To lose one's wealth is sad, indeed.
 To lose one's health is more.
 To lose one's soul is such a loss.
 That no man can restore.

Hello & Welcome!

As long as I can remember I have been trying to track down my father, with little to show in my search for him. It has to be a labor of love that drives some of us to spend so much time and money searching for that shy gypsy type person. Like any seed you plant it sometimes grows without you realizing it, but now the Family Tree is branching out. 

I have noticed that the many sources available on line has released to searcher's fingertips a  wave of information.  I also notice that sometimes there are differences depending on the site  you find and follow.  We are at the mercy of humans entering information, anything could and  probably did happen during these times.  I personally have been involved in data input and can  testify that not all the people doing the entering is on top of the game. I try to remember the  only thing set in stone is usually on headstones so with that said, I wish you the best in your search. Who knows, what you are looking for just might be here. 

This is a work in progress so please take a moment to sign the guest book and do comeback again  to see what has been added.
   
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The German line had me scratching my head when I saw all the children in many  families would have their  first names being with Hans, Anna, Johanna or Johann.  After a little searching I found that girls usually were given Anna, Johanna, or Johann and the boys Hans or Johann.  All forms of the names  were a blessing that the parents gave their children to recognize GOD as being merciful for their child,  as well as asking HIM for mercy for the child.  Pretty cool!    The real problem came when these people entered  America.  We all know from the records that  many German people have the first  name of Hans or Johann or John and the girls with Anna, and sometimes they went as far as Hannah?   Seems I wasn't the only one that was confused with the German custom.
                       
                                            
When my genealogy search suddenly landed in Welsh and England and I started coming across names  that had ap, ab and ferch included in them I realized I was in need of adding the information I  found on the subject into this site.  Here is what I came upon:

"In 1292, 48 percent of Welsh names were patronymics, and in some parishes over 70 percent. Other  names were derived from nicknames, (rarely) occupational names, and a few non-hereditary personal  names.[2] Patronymic names changed from generation to generation, with a person's baptismal name  being linked by ap or ab (son of) and ferch (daughter of) to the father's baptismal name to  perhaps the seventh generation.[1] For example, Evan son of Thomas would be known as Evan (ap)  Thomas; Evan's son, John, would be John (ab) Evan; John's son Rees would be Rees (ap) John; and  David's son, James, would be James (ap) David.

Patronymics were essentially a genealogical history of the family (or its male line), and names  such as Llewelyn ap Dafydd ab Ieuan ap Griffith ap Meredith were not uncommon. The Encyclopedia  of Wales surmises that the system arose from Welsh law, which made it essential for people to  know how people were descended from an ancestor. These laws were decaying by the later Middle  Ages, and the patronymic system was gradually replaced by fixed surnames, although the use of  patronymic names continued up until the early 19th century in some rural areas. In the reign of  Henry VIII surnames became hereditary amoungst the Welsh gentry, and the custom spread slowly  amougst commoners. Areas where English influence was strong abandoned patronymics earlier, as did  town families and the wealthy.

New surnames retained the "ap" in a few cases, mainly in reduced form at the start of the  surname, as in Upjohn (from ap John), Powell (from ap Hywel), and Bowen (from ab Owen).  Alternatively, the ap was simply dropped entirely. The most common surnames in modern Wales  result from adding an 's' to the end of the name, as in Jones, Roberts and Edwards. Patronymic  surnames with the short -s form are recorded in various parts of England dating back to the  Middle Ages, and the Welsh practice was presumably in imitation of this. As most Welsh surnames,  however, are derived from patronymics, and often based on a small set of first names, Welsh  communities are full of families bearing the same surnames, but who are completely unrelated; it  cannot be assumed that two people named Jones, even in the same village, must be related. Indeed,  currently it is not uncommon that five or more of the starting fifteen for the Welsh  international rugby team would be named Jones (all of the following played in that period and are  not immediately related to any of the others: Adam Rhys Jones, Dafydd Jones, Ryan Jones, Stephen  Jones, Mark Jones, Adam M. Jones, Alun Wyn Jones, Duncan Jones).  The prevalence of names such as Jones, Williams and Thomas brought a need for further distinction  and in the 19th century a trend started for double surnames, created by prefixing the name of a  house, parish or the mother's surname, as in "Cynddylan Jones". A hyphen was sometimes later  introduced, for example "Nash-Williams"."
   
 NOTE to VIEWER: In short, when ap/ab is used in front of a Welsh or English surname it means 'the  son of' and ferch means 'daughter of'.  I also found that ab is used before vowels and ap is used  before consonants.  Since what I am going to do will be going against that ruling I am stating it  here for simplicity.  Knowing the rule and understood it didn't make it any easier to find these  nor follow the family name when the surname becomes the given name to the offspring, it in fact  gets bewildering when tracking these lines.  It is not my wish to offend or misprint any of the  lines but I am trying to simplify as well as organize in this site to the best way for me to keep  track of the family group.  With that said, I am incorporating the use of 'ap' in front of ALL  the 'ab/ap' names as well as 'ap' in front of 'ferch' to keep the female line listed with the  males in the family group for easy of locating.  The correct way of the spelling of their names  will be listed in the notes attached to their names.

When I am entering surnames in this site, they will be in ALL CAPS.  Surnames with [ ] around the  surname is an indication that their birth surname was not supplied in the search so the [ ] name  is that of the husband, or mother or step-father in order to keep them within the family  grouping.

PLEASE NOTE: The use of the dash in this site is to denote the wife's surname/maiden name and her  married name(s).

I came across many famlies that both the first and last names were the same.  To help distinguish  between the different people, I incorporated the use of either their date of birth or date of  death behind the surname.  This has proved to be a great help as the individual's listing does  not need to be opened to identify them.

Happy hunting......Linda

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                                 ~ Be kind to your brothers and sisters! ~

Who's Your Daddy?

A number of years ago a seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, Tennessee  where they were eating breakfast at a little restaurant, hoping to enjoy a quiet family meal.

While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man  moving from table to table visiting with the guests. The professor leaned over and whispered to  his wife:

"I hope he doesn't come over here." 
 But sure enough, the man did come over to their table.

"Where are you folks from?" he asked in a friendly voice.

"Oklahoma," they answered.

"Great to have you here in Tennessee," the stranger said.  "What do you do for a living?"

"I teach at a seminary," he replied.

"Oh, you teach preachers how to preach? Well, I've got a really great story for you." And with  that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with the couple.

"See that mountain over there?" 
 (pointing out the restaurant window). Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy  born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up,because every place he went, he was always  asked the same question:

'Hey boy, Who's your daddy?'

Whether he was at school, in the grocery or drug store, people would ask the same question,  "Who's your daddy?" He would hide at recess and lunchtime from other students. He would avoid  going into stores because that question hurt him so bad.

When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. He would always go in late and  slip out early to avoid hearing the question, "Who's your daddy?" But one day, the new preacher  said the benediction so fast he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd.

Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher not knowing anything about him, put  his hand on his shoulder and asked him,

"Son, who's your daddy?"

The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. By now,  everyone knew the answer to the question,

'Who's your daddy?'

This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the  Holy Spirit could give, said the following to that scared little boy...

'Wait a minute!' he said, 'I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child  of GOD.'

With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said: 'Boy, you've got a great inheritance. Go  and claim it.'

With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed  person. He was never the same again. Whenever anybody asked him, 'Who's your Daddy?' he'd just  tell them, 'I'm a child of GOD.'

The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, "Isn't that a great story?"

The professor responded that it really was a great story!

As the man turned to leave, he said, "You know, if that new preacher hadn't told me that I was  one of GOD's children, I probably never would have amounted to anything!" And he walked away.

The seminary professor and his wife were stunned.
 He called the waitress over and asked her, "Do you know who that man was who just left who was  sitting at our table?"

The waitress grinned and said, "Of course. Everybody here knows him. That's Ben Hooper.He's the  former governor of Tennessee!"

                                  Story by, Dr. Fred Craddock

~ "Do we not all have one father? Has not one GOD created us? Why do we deal treacherously each  against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?   Malachi 2:10

                          *GOD bless and Keep sharing the Good News !!!