The Ancestors’ Geneameme

Inspired by Angela Y. Walton-Raji over at My Ancestor’s Name, I finally did The Ancestor’s Geneameme.

It was started by Geniaus several days ago.
The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (color optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item 
Which of these apply to you?


The Ancestors’ Geneameme
1.  Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents.
I can name 12.5.  Robert ALLEN, Clara HOSKINS, John AVERITT, Elizabeth Marshall TUCKER, Frank CLEAGE, Judy CLEAGE, ? RICE (He’s the 1/2), Joseph JACKSON, PRISSA JACKSON, Joe TURNER, Emma JONES, Dock ALLEN, Eliza WILLIAMS.
2.  Can name over 50 direct ancestors. [yes]
3.   Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents I have photos of two. Celia Rice Cleage Sherman and Jennie Virginia Allen Turner.
4. Have an ancestor who was married more than three times.
One had 4 different partners but was not married to all of them.
5. Have an ancestor who was a bigamist [No.]
6. Met all four of my grandparents [Yes. I grew up in the same city with them and saw them often. One died when I was 11. Two lived until I was in my twenties and One lived until I was 35.]
7.  Met one or more of my great-grandparents [Met one, Jennie Virginia Allen Turner. The others died before I was born.]
8. Named a child after an ancestor [All of my children have a family name and an African name.]
9. Bare an ancestor’s given name/s [No but I do have my mother’s maiden name as a middle name, as do several cousins.]
10.  Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland [Yes]
11.  Have an ancestor from Asia [Well, 23 & me says I do]
12.  Have an ancestor from Continental Europe [Not that I’m aware of]
13.  Have an ancestor from Africa [Yes]
14.  Have an ancestor who was an agricultural laborer [Yes]
15.  Have an ancestor who had large land holdings [Joe Turner owned a lot of land but I don’t know how much.  Need to find those records.]
16.  Have an ancestor who was a holy man – minister, priest, rabbi [My father was a minister. The Grandparents did start some churches.]
17.  Have an ancestor who was a midwife [No. I used to want to be a midwife though.]
18.  Have an ancestor who was an author [My father and now my sister]
19.  Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones [Emma Jones Turner]
20.  Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng [No]
21.  Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X [No]
22.  Have an ancestor with a forename beginning with Z [No]
23.  Have an ancestor born on 25th December [My grandfather Mershell C. Graham did not know the day he was born and picked December 25.]
24.   Have an ancestor born on New Year’s Day [Nobody in my tree was born January 1.]
25.   Have blue blood in your family lines [No royalty]
26.   Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth [No]
27.   Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth[No]
28.   Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century [Yes] 
29.   Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier [No]
30.  Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents [yes]
31.  Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X [Yes]
32.  Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university [Yes Grandfather Albert B. Cleage Sr. & Great Grandfather Buford Averitt, both finished Medical School.

33.  Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offense [Great Grandfather Lewis Cleage spent time in jail for various minor offenses. Other non-direct ancestors spent time in prison.]
34.  Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime [Great grandmother Jennie Allen Turner land was stolen after her husband died. Not to mention those held in slavery for generations.]
35.  Have shared an ancestor’s story online or in a magazine [On my blogs I share them all the time. More to come.]
36.  Have published a family history online or in print [The blogs are sort of a serial history but I hope to do a more organized one, perhaps next year I will start]
37.  Have visited an ancestor’s home from the 19th or earlier centuries [No, but if any are still standing would love to.]
38.  Still have an ancestor’s home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family [No]
39.  Have a  family bible from the 19th Century [Not a family Bible but I have a pocket New Testament that came to my grandfather, Mershell Graham through his brother Jacob who got it from his doctor who was gifted it by relatives in 1875.]

40.  Have a pre-19th century family bible [No]