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Why are we here?
Mildly Amused.com is a family history (genealogy) site. We've tried hard to organize it in an interesting and informative way so that our work can be shared and enjoyed. Like most researchers, we have interests in certain names that are greater than others. Schoepke, Anderson, Buchanan, Wheeler, Gist and Gille are some of our top priorities. But that's not say we aren't just as fascinated with Kennett, Martin, Manning, Looney, Goode, Boyce, Barzee, Forsberg and others. Some of our family names go right to the old world; countries like Sweden, Germany, Poland, Russia , Scotland and others. Other family lines have been here since before the colonies were organized.
If you are looking for Schoepke, Anderson, Buchanan or any of the surnames we have in our work, I hope you find what you're searching for. If you have research to share on any of the many families here, please do. We have a section dedicated to ancestors we need help with. Please drop us an email with any thoughts you have for improving our site. We are mere beginners by the standards of professional genealogy. But we love what we do. On this page we will give a brief overview of what's located and organized throughout the site.
The Schoepke surname belongs to a relatively small, tight knit group of people that descend from just a few specific areas of modern day Germany and Poland. Our particular Schoepke ancestors come from just two locations within what is now Poland. My branch left the old country and came first to Canada in 1888, eventually settling in the major city of Winnipeg. August Schoepke and Elisabeth Gesell actually came across the border in to the United States through Winnipeg via the Northern Pacific Railway at Bembina North Dakota in August of 1903. This was before crossing the border required official immigration paperwork. August Schoepke applied for naturalization and became a U.S. Citizen in 1918.
The largest band of Schoepkes came directly to the United States on ships like the bark Johanna and stayed in the heartland and settled the state of Wisconsin. There is actually a town in Wisconsin called Schoepke. The two bands are from the same basic area of Germany/Poland although once they came to the United States they had no contact with each other ever again. My grandfather, Harry Benjamin Schoepke, told us stories of trying to communicate with the Wisconsin Schoepkes and meeting with no response at all. Fear of the old country seemed to be behind the problem. More about our Schoepkes can be found in the detailed pages of our site.
Click here: Schoepke Pedigree Charts
Click here: Overview of how Schoepke fits in to our overall family lines
Anderson is a popular Nordic and even Scottish surname found around the world. Our particular strain of Anderson ancestors come directly from Uppsala Lan, Sweden. My grandfather, Eric Sigvard Anderson was the first to emmigrate to the United States via the ocean liner the USS Stockholm in July of 1926 and headed for Minneapolis MN. He was born in the Harg Parish of Stockhom Sweden and left via the port of Goteberg. The ship he traveled on is a famous ship and it was the ship that ran in to the Andrea Doria sinking it with great loss of life in the 1950s. The rest of the Anderson ancestors were happy with Sweden and stayed put in the Uppsala area. We have Anderson and Gille ancestors that have lived continously in the same areas of Sweden since the 1600's.
My grandmother (wife of Eric Sigvard Anderson) Alma Forsberg was first generation born here in the United States of Swedish parents. Her parents, John Forsberg and Maria Jonson were both immigrants from Sweden and from an area just north of the place where Eric S Anderson came from. It's a small world.
Click here: Anderson Pedigree Charts
Click here: Anderson Family Pictures
Click here for Overview of how Anderson fits in to our overall family lines
Click here: Map of Andersons in Sweden
Ancient Buchanan Tartan
The Buchanan surname is one of the most popular names in the world today. As a Scottish clan, it may contain the most living members of any of the fabled highlanders. Being a member of the Buchanan family is not difficult, it comes by birth. But finding your place in such a vast ocean of relatives is a daunting task. The surname hails from Ireland and of course eventually Scotland. As far as our particular strain of Buchanans goes, they arrived in the United States before there was a United States. Samuel Buchanan (born 1705) in Ireland is the first of our Buchanans to move to what would eventually become American soil in the State of Pennsylvania.
Samuel Buchanan came from Ireland to Chester City, Delaware County, Pa and started a family. While in Chester City he had a son also named Samuel, born in 1740. He later moved in to Lancaster County PA, and his descendants bought farms and settled in Washington County Pennsylvania. Parts of the Buchanan family are still in the area today. This means for roughly 300 years our Buchanan relatives have been in Pennsylvania and had some time to have a rather extensive posterity. Buchanans are not without controversy as well. There's the famous "Buchanan Land Scam" in the 1800's and other scams revolving around the non-existent fortunes of the Clan Buchanan. Buchanans also came to the aid of Robert the Bruce in beginnings of Scottish history ala the movie Braveheart.
Click here: Buchanan Pedigree Charts
Click here for Overview of how Buchanan fits in to our overall family lines
The Wheelers in our family history are descended from England and are long term residents of the United States. Abraham Wheeler was born in England in 1659 and came to the fledgling colony of Massachusetts in about 1680. Wheelers have been here continously ever since. That means within our little family group we have over 300 years of U.S. born Wheelers spread all over the nation.
Wheelers made the great migration with the pioneers across the great plains in the 1800s and have been involved in literally every stage of growth within our country. Some of our Wheelers were among the very first members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). They are a great and vast bunch of people and I must say even though we have a thorough pedigree chart that goes back to the 1500s, we know only the smallest number of stories and details. We need a lot of help and research to beef up our documentation and knowledge of the Wheeler group.
Click here: Wheeler Pedigree charts
Click here for Overview of how Wheeler fits in to our overall family lines
Gille Dragoon grave in Sweden
Gilles are Swedes and we seem to have a buch in our family collection. While researching the Anderson surname we discovered that we have as many or more Gilles in the family as we have any other surname. I know of no Gille ancestor that actually left Sweden, they all appeard to have stayed. Apparently, their slice of Sweden was pretty nice. My closest Gille ancestor, Alma Theresia Gille, born 1881, (my great grandmother) is the tip of a very long line of Gilles in Sweden.
In Osterbybruk Sweden we have Gilles that have been in continous residence since the 1600s. That's a very long time to be anywhere and we've been there continously for almost 500 years. With a surname that's 500 years old, there's plenty of relatives and plenty of history. I do not claim to have done a very good job with our Gille ancestors. Lots more needs to be done. We have a very fine Gille pedigree and set of charts that are well supported. We have relatives living in Sweden today who carry the name and have provided virtually all the research on our website.
Click here: Gille Pedigree Charts
Click here for Overview of how Gille fits in to our overall family lines
The Martins are another branch of long term ancestors in the United States. Martin and Manning and Kennett, have been in the U.S. since the Mayflower came across the ocean in 1620 with those famous black hat pilgrims. The Martin line and the Manning line are mainstream American Revolutionary War Patriots; were involved in establishing the colonies; building the original churches in this country; getting the U.S. Constitution ratified and just about every other significant event in American history. And they just weren’t around at the time of these significant events, they were major sources of action that made these American events happen. Manning’s and Martins were with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin before, during and after the Revolutionary War. And that’s just in the United States.
The Manning/Martin lines flow back over the ocean to the old world and go on for centuries, full of illustrious characters and famous deeds. We are related to the Kings and Queens of England through the Manning/Martin lineage. King Henry I, who ruled about 1000 A.D. is in the family. The great Frankish King and Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, who was born in 747 A.D., is one of the family. Members of the family stood on the fields of Runnymead in England in 1215 A.D. and forced the signing of the Magna Charta, the original and first constitution and first bill of human rights.
Click here: Martin Pedigree Charts
Click here for Overview of how Martin fits in to our overall family lines
The Mannings are mainstream, long term citizens and stalwarts in the Americas. Martin and Manning and Kennett, have been in the U.S. since the Mayflower came across the ocean in 1620 with those famous black hat pilgrims. The Martin line and the Manning line are mainstream American Revolutionary War Patriots; were involved in establishing the colonies; building the original churches in this country; getting the U.S. Constitution ratified and just about every other significant event in American history. And they just weren’t around at the time of these significant events, they were major sources of action that made these American events happen. Manning’s and Martins were with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin before, during and after the Revolutionary War. And that’s just in the United States.
The Manning/Martin lines flow back over the ocean to the old world and go on for centuries, full of illustrious characters and famous deeds. We are related to the Kings and Queens of England through the Manning/Martin lineage. King Henry I, who ruled about 1000 A.D. is in the family. The great Frankish King and Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, who was born in 747 A.D., is one of the family. Members of the family stood on the fields of Runnymead in England in 1215 A.D. and forced the signing of the Magna Charta, the original and first constitution and first bill of human rights.
Click here: Manning Pedigree charts
Click here for Overview of how Manning fits in to our overall lines
Boyce ancestors are as American as baseball and apple pie. As part of our history the Boyce family goes right back to the first days of the United States. The traditional homelands for the Boyce surname may be from Ireland, the Netherlands, or other European nations but to tell you the truth about our specific line of Boyce ancestors: we are not sure which country they originally came from. We have our suspicions that our earliest ancestors, Jacob Boyce and his son William Boyce, may have been Dutch because they settled in upstate New York, in a county called Dutchess County in the early 1700's. During this time in New York, the Dutch held a large influence and many of the settlers were of Dutch origins. That doesn't mean Jacob and William were Dutch, but it does tend to lean in that direction. We have been unable to hook up with the ancestor that emmigrated to New York so we will just have to do some more research, or have a Boyce expert step in and give us some pointers.
The Boyce family was not only an early pioneer in New York, but also an early pioneer of the American West. John Boyce, born 1814, and his wife Mary Ann Barzee were members of a pioneer wagon train that crossed the great plains from Illinois to Utah in the 1852. They stayed a while in Utah but eventually were some of the very first pioneer settlers in Oxford, Idaho where many of the family were eventually buried.
Click here: Boyce Pedigree Charts
Click here for Overview of how Boyce fists in to our overall lines
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