What is in our Family History?

Is it just a bunch of names on those ugly charts?

ust what is our family history composed of? Is it just names on some charts and a bunch of confusing lines and arrows and people we never heard of? Is any of it really interesting? One of the greatest deterrants to anybody actually looking at a collection of family records is how it's kept and presented. I know I saw lots of those bound books of pedigree charts that seem to go on for ever and ever and ever. I never want to see one of those again.

I think what you will find in this collection depends a great deal on how much of it you read and try to understand. If you take a brisk look at a few pages, skip most of the stuff, take a peak at some charts and look at a few pictures: you will walk away thinking most of the stuff is pretty boring and doesn’t really mean anything to you. Much of what you get out of this collection is proportional to the effort you put in to understanding it. However if you are interested in Schoepke, Anderson, Buchanan, Wheeler or Gille genealogy, and if you take some time to contact us after you've peeked around a bit, you'll find there is some pretty interesting stuff here.

Anna Maud Martin (born 1883) was a stylish dresser way before the "bling" of today

How this collection is organized

If however you try to understand how the family tree is organized, how each of the lines flows out towards the past, and look at the stories and references for the individuals you see listed, then our tree begins to take shape. It will take you quite a bit of time to read about the families and histories listed within this collection. It certainly took 1000’s of hours to put it together. It should not be surprising that it will take you a number of hours to begin to understand what is in it. And if you understand how it’s put together, and begin to read the stories of the individuals listed within it, you will catch the spirit of the work. And the real secret of enjoying this work is to realize that it is all about individuals. Family history isn’t about 1000’s of names on charts. A family history is about individuals who lived real lives in real places and faced real struggles: just like you.

Eric Sigvard Anderson and Alma Gille Wedding photo in 1930

There are a number of individual stories in this collection. If you want to get a sense of what your ancestors were like, read these stories and historical background pieces. The charts are nice. They give a sense of organization. But it’s the stories about individual people that make the whole effort come alive.

I have tried to organize this collection of information about the family in a way that will let different people find their own way through the information.  We have the bound and printed volume for those folks who like to read and touch the pages of a book. There are times when nothing like the printed page will do for finding and lingering over an individual or story.  There are collections of CD’s for those who prefer the computer over the printed page. The power of the computer and the ad hoc search is one reason that genealogy today has grown leaps and bounds over the past. Computer powered graphics and photographs along with a decent genealogy program help bring the family tree to life in a way that is most difficult via the printed word.  There are also collections of maps, and photographs that will help establish time and place, as well as historical articles about our ancestors. All these things help bring to life the people that came before us.

A Work in Progress

Our family history is definitely not finished. It is a work in progress

This introduction to our family history is a beginning not an end point in documenting and distributing what is now known about those people we are related to and consider our “family”.  What we know today is only a fraction of what is available to know and find about our vast and as yet undiscovered family.  What is presented here is what has been “found” and can be catalogued in a somewhat organized and interesting way.  By the act of receiving this collection of records, you have accepted the responsibility of reading and understanding what is here, and then going out and improving the records of our family.  This collection is not a stopping place, but a starting place for our family history.  Enjoy what is here. Use what you find to go forth and extend what we now know and improve our family tree.

Our family has a mix of ancestors. Some of our ancestors are recently arrived to the United States, having only been in the states for 2 generations. Others have been on this continent since the very first English ships arrived on its shores in the early 1600’s. We represent the very newest immigrant blood on the one hand and the very oldest founding father’s blood for this country on the other. Some of our lines go back only a generation or two before they fade out for lack of investigation. This of course represents your challenge: go find out what happens to them ! Other lines go back as far as recorded history allows, in to the mists of legend, and continue flowing back to the time of the Roman Emperors and the time of Jesus Christ himself. Back beyond a certain point in time (about 1,000 A.D. to 1,500 A.D.) genealogy and family history changes from something that can be "fact based" in to something that's primarily guesswork and supposition. Just because we lose the ability to document and make solid assesments doesn't make it any less fun!

Carol Johan Gille and Karolina Brodin circa 1870. How can you not want to know more?

We cover the Centuries

There is not a time in the history of the Western World that is not represented in our family genealogy. We have Vietnam Veterans on the great wall in Washington D.C., World War II fighter pilots, World War I doughboys, pioneers across the great plains, Civil War Veterans, War of 1812 veterans, Presidents of the U.S., Revolutionary War Patriots, members who caused the U.S. Constitution to be ratified, University Presidents, Mayflower Pilgrims, and the earliest of Pilgrims on this continent. Leaving the U.S. and going back to the Olde World our people helped cause the great Reformation of the Church. They were confidants and supporters of the Roman Catholic Popes. We made it possible to build and beautify St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.   We were Reverends and Pastors; farmers and sailors, Kings and Queens, Vikings and Visigoths, scholars and barbarians alike. We helped to establish countries like Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland. We have both the conquered and the conqueror in the family. And from the great nations of Europe and the British Isles our family continues back through history to the founders of the Roman Empire and the first of the great Roman Emperors, including the Caesars themselves.

We can walk our family tree from our living rooms, filled with living and breathing souls, back to the time of the Caesars and to before the time of Jesus Christ on the earth. Most of our people are just ordinary folks. Some were pretty special. Read what’s in this collection and you determine who’s ordinary, and who’s special.

Regarding this collection of names and histories: how do we know that any of this stuff is true? How do we know for sure? How do we have any assurance that what we have collected is true and is not just a fable made up for our entertainment?  That’s where the skill of genealogy, and the discipline of collecting reliable records from reliable sources becomes of paramount importance.

Johan Anderson (born 1862) was a farmer and a construction worker in Sweden

If we apply something called the scientific method, at least in principal, to our genealogy, we should be able to protect ourselves from fraud and fable. In short, what that means is if we write down the premise of our statements, document all that we do, and clearly explain how we arrive at a conclusion, then we begin to set the stage for someone else to go and verify our findings.  If we make it possible for a skeptic, someone who does not believe in our works just because “we say so” to go out and find the same data about our ancestors, then we have a process that is sound and should hold up to scrutiny.  I have attempted to do that for as many of our ancestors as I have had the time.

Our family history is documented with citations (that’s the formal genealogical term for a reference to source materials) wherever possible, and as far as I have had the time and materials.  Much of our genealogy has been verified and has passed muster with a professional genealogical “critic”.  Since I have applied and been accepted for membership in several hereditary societies, societies whose membership is predicated on proving your lineage to a common ancestor, we can have great confidence in the accuracy of the research. Not because I say so, but because several respected professionals that have nothing to do with us have taken a look at what has been presented to them and have verified the citations and research I have done and given it the seal of acceptance.

This scrutiny of our records and of our lineage is important. The fact that professional genealogists have looked with a skeptical eye at our family line and have pronounced it sound (at least as far as the major threads go) gives us the confidence to both enjoy our claims, and to proceed with doing more good research.

When we say we are related to Kings and Queens in the year 747 A.D., we can not only say it but show the documentation and proof that has held up for decades with people whose life work is genealogy.

Not everything is documented. Not every individual is proven. Learn how to distinguish who is, and who is not yet, proven and documented. And when you have discovered a place that you think needs some work, go right ahead and make it better. That’s where you come in and go from a passive reader of our history to a researcher of our history.

Be skeptical. Poke and prod the research. Look up and find the citations. Look for errors and inconsistencies. That’s how we make our family history come alive, and become more accurate and present a “history” rather than fable or fiction.

Lennart Hasse Gille performs in Sweden and entertains an appreciative crowd in 2005. Members of our family aren't all dead and buried. Lennart and other Gilles are alive and living great lives in Sweden today. Go Lennart!!