Well, Keith, here's the thing: Not all of us are in the business of mapping the whole family. I, for instance, have spent five years on my Courtrights and discovered that there are so incredibly many of them that I have no interest in mapping them. One guy I met is interested in mapping all the Ohio Courtrights, and that's Thousands! I admire his energy but it's Not my Interest. I inherited my great grandmother's diary, a dramatic work that I wanted my family to share. In it, she recorded three months of life in Princeton, NJ, while her husband was a theological student and she was managing a household with three tiny children. A great historical document from 1866, that includes mention of many letters written to her husband and the death of her baby. I wanted to find out where my great grandmother's letters to her husband were. So I had to look for her progeny. Perhaps they had inherited her letters, as I had inherited her diary. In the process, on the internet, I discovered a profoundly deaf, distant cousin who is a rigorous researcher of the earliest Dutch Courtrights in New York. She and I have become quite close and I have visited her in DC. And the fact is, our research turned up the brick wall beyond which Courtrights cannot be confirmed. I found that the progeny didn't have letters from my great grandmother because she moved around the country so much that they were lost. And I ended up with a great, good friend who has taught me a lot about about being deaf......These are the rewards of this endeavor. Nevertheless, I published the diary for my family, including photos of the family and my own illustrations of their life. I included an appendix of births and deaths, weddings and obituaries of this tiny branch of the Courtright family. And that was all I want to do. It was huge for me. Took years to do. And, through the Courtright web page [[email protected]], the diary has been published for everyone to read! That's more than I ever expected out of this five years of work! So, you see, I don't even want to know about the Kentucky Courtrights. Because I'm in search of the earliest Chases! Sincerely, Ellie Pelcyger

Hi,Ellie, I may be a little dense,but after your message I am still not clear as to how you would like to see the information on this project presented. Like many working on our personal histories I started off thinking we were all searching for the same type of information When I first started my family research I was just interested in the HUME family but, inevitably, this broadened out to include the families the HUME's married into. One such was the CHASE family. So, again, inevitably, I started looking at the SHERMANs,the SIMMONS, the HATHAWAYs and so on. It was not until I attended "An Introduction to Family Research" lecture that the enormity of tracing ALL your ancestry was, if not impossible, a life's work and longer. We were asked to work out the number of our direct ancestors going back to the year 1100 and based on 30 years a generation. It worked out that, with no inter-marriage, and all ancestors being resident in England that the number exceeded the amount of people living in the country at that time in the 12th century. I rtherefore esolved to research what I considered the most "interesting lines", this of course sometimes means the easiest and, as half my ancestry was ex British colonial, I have concentrated on that not only because it is the easiest but it is also the most interesting. However on this long tortuous,frustrating but yet ultimately very rewarding quest I was helped,enormously, by those who were researching similar lines and some of those are or were members of this list. Also my CHASE line was the first really well documented line because of their early pioneering, and who of us can resist the thought of being descended from those who went to places they knew nothing about and suffered with fortitude many,many set-backs? ( It has always bemused me why so many Americans wanrt to trace their roots back to Ireland,Scotland, Wales and England For me the thought that my ancestors helped in the formation of 3 countries is uplifting. I have Irish and Scots ancestry but my American-Canadian-Australian are the ones I would like to think I could be like) I must tell you that I have gone as far as I feel I need to go with my CHASE research and am now doing this in an attempt to pass on some of the invaluable help I have received. I only have one regret and that is that it is one of the quirks of our research that tracing our lineage through our maternal side is so very difficult especially as I consider it to be the only true way to trace our roots. Therefore although I feel that Aquilla and Thomas CHASE were not "my" CHASEs, at least not directly, I have tried to spend some of my time helping others in their search. With your own family you have obviously done a magnificent job. Regards Keith ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 4:35 AM Subject: [CHASE-L] Re: Why am I not interested in Kentucky > Well, Keith, here's the thing: Not all of us are in the business of mapping > the whole family. I, for instance, have spent five years on my Courtrights > and discovered that there are so incredibly many of them that I have no > interest in mapping them. One guy I met is interested in mapping all the > Ohio Courtrights, and that's Thousands! I admire his energy but it's Not my > Interest. > > I inherited my great grandmother's diary, a dramatic work that I wanted my > family to share. In it, she recorded three months of life in Princeton, NJ, > while her husband was a theological student and she was managing a household > with three tiny children. A great historical document from 1866, that > includes mention of many letters written to her husband and the death of her > baby. I wanted to find out where my great grandmother's letters to her > husband were. So I had to look for her progeny. Perhaps they had inherited > her letters, as I had inherited her diary. > > In the process, on the internet, I discovered a profoundly deaf, distant > cousin who is a rigorous researcher of the earliest Dutch Courtrights in New > York. She and I have become quite close and I have visited her in DC. And > the fact is, our research turned up the brick wall beyond which Courtrights > cannot be confirmed. I found that the progeny didn't have letters from my > great grandmother because she moved around the country so much that they were > lost. And I ended up with a great, good friend who has taught me a lot about > about being deaf......These are the rewards of this endeavor. > > Nevertheless, I published the diary for my family, including photos of the > family and my own illustrations of their life. I included an appendix of > births and deaths, weddings and obituaries of this tiny branch of the > Courtright family. And that was all I want to do. It was huge for me. Took > years to do. And, through the Courtright web page [[email protected]], the > diary has been published for everyone to read! That's more than I ever > expected out of this five years of work! > > So, you see, I don't even want to know about the Kentucky Courtrights. > Because I'm in search of the earliest Chases! > Sincerely, Ellie Pelcyger >