Cauble, Musgrove DNA Projects and Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE in London!

Who Do You Think You Are?  LIVE! is coming to
London February 22-24, 2013. 

Family Tree DNA will be there, along with

more than 160 other specialist exhibitors 

and celebrities from the TV series. 

Here's a link to Dick Eastman's blog

about the event!  

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

and check out the 

Who Do You Think You Are? link for even more information

ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy) 

will be there also in a stall (next to FTDNA)! 

Many of the Y-DNA

Surname Projects are offering free kits 

if a participant tests on-spot.  These include the 

MUSGROVE Y-DNA SURNAME PROJECT 

and the CAUBLE Y-DNA SURNAME PROJECT 

Hope you can make it to London!
Happy Hunting, 

Revis

Who was Mary Bell Dennis?

Stories in a family often times hold 

some truth OR a lot of truth OR none of the 

proceeding.  Think of how something you say 

today to a friend can be added "on to" as 

it passes from person to person.  The

same is true for our family stories. 

Marion Washington Dennis
b. ca. 1856-FL (or AL possibly)
d. 1906-San Angelo, Tom Green Co. TX

The Marion Washington Dennis family 

has such stories.  Which leads me to ask, 

"Mary Bell, Mary Bell, Who Really Are You?" 

Mary Bell was said to be the Mother of 

my 2nd gr-grandfather, Marion Washington

Dennis. What we know of her is very limited, 

and mostly from a letter written by Marion's 

daughter Hallie Dennis Nugent to younger 

half-sister, Mary Dennis Gardner.

The letter is hard to read.  

The punctuation and spelling is

not great.  The letter is old. 

Was the Mother of Marion named

"Mary Bell", with 

Bell being her surname?  Or was her 

name "Mary Bell _" with her surname being 

unknown to us after years of searching?

We have nothing to go on other 

than this letter.

Family stories passed down said that 

Marion's father was born in Ireland.  

After years of brickwalls, my Dennis uncle's 

tested in the Dennis Y-DNA Surname Project 

only to discover that we were not Dennis' at all, 

but rather descended from the family of 

men with the surname FREEMAN!  Surprise!

And then the biggest surprise of all - 

we carry the Y-DNA haplogroup Q1a3a, 

the only haplogroup given to Native 

American Indians in the Y. 

Only then did one of my uncle's tell 

me his grandparents always told him that 

the Dennis' were "black Irish".  

That is sometimes how people of Native

American Indian backgrounds referred 

to themselves in order to escape the 

stigma of being Indian. 

Several descendants of Marion's children

have tested at 23andMe

and at Family Tree DNA

in the Family Finders test.

We have hundreds and hundreds

of matches.  I feel sure some

of those matches come from

Marion's mother, Mary Bell's, lines.

We sure could use her last name

to help us out in our DNA journey!

Attached is the letter Hallie Dennis 

Nugent wrote to her sister, Mary.  

It also includes information relating to 

Mary's Mother's (Laura Smith of TX) 

families (Smith and Pendley).

The letter is hard to read, so 

here is the best attempted transcription 

done by one of my Dennis cousins 

who has the original letter in his possession.

May the journey go on and may we 

one day find out who "Mary Bell" really was! 

Happy Hunting, 

Revis

Festervand, Festervan, Festerbaur...

The name is supposedly Dutch.  The name of my 

Great-Grandmother Kolb's grandfather.

It is found in documents as early as 1835 or so in 

Madison County, MS as Festerband, Festervand, 

Festevan, Festerbaur, Festabund....

What in the world is the true name of 

John W. Festervand, who has many descendants 

in LA and TX (and 

elsewhere)?

Any ideas?

- Revis 

We Will Remember the Children!

The past few days have not been

the time to blog. 

It is a time to grieve.  And a 

time to mourn for those who have lost

family, mostly children, in the Connecticut shooting.

I hope you will join me in Love, in Prayer and in Remembering the families during this time. 

Seeking John W. Festervan or Andrew Jack Festervan descendants

We continue to be on a brick road with our 

ancestor John W. FESTERVAN, born Holland in ca. 1818, a/k/a Festervand, Festebaun and a jillion other ways you can think to spell his name. 

Son: Andrew Jackson FESTERVAN

born 1839-MS, died aft 1910-Claiborne LA.

Below, my Great-great-grandmother

Martha Ann FESTERVAN MARTIN BEASLEY

with her husband that my dad and others 

called "Grandpa Ike" (Isaac Elijah BEASLEY)  He was not dad's "real" Grandpa as we descend from her William W.MARTIN husband.

Grandpa Ike Beasley and Martha Ann 

Festervan Martin Beasley

Because after years of searching for John W.'s parents 

and we have no clues, I am seeking a Festervan

male cousin who has the "Festervan" or other variation 

name to do the Y-DNA testing while it's on sale.

I attending the Family Tree DNA conference a week or so ago.  
On November 11, 2012, as the 8th Annual Genetic Genealogy Conference 

was coming to a close, FTDNA announced that several 

conference participants had asked when there would be a year-end sale.

In answer to that question, FTDNA announced "immediately".
See prices below. 

As we ended our 8th Annual Genetic Genealogy Conference, several conference participants asked us to start our year-end sale as soon as possible. In answer to those requests we decided to start it immediately:

New Kits Current Price SALE PRICE Y-DNA 37 $169 $119 Y-DNA 67 $268 $199 mtDNAPlus $159 $139 mtFullSequence (FMS) $299 $199 SuperDNA (Y-DNA 67 and mtFullSequence) $548 $398 Family Finder $289 $199 Family Finder + mtDNAPlus $438 $318 Family Finder + mtFullSequence $559 $398 Family Finder + Y-DNA 37 $438 $318 Comprehensive (FF + FMS + Y-67) $837 $597 Upgrades Current Price SALE PRICE Y-Refine 12-25 Marker $59 $35 Y-Refine 12-37 Marker $109 $69 Y-Refine 12-67 Marker $199 $148 Y-Refine 25-37 Marker $59 $35 Y-Refine 25-67 Marker $159 $114 Y-Refine 37-67 Marker $109 $79 Y-Refine 37-111 Marker $220 $188 Y-Refine 67-111 Marker $129 $109 mtHVR1toMega $269 $179 mtHVR2toMega $239 $179 mtFullSequence Add-on $289 $199

To order this special offer, log in to your personal page and click on the Order An Upgrade button in the upper right corner. A link to the login page is provided below. ALL ORDERS MUST BE PLACED AND PAID FOR BY MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012 11:59:00 PM CST TO RECEIVE THE SALE PRICES.

If you're a Festervan researcher and have a male relative that will test, please contact me.  
Always Happy Hunting, 
Revis 

It's Election Day! VOTE!

V O T E 

Blessing to You and Yours on election 
day - voice your freedom and Vote! 

Revis 

Julus/Julius Ziegenfuss to America 1893

As I continue the search for my gr-gr-grandfather Gottlieb Ziegenfuss and wife Fredrika Sophia Louise/Louisa Trenkman/Frankman's parents, 

I am also on a quest to identify one young man by the name of JULIUS ZIEGENFUSS. 

Julius and family arrived in America (New York) on 8 Sep 1893 on the ship Normannia.  Departure Port: Hamburg via Southampton.  Julius was age 24, Male, born about 1869 in Germany, and the ship's manifest lists him as a Merchant, able to read and write, and his native city Blanbenern.

His Transit Code states he was "staying in the USA" and 

his destination "Arlington, TX", Travel Compartment: Steerage.

Traveling with Julius are his wife and young child: 

Henriette Ziegenfuss, age 20 (b. ca. 1873), Female, German; 

and daughter Juliane Ziegenfuss, age 9m, Female, German.

This record can be found at Ancestry.com and here:

(1) Ellis Island records

and is Batch Number: P00283-7

Page Ref: 1401

Page Line No.: 0030

(2) German Immigrants 1890's

Record id: 1275428

Now, as to why I am interested in Julius Ziegenfuss.

Stories in my "Z" family stated that Gottlieb had a

"brother named Julius who came to America, but 

didn't come to Texas".  So I started my search to find

a Julius Ziegenfuss coming to America.  And so I found

young Julius and family.  Too young to be old Gottlieb's brother.

But what caught my attention about Julius was WHERE his destination was.  Arlington, TX.  That's where Gottlieb brought his family when they came to Texas.  And Gottlieb died and is buried at Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas (Find A Grave link).

Coincidence?  
As a person who has been doing genealogy for about 10 years, I am a stickler for having "proof" and "documentation".
But something about this "coincidence" has me thinking it very well could be something (such as Julius being an older son or nephew of Gottlieb's).

For now, though, I'll continue to look for Julius, Henriette and Juliane Ziegenfuss on a census after coming to America in 1893. 

Happy Hunting, 

Revis