle names in his Mallalieu tree. This can be very helpful in looking for the names of ancestors going further back. His great-grandfather, John Nicholas Faxivo…

Read More A unique and mysterious name from St Kitts

Published May 28, 2022

I have looked in the past at the documents and background details surrounding the manumission of two young enslaved people, whose freedom was purchased by my husband’s 3rd great-grandfather, Frederick Walton Mallalieu of St Kitts. No relationship is specified between Frederick and the two young people. In my research into…

Read More A manumission with a declaration of paternity

Published April 10, 2022

My maternal grandfather Frank F Jordan (1895-1975) grew up in Volant, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the army in 1917 and was assigned to the 324th Signal Corps. He trained at Fort Meade in Maryland, but never fought overseas. Searching Pennsylvania newspapers from the period, I learned that he was actually…

Read More World War 1 and a tale of two cousins