I was looking for a blog challenge in which to participate in October and didn’t come across anything I liked, so I decided to create my own challenge. Do you study genealogy? Do you have tons of ancestry info and no place to share it? If you read further and decide you’d like to join me, please do so. Help yourself to the official banner and let me know that you’d like to participate. I will post a link to your page as a participant on the “official kick-off blog” the weekend of Sept 27 and update it as anyone joins us.
The October Ancestry Challenge 2013 will be 23 posts (Monday through Friday) in October about a different ancestor each day. If you can find 23 ancestors, you can rock this challenge. It will also be a lesson in history, clothing, culture, and world events. You may include yourself and your parents if you choose.
I’m going to blog about the Culpeppers. I have 25 Culpepper ancestors ranging from my maternal grandfather Earl Culpepper who died in 1994 in Mississippi…
all the way back to my 23rd great grandfather John Culpepper who was born around 1140 in Kent, England.
(This was his house called Bayhall Manor in Pembury, Kent. Remains of the building were visible until 1960, when one of the national newspapers told a rather exaggerated story of its being haunted. People coming to see it made themselves such a nuisance and rendered it so unsafe, that the owner of the land cleared the ruins away. The ghost was supposed to be that of Anne West, the last person to reside in the mansion. See? It’s already an interesting ancestry blog.)
My Culpepper ancestors lived through the 2nd Crusade, Genghis Kahn, Marco Polo, gunpowder, the Bubonic plague, Joan of Arc, Henry VIII, Christopher Columbus, Isaac Newton, The Revolutionary War, The War of 1812, Napoleon, Louis Pasteur, Charles Darwin, railroads, The American Civil War, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Model T, Albert Einstein, WWI, airplanes, Titanic, WWII, Vietnam War, not to mention, Victorian dresses, Hobble skirts, ragtime music, smoking jackets, and the first television.
I’m looking forward to putting together these blogs beginning with my grandfather and working back in time. Please join me beginning October 1st to participate and/or to visit.
Lori Crane 
I don’t really know much about blogging, but I’d like to be able to at least see what everyone posts. I’ll try to participate if I can.
Yes, please stop by. There will be different blog posts every day in October. And, this is the perfect time to start. It’s really easy once you start. 🙂
How were you able to find out so much about your ancestry?!
I’ve been studying them since I was a teen…umm…30 mumble mumble years. If you can get a name of great grandpa, you can usually do a google search for more clues. Ancestry, family search, rootsweb. It’s getting easier and easier to find info since the internet. Most of my family came from England, and those people kept good records. My roots almost disappeared when they came to America in the 1600s, but we pieced them together and the trail picked back up by 1700 with land deeds and wills. If you ever want me to try to look anything up for you, I’d be happy to. LoriCraneAuthor@gmail.com. Let me know.
That’s really neat, to be able to search that far back. Wonder if I can search too, I was born in 76 in Asia though hmmm..
I haven’t tried to tackle Asia yet, but my future son-in-law is from China, so I’ll have to open that box eventually for benefit of the grandkids. There is so much good history in Asia, it will be very, very interesting. 🙂
That I’m sure it will be! so much culture 🙂
I’m not sure I could find 23 ancestors. So few of mine left behind a record. My great grandfather left a journal of his Civil War experiences as a Union soldier. That’s all I know about him, so I’m grateful he left behind this record.
Geez, you could write about the same guy every day with that kind of info. I have some wills, land grants, etc., but a lot of my ancestors will be about the time they lived in and my uneducated guess as to what kind of people they were. Please join us Patricia!