I’m related to who?

I’ve always asked, “What famous person am I related to?” Do I have a movie star Uncle, or a sports star cousin? I have made some interesting findings, and possibly debunked some rumors, but I thought I would talk about the famous relative I have known about for the longest.

In the last post, I spoke of Isaac Coffman. B. 1741. I believe it was him who Americanized Kaufmann to Coffman. His son John, B. 1785, had a daughter, Frances, b.1813. Frances married Andrew Sydenstricker. They had a son Absalom, b 1852.

Absalom married Caroline Stulting in 1880. Absalom and Caroline were Southern Presbyterian Missionaries. Soon after they were married, they went to China to serve their faith.

In 1891, Caroline became pregnant, and they moved back to America. On June 26^th, 1892, their daughter was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker.

When Pearl was 5 months old, her parents returned to China, taking Pearl with them. This is where she grew up.

In 1911, Pearl left China to go back to America and attend Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1914 and as member of Kappa Delta Sorority. Although she had not intended to return to China, much less become a missionary, she quickly applied to the Presbyterian Board when her father wrote that her mother was seriously ill. She returned to China.

While in China, Pearl met, and in 1917, married an agricultural economist missionary. She took his last name, but changed her middle name to her maiden name, Sydenstricker…..

Give me a minute to throw in a sidebar..

As I was writing this, I noticed something familiar. My Grandmother was born Ethel Magnolia Coffman. As the story goes, she always hated the name Magnolia. If you knew my grandmother, Magnolia didn’t seem to fit her anyway. Although, I DO have a Magnolia tree planted in my yard for her. When she got married, she took her maiden name as her middle name, and my Grandfather’s last name. Her name was now Ethel Coffman Smith. I rarely heard Coffman because she mostly used Ethel C. Smith.

Now, back to Pearl.

She married John Lossing Buck. Her name now was Pearl S. Buck.

I won’t go into many details because you should definitely check out her work. You should AT LEAST read her Wiki page here.

Her most famous work is The Good Earth. The novel was included in Life Magazine’s list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924–1944. In 2004, the book returned to the bestseller list when chosen by the television host Oprah Winfrey for Oprah’s Book Club. A Broadway stage adaptation was produced by the Theatre Guild in 1932, written by the father and son playwriting team of Owen and Donald Davis, but critics gave a poor reception, and it ran only 56 performances. However, the 1937 film, The Good Earth, which was based on the stage version, was more successful.

Even though I knew of the relation for many years, I never took the time to really get to know her life. I really should have. I did read and watch The Good Earth, but there was so much more to learn. She had an amazing life.

Growing up in China and America, being a very prolific writer, so many humanitarian efforts (Once again, at least read the Wiki page), being on a stamp, and winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936. Not many Family trees contain a Nobel Prize!

I have found a couple more famous relatives and will talk about them at a later time.

Americans From WAY Back

One thing I’ve found interesting is the lack of immigrants in The Tree. Of course, EVERYONE is an Immigrant unless you are Native American, but a majority of our ancestors in The Tree were living in the United States BEFORE it was the United States.

Most stories of your neighbors and friends, and what you see on TV, have stories of people leaving their countries and going to America to seek the prosperity they have been assured they would find here. The greatest country in the world.

You hear stories of immigrants coming by ship and landing on Ellis Island in the shadow of the Statue Of Liberty. $10 dollars in their pockets and all the dreams they can carry. Irish, Italian, Russian, Jewish, all kinds of people, coming to The Melting Pot.

I have yet to find that in The Tree.

I use 1776 as the timeline. If you were here before 1776, you are an Immigrant, but you were here for the birth of the nation.

On the Grover side, we have always been told we were of Norwegian descent. This would account for the most recent immigration in The Tree.

Erick Knutson was born in 1818 in the country of Norway. He met and married Emily in 1851 and their first child, Barbara, was born in Dodgeville, Wisconsin in 1852. On August 19^th, 1888, in the town of Goldfield, Iowa, Barbara married Joel Albert Grover. Erick and Emily are my Great- Great-Great Grandparents.

I believe the only other ancestor who was not born in the US after 1776 is Edward Dalton. He was born in 1796 in Sefton, Lancashire, England to Thomas Dalton and Jane Darwin. Records are so far unclear as to when he came to the US and married Catherine Marshall in Somerset, Pennsylvania. There is more to be discovered though, so stay tuned.

Their Son, William Dalton Married Jane McQuilling. That’s them in the picture above. Their Son, Marion Dalton married Eliza Jane Finley. Their son James married Addie Ophelia Barnett. Their Daughter Margaret married Ralph Monitcue and they had a daughter named Jeanne Elizabeth. My Dad’s mother. Margaret Dalton passed away soon after Jeanne was born, and she was raised by her Grandmother Addie.

On the Smith side, Johan Andreas Kaufmann came to The New World from Germany and passed away even before America was born. His son Isaac Americanized the name to Coffman. Then he married Esther Easter. They are my 4^th great Grandparents.

I would like to get some charts and graphs of all the arrivals of our ancestors. From when and where. I have found Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and England, and of course, Norway. The European information is hard to find, but I am still working on it.

Climbing My Family Tree

I’ve always wondered what I will find in my Family Tree. I’m fascinated by the people, the names, the locations, the stories, and the faces of the members of The Tree.

As I start to climb, I’m noticing that even though my name is Grover, I am a Smith, A Coffman, A Monticue, A Knutsen, a Fear, a Fickas, a Moody, and over a hundred more names. As of right now, the Family tree has 1010 people on it. Some I probably will remove, and there are many more to add. I only happen to be named Grover because of a long line of men that carried the name and wound up on me. If a grandmother, had somehow been a grandfather, my last name could be Bacon.

Whenever I have seen someone with the name Grover, I always wondered who they were and what they are about, and are we related. Arguably, the most famous Grover, from Sesame Street, is probably not my relative, but he has always been my favorite. That’s why I hate Elmo so much. Elmo steals screen time from Grover. I wish Grover would have his agent talk to the Henson people.

The other big revelation in the Grover name came when I met my soon to be wife for the first time. She told me that she grew up near, and lived in for a short time, the town of Grover City. Which is now, Grover Beach. It is a small town on the coast of California next to Pismo Beach. Well, when I was finally able to set foot in Grover Beach, I was very excited. Taking pictures with the City Signs…Seeing the Grover Beach Amtrak Station…I Loved it. But once again, I ran into Grover not getting top billing because everyone was more into Pismo Beach. Shirts, hats, hoodies, shot glasses, googly eye poop..All with Pismo Beach on it! Not a dang thing with Grover Beach on it. I ended up going to the Grover Beach Police and Fire Station and they sold me official patches. I was so happy. I came back home, got a sweatshirt and hat to put them on, and gave them to my Grandparents. I think they liked them and I was thrilled to give those to them. When my Grandfather passed, I was able to keep the hat I gave him, and I cherish it to this day. My wife REALLY loves it when someone asks her where she grew up. If I’m around, I will give her the eye and she’ll sigh and say “Grover City”

What I plan on doing with this blog is sharing the fascinating and amazing things that I find during my Family Tree search with the ones who are also fascinated by it. I’ll share the link with my Family and they can follow, or not follow, and I will put in updates as I find them. This will also preserve these stories for the future. You can also share with anyone you think might be interested.

Another thing I’d like to do is look up anything that the reader might want to see or learn about. Maybe a rumor about someone that you have heard in the family or someone you think we are related to. I have a few stories already about famous relations. I find that part of it pretty fascinating too.

Big thanks to my Mom for also being interested in learning about family history and paying for the Ancestory.com membership.

Let me know what you think. Remember, it’s a work in progress, so I haven’t added all the pictures and people. If you have a picture you’d like me to use, send it. Please leave a Comment and Click to Follow.

Randy