About this site

A family history of Donald Eugene Norman's ancestors, compiled by Robert R. Norman.

Where the information comes from

The people pages are generated from Robert's family tree, exported from Ancestry as a GEDCOM file and cleaned for privacy. The tree was built from records such as censuses, church registers, naturalisation papers and draft cards, and also from published histories and other people's online trees. The source titles cited in the tree are listed on each person's page. Record images from Ancestry are not reproduced here.

The story pages draw on Robert's research notes, the "Norman Colonial Ancestors" research summary, and the published sources named on each page.

How reliable is it?

• Recent generations (1800s–1900s) are mostly backed by censuses and civil, church and naturalisation records.
• Colonial and 1600s–1700s generations rely more on published histories and parish registers, and some links haven't been checked against original records.
• Ancestors born before 1600, and anyone given a title of nobility or knighthood, are left off the site, along with everyone above them (the one exception is the Gaither immigrant, born about 1599, whose place in the line is well documented). These links usually come from unsourced online tree hints and can't be confirmed. They'll be added back if records confirm them.
• Labels used on the site: unverified means not yet checked against records; family tradition means a family story that can't be proven; possible or probable means a likely link that no record has confirmed yet; family story or family legend is what the family remembers, shown next to what the records say; record, register, census and newspaper name the kind of original source a fact comes from; DNA means DNA matches support the link; and a boxed Caution note means there's a specific reason to doubt an entry.
• The tree has some duplicate entries (the same person recorded twice). Where they're spotted, the person pages point to each other.

What was removed, and why

Some online tree "hints" are simply wrong. These have been left off the site:

• A noble French ancestry for Mareen Duvall ("Count", "Lord of Anjou"). Fabricated.
• An "Earl of Salisbury" (Robert South) and a "Sir Thomas English South, Knight" as ancestors of Mareen Duvall's wife. Fabricated hint chains.
• A Polish "Plocharski/Planter" ancestry for an "Elizabeth Planter", wife of William Jones Sr. There was no such person: in Jones's 1705 will "planter" is his occupation, not a surname. Also left off: the unsourced Jones ancestors ("Magistrate" William, Morgan Dennis Jones of Witney, John Dennis Jones).
• An "Earl of Salisbury" named Robert South. No one named South ever held that title.
• False Warfield parents for Marian Caldwell. Detached.
• Other unsourced hint chains: Spanish-born ancestors in a Sussex family (Jefford, Meres), the Goodinge "knights" (one with impossible dates), a "Swedish" Parkhouse, and a New York Cady line attached to an Irish Wicklow family.
• A Steinheim (Westphalia) ancestry for Sophia (Richter) Schrader: the Schrader, Meyenberg, Niggemann, Eibrecht and Renne families. Her records give her maiden name as Richter, so this was almost certainly attached to the wrong woman. Also left off: the parents on Fredericka Schrader's death certificate (probably her in-laws).
• A link making Wallis Simpson's ancestor Seth Warfield marry a daughter of John Gaither and Elizabeth Duvall. Published genealogies give Seth's wife different parents, so the site only claims Wallis's link through Ruth Gaither.
• An English ancestry for the Quaker Richard Beard in Rottingdean, Sussex, including a "Sir Thomas Beard". No evidence; probably a hint chain merged with a Tudor courtier of the same name. Also dropped: the surname "Morley" for his daughter Ruth, a mistake first printed in 1905.
• A Massachusetts ancestry (Newberry, Stark, Starkey) attached to Hannah Newberry, who was born in Pitminster, Somerset. An English-born woman with New England-born parents and grandparents is implausible without proof.

The tree also says Thomas Comer served in the 7th Virginia Regiment in the Revolutionary War. The DAR credits him with furnishing supplies (Patriot A024709), not military service, and the 7th Virginia soldier was probably a different, younger man. No loyalists have been found in the direct line.

Photos and illustrations

Family photos come from Robert and the family. Some old photos were cleaned up with AI, and their captions say so. The painted panorama on the home page is an AI-made illustration, not a real place or a historical picture.

Privacy

• Living people are not shown. Anyone without a death record who was born after 1920, or whose birth year is unknown and can't be estimated from their family, is left out. The rule is checked automatically every time the site is built.
• The site covers Donald Eugene Norman's ancestors and their spouses and children only. It doesn't include Donald's own spouse, children or later descendants.
• For people who lived recently, only birth, death and burial are shown. No addresses or residences after 1950 are published.

Contact

Family members: if you spot a mistake, can fill in a blank, or have a family story or photo to share, please get in touch. Corrections and memories are what make this site better.

This isn't a genealogy research service, so we can't take on questions about whether you're related.

Send a message

Research sources

• J. Erskine Binney (ed.), The Accounts of the Wardens of the Parish of Morebath, Devon, 1520–1573 (1904). archive.org
• Eamon Duffy, The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village (Yale University Press, 2001)
• H. B. Guppy, Homes of Family Names in Great Britain (1890)
• J. D. Warfield, The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland (1905)
• GENUKI: Morebath, Devon
• FamilySearch (free parish register and Bishop's Transcript images)