52 Ancestors Week 51: Perseverance

Question

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 51

This week's theme is "Perseverance." Who is an ancestor who had to persevere? Who is an ancestor you had to persevere in order to find?! Share their story this week.

I can do this all day.

Comments

I WILL find family in Argentina: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2022/12/52-ancestors-week-51-perseverance.html

Make it so.

Answer 1

To be successful at genealogy you need to be perseverant. There are so many road blocks, detours, dead ends and delayed results to contend with that far outweigh the occasional lucky surprises, and yet, we carry on.

I am currently adding the Yorkshire-born half siblings of my 2nd great grandfather Lancelot Hardy to WikiTree.  Even though his mother Hannah gave birth to Lancelot and his sister Judith without being married, I learned she married cordwainer Robert Loncaster http://wikitree.com/wiki/Loncaster-1 in 1802.  She probably met him through her father Christopher Hardy who was also a shoemaker. Hannah and Robert had seven children.  

Then came the road block.  On familysearch there was a different couple Robert Lancaster and Hannah Verrity claiming the same children I located.  Early Yorkshire records don't mention the mother's maiden name.  This obstacle required me to research Lancaster-Verrity and prove they weren't the parents of the LONCASTER children.  Once I fixed the data on familysearch (which took hours) I added the Loncasters to WikiTree.  Before my efforts WikiTree didn't have any Loncasters.  True, it's not a common name.  So where did Loncaster lead me?  

To a really, really common name, White.  Isabella Loncaster married William White and moved to Wilmington, Delaware.  So now I must persevere again, to add this big family of Delaware folk to WikiTree.  

Answer 2

Chris, thank you for this. I have often thought that I would never have the perseverance that many of my ancestors had. 

This week, I have chosen my 2nd great grandfather Luveous Morris. His father had joined the Confederate Army, but he and his younger brothers joined the Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Union Army during the Civil War. He was wounded in the head in the Battle of Fort Donelson, and two of his younger brothers were killed. Luveous, along with many family members, traveled to Kansas after the death of his wife in childbirth. They all made the 1893 Land Run in Oklahoma. I have always felt that his perseverance was amazing. This is a photo I took of his headstone on 2021 Memorial Day,

Comments

Wonderful profile, Alexis.  I'm so glad you persevered so this story of his life can be seen by future descendants.

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Pat, Luveous has an amazing number of descendants, so I hope that being able to write his story here on WikiTree will keep the memory of his life preserved.

Answer 3

I would have to say any female ancestor who suffered the loss of a baby and carried on (more so in earlier times when medical help was not available and too many illnesses thrived). I in no way am discounting the men, but since the woman carries the baby, she often feels guilty as if her body did something to her baby. We all have seen the many losses as we have built out our family trees.

I see this even today as I volunteer in the hospitals and take bereavement portraits of babies born sleeping to give parents something to help with the healing. 

Answer 4

I wrote about my great aunt's (Lillian Garner) four-decade struggle to get and keep a widow's pension for her husband's Army service. She even wrote to two presidents in her quest.  https://annesgenealogyadventures.blogspot.com/2022/11/52-ancestors-2022-week-51-perseverance.html

Answer 5

Sometimes profiles at WikiTree have to have perseverance. Perseverance to shout every single day: "We want to be connected, give us connections outside of our nuclear family."

I went into the Germany unconnected list and found there Friedrich Carl Heinrich Julius Lexow. I actually didn't even look on his profile, but went immediately to WikiTree+ to show me all profiles of that branch. Friedrich's children were born in Illinois. So I looked at all of Fred's children to see if I find any spouses on FamilySearch. And yes I did! Arthur Lexow (whose given name is actually Charles Arthur) has a wife with a not so common name, but still 2700 appearances at WikiTree. So first I connected on FamilySearch her death certificate with her and her parents. Her parents already had an entry at FamilySearch, which I used to look for them at WikiTree. I found them and so I could connect Florence with her parents and her in-laws with the Big Tree. (10 more profiles connected and they waited for connection since 2010)