Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Family Tree of Tim Tebow, Quarterback of the Denver Broncos

If you know me well, you know I have a hobby of picking up and researching random celebrities' family trees. I've previously researched and posted about Aaron Rodgers, quarterback of the Green Bay Packer and also Lady Gaga.. far many more not publicly posted about. So when I began researching into Tim's family, I was pleasantly surprised at the wealth of information I was able to find.

 I began with some public data: his name, date or birth and the names of his parents. I was able to easily find the marriage record for his parents (12 Jun 1971 in Alachua County, Florida) and then found the birthdays for both of his parents from the Public Records databases on Ancestry.com. Knowing that Tim's father was a Junior/II, I figured finding Tim's grandfather under the same name would be easy enough.. and boy was I right! What I found when I entered their full name (Robert Ramsey Tebow) was Tim's grandfather's application into the SAR.. the Sons of the American Revolution! You can find the images to the left (part 1) and below (part 2). These two documents hold a wealth of information that Tim's grandfather knew and had researched, obviously with the help of the publication "The Hayes Family, Origin, History and Genealogy", by Royal s. Hayes. Tim's grandfather had researched his roots back to the Revolutionary veteran, Captain Joseph Hayes.

Have you researched into Tim Tebow's ancestry?
What interesting things did you find? :)

Thursday, December 22, 2011

My Christmas Genealogy Wish-List

Dear Santa & his Elves at FamilySearch,

I've been a good boy this year, giving aid to researchers left-and-right; from strangers to fellow geneabloggers. I know this to only be a wish-list, but please consider my list and hopefully some will come true and appear on your website, in the year-to-come! For each request, I will describe one good genealogy deed I have done in the past year. I will only request three specific things... because i'm not greedy, of course! :-p

1. Hungarian Church Records
I have helped countless fellow Hungarians who contacted me by email, find out more about their Hungarian heritage. I helped them to determine where in Hungary their family was from and the next proper steps to successful research.

2. German Church Records
I had stumbled upon a blog post by fellow geneablogger, Randy Seaver, and was able to quickly find out information to aid him in his search. He even made a post about it here, and a subsequent post here.


3. Polish Church Records for Barycz and Osobnica; even on microfilm!
I helped a member of the Society of Genealogists (SOG) based in the UK, to create a course on Eastern European research. The course will begin in January.



Thursday, November 10, 2011

20% Off Sale on Professional Services at Hungary Exchange!

I'm happy to announce that during the month of November, i'm offering a 20% off sale on my professional services via Hungary Exchange. The 20% discount will be taken off the grand total at the end of all research conducted. To be entitled to the 20% discount, customers must pay the retainer fee before the end of November. This offer cannot be used on existing projects and it ends on November 30, 2011. Contact me if you have questions of any kind.

If you're interested in my professional services, please take a look at my page here. Quotes on projects are, as always, free and I can easily be contacted at my email address: nickmgombash@yahoo.com.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - The Ancestors GeneaMeme

I'm a day late with this post, but here is my response to this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun! Here are the rules and such: 


1)  Participate in the Ancestors GeneaMeme created by Jill Ball on the Geniaus blog.

2)  Write your own blog post, or add your response as a comment to this blog post, in a Facebook Status post or note, or in a Google+ Stream item.

The Rules:

The list should be annotated in the following manner:

Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item 


The Meme:
Which of these apply to you?


1.  Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents
2.  Can name over 50 direct ancestors
3.  Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents
4.  Have an ancestor who was married more than three times
5.  Have an ancestor who was a bigamist (my great-grandfather was a wonderful man *rolls eyes*)
6.  Met all four of my grandparents (half passed away before I was born)
7.  Met one or more of my great-grandparents (my g-grandma Sylvia!)
8.  Named a child after an ancestor
9.  Bear an ancestor's given name/s (very distant, yes.. but nothing close)
10.  Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland (my mother's surname is!)
11.  Have an ancestor from Asia (I am a descendant of Attila the Hun.. and I can prove it, too!)
12.  Have an ancestor from Continental Europe
13.  Have an ancestor from Africa
14.  Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer
15.  Have an ancestor who had large land holdings
16.  Have an ancestor who was a holy man

17.  Have an ancestor who was a midwife
18.  Have an ancestor who was an author
19.  Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones (actually... I don't believe I do)
20.  Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng (maybe, considering my descent from Attila the Hun and his Asiatic ancestry!)
21.  Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
22.  Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z
23.  Have an ancestor born on 25th (my 3rd-g-grandfather James A. J. Costilow & 6th-g-grandfather Christian Schneider)
24.  Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day 
25.  Have blue blood in your family lines (my great-great-grandmother was of Hungarian nobility, and is a descendant of a daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary)
26.  Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
27.  Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth (two great-grandparents were born in Hungary and Poland, though)
28.  Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century
29.  Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier
30.  Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents
31.  Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X
32.  Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university
33. Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence (ooohhh Hiram Howell....)
34.  Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime (again.. ohhh Hiram Howell.. he was murdered)
35.  Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine
36.  Have published a family history online or in print
37.  Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries
38.  Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family (I would love to buy the Hays Rodgers home in Mississippi)39.  Have a family bible from the 19th Century
40.  Have a pre-19th century family bible

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - List Your Matrilineal Line(s)

Here are the rules, as posted on Randy Seaver's blog, for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!!:

1) List your matrilineal line - your mother, her mother, etc. back to the first identifiable mother. Note: this line is how your mitochondrial DNA was passed to you!

2) Tell us if you have had your mitochondrial DNA tested, and if so, which Haplogroup you are in.

3) Post your responses on your own blog post, in Comments to this blog post, or in a Status line on Facebook or in your Stream at Google Plus.

4)  If you have done this before, please do your father's matrilineal line, or your grandfather's matrilineal line, or your spouse's matriliuneal line.

5)  Does this list spur you to find distant cousins that might share one of your matrilineal lines?  

Here's mine:

My matrilineal line is:

a) Nick M. Gombash
b) Réne Rodgers
c) Elaine Florella Stuempges (1926, Polar, WI -1987, Chicago, IL) married Thomas Thurman Rodgers

d) Sylvia Maria Bertha Hedwig Martin (1909, Polar, WI - 2008, Antigo, WI) married Walter John Stuempges
e) Maria Summ (1883, Antigo, WI - 1972, Antigo, WI) married Herman Wilhelm Gustav "Gust" Martin
f) Maria Blum (1860, Gutach, Germany - 1951, Norwood, WI) married Johann Georg Summ
g) Barbara Schneider (1824, Gutach, Germany - 1864, Gutach, Germany) married Georg Blum
h) Barbara Brohammer (1788, Gutach, Germany - 1856, Gutach, Germany) married Jacob Friedrich Schneider
i) Catharina Beilharz (1761, Hohenweg, Germany - 1818, Gutach, Germany) married Christian Brohammer
j) Barbara Winkler (? - ?) married Johann Jacob Beilharz

Similar to Randy, I also had my DNA tested and I came up as mtDNA Haplogroup K. We're cousins, Randy! :)

On my Gombash side, the matrilineal line of my father is:

a) John E. Gombash, Jr.
b) Mary Louise Adas (1940, Chicago, IL - 1986, Chicago, IL) married John E. Gombash, Sr.
c) Martha Violet Czarny (1911, Chicago, IL - 1989, Chicago, IL) married Edward Robert Adas, Sr.
d) Rozalia Sophia Wozniak (1887, Osobnica, Poland - 1959, Chicago, IL) married Wojciech Czarny
e) Agatha Turek (? - ?) married Wawrzyniec Wozniak


My Rodgers grandfather's matrilineal line is:

a)  Thomas Thurman Rodgers (1928, Duck Hill, MS - 1983, Paducah, KY) married Elaine Florella Stuempges

b)  Ellen Inez Martin (1902, Carrollton, MS - 1991, Jackson, MS) married Fred Lamar Rodgers
c)  Samatha Aylene Costilow (1869, Holmes Co, MS - 1908, Carroll Co, MS) married Samuel Christopher Columbus Martin

d)  Martha A. Miller (1836, AL? - 1877, Holmes/Yazoo Co, MS) married James Andrew J. Costilow

My Gombash grandfather's matrilineal line is:

a)  John E. Gombash, Sr. (1935, Caretta, WV - 2005, Joliet, IL)
b)  Catherine Anna Grządziel (1906, Barycz, Poland - 1970, Chicago, IL) married Alex Gombash
c)  Amelia Stec (1887/1888, Barycz, Poland - 1968, Cleveland, OH) married Frank Grządziel
d)  Sophia Zwiszek/Swiszek (? - ?) married Jan Stec


Saturday, September 24, 2011

The Family Tree of Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga, born as Stefani Germanotta, was born to parents who both shared Italian ancestry. Her direct paternal line and direct maternal line are both of Italian extraction. I started researching Lady Gaga's family tree about a year ago, and I had since forgotten about it. I remembered it today and I thought I would share with the world (and her fans!) the details of her ancestry. Below, I will briefly write about her family tree. What I don't talk about will be featured in the image of her family tree, so make sure to check that out for additional information.

Lady Gaga's paternal grandfather was Joseph Anthony Germanotta. He was born to Italian immigrants from Naso, Messina, Sicily. Joseph Anthony actually passed away a year ago, today.. 24 Sep 2010. RIP Mr. Germanotta.



Lady Gaga's mother is of Anglo-American and Italian heritage. Her mother is Veronica Rose Ferri and was born to Italian immigrants. At this point, I am unsure where in Italy Veronica's parents were from. Anyone know? :)

Veronica Ferri's husband was Paul Douglas Bissett. Paul's ancestry can be traced back to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia (where he was from). Paul's surname of Bissett could possibly be an English name of French origin, but his paternal grandmother's surname of Burghardt is definitely of Germanic origin. Paul's mother, Sally Ann Leech, appears to be of English origins. You can't get much more English than Bosley or Morningstar!

Any additional information anyone can provide me with would be much appreciated!

The Hungarian Ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II; Part 3

This entry is part three highlighting the Hungarian ancestors of Queen Elizabeth II. Part three is focused on Erzsébet Macskássy de Rápolt, a second great-grandmother of Countess Klaudina Rhédey de Rhéde. Her ahnentafel list is as follows:


First Generation
1. Erzsébet Macskássy de Rápolt

Second Generation
2. Mihály Macskássy de Rápolt
3. unknown

Third Generation
4. Mihály Macskássy de Rápolt
5. Judit Bethlen de Bethlen
6. unknown
7. unknown

Fourth Generation
8. Ferencz Macskássy de Rápolt
9. Margit Nyakazó
10. Mihály Bethlen de Bethlen
11. Katalin Bornemisza de Petrelin
12. unknown
13. unknown
14. unknown
15. unknown

Fifth Generation
16. Boldizsár Macskássy de Rápolt
17. Ilona Gávay de Noszoly
18. unknown
19. unknown
20. György Bethlen de Bethlen
21. Ilona Csejtey
22. unknown
23. unknown
24. unknown
25. unknown
26. unknown
27. unknown
28. unknown
29. unknown
30. unknown
31. unknown