Genealogy Club helps members in search for ancestors

The Bonita Springs Genealogy Club supports members looking for their ancestors, while also creating an environment to discuss what they have found out about relatives, dead and alive.

Last Thursday, the club met at their monthly meeting, held at the Bonita Springs Library. Although only seven people showed for the event, because many members are only here during the winter months, two new people arrived to learn the art of searching ancestral lines.

Photo by LIANE EDIXON, Banner

Bonita Springs Genealogy Club members visit once a month at the Bonita Springs Library to learn more about genealogy research, and each other.

Tony and Kate Kennedy are new to genealogy research, an interest that was sparked by a trip to Scotland. The Kennedys want to find their lines for both Kennedy and Bissett, another family name.

Tony Kennedy was always told his grandfather was born in Scotland, and he has a picture of him in a kilt. Although he didn't have his grandfather's birthday, he did know what year he died. After some research, he found out that his great grandparents were born in Scotland, but his grandfather was born in England. The couple decided Tony's grandfather must have been born in between moving.

"They probably were coming to America," Tony Kennedy told the club.

The Genealogy Club members told the Kennedys about various places in the United States known for genealogy research, such as Salt Lake City and Orlando, which has every U.S. census record available in the country.

"It's a good feeling to find even a little nibble," member Betty Griffith said.

Penny Bonnema, another long-time member, had no living relatives when she started her research. She knew one ancestor's name and birthplace, but didn't know the spouse's name.

"I now have way, way back into England and the 1400s," Bonnema said.

Griffith has been researching her possible ancestral ties to the Melungeons, a group of mixed ethnic ancestry first documented in northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.

Photo by LIANE EDIXON, Banner

Tony and Kate Kennedy, first-time guests at the Genealogy Club this month, are searching for their ancestors with surnames Kennedy and Bissett.

"My ancestors came over from the African movement," Griffith said.

She recently provided a DNA sample to National Geographic to confirm her ancestral roots as a Melungeon, which over the years has been regarded as controversial, and still remains a mystery, according to the Melungeon Heritage Association Web site www.melungeon.org.

The Melungeons are a group of mixed ethnic ancestry first documented in northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.

According to Griffith, she was shocked and intrigued that she had ties to what is commonly referred to as a "free person of color". Griffith, who is noticeably Caucasian, said Melungeons are thought to be mixed with Native American, African American, Portuguese and European decent.

"My mother was a Bowlin," Griffith said, adding that's one of the names commonly tied to Melungeons in Tennessee. "I'm anxious to find out more about the Melungeons."

Many of the members enjoy learning and discussing each other's family roots, as well as what Web sites, libraries and computer software programs come in handy for searching names, locations and other information about genealogy.

"See what we talk about is family from 11 generations back," Griffith said. "Some we don't even know the names of, but we're looking for them."