I signed up for ancestry.com about 10 years ago, but it really got me no where. I figured that one day, when I retired, I would be one of those old ladies sifting through dusty archives. After watching Faces of America on PBS, and finding out that I was pregnant, I really wanted to have more stories to tell my baby about where we're from (and I also was hoping for some good baby names)! As both of Daniel's parents are from Poland, it will be pretty easy to say, "Well, you're half Polish." But what about the other half? "Baby, you're half Polish and half American mutt!" While I knew that there was no way to solve being a mutt, I wanted to be able to say, "So, yes, we're mutts, but we're 1/2 English, 1/3 French, blah, blah, blah..." (It's also a great way to pass the time when I have morning sickness!)
Needless to say, the whole world of genealogy has gone through some major changes in the last 10 years! My first day on ancestry.com, I was going wild with all of the census data, military records, everything right there to see! I didn't sleep much for two days, as I kept finding more and more records! These people, who 10 years ago, were pretty much buried in an archive somewhere, came alive with land deeds, wills, court cases, et cetera! Some lines I could so effortlessly connect back and back and back.
I thank heaven for all of the huge families of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries! When an ancestor has 10 kids or more, it's pretty likely that someone today has done research about one of those kids, their parents, grandparents, etc. Once you link up with their research, you just follow their charts and evidence back. The problem is not getting back into the 18th or even 17th centuries, it's getting your 19th century ancestors linked to one of these well-researched lines! For some families, like a maternal Decker line - the Dyers - their documentation is easy and within five hours, I've traced them back to the Scottish Stuarts (as in King Charles Stuart) family!
But you never know when a line is going to dry up as quickly as it heated up. This is what happened to the first line that I began to trace - my surname line - the Deckers. Here's how far I got (the numbers denote how many generations back from the original Decker to land in North America. I obviously did not know how many generations back we were from the original until recently!):
12. Tiffany Decker (b. 1980 Bakersfield, CA)
11. Mark Decker (b. 1959 Bakersfield, CA)
10. Keith Decker (b. 1933 El Reno, OK)
9. George Decker (b. 1905 Ash Flat, AR, d. 1981 Stockton, CA)
8. Cleveland Decker (b. 1883 AR, d. ? AR)
7. Elbert Decker (b. 1854 AR, d. ? AR)
I was stuck. There was plenty of census data showing his family when he was deemed the "head of household," but I could not find any census that had him as a child in another household (which would then give me his father and mother's names). The only clue that I had was that his father was from Kentucky and his mother was from Illinois. That's it. Nothing else. Running a search only brought up thousands of options for a "Decker Kentucky about 1850." It was only through fellow genealogists that I finally caught a break! Awhile ago, I posted the information I had about Elbert on a message board.
It's amazing how nice people can be! A lady, Linda, sent me a message connecting me to four other genealogists who have been researching this line! Because Elbert was born after the 1850 census, and the Arkansas census of 1860 was damaged in a fire (it is currently being restored), it was unlikely that I was going to be able to make this connection on my own. Luckily, these researchers had actually been to the archive and had documented Elbert as the youngest son of John Jefferson Decker of Kentucky!
So, while it's not the best research method, I am hoping that because four other people have actually seen this document and can attest to its accuracy, I can trust them with making this connection! When the 1860 Arkansas census goes on-line in the next couple of years, I'll be able to verify everything then. Plus, I was really excited to get back on track with this line that has just been sitting there with a big, fat question mark!
John Jefferson had tons of kids, so I was quickly able to link into the amazing research that had already traced this family waaaay back! So here we go!
6. John Jefferson Decker (b. 1805 KY; d. 1904 KY - yes, he was SUPER old!)
5. John Decker (b. 1779 Orange County, NY; d. 1854 Grayson County, KY - War of 1812 Soldier)
4. George/Joris Decker (b. 1740 Orange, NY; d. 1842 Pulaski, KY - Revolutionary War soldier, all sorts of cool stuff. Also super old!)
3. Thomas Decker (b. 1704 Ulster County, NY; d. 1780 Port Jervis, NY)
2. Hendrick Decker (b. 1667 Kingston, NY; d. 1717 Orange County, NY)
1. Jan Gerritsen Decker (b. 1640 Heerde, The Netherlands; d. 1717 Port Jervis, NY)
So there we go! We finally have the first Decker ancestor to come to North America! Good ol', Jan Gerritsen! Don't you worry, I'll write more about Jan Gerritsen and his crazy exploits some other time! I'm just so happy right now that I've found him! It's fun to know that the Deckers were in North America for almost three generations before the United States was even born! It's also exciting to be able to say, "We're some small part Dutch!"
