Saturday, February 19, 2022

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- The Stars of Your WDYTYA? Show

  Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:


1) Pretend that you are one of the subjects on the Who Do You Think You Are? show on television.

2) Which of your ancestors (maximum of two) would be featured on your hour-long show? What stories would be told, and what places would you visit?

3) Tell us about it on your own blog, in comments to this blog post, or in a Note or Comment on Facebook.


Here's mine:

1) Pretend that you are one of the subjects on the Who Do You Think You Are? show on NBC TV.

Okay - the charming and personable, yet humble, star of this week's WDYTYA? show is none other than the little-known Chula Vista, California geneablogger, genealogist and family historian, Randy Seaver!

2) Which of your ancestors (maximum of two) would be featured on your hour-long show? What stories would be told, and what places would you visit?

a)  The life of Devier James Lamphear Smith (1839-1894) would be told in its entirety, highlighting:

* An adopted child of Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith in Jefferson County, NY. Who were the his birth parents?  Maybe they could figure it out!

* Moving with his family to Dodge County, Wisconsin, and growing up in his father's "Four Mile House" hotel and working in his own livery business.  
* The "Four Mile House" hotel that Devier grew up in Dodge County, Wisconsin is a living history museum building at Old World Wisconsin in Eagle, Wisconsin.

Officially changes his name from Lamphear to Smith after his adoptive father writes his will.

* After the railroad comes to town, he moves with his wife and young children to Taylor County, Iowa, then to Andrew County, Missouri, then to Concordia, Cloud County, Kansas, and finally to McCook, Red Willow County, Nebraska. In these years, several more children are born, and several children die. He proves his father's will in Andrew County, Missouri.

* Starts a livery business in McCook, but is also an inventor, a snake-oil salesman, horse trader,  and a land speculator.

* Buys land in Wano, Cheyenne County, Kansas and builds a ranch. His daughters star in prairie melodramas in a small playhouse, which leads to the wedding of darling daughter Della to Austin Carringer. Writes family information in the family Bible.

* Dies in McCook and is buried there.

I would visit all of the above named places, plus the Family History Library and the Wisconsin State Historical Society. I hope that the professional genealogists, sparing no expense, would find the names of Devier's birth parents.  Perhaps they would use DNA to find the birth parents.

b)  The life of John Kemp (1723-1795) would be told in its' entirety, including:

*  Birth in Maryland to unknown Kemp parents.

*  Move to Schenectady, New York, and marriage to widow Anna (Van Vorst) vander Bogart in 1759.  Resides in Ballston, New York.  They had five children. 

*  Did he serve in the English military during the French and Indian War?

*  When the Revolutionary War breaks out, John serves in Kings Rangers on the Loyalist side.

*  Move to Fredericksburg, Lennox and Addington County, Ontario.  Dies there.  

I would visit all of the named places, plus libraries or archives in New York and Ontario.  I hope that the professional genealogists, sparing no expense, would find the names of John's birth parents, and be able to expand the information about the French and Indian War and Kings Rangers.  Hopefully, they would also identify the parents and ancestry of Sarah Fletcher, who married John Kemp's grandson, Abraham Kemp in 1806.

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Copyright (c) 2022, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

3 comments:

Liz said...

Here's mine:

https://gatapleytree.blogspot.com/2022/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-star-of-my.html

Michigan Girl said...

This is a good one Randy. Smart move picking two ancestors who have unknown parents. If we could all hand over our long held brick walls to a whole staff of genealogists, wouldn’t that be great?

Linda Stufflebean said...

Here's mine: https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2022/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-181/