My fan chart

This beauty here is my 9 generation fan chart, yep, 9 generations.  I think it is pretty amazing.  

I grew up with my dad telling me stories of my ancestors.  I loved it.  I remember watching a movie in 4th grade Utah History that talked about the Pony Express. The movie mentioned 3 or 4 names of great Pony Express riders, and one of them happened to be my great great grandfather and I recognized his name.  My teacher had her doubts, but I was adamant.  I went home and asked my dad if Elijah Hiett Maxfield rode for the Pony Express.  He answered in the affirmative.  I told my teacher the next day, but I am not sure if she even believed me then!

My dad told me stories and  I remembered many of them.   I still love a good story now.  I have always always loved family history.

My name is in that center circle in the bottom center of the chart.  My dad is on the left and my mom is on the right in the white spaces next to me.  I have a ton of the old fashioned pedigree charts filled out and I love to look through them and see what needs to be filled in and where they are all from and where they died, but recently I have been trying to get more into the stories, not just the names and dates.

The blue portion is my dad's paternal line.  Mostly English and Scottish folks.  My maiden name is Chappell, and every outermost blue portion of the chart is the Chappell name that extends back to James Chappell, my 6th great grandfather.  Do you see how all the blue parts of my fan are filled in?  Luckily these folks kept good records and someone has been diligent enough to track it all down.  A few of my favorite names in the blue portion, the Chappell, Sperry, Maxfield, and Tanner family lines are Thankful Peet, Joy Sperry, Sarah McLeod, and Rachel Winter Smith, who I would like to think I was named after, but it is not true.  My mom claims it was a TV show called Rachel Rachel.  I think I will go with the ancestor story I like better, who knows, maybe my dad had some say in it and thought about Rachel Winter Smith as well!  This blue section of my family tree is the one I know the best.  There are great and amazing stories in this portion of my family.

This green portion is my dad's maternal line.  They are all from Holland and Denmark.  The Ackerman, De Groot, Sorensen, and Rasmussen families are all represented here.  By the time this section gets back to the 8th and 9th generations, the information has died out.  I need to dig a little deeper in this section of my family.  I think a trip to Holland and Denmark would be incredible!  I know some stories about this portion of my family tree, but not enough.  One little tidbit I like is before they emigrated, the Akkermans and De Groots were peat farmers and also owned fishing boats that fished in the fiords of Holland.  A few of my favorite names in this section are Maaike Jikkes Dijkstra, Bodil Mortensdatter, and Geert De Groot.  I just wish I knew how to say some of those Dutch names!

The pink portion of my fan chart is my mom's paternal line.  I have just started to research this side of my family, so I know very little.  My mom is not interested in family history, so I don't know as much about her side of the family as I do my dad's.  The Chesnut, Knox, Staley, and Petersens are represented in this part of the fan.  The Chesnut and Knox families go back to the McDonalds of Ireland and Scotland, while the Staley family have roots in the USA from the Mayflower and the Petersen line is from Denmark.  There are many empty places in this pink portion, mostly with the Irish and Scottish side, so once again, a super good place for me to start researching!

The last yellow section is my mom's maternal side.  The Smith, Moss, Coleman, and Hunt families are represented here.  Some of the fun names in this group I like are Mette Marie Villadsen Johannesen (she was a triplet born in 1841), Holger Moss, and Prime Coleman.  The Smith and Moss families are from Denmark.  The Colemans from England and Scotland, and the Hunts are another one of those Mayflower family lines with Patriot ties to the Revolutionary War.  They lived many generations in Kentucky, so I think a trip back there would be fantastic!  I know some amazing stories from this portion of my family history because this is the area I have been recently researching.  I love to know the STORIES, not just the names and dates, and the stories I have found concerning this quarter of my ancestors has been amazing.  Such courageous and brave people.

I have really been trying to make an effort to search out my ancestors, learn more about them and the amazing lives they lived, and to see who it is that made me who I am.

I have been inspired to be better because of what I have learned about them and can't wait to learn more.