In the process of applying for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), I learned that my great grandmother, Lutie Mae McShan Twitchell (pictured 4th from the right on the top row) was born in Texas in 1889. WHAT??? This came as quite a surprise, since everything I knew about my grandmother’s family traced back to Mississippi, Illinois, and Massachusetts. NOW I’m intrigued! Could I have roots that trace back to the Texas Revolution?
Many people who join a lineage society get bitten by the “genealogy bug” and become obsessed with finding more ancestors they can prove to an ever-growing number of lineage societies honoring military, civil, and patriotic service, occupations, trades, and crafts, and more. I’m one of those people. And it’s the foundation of my genealogy journey.
I started at this photo every time I visited my grandparents (which was often), and yet I never knew who they were. Nearly a decade after they were gone, I learned who at least some of these people were. My grandmother isn’t in the picture (she hadn’t been born yet), but her siblings are the children in the front. Her parents (my great grandparents) are Herman Twitchell and Lutie Mae McShan Twitchell (3rd and 4th from the right on the top). Other direct ancestors include Lutie Mae’s mother, Anna Thornton McShan (4th from the left on the top row), and Herman’s parents, Jeduthan Twitchell and Amanda/Melvina Daniel Twitchell (the 1st and 2nd persons seated in the second row).
I learned from my mom, who lived with her grandmother for a while, that Lutie Mae had once mentioned that her father “had been a physician in Dallas, where he swindled a lot of people out of their money with a claim he had the cure for cancer, and the family got run out of town.” Interesting! Could this family lore be true? I tried in vain to learn more about Lutie Mae’s father, Dr. Francis Adams McShan, but he was — and still is — an elusive character.
When I began this journey, my genealogy skills were limited to Ancestry hints at the time (which we all know are correct, right?), so I set out to start improving my skills. I took four Genealogy Education Programs offered by the DAR, the Boston University Genealogy Principles course, took numerous niche classes, participated in two Research Like a Pro study groups (which I highly recommend!) and soaked up as much information as I could.
As a result, I’m happy to say I’ve upped my genealogy game since then, able to analyze data, separate individuals of the same name, and evaluate genealogical cousins by combining DNA and traditional genealogy. So far, I’ve proven more than a dozen different ancestors to as many organizations, and I still can’t get enough! Learning the stories of my ancestors is both fascinating and heartbreaking, and I want their stories to live on. I’m thinking that becoming a professional genealogist might be what’s in store for the next chapter of my life.
Stay tuned to learn more about my discoveries about the Good Doctor, my Texas roots, and my genealogy journey.
#52 Ancestors – Foundations
