Hello, the name is Bill and I'm old enough to know better and way too old to care!!

I'm so glad you stopped by to visit the site. I hope you find or found some piece of information here if you are researching any of these family lines. If not, I hope you at least found my place informative and of some interest.

I became involved in genealogy and tracing my family roots some 9-10 years ago. I realized how little I actually knew and quite frankly, never even thought about.

So I began this journey, never thinking that I would still be involved with what turned out to be a long term endeavor -- but, an endeavor which I have enjoyed, over and over.

First, I began with my father's family, the Barnhill families in North Carolina. Finding my grandparents in the 1930 census records in North Carolina, I continued my research and traced the entire family with all it's branches back over 250 years prior to 1800. Over a ten year period much has been found. The Barnhill families and their connecting lines are enormous in size with very large families, which produces many, many cousins. The families, for the most part, remained within the counties of what was then New Hanover (now Pender) and Bladen. Many of their descendants still reside in these areas today. The main surnames are Barnhill, Henry, Horrell, Sherman, Wallace and Woodcock with many, many other surnames connecting to these.

I was also much interested in knowing about my maternal family lines, so I began my quest first starting with my mother to get the basics of surnames, etc. My mother's maternal lines were that of the Hoar & Manning families, going back to the Manning/Daltons from Ireland. All that is known at this time about the "Dalton" is that Margaret Dalton was about 4 years of age when she arrived in America. She grew up and married a "Manning". Unfortunately, I have been unable to find them in the records with their children, Julia and Christopher. There may have been other children, but that is unknown at this time.

Julia Manning was found in the 1900 census records in New york City after her marriage to Walter Thomas Hoar. Walter, was a son of Thomas and Mary Hoar who arrived sometime in the 1860's as far as can be determined from the census records. The census records also misleading in that the 1870 records say the older sons, Thomas and William were born in Ireland. In 1880, it says they were born in New york. The other children, Eliza or "Lizzie", John and Walter were born in New york.

Walter and Julia, my great grandparents are shown in the 1900 NYC Census Records with their baby daughter, a few months old. This child dies prior to 1910. Julia gives birth to 4 more children before 1910 with one of these children dying prior to 1920. Another son was born in 1911. It is understood that both the oldest daughter, Mary and the 5th child, a son, James, died of dyptheria. The remaining children, Christopher, Helen, Veronica and Thomas all lived to adulthood, married and had families of their own.

I have also researched my mother's paternal family line. The "Anselmini Family" arrived in New York City in 1894 & 1895. They were from Northern Italy in the Lombardia Region. The town was named "Cremona". They sailed out of the port of Genova, Ligurgia. First to arrive was Franccesco. His wife, Rosa and 3 of their children arrived in 1895. Rosa had another 6 children. Two of these children died and it is also believed that one of the sons that arrived in 1895 also died, as he did not appear after 1900 with the family. The remaining children all married and had families of their own.

Other than the pursuit of genealogy, I enjoy taking photos and my newest "craze" - rollerblading!! It is quite a bit of fun and provides terrific exercise. My favorite place to skate is along the waterfront out past the Verazzano Bridge. I usually walk from home to the bridge (about 50 minutes or so) and then put on the blades and skate back and forth from the bridge to the 65th Street Pier. At the pier one can see NY harbor to the West, with the bridge being to the East. All in all, the walk to and from the bridge plus several hours of skating provides a good workout for the heart and old bones!

Another fun thing I enjoy is my attempts at creating webpages and such. I find it relaxing and it allows me somewhat of an outlet to express a little creativity. The only drawback is that I tend to forget the time and it just gets away from me. I could actually spend hours upon hours at this.

I've also enjoyed my attempts at oil painting, although I haven't painted in quite a long time. You can have a peek at them if you choose by clicking on the available link.

Being a grandfather is fun too! The picture below shows me and my two grandchildren, Liana and Sam. Sam was approximately 20 days old when the photo was taken October 17, 2008.

So - there you have a bit of insight into my life and how I got started with this "genealogy stuff". If you have a few thoughts on my site you would like to share, please feel free to send an email and stop by again sometime to see if something new has been added.

My Oil Paintings

Rollerblading

Dad's Drawings 1940's

Halloween Photos

"Diggin' Up My Italian Roots!"