Genealogy: My Aspie Thing

For quite a few years now, I've been very interested in genealogy and family history, much to the delight of my father and brother who now don't feel a need to do it themselves. Daddy lost most of his research documentation over a decade ago when his van burned on Interstate 5, and his heart went out of it after that. My brother has a lot of other interests competing for his time.

Sometimes I can get quite involved in my research, even going so far as to visit old ancestral homes and libraries with ancestral documents on family vacations. Once, when Glen taxed me with this, to him, incomprehensible state of affairs, I pointed out that he had his interest in Furries; Evan was interested in roller coasters, their dad likes building and upgrading computers, while my Asperger Fixation is genealogy. Since he already knew that we all have Asperger's syndrome, he accepted this explanation quite readily.

When I started my research, I knew my great-great-grandparents, Sam and Martha Isaacs had been born in England around 1835, sailed to Australia in time for my great-grandfather Robert Wolff to have born there, and then had somehow ended up in Trinidad, Colorado. I had a collection of names of Robert's siblings and a few family stories. So far, I've been able to verify the siblings (and have even found a few previously unknown sisters who died in infancy), but I have not been able to discover where the supposed noble title comes in, nor have I found any evidence that a Huguenot dePaulk ancestor ever existed. This doesn't mean these stories are not true, but I wish the family had kept better documentation.

I have found Samuel's parents, however, which was quite a feat of genealogical detective work involving marriage certificates and census images. The Internet has made this much easier than such research in the past, which would have involved a lot of mail and travelling. I had intended to visit the Family Records Centre in London, but the Underground was bombed that day, so I never got there.

Woolf Isaacs ben Moshe, born around 1805 in Holland, married Ellen/Eleana/Eleanor Benjamin bat Isaac on December 15, 1830 in the Great Synagogue of London. Their son Samuel was born 15 March 1835, and then they had three daughters: Angel, born about 1840, Rachel about 1844 and Sophia (also known as Zipporah) about 1847. Angel may have died as a child, since she does not appear in the 1851 census, when the family lived at 128 Golden Lane, Middlesex, London. Woolf died between 1851, when he was enumerated in the census, and 1854 when he was listed as deceased on Sam and Martha's wedding certificate. Eleanor died in the first quarter of 1879 of a malignant throat disease. Rachel married Nathanael Nathan and with him had six children; Sophia had not married by 1871 but may have married after that time. Who, I have no idea.

Woolf was a rag merchant, as was Martha Myer's Isaacs' father, Morris Myers. Interestingly, in the 1841 census, I cannot find Morris Myers. His wife Sarah was living with children Joseph, Ann, Sarah and Martha in London, but Maria and Samuel are also missing from the list. Maria, at thirteen, was old enough to go out for service, but Samuel would have only been about seven. Perhaps he was traveling with his father, and they both got missed. Sarah Proctor Fuller Myers died 20 March 1848, and Morris remarried in the second quarter of 1849 to Rachel Barnett. Morris died 12 June 1870.

Let me know whether you're bored to tears by this or if you'd like more.