the first man to buy a car, Robert Allison, a mechanical engineer of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania. Here's the account of the event, from Winton

We did not know where our customers would come from, but we were sure they would come. We started building four machines, and when one was finished, Robert Allison, hearing that I was manufacturing automobiles, came to Cleveland.

He wanted a ride. I told him to hop in, and then proceeded to give the first of many millions of demonstrations that since have preceded the sale of automobiles. 

We started out about noon and did not return until after supper. During the afternoon he had me drive to a dozen places where friends of his were working, and from each he sought advice. 

After each stop he had a new set of questions, but apparently I answered them satisfactorily, for when we returned to the factory he asked: “How much do you want for this carriage?”

“One thousand dollars.”

“I’ll buy it.”

Within a short time we sold the other three machines, getting $1,000 apiece. Our profit on each was $400.

The exact date of the sale was March 24, 1898, and about a week later — on April 1, 1898 — payment was received and the car was shipped

Winton bought it back after Allison had used it a few years, and it is now in the Smithsonian Institution

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/sep-keyword/winton-motor-carriage-company/

Believe it or not, I think I'm related to Robert Allison. I'll have to dig into the family tree project to find out

More family tree research has crazy coincidences to posts I've made about the Gen Pershing retaliation on Pancho Villa raid... AND my recent post about my relative that Schofield Barracks was named for... I present, the brief history of Wheeler Air Force base, Pearl Harbor Hawaii

Major Wheeler had become well known for his daring reconnaissance and scouting flights in support of General Pershing's operations near the Mexican Border looking for Pancho Villa. 

While Major Wheeler, former commander of Luke Field on Ford Island, was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, he and his sergeant died in a plane crash on July 13, 1921.

 Wheeler Air Force Base, which is located on the island of Oahu, sharing the East fence of  Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Naval Base is named after Major Wheeler.... who was the commander of the Luke Field, on Ford Island, that was bombed during the attack by the Japanese on Dec 7, 1941.

 Ford Island is the island in Pearl Harbor that the battleships were moored at. I was stationed at Pearl Harbor Subbase on the SSN 717, from 1991-1995, Sub Squadron 1. 

Wheeler Air Force base was the site of several major historic aviation events, including the first nonstop Mainland-to-Hawaii flight by Army Air Corps Lieutenants Lester J. Maitland and Albert F. Hegenberger in 1927; the Great Dole Derby air race from California to Hawaii, also in 1927; the first trans-Pacific flight from the Untied States to Australia by Australian Squadron Leader Charles E. Kingsford-Smith in 1928; and the first Hawaii-to-Mainland solo flight in 1935 by Amerlia Earhart, who flew from Wheeler Field to Oakland, California.

https://aviation.hawaii.gov/airfields-airports/oahu/wheeler-field/

https://aviation.hawaii.gov/airfields-airports/oahu/wheeler-field/major-sheldon-harley-wheeler/

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-1927-dole-race-from-oakland-to.html

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Amelia%20Earhart

and I didn't make a post about it, but I'm distantly related to the Schofield that Schofield Barracks is named for, he was the Sec Of War, late 1880s-ish, and Commander of the Army, and he prompted the president to lay claim to Pearl Harbor as a defensive forward operating base in the Pacific. Schofield Barracks had one of these trains https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-norgrove-railway-outside-of-arroyo.html

Still digging into my family tree to see if I'm related (extremely distantly) to people with famous last names... and just now, established that I'm related to the namesake of Prescott Arizona, William Hickering Prescott, a guy who wrote a book " The History of the Conquest of Mexico " so damn well that the founders of the city of Prescott named their city for him, and named streets for characters in his book

Prescott is the county seat of Yavapai County, it was named in honor of historian William Hickling Prescott. 

Richard McCormick was secretary of the territory at the time (and second governor), possessed an extremely popular history book, “The History of the Conquest of Mexico,” published in 1843. The author’s name was William Hickling Prescott (May 4, 1796, to January 29, 1859). 

It was McCormick who suggested the name Prescott for the new town and territorial capital. The new name was agreed because Harvard-educated Prescott was known as one of the first great American historians and a true patriot with unquestioned character. His father was a lawyer, and his grandfather fought for America, as a colonel, during the Revolutionary War.

Arizona was officially declared a US territory in February 1863. Just one year later, Fort Whipple was moved from Chino Valley to a new, more mountainous locale that was declared "Prescott" on May 30, 1864,  at the behest of Congress and President Abraham Lincoln in an effort to secure the area's mineral riches for the Union forces during the Civil War

Fort Whipple was originally a tactical base for the cavalry and later the headquarters for the Arizona Volunteers (Rough Riders).

Fort Whipple was converted to a tuberculosis sanatorium during WW I and was transferred to the Public Health Service in 1920 for continued use as a hospital for disabled Veterans. In the early 1930s, the facility was transferred to the newly created Veterans Administration as a general medical / surgical hospital.

William H. Prescott is considered one of the most distinguished historians of the 19th century, being instrumental in the development of history as an academic subject.

He was left partially blind following a food fight during his freshman year at Harvard when he was struck in the eye with a slice of bread

He has a statue and an entire building named after him in Boston, plus a street is named in his honor near Harvard, his bread-tossing alma mater across the river in Cambridge.

https://azdot.gov/adot-blog/behind-place-name-prescott

https://www.prescott.com/history

Both Virgil Earp (brother of Wyatt Earp) and Doc Holliday lived in Prescott before their now infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Virgil Earp lived in Prescott starting in 1878 as a constable/watchman. Doc Holliday was there for a while in the summer of 1880 and even appears in the 1880 census records.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott,_Arizona

Movies were filmed at the Palace in Prescott, Arizona: 

 The bar has been featured in several films, including Junior Bonner, starring Steve McQueen; 

Billy Jack, starring Tom Laughlin; 

and Wanda Nevada, starring Peter Fonda and Brooke Shields.

https://www.prescott.org/welcome.html#:~:text=We%20are%20Everybody's%20Hometown,not%2C%20regular%20visitors%20become%20residents

Street Names Inspired by Prescott's Book: 

Cortez, Montezuma, and Marina Streets: These streets were named after characters in Prescott's book, particularly Cortez, the Spanish conquistador, and Montezuma, the Aztec emperor. 

Alarcon: Another street named after a character in Prescott's book. 

Aztec Street: This street, located west of downtown, reflects a continued interest in Prescott's book and its focus on the pre-conquest people of Mexico. 

Coronado (now Pleasant): A street name also inspired by Prescott's book

https://www.dcourier.com/archives/prescott-street-names-have-varied-background/article_d6427a41-114d-5b23-9ebb-f8efd777e9a6.html

still doing some family tree research, and found I'm distantly related to the co-founder of the Eaton Corporation

In 1896 he was in the Williams College yearbook

In 1898, he was a volunteer in the New York infantry for the Spanish American War, signed up as a private for a 2 year enlistment, age 24. Disbanded by wars early end in Oct 1898 https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/27160/images/dvm_LocHist011438-00287-0?pId=552

In 1911 Joseph O Eaton (father was a famous painter) invested in a new idea -- the very first gear-driven truck axle. 

Transportation was on the verge of dramatic change, automobile and truck use was starting to become widespread, and the world was on the brink of its First World War. 

A small company was started when patented gear-driven truck axle inventor Viggo Torbensen teamed up with Joseph Oriel (J.O.) Eaton, an aspiring young businessman, to found Torbensen Gear and Axle Company, the precursor of today’s Eaton.

When J.O. Eaton helped start the new company in Newark, NJ, he provided an acute business sense, but lacked practical automotive experience. Having left the men’s clothing business to provide the financing for the original truck axle business, Eaton never learned to drive during his long career with the automotive industry. He allegedly got into an electric car once, pulled the lever, and ran into the garage. He got out and never attempted to drive again.

This lack of knowledge was not enough to deter Eaton from pursuing a career in the automotive business. Even though the company only sold seven axles in the first year, Eaton soon moved operations to Cleveland, OH, to be closer to the fast-growing automobile industry in the Midwest and maintains a presence there today. By 1916, the company produced more than 10,000 axles – many of which were installed on the U.S. Military trucks shipped to Japan during World War I.

https://library.automationdirect.com/eaton-a-company-history/

https://www.eaton.com/us/en-us/company/about-us/our-heritage.html

https://www.eaton.com/content/dam/eaton/support/eaton-me-reference-brochure-update-brochure-br090014-en-gb.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Oriel_Eaton_II

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/75234499/person/230164918634/facts

If you're wondering where you've heard of the company Eaton's name from, it could be from Eaton superchargers, transmissions, Eaton Detroit Spring (helped restore Gen Patton's WW1 tank https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/01/pattons-tanka-world-war-i-era-ford.html )

and it's a town in Ohio named for a general in the Barbary coast war

It is not easy to get accurate info of the founders of the Cushman Scooter company.

 Everett B Cushman and Clinton Cushman founded the company in 1901, they were cousins.

In 1919, Everett was out, and that is about all there is to easily find about the co-founder of the Cushman company, whose scooter won 4 Army/Navy "E"s in the Navy in WW2 https://usautoindustryworldwartwo.com/cushman.htm

He married Florence Judd, his parents were Joseph Warren Cushman and his mom was Ruth E Bruce

He was born in Champaign Illinois in 1878, he died in Huntington Beach Calif. in 1963

His direct ancestor was on the Mayflower, as were other Cushmans, and they came from England. They went from Plymouth to Vermont to Illinois, and his great grand dad was in the Massachusetts Militia in the revolutionary war

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/76123388/person/162601912049/facts http://www.osagcd.com/cushmanclinton.html 

https://www.farmcollector.com/gas-engines/gas-engines-company-history/cushman-motor-co-zm0z16augzhur/

https://www.thesahb.com/snapshot-198-1945-cushman-30-series-scooter/

Since the info before the Atlantic crossing isn't easy to get, I can only see that my ancestors, the Cushmans, and Everett's ancestors, were both from England

the Bosch Magneto Ignition, it made the internal combustion engine feasible for powering the automobile. And due to the family tree project I'm working on, I found I'm related very distantly!

 

In 1897 a customer asked Bosch to customize a three-wheeler with a magneto ignition system. 

Robert Bosch tasked his factory manager, Arnold Zähringer, with finding a solution, which he delivered by making a fundamental design modification. 

Until then, the electrical energy had been generated through the rotation or oscillation of an armature wound in copper within a magnetic field. The technology was capable of providing ignition at 100 rpm

 Zähringer set it up so that a lightweight metallic sleeve surrounding the armature would rotate or oscillate instead, enabling a large number of ignition processes, sufficient in smaller, faster vehicle motors that operated at up to 1,000 rpm.

Jenatzy drove a Mercedes to victory in the Gordon Bennett Cup in Ireland in 1903 — thanks in part to the reliable Bosch ignition system, which stood up to the harshest conditions.

Bosch secretly supported the resistance against Adolf Hitler, and together with his closest associates saved victims of Nazi persecution from deportation.

He established his last will and testament in which he stipulated that the earnings of the company should be allocated to charitable causes.

His father ran a large progressive farm that included a brewery. 

His nephew was future Nobel laureate.

 On 24 May 1884, Bosch sailed for the United States, becoming an engineer under Thomas Edison and Sigmund Bergmann in New York. On 13 May 1885, Bosch sailed for London, where he found employment with Siemens Brothers. On 15 November 1886, he opened his own "Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering" in Stuttgart.

Bosch was greatly concerned about promoting occupational training. Prompted by his awareness of social responsibility, he was one of the first industrialists in Germany to introduce the eight-hour work day

Robert Bosch did not wish to profit from the armaments contracts awarded to his company during WWI. Instead, he donated several million German marks to charitable causes, including to the establishment of Stuttgart's Robert Bosch Hospital in 1940.

https://www.bosch.com/stories/bosch-magneto-ignition/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bosch

One of my ancestors, Henrik Bosch, 1493-1526 lived in Frankfurt, and Robert Bosch's ancestors were from the nearby Stuttgart area, though the efforts I've made in looking in Ancestry.com found that his ancestry haven't been thoroughy documented earlier than the late 1700s

While working on the family tree project, I found I'm related to Robert McCulloch (middle name, Paxton, and I think you know the rest) and Gregory Peck!

I've already posted all about Robert P McCulloch, maker of chainsaws, cars, helicopters, superchargers, go cart engines

His father in law was Briggs, of Briggs and Stratton engines. 

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=McCulloch

Yes, I really am having a lot of fun, and luck, looking through my family tree project for last names that might be the same ones as famous people. 

Still to look up, Bosch, Petty, Haynes, Cushman, Schumacher, and Eaton, of the vehicle related field. 

While working on my family tree (still) I'm looking to see if the famous last names in my ancestors, are also, ancestors of the famous people we are familiar with. Todays cool connections? Henry Fonda, and Alfred Hitchcock

 

Fonda's patriline originates with an ancestor from Genoa, Italy, who migrated to the Netherlands in the 15th century.

 In 1642, a branch of the Fonda family immigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland on the East Coast of North America.

 They were among the first Dutch population to settle in what is now upstate New York, establishing the town of Fonda, New York.

Henry Fonda was friends and roommates with Jimmy Stewart (yup, I'm pretty sure I'm related to him too, via the Scottish Stewarts, as I recently found that the Mary Queen of Scots family of Stewarts are in my family tree) 

Fonda enlisted in the Navy to fight in WWII, for three years, initially as a quartermaster 3rd class (I shit you not, I was also a QM3) on the destroyer USS Satterlee. 

He was later commissioned as a lieutenant junior grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Navy Presidential Unit Citation. He resigned as a full lieutenant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fonda

he first served as a quartermaster third class in the USS Satterlee (DD-626), and later while a lieutenant, as air combat intelligence officer in the USS Curtiss (AV-4). In these positions, Fonda—who in the words of his former shipmate, now retired Captain Charles Cassell, “carefully cultivated a non-celebrity image”-—not only contributed to winning foe war but also clearly impressed those with whom he served with his forehandedness and professional performance. They remember him with both personal fondness and great respect for his skill as a Navy man.

Henry Fonda and the U.S. Navy became formally assorted on 24 August 1942 when, at age 37, Fonda enlisted as a seaman recruit at Los Angeles. In due course he was sent to boot camp and quartermaster A school at San Diego. His performance was such that he was meritoriously advanced to quartermaster third class and assigned in May 1943 to the Satterlee, a Gleaves-class destroyer then nearing completion in the builder’s ways at the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation. There he and other newly assigned crewmen began the work of readying the ship for sea.

In August, 1943 “The ship received orders for Fonda’s transfer to New York, for Officer’s Training, but conveniently pigeon-holed them.” Cassell recalls that:

“Fonda liked the ship and was eager to go to sea. . . . he had taken no action to get a commission . . . [but] we persuaded him, I think, that his talents were not being fully utilized and he could serve the Navy bests as an officer.”

He agreed to be commissioned, but on “the condition that he could make our first cruise, stay aboard until we got to Norfolk. . . .” The cruise was uneventful, filled with normal at-sea routine, and Fonda qualified as the best refueling-at-sea helmsman. Both Witherow and Cassell remember that “He really wanted to go to sea, especially after all his hours and weeks of preparation.”

September 1943, “Fonda, H.J., QM3, transferred to local receiving station for further transfer to Commandant 3rd Naval District for assignment by Bureau of Naval Personnel.”

Proceeding to New York, Fonda was commissioned a lieutenant (junior grade) and thereupon ordered to the staff of the Vice Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, where he was to make training movies at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Anacostia. 

He tired of this mundane duty, however, so he applied for duty aboard a ship in a war zone The Navy delayed granting that request, however. After slightly more than a month in Washington, Fonda was ordered to NAS Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where he was trained as an air combat intelligence officer.

 Between 4 October 1943 and 18 March 1944, he learned the basics of coding, photo interpretation, et cetera. Fonda excelled in his work, finishing in the upper quarter of his class. His wish to serve in a war zone was finally granted in the spring of 1944. After a short leave, he began the journey to the seaplane tender Curtiss, flagship of Vice Admiral Hoover, Commander Forward Area Central Pacific.

Fonda’s duties focused on air operations, specifically the interpretation and evaluation of masses of photographic and other intelligence material required to carry forward •he invasion of the Marianas and later Iwo Jima.

Cook recalls Fonda as one of the first staff officers to seek him out. In addition, he conducted detailed briefings with VPB-216 pilots and aircrews on the activities of the Japanese so that he might better grasp the materials he was reviewing.

Hard work, application to his duties, and an interest in others characterized his service. White recalls when the ship was at Saipan in December 1944. Tokyo Rose broadcast that she knew where the Curtiss was, who Admiral Hoover was, and even that the movie actor Henry Fonda was on board. Most important, she said that the Japanese Navy was going forth to sink the ship, and as White remembers it, “We believed her, and the ship got underway.” 

During the air attack this very nearly happened, and after the attack, Fonda—by then promoted to full lieutenant—and two sailors dove into the water around the ship to identify an aircraft shot down by the Curtiss' s gun crews. White further recalls, “We weren’t sure how he figured it out, but he told the Admiral to launch an air strike at Pagan Island, and we weren’t attacked for almost two weeks.”

Fonda recovered the dead Japanese aviator’s chart board and from it, together with other materials, Fonda concluded that an attack on Pagan was both appropriate and necessary.

The quality of Henry Fonda’s service to the Navy is captured in a citation for the Bronze Star Medal that he was awarded in August 1945: “He contributed materially to the planning and execution of air operations which effectively supported the Marianas, Western Carolines and Iwo Jima Campaigns.

 
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1991/april/henry-fonda-and-us-navy

Kevin Bacon has a new tv series getting released on Amazon Apr 3rd, and his character has a 71 Chevelle... good choice! And to my surprise, I find we are related, a common ancestor from Drinkstone Manor in the 1500s

 

https://www.familysearch.org/en/memories/memory/25132766

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicholas-Bacon

during my family tree research, I found that one of my ancestors was a driver for a livery company in Detroit in 1887, according to the city directory.... and since library's keep some old maps, I can see exactly where that livery stable was, at 43 West Congress st

 

Above is the zoomed in map showing GF Case livery stable, and then zoomed out

here's some other interesting companies in that neighborhood, the Detroit Carriage Woodwork Co, the Reichle Brothers Carriage Factory, the Webster Manufacturing Engine Builders, Jas. Jenks Machinery

the map even shows the railroads

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/micounty/3929071.0001.001/8?page=root;print=1;size=100;view=text

where the livery, and all the other small companies were, is now a couple skyscrapers. Probably the wood buildings were accidentally burned down, or bought up and replaced with newer company and corporate buildings as downtown became less frontier and more profit driven because in the roaring 20s, the area became known as the financial district

the whole block is now just two buildings, one is the Guardian Building, built in 1928-29 in the art deco style 

The building has been designated a National Historic Landmark, and is owned by Wayne County, Michigan and serves as its headquarters.

The Guardian Building is one of the most significant and striking Art Deco skyscrapers in the world. The building’s taller north tower and smaller octagonal south tower are connected with a nave-like block similar to the plan of a cathedral. In fact, the Guardian Building was once promoted as “the Cathedral of Finance.” Its grandeur was, and still is, unconventional. Visitors are awestruck by the explosion of color, craftsmanship and blending of Native American, Aztec, and Arts & Crafts influences.

The exterior of the Guardian Building is faced with stunning tangerine colored bricks resting on a granite base. Polychromed terra cotta on the upper stories was purposefully over-scaled to be seen by motorists on the street below. 

Designed by Michigan architects, erected by Michigan contractors, and built by Michigan artisans: the Guardian Building is virtually a temple of Michigan commerce and ingenuity. The Griswold Street entrance is crowned with a semi-dome lined with symbolic custom tiles, and the main lobby has a large glass mosaic as well as the spectacular mural in the original banking hall.

At about a third of the height of the three-story vaulted ceiling is a walkway where the guard would have paced in the bank’s heyday.  The lobby contains materials from all over the world, from Italian Travertine marble to Tavernelle marble from Tennessee to Namibian marble, which the architect was so desperate to use that he reopened a mine in Africa that had been closed for more than 30 years.

and it's equipped with a rare Tiffany clock (one of four in that style ever created)

https://www.guardianbuilding.com/
https://www.awesomemitten.com/pure-detroit-tours-guardian-building/

Whoa.... I'm still working on my family tree... and just found how I'm related to Burt Munro!

 

I'll need to count how many generations back, but Robert Munro, the 14th Baron Foulis, and 17th Chief of Clan Munroe 1503–1547, born in Castle Foulis, died at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh near Mussleburgh in Scotland. 

14 generations of Burt's ancestors to get to Robert, 1503-1547 and 16 generations of my ancestors to get to Robert, 1503-1547

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/191316217/person/292504415784/facts

I'm still working on my family tree... and finally made a break through on the one branch that had been impossible to find more info on... and my paternal grandmother's grandfather and great grandfather were bridge carpenters for the Michigan Central Railroad

The Michigan Central Railroad had several wooden bridges, including the Baker Street segment of the Double Bridge in Detroit, the Kettle Creek Bridge in St. Thomas, and the Saginaw River Bridge in Bay City.

the wood-timbered Baker Street segment of the 1870s-vintage Double Bridge was functionally-obsolete and replaced by a new concrete-and-steel version c. 1910. 

The Michigan Central had the most direct route across Michigan from Detroit to Chicago. The Michigan Central also had the best access to Chicago of any Michigan railroad.

and you probably recognize the station that Ford recently made a lot of headlines about buying... the famous Michigan Central station in Detroit

And also, I finally made the family tree connection my sister had been hoping for, I proved that we are related to Mary Queen of Scots. Way back during high school my sister did a book report, or essay or something on Mary Stewart, after watching the movie with Katherine Hepburn, Mary of Scotland, which also starred Frederic March https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027948

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Central_Railroad

https://historicdetroit.org/galleries/michigan-central-station-construction-photos#:~:text=The%20soon%2Dto%2Dbe%2D,Arthur%20Lyman%20Sarvey%20photo%2C%20c.

You can learn a lot if you have the time to do your family tree... and then risk wasting time trying to see if those last names that show up, are indeed connected to the people that made them famous. So, here's some famous people I learned I'm distantly related too

Charles Goodyear, inventor of the rubber vulcanizing process (or he gets the credit for using it to make long lasting tires anyway, lets not quibble)

Glenn Curtiss

Orville and Wilbur Wright

Henry O Studley

George Ferris

Albert Erskine

Fayette R. Plumb

Sandra Bullock

If you are American, as most of my readers are, and do your family tree, you will probably find similar results as long as you get back to the 1600s and look at the last names of the colonists, and then try and think of the famous people with those names. But it takes a lot of time.

After you think you've got a famous last name picked out, then you have to go to Wikipedia to get their birth and death year, and parents names, and then take that info and plunk it into Ancestry com or whatever other genealogy website you're using, and then see if you can work their family tree back far enough to see if it connects with yours.

It's very time consuming, and often you find that they changed their last name, or came to America a lot more recently and are not related to your ancestors that  immigrated here since the 1620s

here's a passport application from 1882 that Goodyear signed with a nice flourish

I was doing my family tree mostly because neither my moms side nor my dad's side had done one, but I share a birthday with a great aunt that was doing her family tree the hard way, back before websites made it something you could get done from a laptop. She did it the old fashioned hard way, and was incredibly thorough. The problem was, there was no help when she ran out of leads, and with ancestry, there are all the data points other people have entered, and all the census reports, and marriage certificates, birth certs, gravestones on another partner site, etc. The total amount of info is stunning. There are thousands of church books covering the weddings, christenings, etc, thousands of genealogy books, history books, etc that have all been scanned it and searches work all that scanned text for name matches. By the way, a 6 month subscription is 100 dollars, and it's worth it. If you know that someone will use it? It's a most incredible birthday or christmas gift.

Ancestry com is frustrating in a couple ways though, and could be greatly improved if they would add a place for a description of each person's life achievements. Like, WW2 vet, Mayflower passenger,  or connection to famous people like relative of a president, company, etc.

And for pete's sake, if they would improve the family tree graphic so in a glance you could simply move through a family tree to see who and when, and claims to fame... the situation they have is two or three decades old in computer graphics and useless for scanning.

As finished products go, it's maybe half as useful as it could easily be if they reinvested the subscription fees to improving the product.  Imagine if all you needed to do was to enter your grandparents names and birthdays, and the family trees that applied would simply pop up for you to choose from. They ain't even in the ball park yet. It's like using myspace instead of facebook, hand signals instead of a phone.

I'm done with the rough draft and research of family trees, beginning with each of my 4 grandparents family trees.

I have both a short and simple family tree of about the last 2 dozen ancestors, only on this continent ancestors, going back to the parents of the colonists that landed in Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut... and an extensive all the freaking way back in history to Adam and Eve. If you believe in that. Seth by the way, was our link to Adam and Eve, if you believe in that stuff. Some one was excruciatingly diligent in documenting every single generation mentioned in the bible and which ones were our ancestors.

On the other hand, other people researched all the way back through the vikings to Odin and Frigg (Thor's folks) and every Viking generation, as well as other research into the entire Roman Empire generation, and emperor... other people researched every impossible to pronounce Welsh clansman, every French aristocrat, every knight, duke, earl, king, queen, empress, emperor, Czar, Scottish Clan chief, Irish clan, every German clan chief, every Norman, Saxon, Goth, Ostrogoth, Vandal, Briton, Merovingian, Burgundians, Austrasians, De Lyons, Bourgognes, Lombardys, Vermandois, Franks, Druids, Jews, Italians, Russians, Pilgrim, Puritan, Huegunot, Quaker, Mennonites, Palatines and other colonists. I did the Salem Witches, the minutemen, revolutionary war vets, battle of Bunker Hill and Lexington, Timothy Lockwood suffered throught the winter at Valley Forge, French and Indian war vets, the Indian wars, the Indians (yes, we are descended from Mohawk too) War of 1812 vets, Civil War vets (a doozy of a story in their of Benjamin Schofield, and his rifle that is now in the Ypsilanti county historical society museum, see attached news article) 1894 Spanish American War vets, WW1 and 2 vets. No, I didn't do Korean or Vietnam or gulf war.

I can tell you how many Mayflower passengers I'm descended from, (and Speedwell!) and a couple dozen other ships our ancestors sailed across the Atlantic on. Noe a single Ellis or Staten Island immigrant though.

I can tell you which Presidents I'm related to, and how, and which celebs, but there are very very few. Maybe just Lucille Ball and Sandra Bullock, but when you can ignore the rest of Hollywood assholes, and just admire those two? We got it made. I am are related to the Bloomingdales, Van Burens, Benedict Arnold, Lizzy Borden and also the Borden Condensed Milk creator, William Tecumseh Sherman, Bushnell that designed the first submarine, and his descendant the maker of binoculars, Sir Isaac Newton, Noah Webster the creator of the American dictionary, Johns Hopkins, the dutch that settled New Amsterdam (New York City),  https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2021/06/1915-hudson-street-and-laight-street-st.html   Baldwin pianos creator, JP Morgan, the president of Studebaker (Albert Erskine), Ben Franklin, Charles Goodyear, Glenn Curtiss, George Ferris, the Wright Brothers, Henry Studley (ever heard of the Studley Toolchest? It's a legendary piece of art http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Studley%20tool%20chest if you didn't know, my blog is http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/ and that is why you might see a lot of links to that site. ) and Fayette Plumb (among the 10 largest American tool companies ever, but it's not PLVmb, that's a different tool company. Plumb made striking tools, axes, hammers, picks ((supplied the US Govt during WW1 with picks and shovels and made the trenches)))

 
I've been working on this family tree so long I've forgotten most of the interesting stuff, but Marcus Aurelius is in the tree, Caesar, Cleopatra, kings and queens from every country in Europe (way way back when) the guy that got Russia organized back around 900AD, Noah, Adam and Eve, old man Methuselah, again, if you believe in that religious stuff, the guys that fought in the Crusades, and which crusades, Charlemagne and every other ruler of Europe, the guys that signed the Magna Carta, the knight of the garter, the knights of the rose, bishops, saints of stuff like brewing, I kid you not, sheriffs of Nottingham and all the Robin Hood villains (they existed, his gang didn't)

I'm related to Horton (of San Diego fame, if you've been here, you might recall Horton Plaza downtown) and a Supreme Court Justice, some early RI governors, and CT governors, and several guys that signed the constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

There are about 250 pages of the deep into history stuff, and 38 pages of just those from about 1550 until my paternal grandparents.

The life line (family tree / flow chart) of the American automobiles

Click on this to see it much bigger, use Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or other software to see it really big

This is one big picture! And THIS is the SMALL version, only 30% of the original size. I was told it took the originator 7 years to complete. My thanks to Jim for telling me about it!