Welsh & Wilderness Roots

A few years ago, especially when my great-grandmother was alive, I did some interviewing of family members to learn about my ancestry. I could trace various branches of the Myfoo's back to Ireland (recent potato famine arrivals), and learned lots of family secrets, but never went much further.

On Izzy's side, the Polish O-Cayce's intermarried a bit, a fact I learned from his Dad's double first cousins once-removed, and I was able to get names of those arriving at Ellis Island from Poland.

I'd looked a bit online, but not so much was available free, or without subscriptions. However, my resourceful sister-in-law (B2W2), discovered the new and enhanced LDS info now available to anyone. (I'll still need to go to one of their centers to look at Census records, but what other people have researched and posted is amazing.

Stuff I've learned:

1. My Dad's mom always said we were direct descendants of Daniel Boone. Turns out, we came from Daniel's brother Edward (Ned), who died in 1780 during an Indian attack on his (& Daniel's) hunting party in "the wilds of Kentucky. " Ned had stopped to crack some nuts:

Edward had lived in Kentucky less than a year when on October 6, 1780, he was killed by Indians (probably Shawnee) while he and Daniel were returning from the Blue Licks to make salt and do a little hunting.

They stopped along a stream in Bourbon County to rest and let their horses drink. Edward sat down by the stream near an old Buckeye tree and was cracking nuts, while Daniel went off into the woods in pursuit of game.

Indians lurking nearby shot and killed Edward but Daniel managed to escape. He ran all the way on foot to Boone Station (about 40 miles) where they were all living at the time. The next morning Daniel and a party of men in the area went in search of Edward's killers. They did not find the Indians, but found and buried Edward near that old Buckeye tree.

Today in that very spot stands an old Buckeye tree, perhaps grown from a seedling of the original tree. The creek was afterward named Boone Creek in honor of Edward;s death there. As Jeff Johnson, a descendant of Edward Boone, says of the death site, "the bubbling sounds of the stream running over the rocks is probably the last sounds Edward heard as he lay dying."

Ned's daughter, Sarah Boone Hunter, in a letter... said "My father was killed 40 miles from the Station. He was stabbed in 7 places; his fingers were horribly cut with the Indian's knife. He was scalped and part of his clothing were taken off. I think his coat and pantaloons."

From Edward Boone: Family Man, at boonesociety.org.

2. Based on a following a few people's research, the earliest ancestor of mine that anyone has entered into the LDS database is Tegid of Wales, born abt 0314. Tegid was the father of Padarn "Beisrudd" ap TEGID, born abt 0339, also of Wales. Even in the 4th Century, my peeps had nicknames.

3. The same grandma who was sure about the Daniel Boone connection, used to also tell us that we were descended from Bloody Mary. Being now an English history buff, I know that this was impossible, since Mary had only two pseudopregnancies during her tragic marriage to Phillip 2 of Spain. However, Mary Queen of Scots suddenly becomes a possibility, if the notation that Daniel and Ned Boone's grandmother/great-grandmother may have been the offspring of a Liaison of Charles II of England and one of his many mistresses. It would give me something in common with Princess Diana and Camilla of Cornwall, both also extra-curricular descendents of the restored monarchy.

4. I've also found my first Nimrod (given name) relative. What fun!