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Genealogical narratives are in the words of the project members concerned*
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Nicely
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My Nicely ancestor was Martin Nusli (pronounced Nissley) who was born In Schlatt, Zurich, Switzerland in 1522. His descendants were listed as Anabaptist Mennonite farmers and it is likely he was also a part of that religious group. Since our Haplogroup is FTDNA J2e1 it is likely we were part of the western migration of the farmers who left the Fertile Crescent thousands of years earlier. All of my ancestors even through to the 1900's were farmers and although no longer Mennonite were noted in the history books as bringing the fine farming techniques to the area where they settled in the US. The family over the years, after 1522, spread through Europe and into Germany and then on to the US and is currently in almost every state and there are still relatives in Europe as far as I have been able to determine. The spelling of the name has changed many times through the years and there are currently over 30 variations in the spelling of our name.
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Katz
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Theoretically, because we are Jews who are close to the Cohan Modal Haplotype (off by 1 mutation) and have a strong cohanim tradition, our most ancient known ancestor is a Jewish priest living around 3300 BCE (Moses' brother Aaron if biblical lore is to be believed). However, from a documentation point of view, the oldest known ancestor on this line is Rueven HaCohen Katz, born ca 1760, somewhere in southern Belarus. His grandson ended up in Bielopole (Bilipili), between Berdicev and Kiev in the Ukraine. The family was involved in the lumber industry, as well as dry goods/tavern/pharmacy businesses, during the 19th century. Most 20th century emigration was to the US (Los Angeles) and Israel. Several lines known to have perished in the Holocaust.
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Gorsky (Piatagorsky)
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This line is Jewish but has no known cohanim tradition, although it carries the markers of the Cohan Modal Haplotype. The oldest known ancestor is Tanchim Piatagorsky, born ca 1815 in Pavaloch (Pavalitch) Ukraine, outside of Kiev. The family was in the fishing and trading business and interacted regularly with towns near the Black Sea (e.g. Odessa). Tanchim's grandchildren emigrated in the 20th century to the US (Chicago, Los Angeles) and Canada (Winnipeg).
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McAfee
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Oldest Proven Ancestor: John McAfee (born 14 March 1789 in Pa.; resided Donegal Township, Westmoreland County, Pa.; died 24 August 1870 in Rockcreek Township, Wells County, In.).
Summary: John McAfee worked as a tanner and resided in Salt Lick Twp., Fayette Co., Pa. & Donegal, Westmoreland Co., Pa. He died in Rockcreek Twp., Wells County , Indiana while residing with his daughter Harriet Lesh, the second wife of John Lesh. Two sons, James M. McAfee and Samuel McAfee also resided in Wells County after moving to Indiana from Westmoreland County , Pa. . A daughter, Maria (b. 28 Jan 1815, d. 25 Jul 1896 in Donegal, Westmoreland Co., Pa. ), the wife of Adam Cover continued to reside in Donegal until her death. |
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PAVELLAS
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Konstantinos Pavellas seems to have been a cleric in the Greek Orthodox Church. Konstantinos had at least five children: Demetrios, Nestor, Helen, Telis and Alexander (see below). Some of his antecedents may have lived in Roumania during the diaspora caused by the Ottoman Empire, and then migrated back to Greece after the battle for independence of the 1830s.
Alexander Konstantinos Pavellas , 1876-1934 : Born in Greece, probably Athens, possibly Neapolis. He was educated as a lawyer, entered the diplomatic corps and eventually was assigned to San Francisco as the Acting Consul General during a time of political ferment in Greece. He co-founded The Prometheus, a mostly-Greek-language newspaper serving the Greek community along the entire West Coast, including Vancouver, B.C.His co-founder was George Demetrious Pappageorge (who later added a hyphenated "-Palladius" to his last name). Pavellas and Pappageorge married the sisters Lucille and Genevieve Harpending around 1910. The sisters were daughters of a colorful adventurer, Asbury Harpending, who emigrated from Kentucky at age 16 and was a minor figure in the history of San Francisco and California.
Alexander Pavellas was a leader of the Greek community through his association with The Aheppa organization. He died in his fifties, leaving an only son Konstantinos Harpending Pavellas who changed his name to Conrad H. Pavellas upon reaching majority.
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Bowles
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Variations on this family name: Boals, Boles, Bolles, Bolls, Booles, Boules, Bowles, Bowls, Boyle (however). The Bowles DNA Family Tree lists three distinct halpotypes for this family name: the majority are R1b1, the descendants of one family from Virginia are J2e1, the descendants of another family from Virginia are I. The Bowles family supposedly came to England with the Norman Conquest: servants of the king responsible for serving food and drink (Bowl-man). As for my descendants, there is no written evidence linking them to England; this is complicated further by many named Gideon, Anderson, Thomas, John and David. Therefore I can trace my family back to a Gideon Bowles born in Goochland County, Virginia in 1734 (possibly 1728). Many of the descendants are doctors, lawyers (in one case, both) or engineers, with a strong interest in the arts. One theory is the J2 in England descended from the Roman conquest; another is that, once vanquished, Romans were enslaved as servants and might have come with the Normans at that time. Another possibility is that the family name was assumed at some point, as often happened when someone wanted to escape and create a new life abroad. As with other Europeans, the question of Jewishness remains open, as does how this J2e1 moved from Italy to England...
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HAYDON
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The FTDNA J2e1 Haydon family can be traced with much confidence to Somerset shire, England and departure from the small community of Uphill in 1656. The Haydon family name can also be found in the neighboring shires of Somerset, Devon and Dorset as early as the 1500s. There are legendary published stories that the Haydons were supporters of King Charles II in his losing battle with Cromwell during the English Civil War. Thomas Haydon (1642-1717) , the American immigrant, was born during the early stages of the war and left England bound for Virginia as a young indentured boy. He became a noted horseman and successfully established his own plantation in Northumberland County, Virginia. Many descendants now live in Kentucky where the family were early explorers and participated in the establishment of Frankfort, Lexington and Louisville. There is no known Jewish history in the family.
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CLEVES
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Our oldest-known ancestor is John (Joannes) Cleves (Kleeves), who was born in Baden, Germany around 1832. His emigration date is unknown. He settled in Hamilton County, Ohio with a pregnant woman from Prussia named Regina Allf. Her son was born in 1856 and was named Joannes William Allf. DNA tests performed on the descendants of Joannes William Allf and John Cleves showed that Joannes Allf was not John Cleves's biological child. John and Regina married after Joannes's birth. John and Regina walked across the Ohio River during a drought since they could not afford the $0.01 charge per person to cross via the bridge. They settled in the Devou Park area in Covington, KY. They joined a Catholic Church and had six biological children, three boys (Henry, John, and August) and three girls (Mary, Maggie, and Bernardina). August worked in the lumber industry and died as a result of a suspicious accident which some speculated involved a union dispute. Many of August Cleves's descendants live in the Cincinnati area, several of whom are skilled jewelers and watchmakers.
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BLANCO
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Oldest ancestor for this family is Domingo Blanco (born abt. 1625). This Blanco and most of his descendants lived in Galiza (North West of Spain). A Roman Catholic family up to these days was related to sea activities in Pontevedra Province (many in the family were fishermen). Some descendants of Domingo still live in the same region, others have moved to South America .
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Dischekenian/Sarquis
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The most distant paternal relative that I know about is my grandfather, Sarkis Dishtchekenian. He was born in 1830; the location is unknown, but was probably Diyarbekir, Turkey. (Sarkis had a brother in Diyarbekir; his given name and birth date are unknown; he was a trustee of the local Armenian National Church). Sarkis married Anna c1865. They had a daughter and two sons. Anna died sometime after 1877. Their children, Sara b1866, Hovanes b1872 and Haroutun b1877, eventually immigrated to Egypt where they changed the spelling of their surname to Dishekenian and raised their families. Some of the family offspring later moved to Australia, Lebanon, Canada and the USA. After Anna died, Sarkis married Mariam Papazian in Diyarbekir, Turkey. (Mariam had two brothers, Joseph b1847, and Paul b1853). Sarkis and Mariam had a daughter Lucia and a son, my father, Dicran Sarkis Dischekenian in 1879. Sarkis was an importer and wholesale merchant; he was also a very influential and prominent member of their Protestant, Congregational church. Sarkis was injured, and later died in 1884 when my father Dicran was 5 years old. The church thought so highly of Sarkis that they allowed him to be buried in the churchyard rather than outside the city walls. When my father Dicran was 14 years old in 1893, his mother sent him to Harpoot, Turkey to attend Euphrates College. After he was there for two years, the college was destroyed in 1895 when the massacres started. My father was able to escape, and at the age of 17 came to America through Ellis Island in 1896. His mother Mariam later married Hagop Aharonian, but they, as well as his sister Lucia and her family, were never heard from again after the 1915 genocide. In 1908 my father changed his name to Dicran D. Sarquis The most distant maternal relatives are my two sets of great grandparents. Harautune Juknavorian married Trapion Balian; they had a son, my grandfather, Armenag Juknavorian b1858 in Trabizon, Turkey. The other great grandparents were Megerdich Kiretchjian b1811, who, in 1848, married Armavenie Andonian b1823. They had a daughter, my grandmother, Nevart Kiretchian b1861 in Constantinople, Turkey. Armenag and Nevart, married in 1886 or 1887; they had a daughter, my mother, Arsine Propion Juknavorian b1889 in Constantinople. (Arsine had two sisters, Naomie b1891 and Hermine b1893, and a brother Arshag b1899). The family came to America through Ellis Island in 1898. My mother and father, Arsine Juknavorian and Dicran Sarquis married in 1909 in New York City. They had 5 children; Marian, Leon, Armen, Helen and me, Robert Sarquis. After living in New York City until 1902, my father came to California and started farming in Kingsburg, California. In 1915 my parents moved to a 40 acre farm near Hanford, California where we were all raised.
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DELICH
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My earliest known ancestor was Danjel Delich. He immigrated to Chicago, from Serbia. Serbian Immigrants first came to Chicago from the 1880's to the 1890's, usually the men would arrive first, with women following later. Most Serbs who came to America were from Montenegro, so it is likely that is where Danjel was from. My Grandfather Peter Delich was born in East Chicago in 1911 and died in Tuscon Arizona in 1994. Both my great grandfather and grandfather married Serbians, - my fathers generation being the first in my family to marry outside our ethnic group.
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Gardner/Garner
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William Gardner is first found in SW NC, in 1770 when he is given several land grants. He had 2 sons, Jr. and Thomas, of whom we are sure, and probably others. We aren't sure of who he married but we do know he was a Whig during the Rev. War according to an old letter from a granddaughter. There are many Gardner/Garners but none of them match my direct family. So we don't know where he came from and sometimes wonder if the name was really Gardner or Garner or Guarneur as spelled in one place..
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Chambers
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My earliest known male ancestor, on my father's side of the family, is my great grandfather Aaron Chambers. He and his twin brother, Moses, were born in Madison County Kentucky in 1856. They were mulatto. Their mother, Caroline, was born into slavery in Kentucky in 1820, and therefore by the civil law rule of partus sequitur ventrem , Aaron and his brother also where born as slaves. Caroline was of West African descent. Of course it is from Aaron's father that I get my FTDNA YC J2f (J2a1b) haplotype. According to family oral history Aaron and Moses' father was not their owner, who was a one John Chambers, from whom my great great grandmother Caroline took his surname after slavery ended in 1865. I found Caroline and her twin sons itemized on the 1860 Madison county Kentucky slave schedule. She was 40 years old and her sons were age 4. Family oral history leaves me with few clues as to who Aarons and Moses' father was. What I have been told is that their father's surname sounds like this, “sometimer or suntinner” and that he was a traveling shoe salesman. A third cousin told me that she heard that Aaron's father was from the Middle East, and my aunt said that she heard that he was known as the “Dutchman”. Of course, whoever he was he was not married to Caroline and nether she or her sons took his surname, whatever it might have been. In addition to Aaron and Moses' male descendants, it is my belief that there are many male descendants from the surrounding area of Madison County Kentucky and beyond who share with me the conmen ancestor “The Traveling Shoe Salesman”. Maybe someone out there carries his surname along with his J2f (J2a1b) haplotype. The fact that he begat children with a slave woman, a slave who did not belong to him, leads me to believe that he got around. Who can say how many slave women he was with, who can say how many free women he was with? It would be fantastic if through this J2-Y DNA project I found someone who shares with me this ancestor. I have a 12 marker exact match with a fellow from this area of the US, but as fate would have it he was adopted soon after birth in 1950, and his genetic father is unknown. I am sure there are others out there. .
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Day
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All I know of my earliest direct male ancestor John Daye is that he was born in Pennsylvania in 1698 and died in Nottingham, PA, in 1778. I have a theory that he was descended from the O'Dea clan of Dysert O'Dea, County Clare, Ireland. They lost their lands in Ireland after fighting against Cromwell's armies earlier in the 1600's. Some may have gone to Wales, other parts of Ireland and to the American colonies. Apparently the J2e1 haplogroup is rare in Ireland, so I am looking for any clear link between this ancestor and where he might have come from.
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