Oops

 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks

Week 5-Oops


This week’s theme is oops. This theme gave me pause. I wasn’t sure where in my family history research I had a clear oops case that was worth mentioning. Then I thought of my 3x’s maternal Great Grandfather Amon Army. When trying to research the immigrant ancestor on my Army line, I was having a very difficult time. My grandfather and his brother were the first genealogists in the family. They would go to local libraries and town halls and collect birth, marriage and death records. When I became interested in our family history, my Aunt Mary Jane gave me a copy of my grandfather’s research notes and cumulated records. Among the notes, he had listed his great grandfather as Amos or Elmer Army. Since I kept hitting brick walls every time I tried to research this family, I decided to call my Great Aunt Mary to ask her if she knew anything about the research of her husband and my grandfather for the Army family. I told her that I could not find any records of Amos or Elmer Army at Ellis Island or in Ireland. That I just kept coming up empty. Aunt Mary laughed and said that I had better start looking at French records because the Armys were French from Canada. I was flabbergasted! Oops, I always thought my porcelain white red-headed grandfather was Irish! Well, 3 out of 4 of his grandparents were Irish. So, I wasn’t all wrong!


With that in mind, I was able to continue my research with a new focus. Learning that the Armys migrated from Canada, first to New York and then to Massachusetts, I renewed my searches. In the end, I found that my immigrant Army ancestor, Amon Army, as he went by in the United States, was Hermes Emond. He is listed at least 16 different ways across multiple records. I located his burial and confirmed my suspicions when I found his headstone engraved in French with his original name Hermes Emond. Say it with a French accent. Now reverse the order of the names and you can see how he ended up as Amon Army.


P.S. Years later DNA confirmed my correlated research…I am an Emond! 




#52ancestors  #familyhistory  #genealogy  #Ancestors  #ancestry  #progenofne #FamilyTree  #FamilyHistorian  #familyhistory 


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