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Hi there,

I'm so used to doing genealogy research for England and Ireland, but I'm pretty rusty on how to do US research LOL.

Long story short - my Mom (living, b. 1942) was adopted. She doesn't know much about her biological family. She has sent me very old copies of court summons papers and some short handwritten notes that her mom wrote in relation to my mom's adoption to another couple. (My mom's mom gave her up basically).

So, I am trying to find out my maternal family line.

I know the genealogy research should keep me in Chicago city for at least a few generations backwards from my maternal grandmother - Mary Summer(s)

Mom's mom was named: Mary Summer or Summers.
Handwritten notes by Mary show Summers ... but court records show Summer.

Going by my father's parent's birth years, I'm going to assume she was born sometime between 1910 and 1920.

Mom's dad may or may not have been John Dwyer. Mom was always given conflicting information on who her Dad was.

In Dec 1945, Mary Summer(s) lived at 1713 W. Warren Blvd, Chicago, IL
In April 1947, the address was: 2150 Flournoy St, Chicago

What's weird is that there is a handwritten note dated Nov 7, 1945 where Mary Summers says "now -> Stella Lenard" ... she changed her name?

Anyways, I know that is precious little to go on, but if someone has somehow come up with census records or anything else that pertains to Mary Summers that will help me work backwards, I would be grateful.

Mom knows she has biological brothers and sisters, but have never been in contact with them. While Mom is not interested in knowing her biological genealogy, she has given me her full blessing to do the research since she knows I want as complete a genealogy tree as possible ... as my Dad's side is fairly well researched (with a lot of great help from folks here at RootsChat!).

My Dad's mother's family is WOOD.  According to a typed up family history she did in the mid/late 1970s (and subsequently verified by another family researcher), Wood is very Old English.

Long story super short ... The early Woods of England were among the dissenters who refused to comply with the rules and disagreed with the doctrines of the Church of England. Some of these non-conformists were forced to leave the country after the Act of Uniformity in 1662. Consequently, members of the family settled in Holland and then later in the New World.

The earliest WOOD we have is Uriah Wood. Born abt 1725 in Schenectady, New York, d. 1790 of natural causes.

I have never done any research for Holland/Dutch ancestors so I am very ignorant on what records are available, what they are referred to, and any of the normal "lingo" associated with genealogy research for that country. Hence my post today.

Now, Uriah's grandson and his wife only spoke Dutch in their home until their children started to go to school (early 1800s New York).

So, that leads me to presume that since the Dutch language was passed down through 3 generations ... that perhaps Uriah's parents are the ones who immigrated to the United States from Holland in the early very 1700s. 

Are there any ship passenger lists going that far back?
Are there any Holland genealogy records going that far back?

I have no parental information on Uriah ... but do know who he married, etc. But doubt there are any marital records for 1750 Albany, New York (wife: Magdalena Quackenbose b. 1726, d. 1816). 

If I can do research in Holland ... hopefully it's for only a generation or two, and might be able to find out the English ancestor(s).

Any advice, hints, links, etc you can give to go that far back would be greatly appreciated.

I have been earnestly trying to find a source that lists those that came over with Oliver Cromwell during the invasion of Ireland in the 1640s. While many counties were affected by the land proclamation as a result of this invasion, I am particularly interested in County Wexford overall.

A distant cousin, in Ireland, firmly believes that our Eyre ancestors acquired lands in County Wexford, via Philip Boyne, as a 'thank you' for supporting Cromwell .. meaning that they came over with Cromwell and were one of thousands that acquired lands in payment for their service and settled in Ireland.

Now, Giles Eyre, of the famous Galway Eyres, did acquire lands in this manner in Wexford.  However, we have yet to establish any connection between our Eyre branch and any in the Galway region. If we could, that would make things so much easier thanks to the Eyre Dedication by Allen Stewart Hartigan which goes way back to the Eyre "seat" of Derbyshire, England.

Anyways. So far, we can only get back to:

Henry Eyre. I guesstimate his birth to be approximately 1760-1770. We are going to assume he was born in Co. Wexford.

As far as we know, his only child is:
John Eyre.  I guesstimate his birth to be approximately 1790-1800. He was married to a Sarah Edwards.  Again, assume he was born in Co. Wexford. We have no further information on these two people.

Now, John and Sarah had several children (in order of birth): Phoebe (b. 1823), George (b. 1826), Alice (b. 1832), John (b. 1835, d. 1912), Thomas (b. 1836), and William (b. 1845, d. 1908) ... William being my great-great-grandfather.

Now - Henry, John, Thomas, and William are all mentioned in the record of claims for the Rebellion of 1798 in Co. Wexford.

I also have all those kids mentioned in the Kilnamanagh Baptismal Register 1818-1836 (Co. Wexford).

So, I'm needing more information on John and Sarah ... John's father, Henry ... and all the way back to the Cromwell invasion. 

Since obtaining any records (birth, marriage, death) going backward from the very early 1800s seems to be getting harder exponentially,  I figure I could work forwards from when our first Eyre came to Ireland during the Cromwell invasion and got the lands in Co. Wexford. Hence, my search for a list of those that came with Cromwell and receive lands as payment for service.  My distant cousin is quickly running out of resources to search on the above mentioned people. I have a feeling the records (mainly church birth, marriage, death) we need just never existed or were destroyed at one point or another.

I have Google'd and Bing'd for months now for websites and publications. I can only find the history of the invasion and the fact that there were lands given out .... but thus far, none that list people in particular.  I can't even find reference that lists do not exist - which I can only conclude that they DO exist ... but who has published them ??

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

My hubby found this database earlier today ...

http://www.icmacentre.ac.uk/soldier/database/search.php

The online muster roll database currently holds just under 90,000 service records. These are taken from muster rolls, housed in The National Archives (TNA), for the years 1369 - 1453.

These are folks who served under Henry the Fifth in various capacities.

My hubby may have found one under an old variation of his last name ... and there are several under mine (Eyre) ... don't know who is related to me, if any, but it was very interesting to see.

At one point, I found someone who provided for free a generic HTML family tree chart.  I use this on my website right now.  However, despite it being basic HTML tables, it's hard to reduce the size and yet fit in all the expanding branches (just a couple of generations, not talking about 800 names or the like). And it's hard keeping track of all those <td> 

So, I was wondering - apart from using software like TNG - has anyone created a HTML or PHP basic chart for their website?

I have plans to put up a proper genealogy website for my family here in the next few months, using software, etc ... but in the meantime, I wanted to get up a more up-to-date chart, but the current code is lacking.