Find A Grave

Find A Grave – this website was at the top of my “To Do” list for John Cullins and family this morning. Do you know this site?  It is a gem. According to my membership account I’ve been a member 2 years, 4 months, and 4 days. Despite its sad connection to death it is a living, growing, active website where people come to find relatives who’ve passed, or pay tribute by leaving virtual flowers,

or see who else is researching their Aunt Mabel. It stands alone or as a compliment to your ancestry.com tree, and Find A Grave information is available there.

It is a forum to share messages and photos. It is also a great place to volunteer. I use the site very often but do not invest the time many people do, as there are higher priorities at the moment.  In two years it tells me I’ve added one memorial; I manage 2 memorials (that previous owners have handed over to me); uploaded one photo; put in 4 photo requests: left 88 virtual flowers; and added 2 friends. I haven’t put up a bio.  I know, that is pretty pitiful and I must do better in the future.  I’ve volunteered to go out to the local cemeteries and take photos of grave sites requested but it is a popular thing to do here and any requests are snatched up before I get a chance to get out there.  Sigh. For the four requests I’ve made for the Robb family at Cadiz Union Cemetery in Harrison County, Ohio, no one seems to be volunteering.  Maybe some of these San Diegans can drop by sometime. The site tells me that it is only 2,057 miles from home.

Cadiz Union Cemetery
Cadiz, Harrison, Ohio

The Cullins' grave sites needed for our Ohio Pioneers project are in Muskingum County Ohio. Thank you to the volunteers who have trekked to the local cemeteries to record and upload the graves. 

I do my best to connect the Find A Grave to each person (international grave sites are being recorded, as well) where it is available.  I download the hint from ancestry.com and then visit the Find A Grave site – pick up the link and put it in the “Web Links” section (bottom right corner) of the page for that person.  I used to laboriously transfer photos from Find A Grave to ancestry.com but there isn’t any need now that the link is on the page – just a click and you’ll find them.

This morning I looked up the Find A Grave for John 1705-1780 and Jane Cullins. Name spellings change over time and for this name I needed to search Cullins, Cullin, Cullen, Cullens. In Virginia the name comes up Cullens and in Ohio it comes up Cullins for the same family of different generations. John and Jane are my 6^th great grandparents and are our immigrant couple coming from Ireland and settling in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. I found no listings for their grave sites – they may exist but are not on findagrave.com. Their son Edward Cullins and wife, Jane Jones, 5^th great grandparents, moved to Orange County, Virginia. No luck finding their resting place.

Ah, but their son John Cullins, 4^th great grandfather, is on Find A Grave – not with a grave site but a very nice memorial article.  He, along with his wife, Rebecca Jane Beatty, was our early Ohio pioneer, possibly around 1803. There is no memorial for Rebecca. They added to the early population of Ohio by having 10 children and they died in Washington, Muskingum, Ohio.

The 5^th child of John and Rebecca Cullins was John Jr. 1791-1857.

Gravestone of John Cullins, Jr. 1791-1857

He married Dorcas Meredith. Dorcas came from a family of Ohio pioneers in Coshocton County and she died in Fayette County, Iowa. Her tombstone is pictured on Iowa Gravestone Photos Project online. John Jr is featured on Find a Grave in Muskingum County,Ohio. These were my 3^rd great grandparents.

The 2^nd great grandparents, William C Cullins and Amanda Cordray were born in Muskingum County, Ohio but moved on to be Iowa pioneers. It is likely that William’s mother, Dorcas moved west with this couple after the death of her husband.

It has been fun finding information on Find A Grave this morning. Complaints about the site?  I don’t think their search engine works as well as it could.  If you put in information for a specific person often they don’t come up although they are there somewhere.  I’ve found that searching by location and cemetery is sometimes necessary. Search by last name only is helpful. If you are persistent you can often be rewarded.

[Note added 20 Feb 2018 - Since writing this article Find A Grave was purchased by ancestry.com. Subsequently, they have revamped and up-graded the site. It is a great addition to ancestry.com and it is easy to connect your ancestor in Find A Grave to your tree in ancestry.com!]

Photo of John Cullin's gravestone Added by: Kaci Cullins
11/22/2006 on findagrave.com

Father’s Day 2013

Since the ancestors on my tree (www.ancestry.com) are marked with a picture of the flag of their home state (most often the state in which they died) it proved to be a fairly easy task to identify my Ohio pioneers. 

They range in degree from 2^nd to 6^th Great Grandparents, with the majority as 4^th GGs. In the end there was a total of 18 families – 9 Ohio pioneers families on my father’s side and nine on my mother’s – each family with siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles. That is an amazing number of people living, working, breathing in the early air of Ohio – a state I’ve only traversed on the turnpike (once) and train without a stop, and a trip to Bowling Green State University where my Florida son, scholarship in hand, spent one freezing semester before leaving the lake effect snow behind for a Florida State degree.

Most of those families came from more easterly states where they had been even earlier pioneers. They were English, German, or Irish. They were the children of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, or South Carolina pioneers seeking land of their own to farm, seeking greener pastures, or abolitionists shaking off the dirt of a slave-holding state. All of them were American citizens, most with roots going back far beyond the Revolution to the earliest settlement of the colonies. Ohio was the Wild West – raw and new – the Promised Land for this new generation of Americans.

With 18 families identified I moved to making a list of ‘to dos’ – tasks to be completed for each family for their entry in our Ohio pioneers book. That I do this and stick with it is absolutely essential.  I love to research and I could get totally absorbed in that work on one or two families and find myself in December and a long way from completing my intended project.  The list may change over time but if I do the tasks, ticking them off as I go, I should be able to finish in time for Christmas – I hope!

Which family to start with? That choice was totally random. I picked a family from my father’s side – it seems right as today is Father’s Day. And, it actually involves two families – John Cullins, Sr. 1758-1837 and his wife, Rebecca Jane Beatty 1770-1843; and John Cullins, Jr. 1791-1856 and his wife, Dorcas Meredith 1800-1882. I made a file for John and Rebecca, looked at what I have on ancestry.com for them – increased it as much as I could and moved on to researching other sites on the Internet. I’m off and ticking through the ‘to do’ list!  Ohio by Christmas or bust!

Ohio Pioneers



. . . and so it begins. Our pioneers in Ohio. The dream has been this for decades – to pass along the stories of our family to my children; and to do it by not only personal, specific accounts, but through literature – the well-love and carefully researched historical novels, histories, biographies, and autobiographies that I’ve read along the way.   

This is not to be a linear path from, let’s say, 900AD to the present. The books were and are read in random order. Last year I was inspired by the Medieval power couple, Sir William Marshall and Lady Isabel de Clare, through the well-researched, well-imagined stories of Elizabeth Chadwick in two historical novels: The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion.  When I first picked-up the books I knew that the couple were on our family tree. Looking closer at the spider-web of family connections I found, much to my surprise, that the Marshall family is very significant to the make-up of our family. No fewer than five lines from four of the Marshall daughters found their way down to our present-day family. I’d have to say that my children and grandchildren have a strong claim to the Marshall legacy. It is one to be proud of and to cherish.

http://elizabethchadwick.com/

. 

I started by buying new copies of each of the Chadwick historical novels as Christmas gifts for my 4 adult children and 4 adult grandchildren. Then I set about the labor of love – compiling an individualized account that displayed their descendency from William and Isabel.

I hope that each of them will come to treasure the gift and use those three books as the start of their family history library and keep them through their life-times and pass them on to their children.

I have four younger grandchildren and two great grandchildren who didn’t receive copies but it is my hope that their parents will see that they have an opportunity to read them. This year one of those four grandchildren, Maia, has reached the age of 10 and is a reader. She will receive her personalized copies. And so there will be nine. . . ‘Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise!’ as they once said back in Ohio territory. . .

de Tancarville

The muse prompted me to write about the first file I opened in ancestry.com today. It is a random pick. That person is – “ta-da” [Please see the comments for more specific and authoritative information on this family and era.] 


William (or Guillaume) de Tancarville, Chamberlain of Normandy.  

This well-favored Frenchman breathed his first Norman air in 1070 just four years after the Norman invasion of England – a major, world-changing event. He died in Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, England in 1129 at 59 as a well-entrenched member of the English/Norman nobility.

As noted on ancestry.com in reference to the de Tancarville’s in England (after 1066): “[The name de Tancarville was] first found in Lincolnshire where they were anciently seated as Tenants-in-Chief and Lords of many Manors. This family has to be considered one of the premier Norman families of all time.”

  

Borrowing from Wikipedia we learn that Normandy is famous in our day for its beaches where allied troops invaded in their push against the Nazi’s in World War II. We know that part of Normandy, which is approximately 5% of France, is facing the English Channel and is known for its seafood. The lower part of Normandy is known for agriculture with products such as apple cider and apple brandy, cattle and horses.

Normandy Flag

Tancarville Coat of Arms

 Tancarville is a village in Normandy surrounded by woodland and on the banks of the river Seine. The 11th Century Château de Tancarville, has been designated Monument historique since 1862. The walls were probably new and still rising during William’s childhood. He took over the title of Chamberlain from his father, Ralph “Raoul” de Tancarville.

Château deTancarville

Tancarville park

According to dictionary.com the Chamberlain is ‘an official who manages the living quarters of a sovereign or a member of the nobility’ and is considered a high official of a royal court.

William’s father Raoul de Tancarville was the Chamberlain of William the Conqueror, a very high office indeed. Raoul took part in the conquest of England in 1066 right alongside the Conqueror.

Later, as confirmed by charter to King Henry I, in 1114 William de Tancarville donated the abbey of St Georges de Bocherville to the king. I find it comforting that somewhere in time our family had no money worries what so ever. Of course, after the pillage of England this was probably an act of contrition. It is also recorded that William ‘requested’ of his in-laws the donation of the abbey of Sainte-Barbe. And King Henry II confirmed the donation of Savigny abbey by William. They obviously had abbeys to spare.

William married well. His wife, Maud “Mahaut” d’Arques was descended from every royal family imaginable and was no doubt a good match and a step up the nobility ladder for the de Tancarville family. Certainly Mahaut held the key to a bright future.

Arques Coat of Arms

Arques Coat of Arms

 
Lately we have been reading about our great grandfather William Marshall.

“As a younger son of a minor nobleman, William had no lands or fortune to inherit, and had to make his own way in life. Around the age of twelve, when his father's career was faltering, he was sent to Normandy to be brought up in the household of William de Tancarville, a great magnate and cousin of young William's mother. Here he began his training as a knight.”

Those dates don't line up correctly as the records show that William de Tancarville died before William Marshall was born. However, it was the Tancarville estate where Sir William Marshall received his early training.

I’ve not found exactly how William de Tancarville died. He was at Kenilworth Castle which was founded in the early 1120s by Geoffrey de Clinton, Lord Chamberlain to Henry I and grandson of William de Tancarville. William died in 1129 and Geoffrey died in 1133. Geoffrey was losing favor with King Henry I. His rival was Roger de Beaumont, the Earl of Warwick and owner of the neighboring Warwick Castle was gaining favor with King Henry. Possibly William was defending his grandson's castle.

                                          Kenilworth Castle

The Perfect Picture

The family tree is massive and I try each morning to add a bit by taking families as far as the records go.  Today I was in Surrey, England near London. 

The line of the Learned (Larned) family includes John and wife, Sarah and his father Robert (b 1540); and Thomas Gillman Jr. and wife, Hannah with Thomas Gillman Sr (b 1550) and his wife Ann Farwell. All of them are from the same village.  Curious, I looked up Bermondsey, Surry, England.

On the south bank of the Thames, at the time John Larned was born (1555) Bermondsey was a lovely, up-scale rural suburb of London – sort of a Winter Park to Orlando or La Jolla to San Diego.  And we can see them was they were on a festive day when the citizens turned out in their finest to party in the street – captured in a painting by Joris Hoefnagel called “Fete at Bermondsey” c 1569 (thank you Wikipedia!). Our Learneds and Gillmans could be in this group! You can see London across the river in the background.

Joris Hoefnagel, Fete at Bermondsey c 1569                                                                
                                                                                                                                  

In 1590 John and Sarah had a son, William, who fell in love with Godethe (aka Judith) Gillman. They married in 1606 at St Olave. [“This is how Wikipedia describes the area: Other ecclesiastical properties stood nearby at Tooley (a corruption of "St Olave's") Street, located in the Archbishop of Canterbury's manor of Southwark, where wealthy citizens and clerics had their houses, including the priors of Lewes and St Augustine's, Canterbury, and the abbot of Battle.”] 

In 1630 William and Sarah Learned bravely took their children, Sarah, Bethia, Abigail, Elizabeth and Isaac and sailed for America landing in Charlestown, Massachusetts.  Elizabeth Learned married another English immigrant John Hall from Coventry, Warwickshire. They were our immigrant great grandparents through my father, who lived in a suburb of Orlando not very different from Bermondsey. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Gillman’s and Leared’s were merchants, which it was Grandpa Shaffer’s nature to be.