Genealogy Newsletter – March 7, 2026

07 Mar Genealogy Newsletter – March 7, 2026

GENEALOGY- THE NEWSLETTER PODCAST STYLE!

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GENEALOGY- CAMELOT AND CUMBERLAND ISLAND

Another interesting story about Cumberland Island was that Lucy Carnegie CARNEGIE had suggested that, in their quest for a quiet private ceremony, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette marry on the island. The island could only be reached by boat or plane, and the paparazzi would have a hard time sneaking in.

And forget save-the-dates — guests not involved in the planning only found out they were invited to an event on the island five days before it happened, per The New York Times. They didn’t even know it was for the wedding until they arrived. The guest list was narrowed down in part by not inviting any friends or family whom Kennedy Jr. and Bessette weren’t 100% sure could be trusted with this secret. Those guests who made the cut were given Buffalo nickels to carry to share with security.

They tied the knot on September 21, 1996, and managed to keep it out of the press until days later. The ceremony took place at the First African Baptist Church (below) on Cumberland Island, a small one-room church founded in 1893, which we visited. The church had no electricity, so it was lit with flashlights.

The Kennedys bought out the Greyfield Inn for the weekend; it was where they held the reception and where their guests stayed. Greyfield Inn, the four-star, all-inclusive hotel, is still in operation ($1200 a night). It’s still the only hotel on Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia, and was first built as a private home for the Carnegie family. The remote location played a huge role in keeping the wedding under wraps. Cumberland Island is just 18 miles long.

Carolyn’s dress was so tight that she couldn’t get into it with the stickiness of a humid southern coastal evening. The ladies came up with a solution: wrap her in silk scarves so the dress would slide over them, then pull the scarves out once the dress was on.

After the ceremony, everyone headed to the reception, but JFK Jr. got left behind. He finally got a ride to the Greyfield on the garbage truck that had come to clean up the church.

I just heard that a new mini-series is coming out, so we weren’t trying to jump on the bandwagon, as we had no idea of the Cumberland Island connection.

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GENEALOGY- FROM ADAM AND EVE TO THE NORMAN KINGS OF ENGLAND

In our last update DESCENT on the alleged descent from Adam and Eve to modern-day folks, we left off Richard II, Duke of Normandy, born in 962. Richard had a son, Robert I, Duke of Normandy (statue adjacent), also known as Robert the Magnificent and by other names, was a Norman noble of the House of Normandy who ruled as duke of Normandy from 1027 until his death in 1035 on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Richard’s son William I, the Conqueror (statue below), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading a Franco-Norman army to victory over the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. He suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands.

The line of descent, then, is easy to follow, from William to his son Henry I “Beauclerc”, King of England (pictured below) from 1100-1135, to his daughter Matilda, Princess of England (pictured below), and Empress of Germany (having married Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor), and to her son Henry II, King of England.

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GENEALOGY- THE EARLY DAYS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES

One of our clients asked us to look into the family legend of a relationship with the family that controlled the New York Times.

His grandaunt married a man named Colonel William Van Dyke Ochs Sr. His obituary mentions that he was a veteran of the Mexican border conflict and both World Wars. When he retired from the Army after World War II, during which he served as post commander of Camp Stewart, near Savannah, Ga., one of the largest marshaling posts, he received the Legion of Merit for his service. He recently said of his career: “When I retired from the Army, I was in the horse cavalry. Now I’m one of the few left. My serial number was lower than General Eisenhower’s.”

William was the son of Col. Milton B. Ochs, vice president of the Chattanooga Times Printing Company, and Frances Van Dyke Ochs. After serving his country with distinction, Milton chose to follow his brother Adolph’s path into journalism. In 1909, Thomas R. Preston and Adolph Ochs acquired the Nashville American and renamed it The Tennessean. Milton Ochs served as publisher until 1911. He then became the Sunday editor of the Philadelphia Public Ledger and the managing editor of the Chattanooga Times until his retirement in 1922.

Milton’s father, Julius, was born on June 29, 1826, in Fürth, Stadtkreis Fürth, Bavaria. His father, Lazarus Ochs, was an educated man who spoke several languages fluently and was an authority on rabbinical law. Julius was gifted with his father’s aptitude for languages, mastering the classics and becoming fluent in German, English, French, and Italian from a young age after studying at the Hyman-Schwabacher Institute. At thirteen, he furthered his education in Cologne, gaining valuable military knowledge. Despite showing promise for a professional career, Julius’s path changed following his father’s death, leading him to apprentice as a bookbinder in Frankfurt am Main. Unhappy with this direction, he walked 600 miles to Bremen, sailed to New York in 1845, and eventually settled in Louisville, Kentucky, where a brother and two sisters had emigrated earlier. He served in the Mexican War and again as a soldier in the Union Army.

In 1878, Julius Ochs moved to Chattanooga to serve as treasurer of the Chattanooga Times, a newspaper recently acquired by his son, Adolph. Previously, in Knoxville, he had been active in politics, serving as a delegate at various conventions and supporting key political figures, in addition to his roles as justice of the peace and a Knox County court member. Julius also contributed significantly to community life; he was instrumental in building Knoxville’s first bridge over the Tennessee River, served as rabbi of a local Jewish congregation, and played a pivotal role in founding Chattanooga’s first humane society and Erlanger Hospital. Furthermore, he was a chaplain for the G.A.R. post and helped establish a thriving Jewish community in Chattanooga, where a synagogue named in his and his wife’s honor stands. He was also a mason. Julius was also a music enthusiast, composing light operas such as “The Megilah; or The Story of Esther” for Sabbath school performances. See the story below about Julius and his wife.

Julius’s son, Adolph Ochs, purchased the Chattanooga Times when he was only 20 years old. The ownership papers were signed by his father, Julius, since Adolph was not yet old enough to conduct legal transactions. Adolph was a pivotal figure in the newspaper industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He revived the New York Times in 1896, instilling stringent editorial standards that elevated American journalism. Under his leadership, the New York Times became a leading global newspaper, managed by the Ochs-Sulzberger family for over a hundred years. Ochs viewed news as a valuable commodity worthy of high integrity. Both the Chattanooga Times and the New York Times flourished financially under his stewardship, with profits reinvested into the newspapers, creating a legacy of journalistic success rather than personal wealth. Despite his limited formal education, Ochs valued knowledge and worked tirelessly to make news accessible to the public. His unassuming nature and strong moral fiber earned him respect from those more seasoned in business. The New York Times is one of the few newspapers that has been successful in the transition to the digital era and is still under the leadership of the descendants of Adolph Ochs.

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GENEALOGY- BATTLE STARBUCK GALACTICA

We recently spent time with some friends, who are Trekkies, to the point that they met at a Trekkie convention. Later, we somehow got into a discussion of my wife’s Starbuck lineage STARBUCK, and they asked how the Starbuck name made it into Battlestar Galactica? So, besides having Lorne Greene’s picture in two editions back-to-back, here’s the story.

In sci-fi, it’s easy to create incredible machines and alien worlds. The real challenge? Coming up with convincing names.

This was the issue Ronald D Moore faced when he rebooted Battlestar Galactica back in 2004. And while Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace became a firm fan favorite, it turns out she owes a lot to Moore’s old job on Star Trek.

“In Battlestar Galactica I decided the original’s pilot names – Starbuck and Apollo – would become their callsigns,” he told an audience at the Edinburgh Television Festival. “Then I thought, OK, what are their names?”

“My producing partner, Maril [Davis], will tell you, I am horrible with names. When I have to come up with a name, it’s always… someone I just talked to! If I were watching TV last night, it would be, ‘OK, her name is Marsha Brady!”

Luckily, Moore had just stopped writing for one kickass military officer and didn’t look too far for inspiration.

“So, in that particular circumstance, I had just finished up on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with Kira Nerys [the Bajoran commander].”

“So I thought ‘Kara’ would be her first name. Then I needed a last name, and I had this big old antique book on my desk that was literally ‘Book of Ancient Names’. I literally ran my finger down it and went ‘Thrace! Kara Thrace! I love it.’”

“That’s the depth of my work.”

The inspiration for the Starbuck call sign was the Starbuck character from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.

The picture shows Lorne Greene (Commander Adama), Dirk Benedict (Lieutenant Starbuck) & Richard Hatch (Captain Apollo). You’ve got to admit, Lt. Starbuck looks a little bit like Little Joe Cartwright.

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GENEALOGY- THE GUTHRIES

Certainly, we’ve all had Savannah Guthrie’s family in mind as they work their way through their mother’s kidnapping. Since I have Guthrie ancestors, I thought I’d see if she was related to them. At first, I thought they might be Australian, because Savannah was born there; it turned out her father, a mining engineer, was working over there at the time.

I found some interesting pictures of the Guthries from the past. There is a picture of Savannah Guthrie’s three-time great-grandfather, Isham Prince Guthrie, or Guttery, and below a short biography of him.

There was also a picture of the Guthrie family having Christmas dinner on December 21, 1941, in Pineville, Kentucky. Seated, l-r: Margaret (Mrs. Joe) Guthrie, Charles S. Guthrie, Crystal (Mrs. Hobson) Guthrie, Elzo “Pap” Guthrie [Savannah’s Great-Grandfather], Ruth (Mrs. Charles) Guthrie, Cecil Guthrie, and Geneva Guthrie Gentry. Standing, l-r: Clyde Guthrie [Savannah’s Grandfather], Hobson Guthrie, Edith (Mrs. Clyde) Guthrie, Elzo “Joe” Guthrie (Jr.), Mary Guthrie Miller, Roy Gentry, Paul F. “Pete” Guthrie, Bitsy (Mrs. Pete) Guthrie, Albert Miller, and Mrs. Cecil Guthrie.

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GENEALOGY- D FOR DESERTION

From Brian Rinehart, Civil War archivist- Last week at the National Archives, I was looking at muster rolls for a soldier in the 4th U.S. Infantry shortly after the Civil War. While the handwriting on these muster rolls is often very readable, this one caught my eye for its ornate style. It looked like calligraphy. I took a minute to stop and admire the handwriting, secretly feeling a little jealous that my writing doesn’t look anywhere near as good as that.

Something else caught my eye, though, once I slowed down and looked at the whole document. There was one line, written in red ink, at the very bottom of the page that said, “The sentence to have his head shaved. To be indelibly marked with the letter D.” That’s something I don’t see every day, so my curiosity got the best of me. That’s a random piece of information to include on a muster roll. Who was having their head shaved and why?

The notation was referring to the soldier John Foley. It sounded like some sort of punishment, so I checked the court-martial index for him. Sure enough, he was in there, and the court-martial file gave an explanation of why this young soldier’s head was being shaved.

John Foley had deserted his post, was captured, and went on trial. He claimed he had no defense and pleaded guilty. The initial sentence sounded bad enough: six months of hard labor with a ball and chain attached to his leg. He was also to be dishonorably discharged after serving that sentence. What made it worse was the rest of the punishment: before being discharged, he was to have his head shaved, and a three-inch letter D was to be marked on his thigh, presumably to shame him for deserting.

I’m not sure of his reasoning for deserting, but it led to an interesting rabbit hole. Had it not been for the ornate handwriting, I wouldn’t have stopped long enough to notice that. https://civilwarrecords.com

The letters are below, and above is my lame attempt at having AI, recreate John Foley with an oversized “D” for desertion. Not sure how a 3-inch D on your thigh would ruin your life unless you walked around in your shorts. Besides, you could say it was daring, dedicated, devoted, etc.

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GENEALOGY- SAFETY IN THE GULF

In the 1800’s, the sea lanes between the Atlantic and the Mississippi River were short on harbors and places for ships and military vessels to shelter and defend against pirates, storms, and naval enemies. Deep harbors in the gulf were rare, as the gulf itself was shallow, and many of the rivers that normally carve natural harbors were easily silted, and dredging had not yet been used to deepen harbors.

One such exception was the Outer Harbor of the Dry Tortugas. Outer Harbor was a vast, deep-water anchorage capable of holding many ships simultaneously. It served as a massive staging area and “advance post” for the U.S. Navy to monitor the 75-mile-wide Florida Straits.

It later served as the primary anchorage for the larger fleets used during the Civil War blockade of Confederate shipping and later served as a vital coaling station where warships like the USS Maine refueled before the Spanish-American War.

Of course, you had to have a path from the Outer Harbor to the island of Dry Tortugas, where Fort Jefferson was built to protect the island and its harbors. Jefferson is the largest brick masonry structure in the Americas, covering 16 acres and constructed of over 16 million bricks.

The path in between was called the Inner Harbor. It was surrounded by a ring of shoals and reefs, and the Inner Harbor was accessed through three narrow, winding channels.

Because the entrance was as narrow as 120 yards, it was easily defended by the massive guns of Fort Jefferson. It was designed to house the most critical “ships-of-the-line” (the most powerful warships of the era), offering them a secure, deep-water refuge that was essentially immune to a direct naval assault.

The primary difference between the Inner and Outer Harbors in the Dry Tortugas lies in their depth and proximity to Fort Jefferson, which historically determined which types of vessels could use them for safe anchorage.

Read more about the Dry Tortugas Tortugas

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GENEALOGY- CHRISTIAN LAND DONATION

We had previously covered the donation of the land for a veteran’s cemetery in East Texas by one of our clients- LAND DONATION

Here’s an update on the progress. PROGRESS

 

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GENEALOGY- PRESERVE YOUR FAMILY HISTORY, TODAY

Reach out to Dancestors Genealogy. Our genealogists will research, discover, and preserve your family history. No one is getting any younger, and stories disappear from memory every year, eventually fading from our ability to find them.

Preserve your legacy and the heritage of your ancestors.

Paper gets thrown in the trash; books survive!

Ready to embark on your family history journey? Don’t hesitate. Call Dan Nelson and get your project started!