SNGF: Turning Point

I’m having some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (#SNGF), with help from Randy Seaver and his prompts! Feel free to join in.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: August 29, 2026

Prompt: “Every historical person has major events, milestones and “turning points” in their life, from birth through death and even beyond.  These events, milestones and turning points can be the basis for family stories of the historical person. Please share one of those events in your own life, or the life of one of your ancestors.”

Who Will Tell Your Story?

One day, my two sons asked me why I “keep telling these genealogy stories when we’re not interested.”

I replied, “Well, one day you will be interested, and I may be gone by then.”

Without naming names, I’ll say it was the smartass who came back with “Well then we’ll have the fun of the hunt like you do!”

When It All Came Together

To no surprise to my readers, I did not find this comforting. True, my genealogy research is a legacy that gets more solid every year. But I also know that genealogy may never mean as much to my descendants as it means to me. So, I sought another way to create a legacy and thus came my turning point.

Not long after my father’s death, I learned that he had gone to college on a full scholarship. I guess I never thought about where this hand-to-mouth family got money for a university. Someone I will never know invested in my dad and his future. He was able to help me with college prep, and two of his three daughters have master’s degrees. That one gift 65 years ago is reverberating throughout the generations. That realization gave me an idea.

My employer has a very generous charitable donation match, and I eventually worked up the courage to start working with my father’s alma mater to set up an endowment. It will take me a few years to hit the minimum, but I hope to get there next year, in 2027. At that point we can start distributing small scholarships to people. I already know that I would like to keep donating to the endowment as long as I’m able.

To Make a Difference

Like my father, education helped me to get ahead in life and give my children a chance that I never had. This endowment is my way to pay this forward long after I’m gone. This realization became the “turning point” in how I think about purpose and legacy. While my children may or may not have the fun of hunting for ancestors, the scholarship is a legacy they won’t have to go looking for. It will already be out there making a difference.

Dad and me

AI Disclosure

This post was created by me with the help of AI tools. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

I’m having some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (#SNGF), with help from Randy Seaver and his prompts! Feel free to join in.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: August 15, 2026

Prompt: “Have you found an unusual, chilling, amazing, or fascinating newspaper article about your ancestors? If so, please share the article and what you learned about your ancestor(s) from the article.  Provide a source citation too!”

The Draft Riots?

As a student of both history and New York, I was already familiar with the infamous New York City Draft Riots of 1863. Opposition to the Civil War draft, class resentment, economic anxiety, and racism combined explosively. What began as resistance to conscription became days of deadly violence, much of it directed against Black New Yorkers.

Because so much of my own New York ancestry is Irish, I’ve often wondered—and hoped—that none of my ancestors took part.

A Surprising Link

I have not found any evidence that my Irish ancestors were involved. But then I found a surprising obituary for another ancestor, Stephen Barker, whose presumably English family had been in the United States since at least the 1700s. According to the obituary, Stephen had been shot during “the riots of 1862.” My first thought was that the date must be a typo and that the obituary referred to the famous Draft Riots of July 1863. But I haven’t found a contemporary account that connects Stephen to those riots—or, so far, identified an 1862 incident that clearly matches what the obituary describes.

I don’t know if Barker was a participant or bystander, or whether he was there in his capacity as a firefighter. I haven’t been able to find any contemporary records of the particular incident. But I find it fascinating that my ancestor somehow found himself caught up in a volatile and controversial moment in New York City’s history.

What I Know—and What I Don’t

Historical context matters, but context isn’t the same thing as excuse. I know what happened during the Draft Riots, but I don’t know that Stephen Barker was there—or even that the obituary was referring to those riots. If he was caught in some sort of civil unrest, I don’t know whether he was participating, watching, responding as a firefighter, or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

For now, the newspaper has given me a fascinating clue rather than an answer.

Side Lesson: Cite Carefully

Interestingly, Newspapers.com identified the newspaper as the New York Herald, but the digitized page itself is unmistakably headed The Sun. Since those were separate newspapers in 1883, I have cited the newspaper shown on the original page rather than the database metadata.

The obituary [1]

AI Disclosure

This post was created by me with the help of AI tools. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

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[1] “Obituary,” The Sun (New York, NY), Nov 10, 1883, page 1, column 6.

I’m having some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (#SNGF), with help from Randy Seaver and his prompts! Feel free to join in.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: July 11, 2026

Five Nathaniels: A Name That Ran Through My Britton Family

Prompt: “We all have many names (given, middle, surname, nickname) in our ancestry, whether we know all of them or not. Do you have “A Name That Runs in Your Family”? Is there a first name — or nickname — that keeps repeating generation after generation in your tree? Share the name, the pattern, and your best guess as to why it stuck.”

Five Nathaniel Brittons

For me, there is no question which name to discuss this week. I am descended from five men named Nathaniel Britton.

• Nathaniel Britton, my ninth great-grandfather, born 1625 in Batcombe, Somerset, England, died 1684 Staten Island, Richmond, New York
• Nathaniel Britton, his son, born 1666 Staten Island, Richmond, New York, died 1729
• Abraham Britton, his son, died by 1729
• Nathaniel Britton, his son, born by 1729, died 1792
• Nathaniel Britton, his son, born ca 1755 New York, died in 1843 on Staten Island, New York
• Nathaniel Britton, his son, born 1793, died in 1841 on Staten Island, New York

Why Did the Name Persist?

The names appear many times in different branches of the family, but here I am discussing only my direct ancestors.

The five Nathaniels span six generations, with Abraham creating a one-generation break in the pattern. Abraham died before his father; his name does not appear to have been used again in my direct line, while Nathaniel resumed with his son and continued for another three generations.

My best guess is that later generations took pride in their connection to one of Staten Island’s early European settlers and preserved his name as a family tradition. Nathaniel is also a biblical name, which may have added to its appeal.

When the Pattern Ended

My most recent Nathaniel had a son named Cornelius Britton. Cornelius then named one of his own sons Cornelius rather than Nathaniel, bringing the Nathaniel pattern in my direct line to an end.

The younger Cornelius had sons named Willard, Frank, and Henry with his first wife. With his second wife, he had a son named Neil, who died in infancy. I do not know why the family stopped using Nathaniel. Perhaps Cornelius simply preferred other names, or perhaps carrying a name that had been repeated for so many generations had begun to feel like a burden.

Because Cornelius is also a biblical name, the change may have reflected a shift in family preference rather than an abandonment of biblical naming.

The Mixed Blessing of a Family Name

Following the Nathaniels through my family tree made me think about the mixed blessing of being named after an ancestor.

My grandmother, a granddaughter of the younger Cornelius, was named after her aunt. She hated the name Edith, which she considered old-fashioned even in 1913, when she was born. The aunt, however, was well loved, so the name had been chosen with affection.

When I named my own children, I chose subtler connections. Each child’s first initial and middle name honored someone in the family, while the first name belonged entirely to the child.

An old map of Staten Island, rendered by ChatGPT

AI Disclosure

I used AI tools to help organize and edit this post. The genealogical research, family stories, interpretations, and conclusions are my own.

I’m having some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (#SNGF), with help from Randy Seaver and his prompts! Feel free to join in.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: July 4, 2026

Prompt: “It is the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence today. How will you celebrate the day?  Or, how did you celebrate the day?”

Introduction

I had a shockingly quiet Independence Day. Well, not really. Bad storms rolled in and we were just hunkered down – thankfully everyone around here was fine.

Discussion

Heather Cox Richardson has an amazing “250 to 250” series which I have truly enjoyed. She is an historian and I like her take on things. She set up a series of very short videos about points in American History, narrated by well-known people. I urge everyone who might be interested to go check it out!

Heather’s playlist is at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2dS6uX1RkUzLppeUrqtvApwnR6whO7I_

Enjoy this celebration of the American spirit.

AI Disclosure

This post was created by me with the help of AI tools. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.