I would imagine most of us know very little about family beyond our great-grandparents or perhaps our great-great-grandparents. It's not that we aren't interested, it's just that many families don't keep good records, even going back a couple of generations, nothing was known about those who came before.
Fortunately, I don't have that problem. My mother's maiden name was Dalton. Yes, that is how I got my first name. It's a southern thing, giving the mother's maiden name to the first-born. In this case, me. But back to the Dalton's, one thing about them, they love history and more specifically, genealogy.
My Grandpa Dalton's oldest brother, Lawrence Dalton, for decades wrote a history piece for the local paper, the Pocahontas (AR) Star-Herald. That is the same paper I went to work for 35 years after his death. He also wrote a book in 1948 entitled "History of Randolph County."
The second brother in line, Clarence, loved baseball. I can remember many summer afternoons sitting at his house in Pocahontas listening to him tell me stories of Dizzy Dean or Babe Ruth. Jimmie Foxx and Bill Terry. The third brother, Acel, was just a natural-born storyteller. Easily the best in the family. One cautionary tale, I was told always take what Uncle Acel says with a grain of salt. Some in the families would have different versions of the same story. I think of what Mark Twain once said, "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story."
My grandpa, Kermit, was fifth of the six brothers, and he too would entertain me around the charcoal pit with stories of his growing up in Randolph County, Arkansas. Unfortunately, my grandpa Dalton passed away when I was 15.
We have moved on a couple of generations. Two of my cousins, Frank Dalton Jr. and his sister, Jenny Ito are both heavily involved in genealogy. Beverly Dalton, the wife to another one of my cousins, did hours weeks and months of research on the Dalton's, and even though she passed away several years ago, her work is preserved in several volumes and is being closely guarded by her grandson Nate Dalton.
I cant't ignore the Sullivan line. My great-grandpa Sullivan was a blacksmith in Murfreesboro, Ark. His blacksmith shop was in a dog trot about 50 feet behind his house. I can recall him sharpening saws and knives and saws, Just doing anything a blacksmith did. When I was growing up, we had hanging on the wall in our family room, a large cast-iron skillet, close to two feet in diameter. My grandpa made it for deep camp. When he had a free minute, I would sit on the anvil in his shop and learn about my ancestors in Pike County.
The point being in all of this, my passion for genealogy research comes naturally. In retirement, it has become my hobby.
Ok, I apologize for the long intro. But I felt it was important to share that my interest in the subject is not a passing fancy. It is deeply embedded.
In addition to family research that I have used and added to, I also subscribe to ancestry.com, as well as the Mormon genealogy site, familysearch.org. Both have tremendous resources and an abundance of information. In fact, ancestry.com tells me I have shared DNA with over 115,000 people, just in their data base.
Because of their easily accessed files and data, I have been able to fill in most of my family tree going back close to 500 years. As I am filling in my tree, I am only using direct lines. At this point, not worrying too much about adding additional brothers and sisters. At some point I may do that.
Think about this. we have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and 16 great-great-grandparents. Every generation it doubles. If you go back 15 generations, you have 32,768 sets of grandparents. Go back two more generations, you now have 131,072 sets of grandparents! This is mind-boggling. But it sets up the point I'm about to make.
Let's go back to the year 1500. The world population at that time was approximately 500 million. However, the population in Europe, where all of my ancestors came from, was only 61.6 million. So, if you have 131,072 grandparents, that is 0.02 percent of the European population, or 1 in 50. So, if you had 500 people in your little English village, statistically, 10 of then would be your grandparents.
Now, I told you all of that to tell you this. According to the Mormon genealogy website, I am related to a lot of famous people. But seeing the math in the previous paragraph, chances are pretty high you are as well. Most of us are of European descent, and the statistics say the farther back you go, the more grandparents you have, and the smaller the population, thus the more in your ancestry tree.
There is one big caveat in all of this. The info is only as good as the person who recorded it. Many records are verifiable some are a bit spotty. You have been warned.
Given all of this information, my own research has verified I am related to two former mayors of London, three kings of Scotland, countless Lords/Dames, people who lived in Castles and even an Earl or two.
Other research says I am related to 27 presidents with George Washington being the closest, first cousin, ten times removed. Second cousin to James Monroe and James Madison.
Moving to Europe, I'm apparently related to Queen Victoria, Marie Antoinette, Winston Churchill and Princess Diana, which means I am also related to the future King William.
My famous relative list also includes aviation pioneers Wright Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Neil Armstrong. Also listed are authors Edgar Allen Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain and Agatha Christie among others. I'm proud to be related to Helen Keller, whose house sits about a mile away from where I am now. John Lennon, George Harrison and Elvis are also in my crowded tree. Incredibly, Family Search says I am also related to Brigham Young and Joseph Smith.
Now whether I am related to all those people doesn't really matter. The ones in my direct blood line are the important ones. It is a fun hobby, to learn about your ancestors and what they did for a living, the hardships they endured. So many of my ancestors fought in the Civil War and Revolutionary War. I'm grateful to know that.
We all have a story, and it is exciting to see where the research leads us.
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