Thank you for visiting because without your visits, the effort represented in these pages would not be of much value. For those of you who have found or confirmed a connection to their family history, I am truly pleased. That is what this is about!
Karin B. Corbeil
Why aren't there sources on every page?
There is some sort of source on almost all individuals. If you find a page without a source and want further information, please let me know. If you find a source that you don't like, let me know if you find a better one.
Are the sources in any particular order?
A superscript number, i.e. 112, indicates each item where a there is a source. A Bibliography is also available.
Can you document each of these people?
Nope. Not yet. Welcome to my pointer. A lot of the information is truly documented but most is not. Hello 21st century!
Where are the living individuals?
This site adheres to the "Rule of 100" for the privacy of living individuals. No individual less than 100 years old unless they are known to be dead - are intentionally posted. If you come across any living individuals, please let me know. The only living individuals presented here are those from famous families already published or I have permission to include them.
PLEASE write to me with as many details as possible. I appreciate your careful eyes catching anything from mere typos to people you can prove aren't related after all.
Again, drop me a line. I have been known to transpose letters and and dates and I am sure you will see evidence of this here and there. But please don't say that Pierre Cheeney could not have been the son of so-and-so because his mother was 55 years old when he was born...I know, I know...I'm working on these errors in dating..again, Bonjour, XXI iéme siécle!!!.
Why does the spelling sometimes change?
Because sometimes spelling changes. I'm don't believe there is always a "Right Way". In the glass at Hampton Court it says "Anne Bullen", yet most spell it "Boleyn". Just put it down to the spelling culture of the time. For the Surname Index I usually go with the latest, or sometimes the most frequent, spelling. If documentation spells a name a certain way, I will use that, so especially the name "CHEENEY" will be varied. One source from the Chambres des notaires du Québec:
Le Parchemin
2 Novembre 1767 (TR)
Duclos, N. (1751-1769)
Contrat de mariage entre Pierre CHESNE (caps are mine), natif de St Antoinne du Gardeur, fils de Pierre CHENÉE et de Geneviève Coste; et Rosalie Giroire, fille de Michel Giroire et de Marguerite Hachée, natifs de Lacadis à Bossejourt,paroisse de Agescar?, demeurant présentement à Jeantilly.Doc #: 17671102PA009526
Notice, the son Pierre is called "Chesne" and the father "Chenée". Also, I have other information regarding his wife Rosalie which spells her name "Girouard".
My recent European trip and visit to London brought up the question on the MELLODEWS. Variations and derivatives include: Mellowdew, Melladew, Melladow, Melloday, Melladah, Mellodue, Mellalew, Malalew, Mellalalve, Malelu, Mallilieu, Mallaliew, Mallalieu, and even a Meloane. A more recent e-mail from a Mallalieu researcher has somewhat confirmed the Mallalieu/Mellodew connection. If anyone out there can trace the MELLODEW name to MALLALIEU please e-mail me with any information.
My parents always pronounced it rhyming with "gown". Others in the family rhyme it with "bomb" or "balm". Thomas Baum, a living descendant of the Cincinnati Baum's who currently lives in Texas, pronounces it the second way. I personally have no preference.
My name, KARIN, incidentally, is pronounced just as the separate words"car" and "in" (I usually tell people, like "car in the garage"). It is NOT pronounced like 'Karen', a perfectly good name which is -however- not mine. Trust me, I don't care how many friends you have who pronounce it that way, mine is pronounced this way, and I base this on the fact that (1) that's what my parents always called me and (2) it is a Scandinavian name and this is how it is pronounced in Sweden; and (3) My aunt and great-grandmother (who I was named after) both pronounced it that way. Not that it matters, as I feel I should be able to ask people to pronounce it as 'Bob' if it pleases me, but I thought I'd go ahead and cite some evidence before the 'but but but...'s started. Vive le difference.
Then of course, we have CORBEIL...correctly pronounced in France (or Canada) (cor-BAY) would rhyme with "sorbet" or "gourmet", unfortunately it has become Americanized and we pronounce it "cor-beel" (rhymes with Mobile, as in Alabama), some family members put the accent on the "cor", others (myself included) with the accent on the "beel". Oh...and don't complain that it is misspelled (i before e rule). It is
This is truly a very FAQ and its presence is long overdue in this document.
Will the two people who don't have royalty in their chart please raise their hands?
I should point out that for much of the nobility included is sourced from Brian Tompsett's Royal Genealogical Data-http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/royal/
There have been so many assumptions in linking such people as Richard Warren of the Mayflower to parentage of royal lineage but this has not been proved...I can cite many sources. Currently a London parish register search is taking place in London. You can find information on this at Caleb Johnson's Mayflower Website.
Update (February, 1999)...Ok, I think I can put my hand down now! In searching for some medieval connections, I recently found a link through the line of Mary EDDY, my husband's great-grandmother. She is directly related to William EDDY and Mary FOSTEN. In researching this line, her great-grandmother was Mehitable LUTHER, descended directly from the Royal lines of England and France. So I must deny my statement in the previous paragraph - they are now included! Okay family, pack your bags...hey, Liz, the CORBEILs are coming for tea!
There are royal (de) CORBEIL's going back to the 9th and 10th centuries but I have yet to make any connection.
CORBEIL family lore also states that their were two CORBEIL brothers who were the henchmen for Louis XIV (he was the good king Louie) and for a job well done King Louis gave them parcels of land just outside Paris. Today there certainly is a part of Paris know as "Corbeil" (in 1966 became Corbeil-Essones and Ste-Germaine aux Corbeil). So I guess this legend could be true? Except I have come across a location of Corbeil, France going back to the 11th century. If there are any geographic Francophiles out there who can verify this...the documentation would be most welcomed.
One last little piece of advice...Anyone looking to further their own research is advised to speak softly and carry a big grain of salt.
You mean you actually trusted the IGI?
I certainly hope that the many hours of hard-core research I have done on the generations closer to home won't be discounted because I have included other data while citing only the IGI. (Or the LDS Ancestral File, which in this case is kind of the same thing).
It's a pointer, which I will spend the rest of my life enjoying proving or disproving. Like most people, I have personal knowledge and documentation, which contradicts the IGI, so I know better than to trust it on its own. All of us who do genealogy, with or without the IGI, will probably spend some significant amount of time tracking a line that isn’t ours and we will go to our graves not knowing any better. You just do the best you can and become open-minded about the sense of family. I have many letters from a cousin of my father with much information. But I soon found out after a little research that many of her facts and dates were incorrect. (This is what happens with word of mouth documentation - remember that game of "Telephone"? By the time the message reached the last person in the circle the meaning had totally changed!) I have cited both this cousin's letters and the corrected facts. Also, the family of my husband's stepfather, Van Winegard, a wonderful man who married his mother with her three children at the age of 45, certainly does belong in my database.
Back to the IGI...most of the IGI errors I have experienced were not errors of lineage, anyway, and without the IGI I would have had a harder time finding the names to dig up the facts. However, I am aware of some glaring controversies and will probably go to my grave with them unsolved.
Why didn't you put me in here?
All of my Internet cousins are too kind to really ask this. Big hellos to Tom Baum, Rory Cheeney, Ron Chenier, Ruth Kruer, Mike Mellor, Audrey Esteb, Carlene Lavine, Uncle Reine Corbeil, Charlie & Cheri Isenhour, Larry & Judy Dishong, Cousin Muriel Harriman, Cousins Pierre and Francois Corbeil, Cousins Monique Corbeil Gauvin, Marg Clarkson, Mary Crandall, Cousin Bob McBride, and Cousin Roger Reid, Alec Purdy, Richard and Val Hartley, et al, and everyone I have shamefully forgot, not in any particular order.
All of the background and graphics are public domain, the "midi" song files are used with written permissions...thanks Jay!. The photos are definitely mine or public domain, as are all of the remembrances. The lineage itself, and this should go without saying, is ours. I only bring it up because there are people in our world who would try to claim the rights to a punctuation mark. These are silly people, and I hope I'm not related to them. Anything published before 1921 is public domain..so, if you want to write a book and use the information prior to 1921 then go right to town. I mean, if you use my exact words, images, or formatting then you will feel my wrath, but I'm not one of those paranoid-types who is worried about getting a book on the family out first. As if we wouldn't all be thrilled to have 10 different books on the same family - what are these people thinking? Now if you take all my information and write a book for profit, you will have problems. See: Copyright.
I notice some French used, are you fluent in French?
Fluent...no; can get around in it...yeah, I guess so. I can read and write it 1000 times better than speaking it. It is the sum total of 3 years High School, two years college and more recently a year at Berlitz for business purposes. I have surprised myself when an occasional webpage comes up during a search that is totally in French...I understand about 75% of it, which is 75% more than a German or Scandinavian website. What's the saying about riding a bicycle???
How did you create these pages?
Originally, by hand, using nothing more than a little spit and cotton candy and A LOT of coffee. Or maybe it was a fair amount of copying, editing, pasting with Windows Notepad [thanks, Bill... (Gates)], which is what I usually use to write HTML. I tried © Delta Point but doing it the old-fashioned way (how old-fashioned can you be when using HTML - 5 years?) seemed easier. (Quick, let's start a flame war about HTML Editors. OK, let's not.). I then switched to using "AOLpress2.0" to update and create web pages. It was very easy to use and you don't need to know HTML. I now use Microsoft Word, the advances in html processing in just a few years has been dramatic. Just type and go! Some of the lineage reports are compliments of web space provided by © FamilyTree Maker. I have become somewhat GEDCOM-smart, but not good enough yet to totally automate the cousins. Don't ask me for the script, it's too embarrassing. Don't offer to fix it up for me, either, because I'm having too good a time with it. (If you must offer me anything, how about a sledgehammer for some of these brick walls?)
If you have trouble with the text color then (I sincerely apologize) change the settings on your browser. If you have trouble with the size of the images then turn off image-loading. All images of genealogical value are linked for downloading. This site is easily viewed with any working browser.
What can I do if the pages take a long time to load?
Disable image loading while you're visiting. All of the content is still easily available.
What are your genealogical goals?
By the year 2000 I had so much information about our families I knew I had to do something with it....well 8 years and 400 pages later my book will be published at the end of 2008. Goal #1 - accomplished! Secondly I have an idea for a second book but am not yet quite sure where I want to go with it.
In doing my research I try to run with lines when I hit a vein I try to exhaust it, but my slow, methodical work is in a fanning-out procedure. I know my abilities and limits, and feel this is the best way for me.
That's my method and short term goals. My real goals are just to get to know my family. In my 15 years of research I have met more cousins than I thought possible. Genealogy has been a great excuse for writing those in the family I don't know well, and in the last few years, my computer has become a third appendage. It gives me mental stimulation and fun. It has become more educational than I ever thought it would...I know more about the founding of Quebec, the Mayflower and Plymouth Colony than I ever learned in school..I just want to learn and enjoy myself. It is sheer pleasure to observe and read all the many talented and interesting minds in action. Join a mailing-list and you'll know what I mean. I marvel at how much knowledge I have gained from these lists.
Basically, I just enjoy doing it, it is extremely educational and it is a wonderful excuse to contact family members who I would probably not get in touch with on a regular basis.
This is a fairly internal document, with only a few outside links as appropriate. (i.e. online sources) I don't have the time to watch out for dead links on this particular site.
There are already a number of fine sites that list resources for the genealogist and they are easily found with the usual search engines. Really, I think most of the people who come to visit here will be my close family as they come online, and maybe the cousins I meet on the Internet. If you would like me to link your page to mine, I would be happy to as long as it is not a commercial site.
Please write and introduce yourself and how we are related. I don't want GEDCOMs flying at me (I've got over 40,000 people already) with notes saying "will you look at my Smiths and see if they connect to yours?". I understand that happens, so I have to say that up front. Also, I get many requests for additional information on the people in my database. Please know that if there is no additional information on a particular person on this site....I probably don't have anymore.
I am happy to share my actual (albeit privatized) GEDCOM with my cousins, but please don't be one of those people who say "I'm working on SMITH too - send me everything you have", because I can be really grouchy and no good will come of it. Every time I post in Usenet some person with commercial intentions writes to ask me for everything. They always say I won't be sorry. I'm sorry already! I mean, I won't bite your head off if you have a SMITH in Louisiana and you ask if I have heard of them because I also have a SMITH there. (125 actually but only a few who are directly related). I think that's a reasonable request. I also won't bite your head off if you ask about your SMITH in Idaho because I have one in Louisiana, but I will gripe about you and kvetch about the state of humanity to anyone who walks by when I read your mail.
I usually can help others with these look-ups:
'Genealogical Register of Plymouth Families'; 'Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England' and 'Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691' by Eugene Aubrey Stratton, FASG.
I am usually also pleased to look up the following info for Hamilton County, Ohio
'History of Hamilton County, OH, 1850-1880' by Henry and Kate B. Ford, Cleveland, OH: L.A. Williams 1881.
I now also have:
"The Eddy Family in America". In asking for a lookup, please specify as much info as possible.
HOWEVER, PLEASE - DO NOT ask me to look-up all WARREN's (I have 420 Warrens, not including spouses!), please be very specific in your requests and do a little of your own research first. Then I will be glad to look up g-g grandfather John Smith from Athens, Oh who was in the 4th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry in 1862.
What lookups do you need?
I have been looking for Nancy PURDY, wife of Harnden EDDY for too long. Finding her parents would be a major breakthrough for a number of researchers. See My Purdys for updates on connections to Nancy.
Also I would like to confirm the parents my great grandmother: Eva [Cawein] Baum of Cincinnati, OH. Along with this, my next wish is to document where my great-grandfather George Baum was between 1834-1848 (I have some clues -Lancaster, PA and Fairfield County, OH). And the parents of my husband's ggg-grandmother, Constance BARIL (or could be "BASIL", wife of Ralph GUNHOUSE.
How will we know when you have added new people?
Check back? If you have someone particular in mind, go to the Search page. If they are not there they’re probably sitting on my hard drive somewhere and are waiting to get out!
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