Ancestry.com Data Base

 I now use Ancestry.com extensively and have created a massive data base with over 45,000 (as of December 2021) relatives for Linda and myself, and it is growing all the time.  

 For descendant information, I was contacting new cousins and other living relatives almost every day.  I got these contacts from the main ancestry data base and from DNA matches for both Linda and myself.   However, I have now gleaned most all of the information I can from those that I could find and those that were willing to share with me.  I include descendants from our 1st great-grandparents only unless there is and interesting pathway to follow where I will include descendants of earlier ancestors.

Most ancestor information comes directly from ancestry.com by using hints that direct me to possible ancestors.  When I find what seems to be a good match, I copy it from their main data base to my "James Campbell Family Tree" data base.  I include direct ancestors only, with their siblings but not descendants of siblings unless there is an interesting pathway to follow.   Many of the ancestral lines in the main ancestry data base go all the way back to the late 1300's and I have copied many of them over to my ancestry data base.  

 Family Tree Charts

After inputting the information to my Ancestry.com data base, I copy the information to the eight Family Tree Charts.  These charts are organized using my four grandparents and Linda's four grandparents: 

Tree #1 - Campbell - Jim's Paternal Grandfather

Tree #2- Hearin - Jim's Paternal Grandmother

Tree #3 - Andrews - Jim's Maternal Grandfather

Tree #4 - Mims - Jim's Maternal Grandmother

Tree #5 - Presley - Linda's Paternal Grandfather

Tree #6- Huffstetler - Linda's Paternal Grandmother

Tree #7 - Walcott - Linda's Maternal Grandfather

Tree #8 - Leatherman - Linda's Maternal Grandmother

The 8 grandparents are the central characters for each tree (like the trunk of a tree).  From them, I built the tree upward (like the branches of a tree) for their descendants, and downward (like the roots of a tree) for their ancestors.  There are 6 levels to each tree as follows:

Level 1 - Descendants of 1st great-grandparents (b. recent to about 1900)

Level 2 - 1st to 5th great-grandparents (born about 1900-1750) 

Level 3 - 6th to 10th great-grandparents (born about 1750-1600) 

Level 4 - 11th to 15th great-grandparents (born about 1600-1450)

Level 5 - 15th to 20th great-grandparents (born about 1450-1300)

Level 6 - 21st great-grandparents to Adam & Eve
 (FYI, the great-great-great-grandparent would be the 3rd great-grandparent). 

Most of our ancestors that immigrated from Europe were our 10th great-grandparents around 1600.  The Tree Charts usually stop at the 4th Level except for a few narrow pathways of interest such as the ones going back to Adam and Eve.  This 4th Level is where I am currently (as of December 2021) working and have a long way to go to finish it.     

These tree charts can be downloaded from the website page entitled "Family Tree Charts".  They were made using PowerPoint, then converted to pdf format to allow you to access them without having the PowerPoint program.  The latest revisions are uploaded to this website usually every Friday. 

After a chart is downloaded and saved, you can use the hyperlinks shown on the charts  to jump to another website or someplace else.   Any text on these charts that is underlined is a hyperlink.  If you click on one of these, it will take you to:

A connecting Page in the next Level above or below,

A Life Summary within this website,

An Ancestry Pedigree in ancestry.com,

An Ancestry Profile in ancestry.com, 

A Person's Name will take you to that person's story in another website. 

 Descendant Spreadsheets

These spreadsheets can be downloaded on the page entitled "Descendant Sheets".  They were made using Excel, then converted to pdf format to allow you to access them without having the Excel program. The latest revisions are uploaded to this website usually every Friday.  

 
After inputting the information found in ancestry.com or that the cousins send me to my ancestry data base, I copy the information to the eight Descendant Spreadsheets.  These spreadsheets list all the known descendants from the eight great-grandparents with their basic information, that is Full Name, Birth Date/Place, Marriage Date/Place, Death Date/Place, Photo, and the same for their spouses.   The first column shows the relationship in outline form indenting each generation as follows:

I, II, III = Grandparents

A, B, C = Parents

1, 2, 3 = Jim's Generation

 a, b, c = Child  

1, 2, 3 = Grandchild    

 a, b, c = Great-grandchild

1), 2), 3) = Great-great-grandchild 

+1, +2, +3 = Spouses       

 Interesting Footnotes 

For many generations, my family has searched in vain for the parents of my great-great-grandfather, Elias Campbell, with only unfounded rumors that would make the connection back to Scotland.  With the advantage of the internet, I believe I have found his parents and the connection back to Scotland.  

Similarly, for many generations, Linda's family has searched in vain for the parents of her grandfather, Lee Alva "Ab" Presley, with only unfounded rumors that would make the connection to Elvis Presley.  With the advantage of the internet, I believe I have found his parents and the connection to Elvis.   

I have found hundreds of direct ancestors that immigrated from Europe, mostly our 10th great-grandparents in the early 1600's and mostly from England.  Projecting these ancestors to the 10th great-grandparents to normalize the percentage of my children's heritage (which is the combination of my wife and myself) I have computed their heritage as:  68% English, 14% German, 9% Scottish, 4% Irish, and 4% Other.

I have also found many other interesting connections including President George Washington, Pocahontas, Braveheart, Robin Hood, William Shakespeare, and many Kings and Queens of Scotland.  I even found a website that traces the genealogy from British Royalty all the way back to Adam and Eve, and I found one of these British Royalty on my tree.  That means I can trace my genealogy all the was back to Adam and Eve, which I have done and added it to my ancestry data base.  It turns out that Adam is my 153rd great-grandfather (subject to interpretation). 

For those of you that have read this far, here's a little secret.  At the bottom of the Presley Stories is Linda's Cookbook that has over 200 of her favorite recipes.