Genealogy, Volume 1, Issue 3 (September 2017) – 5 articles

The surname HUGHES (several spelling variants) was numerous amongst the fishers recorded in 19th century censuses for Pittenweem, Fife, Scotland. A twentieth-century oral tradition in at least one HUGHES branch held that the family fished in Pittenweem for “hundreds of years”. This study aimed to examine the tradition, using sound genealogical research techniques of record collection, critical assessment, comparison and analysis, and briefly sets the results in historical context. Lack of information from local vital records created some difficulties, but contextual strategies (for example collection of data for collateral relatives; analysis of baptismal records—particularly witness data—for social connections and possible occupation of baby’s parents) were used as supplements. Alternative strategies proved effective. Evidence was found for fishers in every generation of this direct male line for at least 200 years, with a possible paper-trail for nearly 300 years. A wider question arises over whether the many HUGHES fishers of Pittenweem were from one biological family. Records back to the 1720s suggest this is possible, but lack of earlier paper documentation allows alternative interpretations. Two members of the wider family have had Y-DNA testing which provided a good match—it was concluded that additional samples from descendants of particular, documented, 18th century lines might resolve this issue. Full article

This paper examines how gender shaped the family of Nancy Hood McGee, who belonged to one of Georgia’s antebellum planter families, across four generations. The McGee family had joined the planter class late in the antebellum period, and after the American Civil War they continued to be prosperous farmers in the former cotton belt. The essay proposes that women in the McGee family played a determining role in the family’s economic success during this time period. As such, it relates to scholarship on women in the nineteenth-century American South as well as to the role of women within southern families. It also serves as a case study on the importance of the female legacy in family history and genealogy that should be studied as a model in similar instances. McGee women became active in agriculture, business, and education. Research focused on records that revealed information about the family’s social and economic development. No diaries and only a few family letters were located, but information transmitted through oral history proved important. Other sources included census records, legal documents such as wills and deeds, newspaper articles, and church records. The research suggested that women in the McGee family played an active role in shaping the family’s development across nearly two centuries. This contrasts with popular images of southern women as weak and delicate, although it corresponds with recent research that has highlighted the accomplishments of nineteenth-century women in the American South. Of particular significance is that women in the McGee family kept a record of accomplishment and achievement across several generations of changing circumstances. Full article

This article reveals basic demographic information on Americans and Scottish return migrant parents of the 1321 American children listed in the 1881 Scottish census and investigates reasons for return migration from America to Scotland. Census information was downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet and data including occupation, age, relation to head of household, place of residence and length of time back in Scotland, were counted and listed. General causes of return migration are explored and specific reasons for migrants, especially coal miners, to return to Scotland are briefly touched upon; covering the economic downturn in America during the mid-1870s and tensions towards immigrants in the United States during this period. The results of a deeper genealogical study of four families are reported. More than two-thirds of the parents of American children listed were Scottish with others primarily Irish and English. There was a wide range of occupations with construction and coal mining having the greatest numbers. Most families were living in Lanarkshire and Midlothian but 28 other Scottish counties were found as places of residence. Further research is needed to identify whether American children and their Scottish families are represented in other census years. Full article

This article explores a Japanese American family mortuary and its 100 years of service and involvement with the Japanese American community in Los Angeles through five generations of the Fukui family. The Fukui Mortuary is Los Angeles’s oldest Japanese American family mortuary and has provided the Japanese American community with services relating to death and bereavement for nearly a century. Through autoethnographic and ethnographic methods, this research examines a site within the Japanese American community after World War II where death, ethnicity, nationality and gender intersect. Studying the cultural and traditional options people have to negotiate, participate and engage in one’s cultural practices during a time of death allows us to investigate the structures of power, economics and institutions that are embedded in our histories and societies. Through the mobilization and service of cultural traditions related to death, the Fukui mortuary contributes to the story of Japanese Americans and how ideas of death, religion, gender and ethnicity are situated in community involvement and the genealogy of the Fukui family. Full article

This autoethnographic research examines the legacy of Roberts Settlement, a mixed-race settlement in Indiana that became one of the largest rural communities of free people of color in the state before the 20th century. As a Roberts descendent, the researcher uses Black feminist thought and poetic inquiry to investigate the gendered and racial family narratives that constitute the genealogy of the Roberts family. Utilizing present and past narratives to analyze the lived experience of being a black hoosier woman, the researcher finds that dominant male narratives marginalize the stories of Black women in the Roberts family genealogy. Full article