DNA Cousins - Maternal Side

Although I am pretty careful with my privacy on websites and all (yes, even facebook!), apparently I could not care less where my DNA goes, so I've sent it off  to multiple companies for analysis.  Alas, no stunning reveals like on the TV shows, turns out my ancestry is "European" which matches exactly what my genealogy research has shown all these years.

My parents also sent their DNA in to one of the companies and amazingly the results came back knowing they were my parents without me having to tell them!  I know it's science and all, but to me that was really really cool.  Also it was nice to know my parents were really my parents because hey, you never know, I could have just been blending in after being switched at birth.

Guess which one is me

So anyway, lately I've been paging through all my cousin DNA matches in Ancestry taking a look at the common ancestors for those who list family trees, and taking wild guesses for those who did it for the DNA results only and didn't list a tree.  Sometimes it's easy to figure out when you look at shared matches.

I was looking through them all because I wanted to see if DNA matches would help me with any "unproven" ancestor connections.

For instance, I have an ancestor was in the Revolutionary War and I wanted to submit the lineage to the Daughters of the American Revolution.  However, there is one Father-Son connection where apparently everyone (including professional genealogists) have assumed paternity because there is no actual written proof anywhere.  I was pretty bummed and then thought well what if they really aren't father and son and I've been researching the wrong ancestry all these DECADES!

DECADES!  I'm OLD!

I finally decided that the father "Collins Mix" really was likely the father of son "Jonathan Collins Mix", because come on, "Collins!"

Then I just submitted for another ancestor who was better documented.

Thanks Kinsey Harrison and all his kids!!!

Anyway, back to DNA - so I thought, can I prove to my own satisfaction looking at cousins in Ancestry that the Collins and his son were really connected?

So here is how far back I was able to find cousin-connections for some of my lines - this is really cool in my opinion!

MATERNAL SIDE:

Thomas MIX, b.1678 and Deborah ROYCE, b.1683:

These two are my 7th great grandparents from Wallingford, Connecticut, and I had multiple cousins in my matches that had these 2 as our common ancestors.  So that answers the question of whether Collins was the Dad of Jonathan.  Though I don't think the DAR is ready to accept this kind of proof in their applications quite yet.

Richard BOWEN, b.1662 and Patience PECK, b.1669:

Same generation as Thomas and Deborah above (7th great grandparents), but they lived in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Again, I had multiple cousins with these 2 as our common ancestors in our trees on Ancestry.

Paul TOMULE, b.abt.1721 and Maria Anna KLEIN, b.abt.1738:

These 2 are my 6th great grandparents, as far from New England as can be, they were born in the Alsace-Lorraine region, then migrated south to Austria-Hungary to an area which later became Romania, though they are ethnic Germans.  Did you get all that?

Joseph MARCHAL, b.1755 and Margaretha PIERRE, b.abt.1760:

These are my 5th great grandparents who were born in what is now the Lorraine region of France.  Like Paul and Maria Anna above, they migrated south to Austria-Hungary to an area which later became Romania.

Johan REISER, b.1795 and Katharina SCHREIBER, b.1795:

These are my 4th great grandparents, their ancestors also migrated south to the Austria-Hungary region which later became Romania. All these people in Hungary and Romania but no actual Hungarians and Romanians in my ancestry, their ethnicity was mostly German, Luxembourgian and Lorrainian.  I made the last one up.  But it sounds cool.  Lotharingen?  Alsatian-Lorrainian?

William JONES, b.1793 and Sylvia BAIRD, b.abt.1797:

These are my 4th great grandparents who were born in Connecticut, but migrated down to New York state, first to Orange County, then westward to Tioga County and nearabouts.  I made that last word up too, but I think it really works, I'm keeping it.

Thomas WEAVER and Almira FINNEY:

These are my 3rd great grandparents, both born in New York state, Thomas was born in Dutchess County and Almira was born in Otsego County.  I wish I knew more about them, right now they are a brick wall!

Alonzo CHESLEY, b.1839 and Laura KIRBY, b.1849:

These are my 3rd great grandparents and this is a special case and is certainly something that DNA could help with.  We have a family story that my 3rd Great Grandmother, Laura, had an affair with her brother-in-law, Alonzo and produced a daughter, my 2nd great grandmother.  For the first time just a few days ago, I noticed a cousin in my Ancestry DNA who is a descendant of Alonzo and his wife Sarah Kirby (Laura's older sister).  So this could be it - this could be the first chance at prove that the affair did happen.  This will definitely bear watching to see how this turns out - am I related enough to end up being related to both Alonzo and Sarah, or is it just Sarah showing up, we'll have to see!!

Veteran's in My Family

In honor of Veteran's Day this year, I thought I would pull together in one spot all the veterans in my family that I'm currently aware of!


First off, here are Direct Ancestors that I am aware of being in the US Armed Forces:

1. My Dad!  Richard Kleylein was a Boatswain's Mate in the Navy in 1968.  His ship was the destroyer USS Eugene A. Greene.


2. My maternal 2nd Great-Grandfather John C. MIX was a veteran of the Civil War.

He enlisted in the Union Army in New York in 1864.  He started in the 16th Regiment, New York Heavy Artillery (Unassigned Company), and was later transferred to Company I, 6th Regiment, New York Heavy Artillery.


3. My paternal 3rd Great-Grandfather Kinsey HARRISON, Sr was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.

He was a private in the Maryland line from 1776-1779.

4. My maternal 5th Great-Grandfather Thomas MIX was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.

He enlisted into the 4th Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Army.  He wintered at Valley Forge, PA (the famous cold winter where Washington crossed the Delaware).

5. My maternal 5th Great-Grandfather Squire IDE was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.  He enlisted at Rehobeth, MA into the 22nd Regiment and completed several tours of duty.


6. My paternal 6th Great Grandfather Jeremiah J. LEWIS was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.  He was a private in 2nd Company of Maryland Militia.


After seeing these, I went and searched in my database for any other veterans and there are a LOT!  Only one female was listed (to date that I know of) - and that was my Great Aunt Mary Domelle who was in the Women's Army Corp during World War II.  I also have to give a special shout-out to my Great Uncle Peter Domelle, who attempted to enlist for World War II, but was told his work at the Calumet Steel Castings company was too important and they needed him there.

So, here are other relatives that I know of that were veterans as well:



Revolutionary War

My maternal 5th Great Grand Uncle Enos MIX.

My maternal 5th Great Grand Uncle Oliver COLLINS was in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

My maternal 1st cousin 7x removed Nehemiah MANROSS. 

My maternal 3rd cousin 7x removed Timothy MIX.

My maternal 3rd cousin 7x removed Jonathan MIX.

My maternal 3rd cousin 8x removed Asa SMITH.

My maternal 3rd cousin 8x removed Ebenezer SMITH.

My paternal 4th Great Grand Uncle Charles SAFFELL.

My paternal 4th Great Grand Uncle James SAFFELL.

My paternal 4th Great Grand Uncle Joshua SAFFELL.

My paternal 4th Great Grand Uncle William SAFFELL.

My paternal 1st cousin 1x removed Benjamin Franklin BECRAFT Jr.

My paternal 1st cousin 7x removed Gassaway WATKINS.

My paternal 1st cousin 7x removed Nicholas WATKINS.

My paternal 1st cousin 7x removed Thomas WATKINS, Jr.

My paternal 2nd cousin 7x removed Leonard WATKINS.




War of 1812

My maternal 5th Great Grand Uncle Oliver COLLINS was in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

My paternal 5th Great Grand Uncle John W. WATKINS.

My paternal 1st cousin 5x removed Zephaniah HARRISON.

My paternal 2nd cousin 6x removed Gassaway WATKINS.

My paternal 2nd cousin 6x removed Nathan GAITHER was a surgeon in the Army.

My paternal 2nd cousin 6x removed Thomas Jones WATKINS.

My paternal 3rd cousin 5x removed Thomas WATKINS.




Civil War

My maternal 2nd Great Grand Uncle Henry MIX was in the Union Army.  He died during the war in Tennessee in 1864.

My maternal 3rd Great Grand Uncle Benjamin S. JONES was in the Union Army.

My maternal 3rd Great Grand Uncle Gabriel JONES was in the Union Army.

My maternal 3rd Great Grand Uncle George JONES was in the Union Army.

My maternal 4th Great Grand Uncle Isaac JONES was in the Union Army.

My maternal 1st cousin 4x removed Alonzo F. MIX was in the Union Army.

My maternal 1st cousin 4x removed Eugene Philip MIX was in the Union Army.

My maternal 1st cousin 4x removed Franklin M. BURTON was in the Union Army.

My maternal 1st cousin 4x removed Jasper Eugene MIX was in the Union Army.

My maternal 1st cousin 4x removed Squire Collins MIX was in the Union Army.

My maternal 2nd cousin 5x removed Henry MIX was in the Union Army.

My maternal 3rd cousin 3x removed Orange Steadman PINE was in the Union Army.

My maternal 3rd cousin 4x removed Isaac SMITH was in the Union Army.

My maternal 3rd cousin 5x removed Amasa Hotchkiss MIX was in the Union Army.

My maternal 9th cousin 6x removed Calvert Stuart WEBSTER was in the Union Army.

My paternal 3rd cousin 5x removed Gassaway Watkins WARFIELD was in the Confederate Army.  He died in a Union prison camp.



World War I

My maternal 1st Cousin 4x removed Edward John KIRBY was in the Army.

My maternal 2nd cousin 3x removed Hiram N. MADIGAN was in the Army.

My maternal 3rd cousin 2x removed Clarence Vernon MIX was in the Army.

My maternal 3rd cousin 2x removed Paul Irven MIX was in the Army.

My paternal Great Grand Uncle Anton Roman POKORNOSKI was in the Army.

My paternal Great Grand Uncle Michael N. PAWLAK was in the Army.

My paternal 1st cousin 2x removed Bernard C. HARRISON was in the Army.

My paternal 1st cousin 3x removed Joseph LEWANDOSKI was in the Army.  He died in France of Influenza.

My paternal 1st cousin 3x removed Thomas C. PAWLAK was in the Navy.

My paternal 2nd cousin 2x removed Ellis Reuben HARRISON was in the Army.

My paternal 2nd cousin 2x removed Freddie Eugene HARRISON was in the Army.

My paternal 2nd cousin 2x removed John William BURDETTE was in the Army.




World War II

My maternal Great Aunt Mary DOMELLE was in the Women's Army Corps.

My maternal Great Uncle Leslie Homer MIX was in the Army.  He received a Purple Heart.

My maternal Great Uncle William Erwin MIX was in the Army.

My maternal 1st cousin 2x removed Alvin Robert BOZUNG was in the Army.

My maternal 2nd cousin 2x removed Charles HOOSE was in the Army.

My maternal 3rd cousin 2x removed Harold Emerson MIX was in the Army.

My paternal 1st cousin 2x removed , Preston L. ATKINSON was in the Army.




Everyone Else:

My maternal Great Uncle John Francis MIX enlisted in the Army in 1945.

My maternal 1st cousin 1x removed Robert Theodore MIX was in the Army from 1962-1963.

My maternal 1st cousin 2x removed Eugene BOZUNG was in the Army 1958-1962 for the Korean War.

My maternal 2nd cousin 3x removed Richard Freeman KIRBY enlisted in the Army in 1940.

My maternal 3rd cousin 1x removed Charles Raymond DOMELE was in the Army from 1952-1954.

My maternal 3rd cousin 3x removed Charles Gillett SWIFT, born 1867, was in the Navy.

My paternal Uncle David Allen KLEYLEIN, Sr, was in the US Army Reserves.

My paternal 2nd cousin 1x removed John Felix SAKRY was in the Air Force in 1964, he was killed in a B47 takeoff.

My paternal 2nd cousin 1x removed John Frederick KLAVERKAMP, born in 1941, was in the Navy.

My paternal 2nd cousin 2x removed Sylvester Dominic POKORNOWSKI, born 1930, was in the Army.

My paternal 3rd cousin Jonathan T. WALDOCH, born in 1974, was in the Marines.

My paternal 3rd cousin Keith JOHNSON, born 1961, was in the Navy.

My paternal 4th cousin 3x removed Robert Malcolm WATKINS Jr, born in 1932, was in the Marines.

My paternal 5th cousin 3x removed Millard Fillmore WATKINS , born in 1856, was in the Navy for 8 years.

Surname Saturday - MIX

Or, Surname Sunday since I'm a day late. But hey, I had a busy day yesterday visiting my grandparents - my grandmother (Ann MIX DOMELLE who is mentioned below) turned 90 years old yesterday. My grandparents very kindly agreed to let me cart away a boatload of loose papers and photos so I could scan them (and then return them of course). I simply cannot wait to sit and go through those papers, what a treat!!!!

Anyway, on to the surname of the moment! It's MIX, sometimes spelled as MEEKS. It's one of your purebred Puritan New England names, going all the way back to the first Thomas Mix that came over from England in the early 1600s, around the time that Winthrop's Fleet arrived. He was one of the earliest settlers in the newly created town of New Haven in what would be the state of Connecticut. I only have his birthplace as "London" and haven't been able to prove for sure his parentage back in England.

The MIX family moved on to help found the town of Wallingford, Connecticut, and then my line moved to Vermont for a short while, and then finally settled in Tioga County, New York after those lands started becoming settled post-Revolutionary War. There are also a lot of MIX families just over the border in Pennsylvania, in Bradford County and in the northern county of Cameron in PA.

Tom Mix, the silent film star, is of the MIX families from Cameron County in PA.

The given name of "Thomas" was definitely a favorite of the family - in the 1600s and 1700s it recurs enough times to be really annoying to the genealogy researcher trying to sort them all out 300 years later. :-)

And so, here's my MIX ahnentafel:


1. Leah KLEYLEIN - Me!

3. Deborah DOMELLE - my Mom!

7. Ann MIX - my Grandma! She was born in Tompkins County, NY and spent her childhood years there. After marrying my grandfather (William DOMELLE), they moved around a bit.

14. William Homer MIX, born 09 Dec 1876 in Village of Willseyville, Tioga Co., NY; died 06 Jul 1954 in, Ithaca, Tompkins Co., NY. He married Cornelia Elizabeth AKINS, whose surname is mentioned in a previous posting. William and Cornelia married in 1904 and had 10 children. In federal census records, William is listed as doing carpentry and farm labor.

28. John Francis MIX, born 09 Mar 1830 in Tioga Co., NY; died 1906 in Tioga Co., NY. He married Mary Ellen COOK sometime around 1854. It looks like John, or sometimes "Frank" spent his entire life in Tioga County working mainly as a Laborer (according to census records). John and Mary had at least 6 children that I can account for.

56. Jonathan Collins MIX, born Bet. 1803 - 1804 in NY; died 14 Jan 1853 in Willseyville, Tioga Co., NY. He married Sally A. STEVENS probably around 1825 and they had 7 children that I know of. It looks like Jonathan was a blacksmith, as were 3 of his sons.

112. Collins MIX, born 20 Jan 1777 in Wallingford, CT; died 17 Jan 1852 in the Poor House, Owego, Tioga Co., NY. He married Leafe IDE on 28 Aug 1800 in Clarendon, Rutland Co., VT. Collins and Leafe had 3 living children that I know of. Although Collins was born in Connecticut, by the age of 23, he was in the 1800 federal census in Vermont where he met his future wife. They then made the move to New York. Collins did in fact pass away in the Poor House at Owego, he was listed as "intemperate" which in 19th century speech could have meant a variety of things.

224. Thomas MIX, born 12 Aug 1745 in Wallingford, CT. He married Lois COLLINS 11 Dec 1766 in Wallingford, CT and then had 2 living sons that I know of. This Thomas Mix, as far as I can tell, is the one that was in the Revolutionary War, in the 4th Connecticut Regiment. It also looks like this Thomas moved to Vermont as well as his son Collins as there is a deed from 1795 that names Thomas as a resident of Danby, Rutland Co., VT.

448. Thomas MIX, born 27 Nov 1709 in Wallingford, CT; died 1794 in Wallingford, CT. He married Ruth MANROSS 05 Apr 1736 in Wallingford, CT. From what I can tell, they spent all their lives in Wallingford and had 6 children.

896. Thomas MIX, born 25 Mar 1678 in Wallingford, CT; died 1735 in Wallingford, CT. He married Deborah Royce 21 Mar 1704/05 in Wallingford, CT. From what I can tell, they spent all their lives in Wallingford and had 11 children.

1792. Daniel MIX, born 08 Sep 1653 in New Haven, CT; died 1720 in Wallingford, CT. He married Ruth Rockwell 02 May 1678 in Wallingford, CT. Daniel was one of the original proprietors of Wallingford. He and Ruth had 6 children.

3584. Thomas MIX, born in London, England; died 1691 in New Haven, CT. He married Rebecca Turner 1649 in New Haven, Connecticut. Thomas and Rebecca had 11 children and apparently were a bit feisty for Puritans. I have court records where they were reprimanded for, uh, "fornication" which they lied about "in a gross and heinous manner". :-) That happened in 1649. Coincidentally, they were married in 1649. Also, they had their first son John in 1649. Hmm.

Thanks to the fabulous Google Books, you can go read the records yourself in Charles J. Hoadly's Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, pg 469, last paragraph.

Thomas and Rebecca had headstones in the famous Grove Street Cemetery of New Haven (moved there from the original burying ground on the green) although they may be worn flat by this time. I couldn't locate anything legible for them when I visited recently, but I did find many generations of later MIX's.


And that my friends, is the end of my records for the MIX family!

What Happened?

Some might say, where the hell has the author of this supposedly regularly updated blog been?

Sorry about that, I'm very busy, it really has been extremely busy at work since August, plus this is the time of year we have lots of birthdays and thanksgivings and christmas parties and shopping.

Also, I am very very busy playing games on Facebook.

An intervention might be necessary.

What happened to me? Suddenly it's absolutely VITAL that I harvest my crops, make my sweets, cook for my restaurant, help my mafia, and live my vampire life to the exclusion of all other things. Especially now that christmas (my favorite holiday) is coming, I want to make sure I have christmassy decorations in my restaurants, homes, and farms. Also, I need to exchange virtual christmas presents and cards. I also have a strange fascination with watching my little employees work while in my cafe. I remind myself of Zorg in Fifth Element, thinking, look at all these little things, so busy now!

What's WRONG with me!!!!! :-D

I decided that after Christmas I'm cutting back on the games. I'm pretty sure I can do it, after all, last February 2nd I gave up soda. For good. For real. And let me tell you, I was a hardcore soda drinker. Breakfast, lunch and snack. Every day. Mmmmmmm fountain soda. Yes, fountain soda. You see, I am a soda conneee...conneisuer...connusewer...I can tell the difference in taste between beverages that come from glass, aluminum and plastic containers. (it's the taste buds I inherited from my dad). But best tasting when it comes to soda is the soda that comes straight from the fountain. Maybe it's the better carbonation, I don't know. I still get cravings, but it was surprisingly easy to quit. Since February I've had one drink that was mixed with ginger ale (Pimm's cup) and 1 sip from a bottle of coke produced in mexico so it was made with real sugar, not the corn syrup crap. Mmmmmm, that was a good sip.

Of course, I just replaced the soda addiction with an iced tea addiction so I'm not sure I'm better off....

But I digress, back to my facebook game addiction. I guess it's good because it's truly mindless entertainment to harvest my fields and pet my reindeer and shoot a member of a rival gang while cooking up chicken pot pie and killing werewolves.

Unfortunately, what I've lost is time for my genealogy fun stuff. It's not mindless, so it gets put off until I have enough time to spend on it. Which of course, isn't happening.

So, at christmas, it's bye-bye games and a welcome back to genealogy. I'll be taking several days off so I can just wallow around in all my research and re-aquaint myself with everything. I'm thinking I might have my own personal scanfest of photos.

Now, I won't actually delete the games, because maybe in a few months I'll try out one or two, but it can't be all of these games at once! I'll just hide them for a while and see what happens with all that free time.

Wish me luck!

Visit to Tioga County NY Historical Society

A few saturdays ago I hopped in the car and made the about 4 hour drive up to the Tioga County Historical Society in New York.

I was hoping that by going there I'd make some momentous finds that would help with my DAR application. Yes, I am an optimist, it's a disease and as much as I try to shake it, it sneaks up on me all the time. One of my main family lines is "MIX" and I have tons of info on them when they lived in Connecticut. My direct ancestor (Thomas Mix) eventually moved on to Vermont, where one of h is sons (Collins Mix) met his wife (Leafe Ide).

I've pondered much on the name "Leafe". It turns up several other times in my family tree, for the Ides, and then some Mix's, it was a name for girls. In some records it's "Lefie" or "Leaffee". The only thing I can come up with is that it's a surname. It was pretty common at different points in history to name children with the wife's surname as their first name.

Back to my story....So Collins and Leafe moved from Vermont to New York. I believe they paused in Sarasota, NY for a bit, but they settled in Tioga County, which is right down near the border of Pennsylvania in the Finger Lakes Region. Very beautiful country. Lots of Mix's moved over the border into PA and eventually one of them became Tom Mix, the silent movie star. Cousin Tom (4th cousin 3 times removed) is my tenuous link to Deadwood (I miss the HBO series A LOT) because he rode in a parade for Teddy Roosevelt that was led by none other than Seth Bullock. (I told you it was tenuous.)

But as for my New York Mix's? They are a hard to find bunch. They turn up in the federal census's (censi?) and that's pretty much IT! Where are they? What were they doing? Avoiding becoming part of any record? Yep, that's what they were doing! I'm starting to think they were shady! :-D

So I was hoping to find more info at the Tioga County Historical Society. It's a lovely old building right on the river in Owego, next to some big old homes (very genteel). Sadly though, the records are maintained using decades old technology. As in, index cards. Major bummer. The volunteers were EXTREMELY helpful and kind, I don't want to sound like I am knocking the place, but wow, it did show me how spoiled I am with electronic research! So even though I spent 8 hours straight there, I didn't really come up with much on my folks. It was like researching in the old days. I did find lots on an uncle, Miles Curtis Mix, oh sure, tons of records on him, he was all over the place. My guys? Not so much.

One cool thing I did find was on Collins Mix. He had a son, Jonathan Collins Mix. In the 1850 federal census, poor old Collins is living in the Poorhouse in Owego, NY. I couldn't figure out why he was there when his son Jonathan (my ancestor), was one town over in Candor. And his other son Squire (don't ask, but yes, his first name was Squire), was one county over in the town of Caroline. (He had a daughter too, but she's still a bit of a mystery.)

First I found (an index card) that listed something transcribed from the "Tioga County Keeper's Book". It stated:

Mix, Collins
D. 17 Jan. 1852 ae 73 at the Poor House
12 Nov. 1850 admitted ae 72, intemperate
Residence Tioga County

So there I had it, he was intemperate, which I suppose was a gentle term for what could have been many things. He could have been an old alcoholic, he could have had dementia or alzheimer's and was violent; the list goes on.

With that info, I was able to look at the microfilm of the local newspaper, "The Owego Gazette" and found this from the 15 January 1853 edition (it was published weekly):

Mortality at the Poor House
Names of persons who have died at the Poor House during the year ending on the 1st Day of Dec. 1852 (Furnished by Col. Daniel Bacon, Keeper).
...
Collins Mix, formerly of Candor, Jan 17th, 1852, 73
...

Unfortunately the microfilm reader was barely working, so no copies could be made from it, so I had to just manually transcribe it. I was glad to find at least this tidbit of info on my direct line, and I have a bunch of other notes on other members of the family (especially Uncle Miles, he's Everywhere!).

One other cool thing that was happening at the Historical Society was they had an exhibition in the museum part of the building on jewelery, clothing, mementos associated with death and mourning. It was a really impressive exhibit for such a little Historical Society! If you are nearby Tioga County NY at all I would recommend checking it out.

So I'll just have to keep digging on my Mix family in New York!!

New Haven Connecticut and Thomas Mix

Back in August of this year, I took a trip up to Connecticut and visited New Haven for the first time. To me, this was quite significant because when I first started doing genealogy about 287 years ago (or at least it feels like that), the first cool thing I found was about New Haven.

It turns out that (on my Mom's side) there is this family called MIX. I'm not yelling at you, it's just that when we genealogists type out a surname we're supposed to make it all capitals. I don't know why, but pick up any family history or genealogy book and you'll see it like that. I guess it's to get your attention. Not that I'm some sort of official genealogist, I don't belong to any groups or associations or anything, but hey, I've been doing for over a decade. Actually I don't think I'll do the all caps thing anymore because I do feel like I'm yelling, and this isn't a book.

So anyway, my grandmother's maiden name was Mix. And I managed to trace it all the way back to a Thomas Mix, who was one of the founders of New Haven, Connecticut in 1637.

I thought that was pretty cool. We're not really a family (on my mom's or my dad's side) that has had possessions to pass down. I guess we were all part gypsy, which does explain why I like to move so much. I see these annoying people on those antique roadshow things, all like, hey, my great-aunt left me this ugly costume bracelet and it turns out to be diamonds and platinum. Or some broken down hall table turns out to be a chippendale. Who are these people? How do they hold on to this stuff? They must not have people like my mother in their families because if it isn't nailed down, it's in the trash. And this includes slow-moving family members.

So when I found out I "owned" New Haven, I felt pretty cool about it! Hey, that's my town! My relative helped set it up!

We even found where we believe the old homestead was. Not Thomas Mix's, he wasn't listed on the map, so we think he and his wife were living with his father-in-law, Nathanial Turner. Actually, it was Captain Nathanial Turner. Even though they were all puritans, they liked their titles. Captain Turner's homestead is probably under the building in the center of this picture:



I got the info from a book, it said "Nathanael Turner, whose home-lot was on Church Street, next south of Mr. Cheever's", and an old map of the original new haven colony that showed people's homesteads.

Could you imagine founding a city? I can't imagine. Just sitting around the fire and saying, hey, let's put a street over there, and an intersection down there. Oh, and let's fill in that swamp. ???? And then argue over who has the best land for their garden? Yikes! They had guts if nothing else.