back to Family Stories, Spring 2020

by Jimmy Beyer

I have spent the last semester researching my family history and making an immense family tree. After sending my DNA to Ancestry, I got a comprehensive ethnicity estimate and was able to find further connections to add to my tree. Throughout my research, I found some interesting details about my lineage. A group of my ancestors were part of the New England settlers and sailed from England to Massachusetts in the 1600’s. My family that migrated from England developed into strong military family and my direct line is filled with colonels and captains of various military services.

I even found a letter from President George Washington to one of my ancestors and this was by the far the coolest thing I found during my research! Basically, my ancestor had made a claim against another military official and George Washington wrote him a letter essentially telling him to stop. So, my ancestors were not on the same page as George Washington … but still pretty cool!

Another cool thing I found during my research was my relation to Lou Costello, who was an American actor. I learned he was my first cousin 2x removed and was able to find this information through the tools given to me by Ancestry.

Overall, this was a very cool experience and I got to learn things about my family history I would have never known otherwise. The best part is that even though my academic duties are done as far as Ancestry, I can still continue to research and keep learning for the rest of my life!