My Brick Wall Continues to Haunt me.

When I first started researching my family history, I asked my father, where did his grandfather come from?  His answer was "He came across the Mississippi River and he lost his wife and child while crossing.  My mother never talked about it."  I was also led to believe they were from Oklahoma...
How I began my journey back was written here on my blog.
Levi Edwin Gildon was my great grandfather.  His father was Charles R Gildon son of Charles Gildon born 16 Feb 1773 in Norwich Twp,New London,Connecticut to Richard Gildon and Issabelle.  I had found Charles R early on in Texas and found that he was born in Connecticut researching the censuses.  The birth I first found on the old FamilySearch.org IGI files.  The data is now found in the Indexed records "Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F74M-P76 : accessed 17 Apr 2014), Charles Gildon, 16 Feb 1773; citing ; FHL microfilm unknown.
There are several researchers who think his middle name could be Rawles... no rhyme nor reason for this. Why not Richard after his dad?  Which brings me to my mystery man, Richard Gildon.
Richard Gildon, as I said above, was first found on Vital Records in New London County, Connecticut as father to Charles. The next record I found was in "Record of service of Connecticut men in the I. War of the Revolution, II. War of 1812, III. Mexican War", Connecticut. Adjutant-General's Office; Johnston, Henry Phelps, 1842-1923 Hatford, Connecticut 1889 Page 6.
Found now on Archive.org;  https://archive.org/details/waroftherevolution00recorich
Richard was a responder from Canterbury to the call for defenders at the battle of Lexington. He was one of the minutemen.

Fold3, Revolutionary War Rolls, Connecticut, Chester's Regiment of Militia (1776 - 77) folder 201 page 58 

Then in the book, "Old Houses of Antient Norwich" Mary E Perkins, Norwich, Connecticut, 1895 pages 331 - 332, and 462, Richard is mentioned again.  He had a shop/home which is later identified as Charles Gildon leather shop, making fine saddles, gloves, etc.  Many wondered where Charles apprenticed.
After the revolutionary war, Richard does not appear in any records found so far.  His wife is the head of household in the first census. No notation in the books as to his possible demise or where he came from. I have kept an eye open to Virginia and the possibility of him traveling north from the Northern Neck of the land where a Charles Gildon b about 1750  married a Mary Dixon in 1771.
I dug around in old newspapers and found a possibility in a Pennsylvania Newspaper on Newspaper.com; Page 63 Richard Gilding, John McIntire 12/15 1768, English 25 breeches maker 4 days, Sunday, 2 pounds, 5'4-5.The Pennsylvania Gazette.  Gilding is an alternative spelling for Gildon and the leather working would work.
Then I found an advertisement in 1766 for letters waiting in Annapolis, Anne Arundel, Maryland, USA for a Richard Gildon.
My hopes are up that I will be able to prove these are my Richard, but much work is needed for proofs.  It was hoped by first researchers that his son Charles would tie them to Charles Gildon the writer, who wrote against the Pope.  A possibility, but I have never seen any children for Charles Gildon and his brother, Joseph, became a priest.  I would say the connection would more likely be that my Richard was a dissenter too and wanted to honor the writer.
There is also the possibility that his beginnings are hidden by misspelling of the last name as Gilden or Gilding.  All these variables keep me going back every once in a while with hopes for a break through that will take me across the pond to tie Richard to the many Gildons in England.
I am traveling again. Hailing from Idaho, US this time.

Hello from Connecticut

I'm Margaret and I live in Connecticut, USA, fairly close to New York City with my husband and our dog, Windy.  Our children don't live here most of the time -- the eldest is off on his own and the other two are at universities in western states.  I was raised in California and Arizona, but for the past 15 years we've been here in Connecticut about 35 miles from where my ancestor, John Beers, died about 330 years ago.  In the 10 generation span from John Beers down to me, only one person died in the town where he was born.  Many of my family lines tend to be filled with wanderers.  My Choctaw and Chickasaw ancestors were already living in what is now Mississippi when most of my European  ancestors immigrated to the USA from England, Germany and France in the 1600s and 1700s.  My Irish ancestors came a little later in the mid- to late- 1800s.

I'm excited to meet all of you and learn more about genealogy through this collaboration.  I am also using this as a jumping off point to revive my abandoned genealogy blog, Hummingbird on Her Hand, so named because hummingbirds landed on the outstretched hand of my great grandmother, Ida Austin.

Although I enjoy genealogy, much of the information I write about was and is collected by my mother, Sandra. She has been doing family history research as long as I can remember.  When I was a child, Mom occasionally gave me a paid challenge -- 5 cents for each correct name or date I could write in a blank family tree.  I got pretty good at it and eventually she lowered the rate to 1 cent per fact.

Me with my mother visiting my paternal grandparents in Kansas City c1970.

My mother has spent countless hours researching her lines and my father's, but in the past few decades, she has concentrated on Choctaw Tribal history and is extremely well versed on the Dawes Rolls, many Oklahoma Choctaw family lines and other tribal records.  I have learned a lot from her and this spring I will accompany her again to the National Archives in Washington, DC where I will serve as her copy assistant.  We try to copy records as efficiently as possible when we are there and we read them more carefully later.

In the past few years we have been making genealogical connections through DNA.  This has been pretty slow going, but I now manage the DNA accounts for about twenty family members. We continue recruiting relatives to give samples so that we can try to pinpoint which lines matches fall on.  Although we have good documentation for many family lines, we are missing three of my mother's great- great- grandparents and four of my father's great- great- grandparents.  Our DNA match-ups will be more successful when we fill in those missing surnames.

I look forward to getting to know you all as time goes on.

Margaret