I've gotten back into researching our family history. It is very interesting and a lot of fun. I am going to prepare a big presentation for my parents when they come out in November. So I won't go into great detail on some of the interesting things I have found, but I have learned a few things so far during the process.
1. You can got back a lot farther in time that I would have expected.
It is easy to link to other people's research and trees to add to your tree which makes it quick to get a lot of information.
I have traced the Sturgis family back to 1552 in England, and another part of the Austin side to 1374. I was also able to link my Mom's side back to 1500's France.
2. People lived a lot longer than I had expected.
As early as the 1600's, members of our family on both sides have regularly been living into their 80's. And even 70's in the 1500's. I did not expect people to live so long almost 500 years ago.
3. The New World was dangerous.
The History Channel had a special on the history of America. They said 50% of the settlers from the Mayflower died within the first winter at Plymouth. You can see the impact of that on the number of kids people started to have as soon as they came over.
Our family in England in the late 1500's had about 4 kids on average. As soon as they moved to Cape Cod in 1634, you can see a significant increase in the number of children and it lasted for about 100 years.
Year of birth, number of children
1578- 4
The next generation moved to the US in 1634
1613- 8
1659- 13
1686- 8
1722- 9
1754- 5
There are still many links and details that need to be confirmed, luckily I am going on vacation to Cape Cod this month and luckily it is the home of one of the oldest public libraries in the US.
