Check out the "Ferguson Genealogy" e-Book in the link below!!

(Updated 12 Mar 2008 15:25:42 EDT - Updates to Alexander & John descendants)


NOTE: Web site transfer limits will permit at most one complete download
of the e-Book per hour

(A complete upload of new entries was made Mar. 4, 2008.  There were several 
thousand new entries added, mostly due to the inclusion of family data from a
"new" cousin, Diana (Smith) Chesser.  She added a lot of new information from
the Nelson/Ferguson family connections.  The uploading process has a slight "bug,"
where NOTES attached to an entry will occasionally have two words run together
in the text.  This will be slowly corrected as I make time to update various
entries, but I will probably NOT have the time to do them all... so bear with
us and know that those mistakes were not in the original GEDCOM file that was 
uploaded.)




The Ferguson Plaid

This plaid is associated with the Highland Scots.  The Scots are probably
part of our family heritage, since so many pieces of evidence point to our
family's ancestry being that of the "Scotch-Irish."  However, at this time
no direct ancestral link has been found which joins us to any of the present
Scottish clans that rightfully claim the use of this plaid in their tartans.


To begin with our oldest-known Ferguson ancestor,
Click Here.
To begin with our oldest-known Sellers ancestor,
Click Here.
To begin with our oldest-known Nolte ancestor,
Click Here.
To begin with our oldest-known McCord ancestor,
Click Here.

To begin with the web site administrator's entry, 
Click Here.


To understand who we are, it sometimes helps to know from whence we came...

Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, "The farther back you can look, the 
farther forward you are likely to see."  Perhaps this gives a good 
justification to those of us who pursue our family's genealogy.

We each carry a legacy of our forefathers and pass along a heritage to our 
offspring.  We remember growing up, going to school and visiting relatives.  
At Christmas, sometimes there were people there we didn't always know too 
well.  "She's a distant cousin," we might be told.  Or, "That's your great-
uncle."  And then they would proceed to tell some funny story about them and 
everyone would have a good laugh...  And a small piece of our history was 
passed on.  It can be a sobering realization that tracing back just eight 
generations means you could have as many as 256 ancestors!

Who were all those people?  Where did they come from?  How did they meet 
their spouse(s)?  How did they get to where they called "home"?  And what 
about those fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh cousins out there... Somewhere... 
Who are we related to?

Fortunately, we have a tool, the computer, to help us find out... and keep 
track!

But beware of the surprises you find, since you just never know how fate is 
going to pop up and add some new family to your world.  Like finding a 
previously-unknown seventh cousin at an Alumni Marching Band practice... Or 
your best friend from high school shows up in your data because he married 
an almost-cousin, and his wife's sister and husband were each in your  
wedding...  Then, after being out of high school for 34 years, you discover
some of your classmates are fourth cousins, once removed! Or the director 
of a family history library (whom you had never met before), during a short
presentation on joining the SAR, rattles off names of her ancestors that are
the same as yours!  She turns out to be a fourth cousin, once removed.  Then 
you might even discover one of those 256 ancestors is a descendant of the King 
of Scotland, which makes the Queen of England your 21st cousin and Robert "The 
Bruce" (remember the movie "Braveheart"?) your 22nd great grandfather!  Also, 
your spouse turns out to be your 26th cousin, 7 times removed... and a first 
cousin, seven times removed to Daniel Boone!  And, oh yes, a third cousin is a 
Golden Globe Award winning actor and a sixth cousin once removed is a Pulitzer 
Prize winning playwright.

So we collect some photos, take some video, tell some stories and pass along 
our traditions.  And perhaps, maybe 150 years from now, our gr-gr-gr-great 
grandchildren will have some small appreciation for their own heritage.  And 
they will re-tell the old stories and add to them with stories of their own.

And the family will go on...


NOTE: This database is a subset of my complete file.  The "big" version has 
about 86,500 entries, so I trimmed down some distant lines of relatives to
stay within the limits of this site.  Email me for more information if you
find errors or have updated information.  If you are family, then this site 
is just as much YOUR site as mine!  Help keep track of your/our distant 
cousins and let me know if you have material to contribute. Thanks!

New data was discovered 4 Apr 2008 for James Matthew Scott's parents and for
Mary Ann Howes' parents, along with an additional generation of her ancestors!