Ancestors' Geneameme

Jill Ball on her Geniaus blog composed a fun genealogical questionnaire. I thought this would be great to start out with.

Things I have already done or found: bold face type
Things I would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things I haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

Which of these apply to me?

1. Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents
2. Can name over 50 direct ancestors [some will figure in this blog in future]
3. Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents [would love to find photos of
Clarissa Bradbury, but have photos of the others]
4. Have an ancestor who was married more than three times [Louisa Jane Amos
married four times, and others not found yet may have matched her]
5. Have an ancestor who was a bigamist [so far, not found, but possible!]
6. Met all four of my grandparents [could not meet the one who perished in the
1917-1920 influenza epidemic]
7. Met one or more of my great-grandparents [all were dead before I was born]
8. Named a child after an ancestor
9. Bear an ancestor's given name
10. Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland [oh, indeed, on the Mayflower
and earlier and later, but just try to find a John Taylor born somewhere in
Ireland in the 1780s]
11. Have an ancestor from Asia [origins of my Joseph family might be from Middle East, and
there is evidence of some central Asian ancestry in Celtic people]
12. Have an ancestor from Continental Europe [several known German
ancestors, and possibly others from elsewhere]
13. Have an ancestor from Africa [certainly, but not documented yet]
14. Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer [many!]
15. Have an ancestor who had large land holdings [a few with 600+ acres,
including in West Virginia -- is that "large"? A middling family with 2
horses could work 200 acres, and most of my people had that, or less, or
no land at all of their own]
16. Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi [one great-
grandfather and a number of deacons further back, and possibly others
earlier still]
17. Have an ancestor who was a midwife [not found so far unless you count assisting with
family births]
18. Have an ancestor who was an author
19. Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones [at least two
different Jones lines, only one Smith line so far!]
20. Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng
21. Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
22. Have an ancestor with a forename beginning with Z [at least two Zachariahs,
both veterans of the Revolutionary War]
23. Have an ancestor born on 25th December
24. Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day
25. Have blue blood in your family lines
26. Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
27. Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
28. Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century [quite a few]
29. Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier
[quite a few]
30. Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents
31. Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X [have not seen any family
marriage certificates which the parties signed]
32. Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university
33. Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offense [yes, the discovery
solved a mystery]
34. Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime [well, yes, a normal feature of life
for millenia]
35. Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine [in part, "Account of
a British Intelligence Expedition in 1777, and of its Prisoners," New
York Genealogical & Biographical Record, Vol. 122 pp. 1-8, 90-94; in
Numbers 1 and 2 (January and April, 1991); other stuff on the web]
36. Have published a family history online or in print
37. Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries [oh,
goodness yes; some of present descendants live where their ancestors
did 200 years ago]
38. Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family
39. Have a family bible from the 19th Century
40. Have a pre-19th century family bible

This was fun to do! Thanks to Jill for proposing it!