Ancestry: 9 Generations Deep

Shown: Actual Family Tree.

I haven't used ancestry.com in quite a while. I signed up for an account years ago and never did anything with it. But with a quiet day at work I had some time to explore the site.

It turned into a very productive day. While I'm sure the accuracy of the information on ancestry is relatively (lol) reliable for the most part, and considering this is the first day of my pursuit, I'm very satisfied with where I'm at.

Where I'm at, by the way, is seven generations deep through Kitty and Joe Wall's families. There are stops in India, Ireland, Malta, England, Poland, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Australia and Russia. Coming into this project, my only real interest was in Kate and the Dublin branch of the family. I read that somewhere along the way the name Wall was an anglicanization of a Dutch name. So maybe part of the family originated in Holland. But I was genuinely surprised at the places this family has traveled to and from.


Yeah, I'm late to the party. If you're found this blog this early in it's existence, then you're probably a fairly accomplished genealogist. Or at least the family historian with the best stories around the Thanksgiving dinner table. But damn, it is fascinating to see how these families come together.

Sure, all this is through Ancestry's "Possible Mother/Father" suggestions, and as I go deeper down this particular rabbit hole, this knowledge may change. But this afternoon I discovered that Kitty's mother Hannah was the oldest of five children born to Ester and Marks Cohen (originally of Russia and Poland), and her four siblings; Leah, Hinda, Jacob and Soloman, were Irish Quadruplets.

Soloman was born in 1889, and I would assume that sometime in 1890, Ester told Marks to get a new goddamned hobby

Joe's family doesn't seem to have the emigration itch. Or at least none that I've seen yet. But thanks to a Merlini who is tracing a Wall/Merlini vein, I have access to a picture of my great-grandparents John Wall and Margaret Fahey.  The Walls and Faheys do originate in Ireland and John's father Peter was born in 1829. Peter emigrated to the United States sometime between 1860 and 1870 when his wife Catherine Walsh shows up on an American census record.

It looks like Peter and Catherine emigrated to the United States form England, the family's oral tradition is that the Wall's produce prolific artists that have served the crown in the United Kingdom, and Greg did tell me shortly before he passed that I have a cousin that is the official horse painter for the royal family. That sounds like a made up title that a teenager gives to Canadian boyfriend that totally exists but goes to a different school.  But, if that is true, this could potentially be where that English branch gets it's start.

Very pro. Much genealogy am I.