Welcome to Our Genealogy
Pages!
(I hope
you’ll take the time to read the following once. I wanted to share some of the
“how did we get here?” story. The link to the family tree is at the bottom.)
During the summer of 1994 Kathy and I attended a
Boericke Family Reunion on the shores of
I poked and prodded for a while, picked up some
family tree software and started collecting data. I made most of the usual
mistakes, and I haven’t always done a good job of crediting sources.
I even had one of those breakthrough moments
that you read about on the internet. I had posted a general inquiry on a
McQueen surname internet forum (GenForum). A few weeks later I received an
email from a stranger in
Another internet breakthrough came when my mom
found an obituary for Alettha (Coutant) Halsted on the internet. A little
checking revealed a great website produced by Phil Chadeayne. More on that
later…
Albert van Zyverden (my 2nd cousin once-removed)
was very prolific; his work includes a hand-drawn tree in scroll form that is
22 feet long! It lists more than 900 people in 18+ generations, dating back to
the early 1500s. Thanks to 2nd cousin Dirk van Zyverden for trusting me with a
copy of that scroll!
First cousins Kurt Wille and Meryl Hyatt
helped me get started. They supplied lots of initial data.
After casting about for a reasonable method to
share all this information, I finally found a tool that has allowed the
creation of this website.
The site is rudimentary, but the data itself
should be interesting to many. It will get prettier, better, easier, bigger as
time goes by.
It’s just recently dawned on me how badly I need
photographs, particularly of the older generations. Photos will make this site
so much more enjoyable. Any contributions towards this effort would be hugely
appreciated. I obviously need need photos, so dig out those shoeboxes, but I
also need people to catalog and scan them. Any volunteers?
- - - - - - - - -
My Approach to Genealogy
My research is generally focused on the
ancestors of my children, Kenny and Megan. Their great-grandparents are named
McQueen, Reuter, van Zyverden, Robinson, Boericke, Hall, Henderson, and
Sandstrom, so these surnames form the basis of most of my research. There are
almost 60 surnames in the total list of direct ancestors.
A plethora of local knowledge and other data has
sometimes allowed me to research and document a web of families that are not
strictly related to mine, except through marriage. In some cases there is only
one link between another large family group and mine. Essentially everyone in
the tree is related (by blood or marriage) to at least one other person in the
tree. In the few cases where I have a single unrelated individual or small
group it is only because I have not yet proved their relationship to someone in
the main tree.
The internet is an almost perfect way to share
family tree information. Most genealogists know that they should take
precautions to protect the privacy of living individuals who are included in
their trees. As this site develops I will continue to take steps to protect
privacy, Anyone who has a privacy concern should
contact me.
It is against my nature to ignore facts, but
sometimes those facts (such as divorce) are unpleasant. I believe that it is
important to present a complete and accurate picture of family history, so all
known pertinent facts are generally included.
Clay McQueen
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