Our TRACY Ancestry - Irish or English?

This looks like a strong case to stop the Irish family traditions and beliefs. Have the English won? Let us know your thoughts and if you have any viable proof against what is written below:

Hi Jim and Donna:

I didn't know if my message reply on Rootsweb would be sent to you so decided to email you. I'm related through Timothy Nutting Tracy's first marriage to Hannah J. Bean, and through their son, Fred Walter Tracy, my great grandfather. If you are interested, and I'm sure you are, I have several generations on Timothy.

Also, I know of a descendant of Ira Guy Tracy. You may already know of her. If you don't have her information I can give it to you.

I'd love to connect with you. Maybe we can be mutually helpful.)

I have attached a GEDCOM of the Timothy Tracy line, including one generation of descendants (i.e., Emma Frances and Fred Walter plus his kids with Helen). I haven't found Hannah's death or Emma's husband, but you can see from my sources that I found Emma's married name on Timothy's Probate records.

I was lucky. My grandmother (married to Timothy's grandson, Alfred Shiner Tracy, knew of Timothy and Hannah as my grandfather's grandparents and gave me their names and that they were from Massachusetts. She had pictures which she gave to me. Unfortunately, my mom 'BORROWED' them to show my sister and they got 'LOST' somewhere. But the names and where they were married got the ball rolling. My grandfather always insisted the Tracy's were Irish, but I found out different. From Timothy and Hannah's marriage certificate I got their parents names then I found a book with the family line back to England. Unless the researcher for that book is incorrect, our Tracy's are English, not Irish. There were two Jesse Tracy's in Vermont and New Hampshire at that time, but only one married to Sarah Hall Thompson and that is the line I chased, which led to the book I mentioned above. So I think I'm right, but I'm sure open to suggestion. My poor grandfather is probably rolling over in his grave with my disclosure.

Jim,

Thanks for your information on your side of the family. You've got a lot there.

I thought you might be interested to know how I made the connection with Timothy from Massachusetts to his showing up in Missouri.

I was going crazy trying to find him after the family left Lowell, Massachusetts. I finally, after months of trying other means, noticed on the 1920 or 1930 census for my grandfather that his father was from Missouri. Well, I knew he wasn't from Missouri, but I surmised he might have lived there and that is what my grandfather remembered, especially since his son, Fred Walter, married in Iowa. I found him and Helen and their four kids and my Fred(rick) [his name really wasn't Fredrick that I can tell, it was Fred Walter] on the 1870 which prompted me to post a query on Rootsweb, which was answered. She told me they were from Dixon, Lee, Illinois (a very hard place to research on the internet. I'm hoping it will prove easier in person - hopefully this summer). She also told me of the Nancy or Emma connection. I still don't know anything about a Nancy, if she exists, but found Timothy's probate records in Missouri which stated his eldest daughter was "Emma Frances Thompson" of Fulton, Illinois. I have a picture of her house that I got, but have no idea what town or who her husband was YET. As they married after the turn of the century I can't find their marriage online. Another thing I'm hoping to find on my trip to Illinois.

I was able to find Helen as a young woman with her parents, only because I was able to put two and two together that she and Dewitt VanVliet were siblings. He was surety for Helen as executor on Timothy's estate. I guess they came from Holland a couple of generations before Helen and Dewitt were born as they were both born in New York, as well as their father, Levi. I found a few spellings of the name VanVliet (Van Vlete, Van Blecht, etc.), but the one that is used the most is VanVliet.

Hope this explains some of my findings. Isn't genealogy fun? We're all detectives.

Created: 01-January-2006 Revised: 01-January-2008