Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Top Five Surprises

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1) Check out Top Five Surprises by D.M. Debacker on the Gathering Leaves blog.

2)  What are your top five surprises you have found in your genealogy research and family history work? 

3)  Tell us about your surprises in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook comment.

Here's mine, gleaned from 38 years of genealogical research:

1)  2nd great-grandfather Devier James Lamphier Smith (1839-1894) was adopted by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith of Henderson, Jefferson County, New York soon after his birth.  Devier had his name officially changed from Lamphier to Smith in Wisconsin in 1866, and Ranslow Smith refers to him as his adopted son in his 1865 will. See ABC Biography of #26 Devier James Lamphier Smith (1839-1894) of New York, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. I have not yet found Devier's birth parents, but I do know his Lanfear grandparents from DNA matches. 

2)  Sophia (Newton) Hildreth (1834-1923) was born after her birth father, Lambert Brigham (1794-1834) died and before her mother went to Vermont with Thomas J. Newton.  DNA matches with Brigham descendants support this conclusion. See ABC Biography of #19 Sophia (Newton) Hildreth (1834-1923) of Massachusetts.  

3)  We were told by my paternal grandmother Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver (1882-1962) that we were descended from Peregrine White (1620-1704) who was born aboard the ship Mayflower in Cape Cod harbor.  Thanks to the Mayflower Society's Silver books, and my own research, I know that I am descended from 14 Mayflower 1620 passengers. See My Mayflower 1620 Connections - Soule, White, Warren, Cooke, Brewster, Hopkins and Fuller.

4)  My 9th great-grandmother Rebecca (Towne) Nurse (1621-1692) was hanged in Salem, Massachusetts after being convicted of being a witch. See Tombstone Tuesday - Rebecca (Towne) Nurse (1621-1692).

5)  I am descended from Charlemagne and William the Conqueror like millions of others with western European ancestry.  See My Line of Descent from Charlemagne - 42 Generations! and 

My Descent From William I "the Conqueror," King of England.

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