To start with, I am the ninth-great grandson of Pierre Mayeux sie Hasards who journeyed from France in the early 1700's. My mother is a Mayeux and has helped considerably in this project. She is the daughter of Lewis Sylvert Mayeux and Elizanne Mayeux who were from Long Bridge, near Moreauville. They were fifth cousins, making us double-Mayeuxs.
If someone would have asked me a year ago if I would be interested in spending hours of my spare time digging through history books, or calling people I had never met to ask them to tell me about themselves, or writing letters to be translated into German to send to people a half a world away, or to investing hundreds of dollars in phone calls, books, disks, ink and paper, I would have told them to find someone else. After all, I knew my family history. Why go to all that bother? My grandmother told me about a great-aunt, or was it a great-great-grandmother, who lost her husband and remarried. What was her name? Who did she marry? Where did her husband go? After a few years, those stories started to lose details--some facts were getting a little fuzzy. In fact, I was having trouble remembering relatives I met while growing up. If I thought about it really hard, maybe I could remember one or two distant relatives, but I certainly couldn't tell you about them.
Something happened late in 1996 which started innocently enough. I wanted to tell my children about who they were and where they had come from. I was disappointed because I knew I couldn't give them a story. I could give them a name or two; I could tell them about my immediate family. However, I knew little about how we got here. Once, my father told me my son would be the only one to carry on the family name. Could that be true? Were we that close to the end of the family line? What about my wife's family? I was fortunate enough to meet her grandparents and a lot of aunts and uncles. Again, there was nothing to pass on to my children and their children.
In December of 1996, I purchased a genealogy program and wanted to put a 'few' names in. A 'few' soon began to turn to into a bunch, and after a while, the bunch started taking on a life of its own. I never realized just how many people I was related to. If you think about it, every child has at least four grandparents. By the time you wander back 12 or so generations, you could have over 4,000 people immediately preceding you (and that doesn't count brothers, sisters, cousins and the like). Some families in my data do indeed go back that far. In fact, one goes back 13 generations into the 1500's. Some families were HUGE. Several had at least 10 children, and one had 14! I now have over 21,000 names, and the information is still growing.
The most pleasant surprise in putting this information together was the people I met. The Internet was one way I was able to find information on families as there are a tremendous amount of resources available. Through the Internet, I met some second, third and fourth cousins who were all willing to share information they had. Often, I was the one doing the looking, but sometimes the information came looking for me. One day I received a message from someone with an Internet user name of lbotzong@gte.net. This surprised me as my user name is bbotzong@gte.net. That's how I met my fourth cousins once removed on the Botzong side. Through his wife, I collected much information on their side of the family--much of it I would have never known. The farthest acquaintance, in both distance and relationships, was Trude Christa Botzong Hamm, a seventh cousin that was kind enough to write me from Germany.
Of all my correspondence with my newly-found family, it was strange that most of it was with the spouses of my blood relatives. Seems like the in-laws are the ones curious on where our unique surname originated (either that, or they're the ones who were the computer users).
There were many people who spent their time (sometimes HOURS) on the phone giving me names and dates. I would search phone books, find people who were related and call them out-of-the-blue. It turned out to be a great way to meet relatives. Many were gracious enough to send backup information in the form of photocopies, pictures, or documents. And what a delight it was to get pictures and magazine articles on the different families! One thing I did learn--don't ask the men for information or dates! In almost EVERY family, the better half had all the answers.
To everyone who gave of their time and knowledge; to the people who spent time photocopying and mailing; to the people who bothered to put down their family histories on paper that I added into my database; to Grace Turner Watson, Belinda Botzong, Michael Fisher, Randy Decuir, Cherie Breaux, and my mother, to name just a few; to my Aunt Maxine, who was probably the most understanding and patient with me and my questions; to my wife who always wanted to know who I was digging up in the basement; I express my deepest gratitude and thanks for all their help and information.
I also would encourage anyone who has personal knowledge of any of our family to write it down and send it to me to be included in this project. These ancestors--these people--had lives, interests, concerns, hopes and dreams--yet all that remains of them in some cases is their name (and for some, that didn't even make it), and if we're lucky, the dates they walked on this earth. I've tried to include interesting stories, occupations, dates and places of schooling, interests and the like, but I'm missing much more than I have. Please share your stories so our descendants will know what to tell their children when they ask.